Over the past few years I have had a month long event every October trying to raise money for breast cancer awareness by showing off only pink baseball cards.
Another of my yearly events is to show off only red cards on the first Friday in February. The Wear Red campaign is to bring awareness to women heart disease. That day is typically reserved for which you can make a donation to the American Heart Association
here.
You can revisit all my other Wear Red Day posts
here.
Help bring awareness to women's heart health!
Bringing awareness helps save lives!
Today I will show off some red cards I own of Cutch. I could go through my collection and easily come up with 100 cards that are classified as red parallels, but I want to mostly focus on my Phillies collection because red just looks so good as a parallel for the Phightins.
Let's begin with a pair of Phillies cards that look eerily familiar to each other.
Topps Total is a release built for the old school fan that loves to build sets and collect as many of their team's favorite players. It is an online exclusive release, which hurts the mass appeal and keeps production numbers fairly low compared to flagship. But if you're a fan of the smaller market teams and like to get cards of those middle relievers and utility player "taxi squad" type guys this set is for you. The designs are simple and basic.
Plain borders ✔
Player name clearly across bottom using a standard easy to rease font ✔
Team logos clearly pictured ✔
Brand name top corner ✔
It's a simple set. My only problem is that the picture used for McCutchen looks eerily familar to the previous year release. You can tell that they are from a different game because of the arm sleeve, batting gloves (more on this in a future post), and way the pants/socks are worn. The pose is nearly identical and it's the same alternate home jersey worn in both photos.
Andrew has had a few autographs with Topps that are red parallels.
By far my favorite (even though it's a sticker auto) is this 1984 Silver Pack Mojo Refractor of Cutch numbered to only 5 copies.
Another favorite is from the 2019 National Gary Vee Topps X set. Gary selected a handful of players to discuss their hobbies and reflect on it.
One of the players he selected was Cutch for his artistic talent and how he likes to draw to help out local charities. You may recall that I own an original piece of artwork by Andrew, which I showed off
here.
I also have a 2019 Road to Opening Day ON CARD autograph of Cutch numbered to only 10 copies.
The red background with the Phillies classic pinstripe uniform really stands out.
Not to be out done (but it clearly is overmatched by it's predecessor) is the red "border" of the 2020 Road To Opening Day parallel. The pose is better, but the design is a let down compared to the 2019 version.
From the memorabilia standpoint, I have one ruby parallel from 2020 Topps Museum that has a nice chunky three color patch.
I got this serially numbered card to 10 for a quarter of the price that the emerald to 25 was consistently selling for. This hibby sure can be strange at times.
And even though Museum is a higher end release, this 2020 Topps Flagship red parallel 1985 design KICKS...IT'S...ASS.... on the cool factor scale
What an awesome looking card and a perfect way to marriage the nostalgia and modern collectors.
Black History Month needs to be talked about at some point this month and I have a post in the works to discuss the Negro Leagues.
This 2020 Topps Now red parallel to 10 copies is a card that honors the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues. Of course Cutch hit a homer on the day.
My favorite new parallel to the Topps portfolio was the UK Edition Big Ben parallel.
While I thought the UK Edition release was a lame excuse to make more of the same card, I think they nailed the red Big Ben parallel. Time will tell how they utilize this platform in the future.
Another parallel that I like to go after is the Triple Threads Ruby parallels. These are all 1/1s and tend to be fairly pricy (as you'll see in a card at the bottom of this post)
Talk about a great design and great way to use color parallels and foil stamping. Far too often, Topps will put the foil stamping on a dark part of the card, which makes it tough to scan. Here they bled out the red and kept the stamping area very light almost white.
Panini has gotten into the red game also with their Prizm release.
Prizm has been a favorite set of mine for many years even though Panini doesn't have team logo rights, they make the card designs and parallels POP!
If Panini ever got an official license, National Treasures baseball would destroy Topps Museum and Triple Threads.
Remember Sweet Spot?
Remember how all the autographs faded over time?
Let's hope Panini learned from Upper Deck's mistakes and these autographs stick around. In addition to standard red laces there were also green (why?), blue, and red/white/blue stitching.
So there's a few of my 2020 Red Parallels (with a 2019 card thrown in to compare here and there).
Because of the low numberings of red parallels (almost always numbered to 10 copies or less) I haven't been able to get every red parallel this year that features Cutch. Some were out of my price change and some just haven't surfaced.
There was a red parallel card that I didn't win last night. While the Pirates days of Cutch will always be my most memorable, I can't get passed the fact that Topps spelled Andrew wrong.
What the heck is an Anrew?
I own the sapphire (only 3 copies) because a Twitter follower offered it to me for a tremendous price. Quite frankly I don't have much desire to complete this rainbow or even chase after the other cards. Andrew is my favorite athlete ever and his name deserves to be spoken in similar fashion as Willie Stargell and Roberto Clemente in Pittsburgh, but Topps can't spell his name right so I can't proudly display the cards.
Besides, look at the ending price of this thing! If a $700 Anrew McCutchen card doesn't prove the hobby is strong right now, I don't know what does. A 1/1 Clemente bat swatch wouldn't fetch that kind of coin and there are plenty of Willie Stargell patch cards featuring the black and yellow. I was in for this auction up to about $100. I am shocked how much it went for. Shocked!!!!
Are you going to wear red today?
Do you like to get color parallels to a certain team?
Which of the above cards is your favorite?
