Look Out Allegheny

On June 2, 2013 in the middle of the Pirates memorable season, a fan favorite cemented himself in Pirates fan's memories for many years to come.

Garrett "G.I." Jones also known as "GFJ" among fans (Garret F*ing Jones) launched a HR in the bottom of the 8th inning to tie the game up 4-4.

It was the power of the HR that fans remember though.

He was the first Pirates player to launch a ball into the Allegheny River ON THE FLY.

It took a decade for a Pirates player to do it and in the years that followed that moonshot blast only two others have accomplished such a feat (Josh Bell and Pedro Alvarez)

Garrett Jones was a favorite of mine while he was with the Pirates along with Ryan Doumit and of course Andrew McCutchen.  This card is the 1/1 Diamond Card Topps produced in their Diamond Card Giveaway promotion in 2011.

National High Five Day

Did you know there was a day dedicated to the art of high fiving?

Me neither.

While it doesn't get the Hallmark treatment of other nationally celebrated days, it is a tradition baseball fans should all celebrate.

During the summer of 1977 Dodgers slugger Dusty Baker celebrated with his teammate Glenn Burke after crushing a homerun.

Today many players have done away with the traditional high five for more show worthy celebrations.

Bryce Harper actually has a different celebration for each of his Phillies teammates.  Harper's celebration with Cutch is much different than this high five he gave him at the 2015 All-Star Game.

Hopefully Topps can release a high end card of Cutch and Harper celebrating post Home run.

I need something to take the place of this 2011 Diamond 1/1 celebration of Cutch, Ryan Doumit, and Garrett Jones.

The card is awesome, but man 2010 was terrible year for the Pirates.  Need proof? Look at the back.

105 losses!!!!
The pitcher with the most strikeouts was Paul Maholm with 102 punchouts.
I'm surprised there was anything worthy of celebration that year.

Diamond In The Rough

I was recently asked by my girlfriend what my favorite Disney movie.  It was an easy no thought answer.

Aladdin.

The story of a poor boy falling in love with a princess to become a prince, having a talking monkey for a best friend, and a magical carpet as your ride of choice?  Sign me up!

I bring this story up because today's card ties in perfectly with Aladdin.

The Diamond in the Rough

It's numbered 1/1 and features an actual diamond in the card.
While it is not technically an Andrew McCutchen, it does feature Cutch, Ryan Doumit, and Garrett Jones.

The back of the card features the Pirates team leaders of the 2010 season.  A look at their leaders will quickly show why they were granted the 1st overall pick in 2011.

The Pirates best pitcher was Paul Maholm who won 9 games, had an ERA of 5.10 and barely struck out over 100 batters.

Gypsy Queen Photo Variants

Some photo variants can sell for big bucks.  Prior to 2016, the photo variants were EXTREMELY hard to get.  The 2013 variant is by far the hardest to track down.  Often times it will sell for $50+ and has even reached near triple digits.

 The 2013 variant features Cutch celebrating with Neil Walker and Garrett Jones.

The code on the back differentiates the base from the photo variant.

The 2015 is fairly hard to find and is normally a $30+ card

Unlike the 2013 and 2016 variants, the codes match and don't have any distinguishing features on back to signify it's a variant.

Topps has been making more and more photo variants as they realize there is a market for these short prints.  The 2016 version is only a $10 card at best.  The photo used for the variant features the same image as the base Allen & Ginter.

The photo for the variant features the same fielding image used for Allen & Ginter.

The back does have a different code for the variant in 2016.

It hasn't been announced if Cutch will have a Short Print photo variant this year or not.  Early signs point to yes though.