Baby, you're a firework...

I don't like pop music, but this time every single year I hear a song sung by Katy Perry and am reminded of how beautiful America can be, or at least how beautiful Katy Perry is.  Lol! 

Katy Perry is the only one I know of that could pull off a look like this

Or this

Or this

Regardless, she makes the American flag look fantastic.

One of her most popular songs is Firework and it plays constantly during this time of year.  Personally, I'm more of a Springstein fan with Born in the U.S.A.

Here's a card to celebrate fireworks

It's a 1/1 Black Finite Prizm Fireworks

🎆 🎆🎆 🎆

What are some songs you think of that show American pride?

Closing out 4th of July Weekend

Above is a 2010 Topps Manufactured Hat Relic commemorating the 4th of July.  

Of all the manufactured cards Topps has produced over the years, I think this set of cards is the best looking ones produced even a decade later.  

World Series rings, pins, bat knobs, bat barrels all look cool, but they all look nearly identical to each other.  The unique team logos help set each player apart to make a great looking set.  

Do you have any of these relics from 2010 Topps?

Happy 4th of July

I got quite a few packages in the mail yesterday, but unfortunately I am going to interrupt the Cutch SP Frenzy Challenge to show off one of the coolest On Card Autograph Patches I have in my collection.

It's America's Birthday so let's celebrate!

That is a 2019 Topps Tier 1 Prodigious Patches on card autograph of Cutch.

It is numbered to only 5 copies.

It features a game worn patch from the 4th of July game between the Giants and Rockies in 2018.

The Rockies and Giants were having a pitching duel and Rockies pitchers held the Giants to only 2 hits through 8 innings and only 2 walks during that time as well (one was McCutchen).  With the Rox winning 1-0 and with two outs in the top of the 9th up stepped McCutchen to rope a single and keep the game alive for Giants fans.

 Buster Posey then walked advancing Cutch to second base (I couldn't find any images of Posey's 9th inning at bat on Getty Images)

Ultimately Brandon Belt lined out to right field ending the game and pushing the Giants and Rockies into a virtual tie for second place in the division on the main summer holiday.

I have a few other jersey patches that show off pieces of this jersey, but this one is by far the biggest of them.  I like that you can see the grey away jersey along with the massive patch of Americana.

What kind of cards do you have in your collection that celebrate America's Birthday?

Any USA Cards, cards with 4th of July uniforms, any cards with big American Flags on them?  Show them off and leave a link to it in the comment section below.

CSA Show Bound

Tomorrow I will be heading to the Chantilly, VA CSA show with my brother.  We will only be in attendance for a few hours.  If you're heading there, say hi.

I will be wearing a Team USA McCutchen jersey with a backwards Pirates cap.

Here is a fairly recent pickup I snagged.

I got a few other parallels coming in as well.  The uniform is from the 4th of July weekend Series the San Francisco Giants wore in Coors Field against the Rockies last year.

How sweep it is...

I love MLB authentication on cards.

This Definitive card features a uniform worn by Cutch July 2nd to July 4th against the Colorado Rockies.

The Giants were swept by the Rockies.

Anyone else love to celebrate the 4th of July early with these pops?

America!

Let's Play, What Is This From?

I have had this card in my collection for a bit over a year before researching where the relic could have came from.

I have looked up countless throwback and alternate jerseys to find it's origin.

At first I thought it might be a holdover from a Team USA World Baseball Classic jersey since I knew they used a bunch of patches from that jersey for 2017 Museum.

Nope! Blue Letters on back

Maybe the 4th of July 2017 uniform Topps used

Nope!!! Again blue letters on back

How about any of the Negro League uniforms?  Oh wait, none of them have nameplates on the back.

Then I realized this jersey is actually from 2016.  It is the nameplate from the 4th of July jerseys worn in St. Louis.

Above you can see the red letters on the back of the Josh Harrison jersey which match the layout of this jersey perfectly.

Topps has used an image from the game for their cards in the past.

All week long I will show off some cards as we celebrate America!

Today We Celebrate our Independence pt2

Independence Day was one of my favorite sci-fi movies of all time.  Obviously the concept of the movie had no real links to the original day of independence.

One of the best new parallels to appear in Topps flagship this year is the Independance parallels numbered to 76 copies to commemorate 1776, when America was truly declared as the United States of America.

I am still in search of some of the other parallels for this card, but this is by far one of my more favorite cards in recent years to feature stars and stripes.

I would much rather get a cool parallel background like what you see above instead of the traditional manupatches Topps has done in the past.

Case in point, the version you see below....

Or this one I showed off last year from the 2010 release with 229!!! player checklist.

Unity In Gold

Back when Triple Threads came out I feverishly sought out all the parallels of the Unity relics I could.  I've been hurt in the past by certain designs not reappearing on the secondary market.

It cost a good bit of money but I was able to snag all 3 versions of the Golds /9.  In addition to having the 3 Unity designs it also has some awesome looking patches.

Check them out.

The backs have different card "numbers"

I wish Topps would do something unique for each of the backs similar to those old All-star cards produced back in the 60s.  Have the backs form an image of the player.  Who knows, maybe the cost is too high to create something original for a high end set like Triple Threads.

"Today We Celebrate Our Independence"

I know the true meaning of July 4th, but honestly is there a better quote for today than the quote by Bill Pullman in Independence Day?

Series 2 offered a bunch of Independence Day cards (flags, logo patches, inserts).  I don't own any of them or the parallels yet but I do have the red /25 Independence Day insert en route to my mailbox.  If anyone wants to grab me any of the manufactured relics (base or color parallels) I will gladly trade for it.

Independence day relics are not new to Topps.  They produced a line of manufactured relics bearing team's cap logos back in 2010.

Here's my Cutch from that series.  I also have a Garrett Jones from the same series.  They're numbered /99 copies and have a 229 player checklist.  That's a lot of cards to chase.