Hoping for a New Era of Fun

Pirates have been bad this year.  

That may be an understatement actually.  They're 21 games under .500 through 51 games.  With a record of 15-36 they have a winning percentage of .294.  Extend that winning percentage out to a 162 game season and the team would lose 115 games.

Losing isn't fun, but if some key pieces are in place in the farm system, you can almost accept it.  

The problem is, there's not a lot already in place and the personalities on this team aren't even fun.  Besides Trevor Williams and Cole Tucker, many of the members seem to be introverts and not very outgoing. 

I'm exvited for the new era of Pirates baseball to start and hope that names like Hayes, O'Neil, Gonzalez, Reynolds, Cederlind, and Priester can match the names and excitement that McCutchen, Walker, Alvarez, Cole, Morton, and Burnett brought. 

Maybe Mason Martin becomes the next Pete Alonso and maybe O'Neil Cruz becomes Corey Seager.

I just want some fun again!!!!

This 2017 Lids exclusive Topps card was available for purchasing a New Era hat at Lids.  The card captures a jovial image of Cutch coming out of the dugout.  

The only logo indicating it is a New Era Lids exclusive is at the bottom right of the card under the stats

Oddballs like these and the Utz cards of 2019 and 2020 are fun.  

I wish there were more fun cards like this today like at McDonald's or Wendy's or Buffalo Wild Wings.

At least we have a few sets from Lids and Utz though.

There was also a 2016 New Era relic that Cutch appeared on and these are EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to find.

These cards have New Era listed more boldly on the card are are numbered to only 99 copies.  

The back of the card also talks about how they are found exclusively at Lids stores and made courtesy by Topps and New Era teaming up.  A quick search of eBay shows not only are there no McCutchen relics, but NO relics of any players found on the checklist.

New Era cards return

I didn't hear anything about this from my Lids store, but apparently Topps has partnered up with New Era to make a 32 card set with the 2017 design in addition to about 20 players using the 1987 design.

Details on the card set along with the hat relics the company produced can be found here.

Once I found out about the promotion I had to add this Cutch to the collection.

It features an image of Cutch we haven't seen on a Topps card yet (see how much more fun that is for us collectors Topps?)

On the back it has the same basic information as the regular release, but with the New Era logo on bottom corner and a different number.

It has Cutch's career stats on the card.  In only 8 years, Cutch has produced 40.6 WAR.  Hall of Famer Jim Rice had a career 47.4 WAR.  Even if Cutch only produces 2-3WAR over the rest of his career he should no doubt be in HOF discussions.

The Start of a New Era

Hey guys.

I am doing away with my old blog piratestreasureroom. I have just lost a lot of interest in keeping up with the Pirates cardboard. With so many releases and so many players being constantly reused over and over for "hits" in products, I just don't want to continue seeking out any more new releases. An Andrew Lambo autograph was fun the first time I saw it, but it lost it's allure after the 5th time in a span of 6 months of product releases.

I am not going to give up on cardboard though. Instead I am streamlining what I collect. I will continue to add vintage Topps cards to my collection in my pursuit to complete the Flagship Topps team sets dating back to 1952.  I will also focus on my favorite player and the guy who started a renaissance of baseball in Pittsburgh, Andrew McCutchen.  I'm not giving up on adding new Charlie Morton cards either, but there isn't many new cards released for Ground Chuck each year.

As of this 1st post I have over 1,300 unique cards of Cutch. This blog will highlight some cards I have already shown on my old blog, but it will also chronicle my new cards of Cutch as he hopefully continues his borderline Hall of Fame worthy career.

Welcome to the New Era of my cardboard collecting ways.

This Lids exclusive card was only available in packs after purchasing a New Era baseball cap during Opening Day week in 2016. I have had a Lids card for the past 4 years and have probably close to 30 caps. Yup, I'm that guy whose hat color matches the shirt I am wearing.

The back of the card looks very similar to his 2016 Topps release, but with different numbering.