No Way Home

I have done a few writeups on this blog about 🕷 Spider-Man 🕷 in the past.

Spider-Man is always a character I associate with my brother.  

When we were younger he had so many toys from the 90s animated series and displayed them along with the Daily Bugle plaster.  He also had some key first appearances of some of Spider-Man's most famous villains including Punisher, Venom, Scorpion, Carnage, Hobgoblin, and Black Cat. 

Yesterday I bought tickets to see the new movie, Spider-Man: No Way Home for a 5pm showing. Around 4pm I had something come up and had to cancel my tickets.  I likely won't be able to see the movie now until after Christmas because we are cleaning, painting, and moving into the new home. 

To pass what little time I have I thought it would be funny to show off some imagination for how the "nerdy" side of my brain works.

You may recall I showed off some cards featuring shadows back in July when I discussed having watched The Shadow starring Alec Baldwin for the first time in nearly 20 years. 

This is one of the cards I showed off.  

Do you see the image that resembles a shadow of Spider-Man swinging through the Big Apple or is it just me?

It would have taken me nearly 3.6 million trips to Target...

As I continue to live with the in laws for the forseeable future, I have been forced to look at my binders of Cutch cards more often and pay less attention to the big sick mojo hits of autographs, patches, etc that are in toploaders and one touches in storage.  

It's actually been calming to look back on the base cards and revisit the card backs and fronts instead of just concerning myself with all those wacky parallels that Topps and Panini are doing.

Similarly I have really slowed down in terms of adding new Cutch cards to the collection.  This is for two reasons. 1)We are continuing to look for the perfect home in a difficult market and 2)The parallels in current products don't scream to me the way they once did.  

One parallel I haven't seen hit yet is the 2021 Topps Series 2 pink parallel for Andrew McCutchen.  If one of those does pop up, you can be sure I will be adding it for the October event.  

Anyway, as I was flipping through my binder I came across a page with 2015 Bowman cards.

As you can see from this page there are quite a number of parallels on this page.  The Orange parallel pops, but I want to talk about a pair of cards in today's post.

I want to focus on the cards on the right side of the 2nd and 3rd rows.

I took them out of the pages and used the camera scanner app on my phone.

They both look pretty similar, right?

The only differences I could see on the front was that the unique "ice" technology pattern continued all the way to the edge of the card on right, but the card on left had that technology stop at the borders of the card's design.  I have bought missing foil stamp cards and as you will see in a future post (maybe even tomorrow) I have bought severely miscut or error cards.  

I thought this was something similar.

I didn't remember much about the 2015 Bowman release so after flipping the cards over I discovered that I had something special.

Yeah, the card on the left is a pretty unique card indeed.  The card where the pattern stops at the borders is called a White Ice parallel and was printed as a 1/1.  

I can't find any details for hobby pack insertion rates, but the purple ice (pictured on top right corner of page) were limited to 50 copies and found 1:239 packs.  At a similar rate, the white ice parallels would land 1:11,950 retail packs.  Expand that to a 300 player checklist and you would need to open nearly 3.6 million packs (3,585,000 to be exact) to ensure getting the McCutchen.  

With the current hobby market, that would have been a lot of 6am Friday visits to Target!!!

I honestly had forgotten all about this parallel and might not have even realized how rare it was, as proven by it just being in an Ultra Pro Platinum 9 pocket page.  

What kind of rare cards have you found recently that you forgot you owned?

Have you seen any cards at retail return yet?  

This Day in Cutchstory: Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there reading this!!!

Today's card is the 2011 Bowman Chrome blue parallel.

I chose this card because it features an image of Cutch wearing the blue wristbands from a Father's Day game played in 2010 against the Cleveland Indians.  

Coincidently Father's Day in 2010 was also on June 20th.  

The Pirates defeated the Cleveland Indians 5-3 at PNC Park.  Cutch scored the go ahead run in the 8th inning when he walked to lead off the inning and came around to score on a Pedro Alvarez sacrifice fly.  

At the plate, Cutch went 0 for 3 with a walk, run scored, and RBI.  

He finished the day with his triple slash line being .315/.392/.479.  It's a shame that Evan Meek was the Pirates lone representative at the 2010 All Star Game and that Cutch was snubbed from the game. 

Last year of dreads, last year of prepurple

It was a week ago that Andrew McCutchen hit his 250th career homer.  I've shown off a few of my cards limited to 250 copies in celebration of this event.  

Today I will look at my 2014 cards limited to 250 copies.

2014 was the last year of Cutch having dreadlocks during a season and it would also be the last year before things were getting purply by Topps.

2014 Bowman Orange

2014 Triple Threads Emerald

2014 Bowman Chrome Blue refractor

I love that Homerun chart above.  I wish more cards had unique backs like that on a regular basis.

I have been dropping some trivia while looking at Cutch's career homeruns, but I think this next bit of trivia is awesome and really shows the power/speed combination that Cutch has shown over his 13 year career.

Since Cutch's 2009 debut there has only been 1 player in Baseball with 250 homeruns and 200 stolen bases.  His name is Mike Trout.  Cutch currently sits on 194 career stolen bases and 250 homers.  It is likely Cutch joins this generation's greatest player before the season is up. Granted Trout did all that before his 30th birthday, but who's keeping track of that?

Let The Purple Rain begin

I have been showing off some of my cards limited to only 250 copies in celebration of Andrew McCutchen's 250 career home runs.

Below you will see three more cards limited to 250 copies.  

They are all from 2015 and this year really put into place the purple parallel as being the standard limited to 250 copies.

2015 Topps Chrome Purple Refractor

2015 Bowman Purple

2015 Triple Threads Emerald

As stated, Cutch had hit his 250th career homer last Wednesday.  Of his 250 career homers here is a list of the players Cutch has launched off the most against

There are two pitchers that Cutch has hit 4 homers against: Mike Fiers and J.A. Happ.

Fiers of course is famous for bringing attention to the Astros cheating scandal and one of the most unique facial hair cuts ever. 4 of Cutch's 6 career hits versus Fiers have found themselves on the other side of the fence.

Cutch's brief Pirates teammate J.A. Happ has also surrendered the most homers to Cutch with four in 33 plate appearances.  Cutch has a .862 slugging percentage against the former Bucco.  His OPS is 1.347

As impressive as that OPS is, Cutch has actually fared better against another pitcher who briefly played with the Pirates (in spring training).  Clayton Richard, like Happ, is a journeyman southpaw. Cutch has reached base 63% of the time he has faced off Richard and has a career OPS of 1.625 with 3 homers in 17 plate appearances.  

In terms of pitchers who have surrendered multiple homers to Cutch with the fewest plate appearances the list starts with Jose Torres who has given up 2 longballs in 3 plate appearances.  

The most recent pitcher to surrender multiple homers to Cutch is Trevor Rodgers of the Miami Marlins who has given up 2 round trippers in 5 at bats.  With an additional walk and double to his credit versus the Marlins pitcher, Cutch has elevated himself into Barry Bonds territory with a 2.200 OPS.  

A Carbon Copy?

I set a goal to add 50 new Pirates Cutch cards to my collection in 2021. 

This 2014 Bowman Chrome may look similar to another card I already showed off last Friday. It's not a carbon copy, but it is a carbon fiber parallel.

It is the black carbon parallel numbered to only 10 copies and were inserted into packs at 1:695 packs.

Purple Ice Ice Baby

I love getting Cutch cards from his Pirates playing days.  Prime Cutch is the best!!!

It's why I made it one of my goals this year to add 50 new Cutch cards to the collection from 2005-2017.  

I am keeping pace with adding roughly 1 new Cutch card to the collection from that era and it has been an absolute blast getting some of these rarer cards. 

Case in point is the exhibit above. 

2014 Bowman Purple Ice.  

For being a "paper" Bowman card, this card pops and shines almost like a chrome card.

The purple ice parallels were limited to only 10 copies.  Odds for pulling one of these aren't available, but they were hobby pack exclusives. 

Bows, Bows, Bows

One thing that Christmas traditions have developed over the past century is more presents including bows on them.

I like the look of a bow being on a Christmas present, but I neither have the talent or patience to make an actual bow on a present.  

I have bought those cheap bags at a Dollar General type store to peel off the adhesive and stick the bow on it.

Continuing the theme of red and green parallels for the days leading up to Christmas are a pair of 2016 Bowman cards.

The red is numbered to 5 and the green to 99 copies.

The reason Christmas colors are red and green is the reason we celebrate the holiday in the first place.  

It is because of Jesus Christ that we "deck the halls" with red and green.

The green represents Christ's eternal life just as the evergreen trees remain green all winter long.  The red represents his blood shed during the crucifixion

Food Journal For the Day

I was challenged by Fuji to somehow connect an Andrew McCutchen baseball card to celebrate Saturday's National Butterscotch Pudding Day.

It was extremely short notice so I didn't have time to gather up cards to somehow make that happen a few hours after reading that ridiculous idea.

But Fuji is a good blogging friend and I didn't want to dismiss the idea so before I get to showing off some pudding, here is my food journal for the day

I started the day off with some Cinnamon Toast Crunch

CTC is the perfect cereal if you ask me.

The back of Andrew's 2013 Topps card talks of how Cutch toasted pitchers in 2012, specifically a 50 at-bat span when he batted .560 and crunched 7 HR.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch is good!

In the afternoon for lunch, I ordered a Pizza Hut big box to share with the lady of the household as I watched the Steelers play against the Broncos.

Pizza and burritos are my two go to foods for lunch.  I normally don't get Pizza Hut, but rather instead get pizza from the local pizzeria by my work.  Since we were both home for the afternoon, we got the big box to share wings, breadsticks, and 2 personal pizzas.

On the back of Cutch's Bowman Chrome card, it discusses that he is also a pizza lover.

And yes I do sometimes put pineapple on my pepperoni pizza. It is a topping I recommend.

For dinner, I finished up with baked ziti.

Look on the back of a 2018 Bowman card featuring Andrew McCutchen and you can see that he is a fan of baked pastas too.

I never had baked spaghetti, but evidently Cutch makes a mean plate.

Finally we finish with dessert.

And alas, it was almost a perfect circle to where it all began.  

Butterscotch pudding

Unfortunately I don't have any cards that reference pudding.  You win Fuji, you win!!!

Wait, what's this????

Emerging from the Pirates Dugout?

Why, it's a rainbow foil field access Stadium Club card from 2014?

It's serial numbered on the back 12/25.

Is that significant to Pirates fans?

Does that have anything to with pudding?

Why yes it does! It ties in with this angry looking man who became baseball's first 300 game winner and the most pitching starts in a season (75), James "Pud" Galvin.

"Pud" pitched for Pittsburgh from 1885-1892.  He is the franchise all-time leader in wins and was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1965 as part of the veterans committee.

Wanna guess his birth date?

Is "Pud" an acceptable tie in to pudding?

I'll let you decide...

Leave a comment below and tell me what else you would like to see in the coming days leading up to October.

I will announce the 1st contest winner tomorrow.

Bargain shopping

In case you haven't noticed prices on 1980s baseball cards have been going bonkers lately.

Evidently with people being stuck at home and no sports, people are going down the nostalgia road aboard the crazy train.

Ever since it was announced that there would be a documentary about Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, prices on all the key rookie cards (in high PSA grades) from the 80s have nearly doubled in the past two months.

While others are spending hundreds of their dollars on stars from the 80s and 90s I have been bargain hunting more McCutchen cards.

This white parallel 2005 Bowman 1st Year card in a PSA9 slab was picked up very cheaply.

Only 225 copies of this parallel exist.

Overall, I am pretty happy to add this slabbed draft parallel to the PC for $8.50

Yup, for less than a Chipotle burrito, I grabbed this early Cutch card.

I talked about some McCutchen rookies I got a few days ago for only 38 cents a piece.

Keep enjoying those 1987 Jose Canseco cards folks.  I'm gonna keep grabbing cards like this while I can.

Now with all that said, I completely blew an opportunity to pick up a card I needed for my collection.

Damn I wish I grabbed this.

We are stronger together than we are alone...

As stated for my Black History month event I will highlight an impactful black athlete in professional football each Sunday for February.  

Today I have chosen a man who has an award named after him not only for contributions made on the football field, but for what is achieved in the community also.  

Today we will talk about Walter Payton

Payton played his entire 13 year NFL career with the Chicago Bears.  He was a member of the Super Bowl XX (20) Championship team.

He lead the league in rushing a few times and was a top 10 rusher every year making 9 Pro Bowl Selections.  

In 1999, the NFL Man of the Year Award was changed to the Walter Payton Man of Year Award.

Payton was diagnosed with a rare disease and in his final months leading to his death he began to publicly push for organ donations and made a few commercials avout the subject despite his cancer being too far for a transplant to actually take place.

In the final months leading to his death he published an autobiography called Never Die Easy.

His charity continues to work for Payton's vision by raising awareness of organ transplants and donations.  In addition to that his foundation works to provide toys to underprivileged children in the Chicago area. 

Many who receive the Walter Payton Award claim it is the greatest achievement a player can get.  (Arizona Cardinals Wide Receiver can be seen crying for receiving the Award in 2016)

Odd fact: When Cutch first started playimg for the Pirates he would be often miscast as Larry Fitzgerald who was a standout at University of Pittsburgh.  The two have become friends over the years.

Cutch received the Baseball Equivalent to it in 2015 when he got the Roberto Clemente Award.

The Andrew McCutchen black card I chose to showcase today is a 2014 Bowman Black Parallel.

The design of the card looks great, but the back is the reason I chose this card to discuss a football player today.

In the up close section you will see that Cutch is a fan of professional football.