The Artist Who Never Gets Credited

I got a chance to learn a few things from photographer Dustin Bradford last week and I'm not sure how much he wants me to reveal, but it was fascinating to learn a bit about the Topps photography process.

Dustin is a photographer who works out of Colorado and has photographed a bunch of cards that occur at Coors Field every year.  His Instagram is loaded with many cards that he has photograohed along with some of his personal collection.  You can view his Instagram by clicking here.

He saw a card of Cutch I had posted from the July 4 2018 game where Cutch was a member of the Giants and they played the Rockies and noted that the photo used was one that he had shot.  I asked him if there were other cards of Cutch that have been produced that he may have shot.  

Well, as it turns out two cards in 2021 were shot by Dustin.

The 1992 Topps design found in 2021 Topps Update as an insert card features an image of Cutch at Coors Field.  You can view the original image at Getty Images here. Cutch went 0 for 4 at the plate in a 12-2 Phillies loss. 

The 2021 Holiday Relic also features an image of Cutch at Coors Field.  The snowman didn't make it into the lineup that day so that got generated in later. 

I asked Dustin if he could sign the pair of cards he photographed and he kindly obliged.  These are only the 2nd and 3rd autographs he has signed, the first being a Ronald Acuna Jr HR card. 

Thanks for honoring my wacky request Dustin.  For those that want to see his photography please visit his Instagram and check out all the awesome images that his eye and skill has transformed into a baseball card.

Have you ever thought about the original images used for baseball cards?  

What are some of your favorite images captured on baseball cards? 

Mine is the Kevin Mitchell 1987 Topps

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? 

Keep Grinding for the Super Collection

This will likely be my last big mailday for awhile, but don't worry I have plenty of cards to show off.

The first is actually the highest numbered card of today's mailday.  It is a 2021 Topps Five Star Inscription autograph. 

The card is numbered 9/20 and comes with an inscription saying "Grind"

In my job, our owner often thanks us for all the hard work we do and says "I know it's a grind, but thank you for everything you do." I guess Cutch lives by that same motto...just keep grinding.

The other two cards I got today were both one of ones.  Yup, a mailday consisting of two 1/1s.

Topps Gallery really changed up the product last year.  Rather than using artist drawn cards with a limited number of parallels, this year's set only had artist drawn cards for inserts and really upped the number of parallels this year including a bunch of new shiny sparkly parallels.

The 1/1 red parallel requires sunglasses to look at as the shine on this card is unlike anything I have ever seen from a Topps retail exclusive set before.

My other 1/1 was a very generous gift from a Twitter friend Josh JrNoble1

This is the 2020 Topps Chrome Update cyan printing plate.  I have the magenta and Superfractor. Maybe I will chase after the yellow and black printing plates to complete the set.

Serial History: Reflecting on getting old

As I was going through my boxes of Cutch cards I discovered a bunch of low numbered autographs that I never showed off.  Trust me when I say there's a lot that still need to be shown here (literally over a hundred autographs of Cutch have never been shown on this blog before)

The card dated below is dated with today's date (2/25), but it also made me realize that I am getting old as it features a familar Topps design, one that I was very excited about when it first debuted.

It's hard to believe that this card design for Stadium Club is now over 3 decades old (31 years old).  I'm getting old!!!!

Let's reflect back on the world of 1991

Barry Bonds had only hit 142 of his 762 career homeruns* This past December, he reached his final 10th year of eligibility on the Hall of Fame ballot.

The United States was in the middle of Operation Desert Storm/Shield by fighting in the Gulf War.

OJ Simpson was a broadcaster for football games

Pogs and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were popular among boy's toys. 

Only the 3rd season of The Simpsons was starting (33 previous episodes existed of the 700+ currently produced)

The Florida/Miami Marlins, Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks, Tampa Bay Devil Rays all hadn't come to exist yet.

Do you feel old yet? 

What other memories do you have of 1991?

National Wear Red Day, A Yearly Tradition

Over the past couple years I have had a tradition of showing off red baseball cards the first Friday of February.  You can revisit all those posts here.  The reason I do this is to bring awareness to women heart disease.  

I will continue the theme of showing off some nice red parallels, but first...a reminder to please wear red today to support the movement.

Visit heart.org to help make a contribution.  They set out a goal of $3 million this year and as of Friday morning are falling well short of it as they have only raised just over $100K.

Now for the best red parallel baseball card in my collection that I have picked up over the past few months

2021 Topps Now Game Used Base and (on card) autograph celebrating Cutch's 250th career home run. The card is numbered out of only 10 copies (mine being number 2)

This is a very recent pickup and it was shipped by COMC within a week.

Shocking, right?

That is the 2021 Topps Triple Threads Triple Relic patch Ruby parallel numbered 1/1 featuring relics of Cutch, Bryce Harper, and Rhys Hoskins

You guys like bling?

Ben Baller does

And Ben Baller Did The Card for this 2021 Topps Chrome Ben Baller edition red parallel limited to 5

How about some autographs signed in red ink?

2021 Heritage High Number limited to 72 copies and 2021 Diamond Icons limited to 25 copies

And to finish things off I have a 2021 Topps Archives Red Hot 🔥 parallel limited to 50 copies

That's all for now.

Again please go visit ❤ heart.org ❤ and make a contribution if you're able to today.

Don't forget to wear your red!

New Year, New 1\1, New Contest!

Since yesterday was 1/1, I thought it would be appropriate to show off one of my latest 1/1s in the collection and compare the image to another 1/1 that I've had in my collection for a few years.

Above is my 4th Yankees 1/1 of Cutch.

It hails from 2021 Topps Dynasty and features Cutch in his clean shaven September 2018 look along with a nice laundry tag patch from the on base machine.

The back discusses how Cutch lead the Yankees in on base percentage (albeit small sample size) in 2018 with a .421 OBP.

The image used for the 2021 Dynasty Yankees card looks a lot like a 2019 Stadium Club card I have.

When this card was released I had a feeling it was photoshopped as there were only 30 games in Cutch's career that sported a clean shave look and they were all in New York.  The problem is I cant determine what game this is from.

As you can see from the back the Stadium Club Chrome card is a superfractor 1/1.  

I have a major problem with Superfractors in Stadium Club because a lot of times the image is a darker image used and the champagne circles used don't look good for Stadium Club cards.  The autograph Superfractor has been on eBay for over a year, but the price is too high.

If anyone is good at reverse image look ups and can identify what game this image was taken from I will give the first correct answer a prize (hint: it's a Hall of Fame autograph and he played on the Phillies).  Please provide source for the image so I can verify that it is in fact from that game.

Researching the 5-8-7

Topps Luminaries has a very fun high end autograph product.  For those that are unfamilar with the product, it features on card autographs of some of the best hit, home run, and strikeout players of their respective eras.  There are of course low numbered parallels to chase (red, blue, black) and all feature a numerical stat about the player.  

Cutch had a card with the bold number 587 on the front.

This card represents the number of extra base hits that Cutch hit between 2010-2020.  

It's pretty impressive that Cutch accumulated 587 extra base hits in the 2010s.  He has hit 676 extra base hits in his career through September 10th, 2021.  42 of them have come in the 2021 season and 47 were in his 2009 rookie season.

I was honestly having a hard time figuring out who is ahead of him for extra base hits in the 2010s.

Some of the first names that came to mind were some of the big boppers like Stanton, Trout, and Harper that debuted in the early 2010s. And of course the future Hall of Fame veterans like Pujols, Beltre, Votto, and Cabrera came to mind.  It's likely that the younger guys to debut 2016 or later like Judge, Vlad Jr, Alonso wouldn't make the list so I didn't bother looking at them.

Let's look at their numbers from 2010 to 2020 since the 587 total doesn't include the 2021 season.

No doubt future Hall of Famers

Albert Pujols 580 (shocked that Pujols 2010 to 2020 numbers are less than Cutch)

Mike Trout 610

Miguel Cabrera 613

Adrian Beltre 527

Likely Hall of Famers

David Ortiz 382

Joey Votto 593

I also decided to look at the stars who had an incredible decade between 2010 to 2020 but were confirmed to be involved in some PED scandals. 

Confirmed PED Users

Robinson Cano 635

Nelson Cruz 650

Ryan Braun 583

Let's look at some HR season leaders of the 2010s along with other stars of the 2010s.

Nolan Arenado 523

Bryce Harper 489

Paul Goldschmidt 574

Jose Bautista 521

Matt Holliday 411

Giancarlo Stanton 569

Justin Upton 566

Freddie Freeman 605

Carlos Beltran 401

Anthony Rizzo 515

Evan Longoria 585

Adrian Gonzalez 469

Jay Bruce 583

Edwin Encarnacion 606

It took me forever to figure out Edwin.  

Edwin for the win

I would say that Cutch is in pretty good company and this further supports that he was one of the best hitters of the 2010s.

Knowing the answers already what players would you have thought would be the top 10 extra base hit leaders of the 2010s?  Are you shocked by any of these guys? 

The Uncle in Ginter

I've been slowly trying to pick up the Andrew McCutchen Uncle Larry cards from 2021 Allen & Ginter, but I have also been doing it while staying in budget.  

When the cards were first starting to show up the prices were very high for the buy it nows on eBay. I maintained my diligence and patience and have been able to snag four cards so far.

Here are a few of the cards I have grabbed thus far.

Abive is the black border mini

This is the short print framed autograph limited to 25 copies.  When Topps announced Uncle Larry would be a part of the checklist and would have autograph cards I was hoping that he would have an unique signature for Uncle Larry instead of his standard ACutch auto.

Above is the hot box foil

And finally a relic card of Cutch featuring Uncle Larry

Have you ripped any Allen & Ginter this year? 

The Art of Chuck Styles

Uncle Larry is Andrew McCutchen's alter ego.  He created the character when a Philadelphia reporter sited Andrew McCutchen, but called him Larry McCutcheon, the former running back from the NFL.  

Andrew did play football in high school, but he was a receiver.  During the pandemic, Andrew began posting videos and introduced the world to Uncle Larry, an old school no BS comedic personality.

Fans loved the character and Chuck Styles decided to make the first official Uncle Larry Project 70 Topps card.  

Like many of the Topps Project artists, Chuck Styles offered a limited number of autographed cards through his website for purchase.

The version I chose was the blue signature version numbered to 6 copies.  Chuck signed it right above the Uncle Larry name in a powder blue paint pen.  He also provided a new sticker atop the one touch magnetic holder replacing the traditional Project 70 sticker.

Came with an autographed box

The box was numbered in addition to the card

Mine is 2/6

Super Collectors Helping Out

By large I consider myself a player collector more than anything else when it comes to this hobby.  I feel like I have always been a "player collector" since taking up hobbies as an adult.

I've talked before about my collections I have had over the years from 80s toys to comics to sports cards.  

In looking back though I was always a player collector and super collector in the mindset.

The weird thing is I was never invested in the upper tier of collecting.

When I was collecting 80s toys I was focused on Voltron and Thundercats.  Neither of those toy lines had the sports player mindset, but I was obsessed with getting everything that had Voltron on it.  If it had 5 robot lions on some licensed merchandise I needed it for my collection.  Children sneakers in size 3?  Yup I was buying them.  Pencil pouches and folders for my school supplies at age 25?  Yup...I needed them.  

Voltron and Thundercats both had loyal fan bases, but they fall into the second tier of great 80s cartoons behind things like Transformers, G.I. Joe, Masters of the Universe, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Fast forward to my comic book collections.  Growing up my introduction to comic books was the 1992 X-Men cartoon and my two favorite characters were the mutant couple Gambit & Rogue.  Once I got into reading comic books I was hooked on the Flash and Daredevil.  I began buying every comic that featured those characters.

Again, great characters but definitely not top tier like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Hulk, or Wolverine. 

In 2005 I attended a baseball game for the first time in a decade and decided I was going to root for the Pittsburgh Pirates and began following the career of that year's draft pick, Andrew McCutchen.

For a three year run, many could argue that Cutch was top tier in the league as he was basically the National League version of Mike Trout.  Unfortunately he didn't sustain that level of success for decades like some of the all time greats like Pujols, Jeter, Griffey, etc.

My Cutch collection has been my longest tenured collection in any hobby I have ever been a part of.  It has outlasted everything I ever collected and in the span of over a decade and half of collecting his cards I have made some pretty awesome online friends because of the collection.  

About a month ago I received an awesome random act of kindness from another player collector via Twitter.  

As many of you may be aware Blake Jamieson kicked off his Project 70 checklist with a Cutch card.  Well dmoose8 on Twitter received a signed black ink (not numbered) autograph from Blake and he chose to send it to me.  I've had a few interactions with him and his dad on Twitter over the years.  He collects Erik Moustakas cards to the supercollector level and his dad has a fully finished Man Cave of Steal dedicated to Rickey Henderson.

This hobby is awesome!

I love seeing these super collections and being known for my Cutch collection.

Time for an update

One of Cutch's earliest Phillies autographs was in the product, 2019 Topps Luminaries.

Luminaries in case you are unaware is a very high end release.  Each box contains ONLY 1 card and it is serial numbered to 15 or less copies.  Boxes of 2019 Luminaries currently sell for around $400 on the secondary market.  

In addition to the "base" autographs numbered to 15 copies there were also red to 10, blue to 5, and black 1/1.  

The Luminaries brand celebrates Hit Kings, Home Run Kings, and Masters of the Mound by noting the player's current level of statistics for a given category.  

Cutch was part of the Home Run Kings due to the fact that he is one of the active leaders in the category of round trippers.  

The front of the card you will notice notes 6HR.  

The back discusses Cutch's Walk off Home Run total as 6 entering the 2019 season.  

Only Ryan Zimmerman (11) and Albert Pujols (12) had more Walk off homeruns among active players at the time of the production.

In case you missed it, Cutch blasted a walk off HR versus the Washington Nationals yesterday to steal a 6-5 victory for the Phillies.

I am sure that Topps will produce a Topps Now card for Cutch and I am sure I will buy it as well. 

Absolutely!

Sweet Spot autographs from Upper Deck made all collectors nervous of fading autographs in the future.  

Panini has recently tried the same concept. Time will tell how they hold up over the years.

Absolute Baseball recently came out for 2021, but Cutch signed a total of 12 of these baseball themed cards for the 2020 product. Among the 12 are 6 of the red stitch baseballs, 5 of the green stitch baseballs, and 1 of the red/blue stitch baseballs.  That's it! 12 of them total.

Very few active, non rookie, players signed these style cards.  Most of the checklist consists of retired players, many of which were Hall of Famers or dominant players that are borderline Hall of Famers in their day.  The active players checklist contains Cutch, Jordan Hicks, Shohei Otani, Dustin Pedroia (he hadn't officially retired yet), and Dylan Carlson.  

Retired players in the Hall of Fame include Frank Robinson, Chipper Jones, Pedro Martinez, Cal Ripken Jr, Frank Thomas, Ken Griffey Jr, Dave Winfield, Barry Larkin, Don Sutton, Eddie Murray, Jeff Bagwell, Wade Boggs, Reggie Jackson, Mariano Rivera, Ozzie Smith, Vladamir Guerrero Sr, Randy Johnson, John Smoltz, and Whitey Ford.  That is a stacked lineup for Hall of Famers.  Print runs range from 10 to 50 depending on the player for the standard red stitch baseballs.

Retired, non Hall of Famers include Paul Konerko, Dwight Gooden, Omar Vizquel, Don Mattingly, Roger Clemens, and Rafael Palmiero.

There is a video of the 1/1 Cutch being pulled on a YouTube break and I have tried to acquire it to limited response.  I do have the green foil, green stitches also, but will be sharing that off next March.  

It's Colossal

Well it's Thursday which means that Shark Week is getting closer to FINishing up.  Oh wow is that punny?!!!!

Even if you don't watch Shark Week and get excited for a week of documentaries like I do, I am sure that you have seen the image below.

Filmed in 2012 and featuring an iconic image for the Air Jaws documentary franchise, the image sees a 16 foot, 3000 pound great white shark breaching the water only 10 feet away from the Seal Sled filming.  The shark was named Colossus, an appropriate name for a fish that is the size of a Subaru Impreza.  I don't know about you but if I am in the open ocean and something that big comes out from under the sea with intents of killing a seal, I would probably have a heart attack from fear.

I like looking at the image of the great white shark named Colossus from afar.

Consequently, I like looking at my 2020 National Treasures Colossal card from up close

What a MASSIVE laundry tag patch embedded in this card.  The autograph only makes it more sweet. Limited to only 3 copies, this is one of my latest cards I "discovered" while going through some moving boxes.  

Have you seen Air Jaws (or any of it's sequels)?

What are some other items you can think of that are 14-16ft long to put into perspective how big the shark Colossus is?

Remembering Memorial Day

Today is a day to remember those who lost their lives while serving our country in the military.

The Pirates have honored the military with military camo jerseys over the years and I am fortunate to own a few cards of Cutch featuring swatches of these camo jerseys.

Panini has used many of these jersey swatches over the years, but they look best in the brand National Treasures.

Growing up I never understood the meaning of Memorial Day.  I always viewed it as a way to welcome the summer, have a BBQ with friends and family, and if chose to work to get double time and half.  

It's not that I didn't know what the actual holiday's intended purpose was, it was just that it had escaped "hitting home" with me.  A few years ago I stated Happy Memorial Day and someone from the blogging community reached out to me reminding me that the holiday should never be viewed as Happy and that it is a day of somber to remember the fallen.

Since that email, I have always viewed the holiday differently and have never said have a happy Memorial Day again.  I have completely changed my viewpoint on the holiday and try to use my new found understanding of the holiday to share with others.  

So for those of you who are celebrating the holiday in the traditional BBQ and family party mindset, please take a few moments to remember those who lost their lives serving this country to allow us the freedom for such events. 

FlawLESS Victory Contest

Saint Patrick's Day is here so I wanted to run a contest perfect for a celebration of green.

Here is one of my favorite "green" cards of Cutch.

It is from 2017 Flawless and is the green emerald parallel which features an on card autograph numbered to only 3 copies (!!!!) And encapsulated in a nice one touch case complete with a Flawless sticker.

From 2016 Flawless I have a giant patch of the Jolly Roger sleeve logo on an Emerald card numbered 2/5.

Flawless Victory

Speaking of Flawless Victory

Above is a video of the Pirates clinching their playoff spot back in 2014.

I have a bottle that was used in the champagne showers that evening and it is signed by Andrew McCutchen.

Here is another image of the bottle. I shrink wrapped around the signature so it won't fade over time.

Here is the authentication for the bottle

The Pirates 2014 team was a fun one to root for despite them not advancing very far in the Postseason.   They, like everyone else in the 2014 Postseason, got Bumgarnered. There are a few other reasons though why I can't label it my favorite team roster.

That distinction belongs to the predecessor year, 2013.

2013 was a magical year for Pirates fans.  It marked the end of the 20 year losing streak.  More important though there was a group of men that I watched develop into one of the best teams in baseball.

2013 was loaded with many individuals getting hardware and personal accomplishments.

Andrew Mccutchen was MVP, Player's Choice MVP, silver slugger

Clint Hurdle was Manager of Year

Pedro Alvarez was a silver slugger and HR champ

Francisco Liriano was Comeback Player of Year

Jason Grilli won Reliever of Month twice and was featured on Sports Illustrated

Pirates All Stars included Cutch, Alvarez, Grilli, Jeff Locke, and Mark Melancon.

The team had veterans like Garrett Jones, Russell Martin, and AJ Burnett built around a young core coming into their prime.

We saw flashes of brillaince from rookie "future ace" Gerrit Cole as he won his first 6 games and beat former Cy Young Winners: Tim Lincecum, Clayton Kershaw, and Zack Greinke in his first three games.  My brother got married in 2013 and I made a bet with him that if the Pirates made the postseason in 2013, he would name his first son Cole because of Gerrit Cole.  I love my niece, but am still hoping I get a nephew one day and my brother lives up to that bet.

Even the bench and role players were fun to root for.  Travis Snyder may have been a top prospect a long time ago, but his career never blossomed into superstar.  Still, Lunchbox as he was known was an everyday guy who fans could root for. The same can be said for guys like Mike "The Fort" McHenry and Clint "Journey" Barmes.  I suspect Pittsburgh is the only city that gave Clint a standing ovation as a visiting player in his career.

So here is the contest.
Make a post about a year your favorite team DIDN'T win the World Series.  Be sure to include why that year's roster stood out to you.  Who were your favorite players that aren't superstars? Did any members of that team go on to Hall of Fame careers? Tell as much as you can about that team and any many memories you may have about that year in general.

After you make the post, leave a comment here with a link to your post.  (Please reference my contest in your post)

On April 2nd, 2019 I will hit the randomizer 3 times.  The person at the top of the randomizer will receive...

2004 Topps Tribute Carl Yastrzemski Green Wall Relic card.

I thought with it being St. Patrick's Day, a green wall relic of one of the most historically trophyless franchises (prior to 2004 at least) seemed appropriate.