What killed the dinosaurs?

Continuing my posts about Arnold Schwarzenegger we have a line from Batman & Robin where Arnold played the villain, Mr. Freeze.

What killed the dinosaurs?

The Ice Age

Above are my Bowman Platinum silver ice parallels of Cutch 2016-2019. 

What are some other great Arnold one liners you'd like to see?

Let's Celebrate our Independence

The 4th of July is meant to celebrate our independence as a free country.  

With all the flaws our country may have, let's celebrate the great things that our country has provided.

Leave a comment below why you love America.

Building the Dynasty from Cutch's former teams

Andrew McCutchen had played for 4 teams over his 13 season career through 2021. 

He has played 1,761 games and has amassed 1,826 career hits which includes a shortened 2019 (injury) and 2020 (COVID) seasons.

Before Cutch's 1st regular season game with the Brewers, I thought it would be fun to look at the best team I can put together using only players from the Pirates, Giants, Yankees, and Phillies.  

I am doing this because I have collected an autograph of Cutch representing each team he has been on via 2021 Topps Dynasty.  Topps Dynasty is a beautiful set. On card autographs, big chunky patches, one touch cases, what's not to love????

This will be a fun exercise, but to avoid putting a roster full of mostly just Yankees All Time Greats though I am making some rules.

I can only select 1 player from that team equal to the number of seasons (even if they weren't full seasons) for each team that Cutch played for. This means that Cutch's 25 games with the Yankees during the 2018 season limits me to select only 1 Yankee to be on my roster because he only played for that team in one season.

My 13 player roster must include one player for each position (1B, 2B, SS, 3B, RF, CF, LF, C), SP, and relief pitcher.  That takes up 10 spots on my roster.  I'm also going to include a DH so I don't have to worry about taking out my starting pitcher late in games and the DH is now a universal rule in both leagues.

Now for the real fun, if a player played for same teams that Cutch played for, all teams count.  This means that if I want to use Barry Bonds for Left Field because he played for the Pirates, I can't use any other players who played for the Giants, so Willie Mays and Willie Mccovey are both out because Bonds played for the Giants and Pirates.  I will have to be diligent about my selections.

The player I select can not have played less games than Andrew did for that team.  This means that if I wanted to use one of the greatest second baseman of all time, Ryne Sandberg, and claim him as a Phillie, I can't.  Cutch played 260 games for the Phillies and Sandberg appeared in only 13 games for the Phillies. 

So here's how the maximum number of players per team will breakdown equal to the number of seasons Cutch played with them.

9 Pirates

1 Giants

1 Yankees

3 Phillies

With a team having to consist of so many Pirates, I wanted to look at the All Time Greats, especially those that played their entire careers with the Pirates.

Let's look at the guys who have statues outside PNC Park first

RF Roberto Clemente

SS Honus Wagner

1B/LF Willie Stargell

2B Bill Mazeroski

That's a good start to the team.  It takes care of my basic infield and a key spot in the lineup with Clemente being a middle of order guy and a perennial gold glove winner.  I will circle back to the Pirates after I knock out some more obvious choices

For the Giants there is only one player I want

The greatest player of All Time

CF Willie Mays

If you wish to argue against Mays being the greatest player of all time, I welcome your challenge in the comments below.

The Yankees have such a deep and rich history I could pick anyone from Yogi Berra to Mariano Rivera to Babe Ruth to Lou Gehrig and everyone in between.  So instead I will skip forward to the Phillies.

Let's fill out our infield with the best 3rd Baseman of All Time, Mike Schmidt.

Schmidt won 3 MVPs over his career along with ten Gold Glove Awards.  He is the most beloved player in Phillies franchise history ahead of notable HOF alumni, Steve Carlton. 

Now as far as pitchers go, Steve Carlton would be an obvious choice.  He started nearly 500 games for the Phillies and won 4 Cy Young Awards.  There is one problem though, he played 6 games for the Giants.  This eliminates Carlton from being used as he played for both the Giants and Phillies and played in less games for the Giants than Cutch did.  Sorry Lefty!

Roy Halladay recently had his number retired by the Phillies and won a Cy Young with the club and pitched a no hitter with them in his first post season appearance.  Unfortunately, Doc doesn't qualify because he pitched in less games than Cutch played for the Phillies.  

If I want to use a pitcher it will likely have to be someone with the Yankees (only 25 games played by Cutch in pinstripes) or be a Pirate or Phillies starter who made A LOT of starts. 

It really is a shame that Carlton played those 6 games with San Francisco disqualifying him from this team I am making.

There is one lefty in the Phillies though had a lot of success with the Phillies, more so than Hall of Famer, Robin Roberts.

I am talking about Cole Hamels

294 games started

3.30 ERA

World Series MVP

Nearly 1,900 strikeouts with Phillies

In addition to those stats he had a better ERA+ and a better WHIP than the HOF pitcher Robin Roberts.

Cole's teammates Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, and Ryan Howard could all have a place on my team.  I will have to see how the rest of my roster plays out.  I do have one more Phillies spot left on my roster. 

Catchers are thin in the history of the Pirates, I may have to look at other teams.

Buster Posey, Yogi Berra, and Thurman Munson all come to mind. I can't use Buster if I want to use Mays.  Do I really want to use my only Yankees selection on Yogi Berra?  

The answer is no. I am using my ONLY Yankees selection on the ONLY PLAYER TO BE UNANIMOUSLY elected into the Hall of Fame.  

Enter Sandman!

Mariano Rivera is my closer and my only Yankees selection.  This may be viewed as an odd selection since I only get one player to represent the Yankees.  No one dominated as a reliever quite like Mo.  Sure there are guys like Roy Face that won 18 games out of the bullpen for the Pirates, but if I want to ensure the game is won late in the game, give me Mo.

So here's what I have left to use 

1 Phillies

5 Pirates

And here is my lineup thus far

1B Willie Stargell (can also play LF)

2B Bill Mazeroski

SS Honus Wagner

3B Mike Schmidt

RF Roberto Clemente

CF Willie Mays

SP Cole Hamels

RP Mariano Rivera

I still need a LF, C, and DH

For catcher, I'm going with one of my favorite players of the late 90s and early 2000s, Jason Kendall.  Kendall is one of a handful of catchers with 2,000 career hits at the position and because he played his best years on a terrible Pirates team, he is often very under rated.  He was a 3 time All Star and finished his career with more walks (721) than strikeouts (686).  He had a .366 OBP which is a very high OBP for a catcher, higher than Carter, Fisk, and Bench.

As for LF, I'm going to put Ralph Kiner out there.  Kiner hit 301 HR over 8 seasons with the Pirates and is the only player to lead the league in HR for 7 straight seasons.  Kiner also provides another option at 1B.

As for my DH, I'm going with another slugger, Ryan Howard.  Prior to his 2011 postseason injury, Howard put the league on watch and became the fastest player in MLB history to get to 300 HR.  Dick Allen would be a fallback option with his .902 OPS in Philadelphia.

So how would I put this lineup together?

SS Honus Wagner

RF Roberto Clemente

CF Willie Mays

1B Willie Stargell

LF Ralph Kiner

3B Mike Schmidt

DH Ryan Howard

2B Bill Mazeroski

C Jason Kendall

SP Cole Hamels

RP Mariano Rivera

At first glance I was going to move Schmidt higher in the lineup but wanted to split up all the right handed bats (Wagner, Clemente, Mays, Kiner) so I threw Stargell into the cleanup spot.  The amount of HR power the 3-7 spots have without a single Yankee is mind blowing.  

Kendall can restart the lineup from the 9 hole and act as another leadoff option if needed. 

Do you agree with my selections?

How would you put together a roster using a max of 9 Pirates, 3 Phillies, 1 Yankees, 1 Giants? 

can't you read?

I am so sick and tired of Topps lack of quality control and fact checking on the back of their baseball cards.

If it's for a low end, print on demand product where they have to create the card and get it to the presses within 24 hours, I can almost understand it.

But when you're talking about a product line like Topps Dynasty where the cards are produced with big chunky patches and a nearly $600 per card price tag attached, I expect higher quality control.

Topps Dynasty is a beautiful set with 1 card per box release.  Andrew had only appeared in the 2018 release prior to the most recent 2021 release.  

His 2021 release features cards of him in the four uniforms he had played with this far into his career: Pirates, Phillies, Yankees, and Giants.

I set out to get one example of each variation and have gotten the 1/1 for his Yankees card along with images for Phillies and Giants.

I was EXTREMELY disappointed to learn that one of Cutch's most defining moments in his career was being mislead on the back of the card.

The front of the card features a great image of Cutch in his Giants gear, on card autograph, and a large chunky S from the Giants sleeve patch.  It of course is housed inside a One Touch magnetic with the Topps Dynasty sticker holding the case together.

The back, while a nice design, is riddled with errors.

Cutch's "Dynastic Deed" occurred on April 7th, 2018 NOT April 8th.  I know this very well because I have the foul ball that was hit just before his epic walkoff blast.

It makes no mention that the walkoff was a home run.

While still early into his Giants career, it was the 7th game that Cutch wore the black and orange NOT the 3rd.  

Do you ever notice inaccurate statements on the backs of baseball cards?  What are some that you've noticed of your favorite players?

Gobble Gobble

Today is a day for giving thanks.

Obviously there are some things that I am thankful for that go without saying.

I am thankful for my health.

I am thankful for my family and friends health.

I am thankful for all that God has blessed me with this year.

There are of course some less obvious things that I am thankful for

I am thankful that very very soon I will have a place to properly display my Cutch Cave.

I am thankful that my commute to work each day will save me 2 hours daily once I move.

I am thankful for Topps releasing autograph cards with turkeys on them because turkeys are awesome.

I am thankful for all the food I am going to consume today.

I am thankful for Ghostbusters: Afterlife finally being released which I will be watching tomorrow.

What are some unique things you are thankful for?

The Last Catcher to Win MVP is Retiring

It's being rumored that Buster Posey will be retiring today.  I have some really amazing cards featuring Cutch with Buster Posey. 

This 2015 Immaculate Collection card features 9 (YES 9!!!!) patches of some the game's best (at that time) players at each position.

Pitcher- Clayton Kershaw

Catcher - Buster Posey

1B - Jose Abreu

2B - Robinson Cano

3B - Miguel Cabrera (he moved to 3rd so Prince Fielder could play 1st for the Tigers)

SS - Troy Tulowitzki

Outfielders - Giancarlo Stanton, Andrew McCutchen, Mike Trout

The card is limited to only 10 copies and is serially numbered on the back.

Troy Tulowitzki is the only player on this side to not win an MVP award.  The last shortstop to win MVP was Jimmy Rollins in 2007.  

Ribinson Cano is the only player on this side to not win an MVP.  The last Second Baseman to win the MVP was Jose Altuve in 2017.

Buster Posey had a tremendous 12 year career and looked to completely reignite his career after taking 2020 off for COVID concerns.  He finished his career with many accomplishments.

The biggest knocks on Posey will be only 1,500 career hits and only 729 RBI.  

Joe Mauer retired after the 2018 season and Yadier Molina is retiring after next season.  All three could be candidates for the Hall of Fame as they were perennial All Stars year after year.  The Hall of Fame ballot could get loaded with deserving guys in the next few years especially if the steroid guys stay on the ballot (Rodriguez, Ortiz, Manny)

Cutch and Posey were teammates in 2018 so I do have some relic cards featuring both Cutch and Posey.  

Among them are a few low numbered cards including the above 1/1 from Topps Tribute featuring a Majestic logo for Cutch and part of the Giants lettering for Buster.

By far though, this is my favorite Buster Posey card.  It's a triple patch relic of Brandon Crawford (featuring a bold Giants logo sleeve patch)

Buster Posey (featuring the R in San Francisco from a road grey jersey)

Andrew McCutchen (featuring a G from a white Giants home jersey)

Do you have any favorite Buster Posey cards in your collection?

Do you think he makes the Hall of Fame? 

Cutch's Crew: Talk About a Full House

Each year during the month of October, I show off only pink (and shades of pink like magenta, peach, etc) to help raise awareness of Breast Cancer, a leading cause of death for females in the United States.  

Due to my own financial situation this year I will not be able to make a donation for each (meaningful, non spam) comment left by those that follow the blog.  Once things settle down on the home front though I will be looking to make a donation in 2022 based on the comments left during this year's event.  Hopefully together we can help at least one woman get a much needed mammogram.  Early detection is key!!!

If you want to make your own private donation please visit the National Breast Cancer Foundation.  There is a donate button on the main page and it only takes a minute of your time.  Every little bit helps.

I have focused primarily on cards that only feature Andrew McCutchen on the card, but in recent years have also featured cards with a cameo appearance (either being seen on the card or as a name cameo on the back of the card).  In 2019, I created Falco Files which discussed players that replaced (Shane Falco Replacements movie reference) on an active roster, number worn, or trade.  I will also be showing some Cutch's Crew cards that show pink cards of players that have played with Cutch on multiple teams. I will continue to utilize these styles of posts as we celebrate the 5th Collecting Cutch Save Second Base event (I am no longer counting my first run on the Pirates Treasure Room I did back in 2014).

I am always looking for new ways to incorporate new celebrities into the event so today I am presenting

Jodie Sweetin

She was born in 1982 in Los Angeles, California.  She would become a popular child actress on the TV show Full House, which takes place in San Francisco.

Seems appropriate to showcase someone with both LA and SF ties as we prepare for the big rivalry series.

After multiples battles with drugs and alcohol she got in the spotlight again thanks to her participation on Dancing with the Stars.

She then went to star in many Christmas themed Hallmark Channel movies.

It has been reported that the Full House actress did get some plastic surgery prior to the filming of Fuller House.

Oh well...

In the first season of Fuller House, the Netflix spinoff series, sees Stephanie Tanner meet up with Hunter Pence.

Pence was a fan favorite in San Francisco thanks to his leadership, heart, and hustle.  It lead to the Giants winning a pair of World Series in 2012 and 2014 thanks in large part to Pence.

Hunter Pence was a teammate of Andrew McCutchen with the 2018 San Francisco Giants, but also appeared as a member of the 2011 and 2014 National League All Star Team with Cutch.  He even appeared as a cameo with Cutch on a Jay Bruce 2011 Topps Update card.  Cutch and Pence are celebrating together, but Bruce is kinda getting ready for a fist pump by himself.

When Cutch was traded to the Giants he appeared at FanFest and did an absolutely remarkable and hilarious impersonation of Hunter Pence's batting stance.

You can view the complete video with Cutch's commentary by clicking this YouTube link.

I think Cutch enjoyed being a teammate of Hunter Pence.

Here is a 2018 pink mini numbered 2/25.


2018 Topps Mini - [Base] - Pink #47 - Hunter Pence /25
Purchased for $2.84 

I just purchased this card from COMC yesterday after a subliminal suggestion by AJ from The Lost Collector mentioning the show Fuller House in the comments.  Obviously I don't have it in hand yet and have chosen not to ship it yet due to the constant delays in shipping and my current living situation being what it is.

The card doesn't directly give a name cameo of Cutch on the back, but he is one of the 9 players the card back references.

Hunter Pence was always one of my favorite players when he was active.  I love the way he interacted with fans and he was an absolute fan favorite no matter where he played, even when he was a visitor.

Heidi Watney even got into the Hunter Pence sign craze but making her own while hosting Quick Pitch on the MLB Network.

Do you remember the Hunter Pence sign craze?

You may recall a few years ago I showed off this incredible patch card with patches of Johnny Cueto, Hunter Pence, and Andrew McCutchen.  

It's one of my favorite unlicensed cards in my collection. 

Did you like Full House (or it's sequel)?

It is safe to say that I know who Hunter is rooting for tonight.

A Masterpiece Addition

It's been a long time since I showed off some Giants cards of Andrew McCutchen and that's mostly due to my focus of Cutch cards is Pirates, Minor League/Pre Debut, Phillies, Giants, Yankees cards in that order.  

If I was to see an autograph card of Cutch I didn't own, the Giants are pretty low on my desire list. 

That's not to say that I pass on adding new Giants items to the collection though.

I picked up this WalMart exclusive Topps Gallery autograph of Cutch before we started our moving process.  It was in that monster box of cards I have been going through.  

Topps Gallery is an art based set that features a variety of artists to draw some of the most popular players in the game.  

Topps tabbed Evan Shoman to draw the Masterpiece inserts. 

There was a limited number of sticker autographs available of Cutch for this release.

On the back you can see that it is limited to only 5 copies in the top left corner. 

The Giants are having a great season this year and should be seeing themselves clinch a playoff spot in the next week and half.