Remembering John Kennedy

Today's black card for my Black History Month posts is this 2019 Gold Label black parallel frame autograph.

I have a few other of the parallels including base, red, and blue.

It's Presidents Weekend so I thought I would connect this card to a name similar to a former president.

John Kennedy, not the president, was the Phillies first black baseball player.

He appeared in only 5 games in his career and received only 2 At Bats.  He was primarily used as a pinch runner or shortstop defensive replacement in the 1957 season.  He didn't get a hit and scored only 1 run.

More of Kennedy's displacement in the Phillies organization can be found here.

The Phillies were one of the last three organizations to have a black baseball player on their team.  MLB put out an article in 2017 about the number of black players on each team.  That article can be,seen here.  It's sad that so few black athletes are playing baseball these days. 

In the 80s/90s they were plentiful with names like Gwynn, Henderson, Jackson, Griffey, Thomas, Sheffield, and Bonds. 

Just A Random Rainbow: Entry 1

I am falling into some writer's block trying to come up with good content for the blog.  Once the baseball season gets started I am certain I will have plenty to talk about, but with spring training still a month away I am looking for some inspiration.

I think I will do a new style of posts where I show off some of the rainbows I have for certain sets. 

With nearly 2,700 unique cards of Cutch in my collection now I have LOTS of rainbows started. 

This will give me a chance to show and talk about my favorite parallel of the rainbow, any needs I may have for the set and also talk about any unique stories relating to the rainbow.

I am going to start with 2016 Diamond Kings as the inaugural Random Rainbow. 
2016 Diamond Kings is my favorite design from the Diamond Kings line.  The product release began in 2015 and offered collectors a chance to get artisticly designed cards that Topps was doing with their Gypsy Queen line and take it a new level.

The product offered multiple parallels to chase from Artist's Proofs (base/99, silver/25, and black /1) and Framed Parallels (base framed/unnumbered, red/99, blue/99, green/5, and black/1). 

Of the standard issued cards there were 9 parallels to chase in total.

I currently have 5 of the 9.  I still need the following:
Silver artist proof/25
Black artist proof/1
Green Frame /5
Black Frame/1

Obviously needing 2 1 of 1s will be tough to complete the rainbow.  The green/5 is going to be difficult as well and the silver artist proof is a tough find due to the foil not being very obvious on the card to highlight being a low numbered parallel.

Among all the parallels that I do have, there is one clear cut favorite and that is...

I am a sucker for bright red parallels (I also like blacks and pinks too though).  The bright red frame on the artistic canvas looking image screams a museum quality baseball card.  If Panini ever decides to make larger format cards I hope they do Diamond Kings as one of the initial releases.  This diamond king is truly king of my parallels for this set.

What do you think about me showing off some random rainbows in the future?  

Labels are stupid, but Gold Labels Are Awesome

Short on time today so I am just going to show off another autograph of Andrew McCutchen.  I haven't counted them in a long time, but I think I am getting close to 200 unique autographs of Cutch.

I like that there are more on card autographs of Cutch to chase in recent releases.  I wish that there were more dreadlock style Cutch cards with on card autographs, but beggars can't be choosers.

Keep the autos coming....

Since late 2017 Topps and Panini have been using Cutch as an autograph subject more frequently than during his MVP level seasons.  From 2012 to 2015, Cutch finished in top 5 voting all four years, winning the award in 2013. 

Whatever label you want to put on Cutch's career thus far one thing prior to his injury year in 2019 was consistency.  He was one of only 2 players to mash over 20HRs from 2011 to 2018.  Had his 2019 injury not occurred he likely would have kept that streak going into 2020 as he had 10 HRs in just about 2/3 of the season left to play. 

The Art of Hitting

What a beauty!!!

On card, framed, silver ink, black frame, Museum

Transcendence Has Begun

I have always been a fan of framed Museum quality cards.  They are heavy and look like true pieces of art.

Topps Transcendent was released about a month ago and featured a box value of nearly $25,000 each.  Included within the box was an invitation to meet Mike Trout along with 50 autographed cards.  Only 83 boxes were produced.  Among some of the autograph subjects were Hall of Famers, Fan Favorite Legends, Young Stars, and of course Veteran Stars.

This was the first extremely high end set that Cutch had ever signed for.

And the cards look awesome!!!!!



There are two different versions to chase.

I have grabbed the emerald vertical numbered to 15.

In addition I have gotten the "base" version of the horizontal numbered to 25 copies.

I think I like this version more as it provides an in game photo.

Where were these cards when Cutch was a member of the Pirates?

Green & Grey: Protecting You From Overpaying if Framed

While browsing for new Andrew McCutchen cards for the PC I came across 2 eBay auctions with very low BIN prices.  After flipping through my pages and double checking my spreadsheet I in fact was missing these two framed parallels from 2017 Diamond Kings.

I present to you Grey & Green.

Sounds like a law firm.
"If you've been framed, Grey and Green can help."

Fortunately this collection didn't cause me to overpay as I acquired them for $4 shipped.

There are 9 different parallels to chase of Cutch's 2017 Diamond Kings release.  6 are framed color parallels with red (/99), brown (/49), blue (/5), and black (1/1) being the numbered variety.  The grey and green parallels you see above are not numbered.  I have the blue brown and red frames also, but will likely never get the black frame (1/1) as it has been sold to another collector already. 

Gold Digging

I recently saw a card on eBay that I thought I owned, but when I checked my spreadsheet and looking through my collection I couldn't find it.

Well....I did have one, but it was slightly different.

I had the 2014 Series 1 Gold Label card, but not the Series 2.

Now I have both and they look awesome next to each other.

I don't know if there were different classes for these inserts.  Both of these are Class 1 and numbered to 99 copies.

Over the weekend I will be showcasing some multiplayer cards of Cutch with members of Team USA.  Be sure to check out tomorrow for a monster sized card.  It's a HUGE card!!!!