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?
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.
I noticed that I have been showing off a lot of Phillies cards recently. That makes sense because his current team plays in Philadelphia. I think I'm not alone in saying this, but I will always remember him for his Pirates days and for making the Pittsburgh Pirates relevant again.
From 2013-2015, the Pirates had the 2nd best record in all of baseball. Unfortunately the St. Louis Cardinals had the best record in those 486 games and the Pirates were forced to host the one and done Wild Card Game for three consecutive years, winning it in 2013 and losing in 2014 and 2015.
3 seasons.
3 total playoff victories.
3 elimination game losses
2015 was the last year the Pirates would reach the post season.
Just before the 2015 All Star Game, the Pirates walked off the Cardinals to prove they would remain relevant through the season.
This year is a shortened season, but the Pirates have a good shot at staying competitive if their pitching can hold up.
I suspect that in the 60 game season they may only get 20-25 wins though.
It feels like forever since 2015 happened and I was looking at my 2015 cards the other day because of this pair of 1/1 Archives Active Player Signature buyback autograph.
They look very similar and both don a 1/1 stamp on them. The card on the left is a Refractor and the card on right is the base. The original card was a 2015 Bowman Best. I like the design of this set with the bold team logo in the background.
All week long I am going to be showing my Bowman Best 1 of 1s.
This week's posts will be all about the Karate Kid and that amazing theme song. I always associate the Karate Kid as a summer movie. I remember when I was younger my mom would baby sit my cousins the last week in July and we would always have to take them to their karate lessons. After their lessons we would eat macncheese and watch Karate Kid, 3 Ninjas, or TMNT. I never learned karate myself, but for some reason always get nostalgic about karate movies in the summer.
To tie in my sudden memories and nostalgia, I wanted to spotlight a song that to this day I listen to at least once a month at work because it gets me amped up.
I'm kind of in a collecting funk lately because nothing new is exciting to me, but I have what many consider the best Andrew McCutchen collection on the web. Why not show off a bunch of Bowman Best cards I haven't looked at for awhile?
Orange parallels make for interesting looking cards.
The black parallel numbered 1/1 would be my top choice, but I liked this 2019 Inception orange parallel numbered to 10 copies enough to pick it up last year.
This is 1 of about 40+ autographs of Cutch that I haven't catalogued or shown off yet. Yup, you read that correctly.
I am considering making a YouTube collection channel to show off because I think it would be easier to say words and show cards under a light instead of scanning and typing. Would you follow me on YouTube to view my collection?
Day 3 of the 2020 SP Cutch Frenzy Challenge delivered an awesome card for the Cutch collection that I didn't already have. It was an immaculate haul and helped offset some of the prices I overpaid for the two 2020 parallels (vintage and fathers day blue) due to the relatively new release.
If you aren't familar with my 2020 SP Frenzy Challenge I took the funds available that could have been spent on buying the 2020 SP Cutch "swag" photo variant and instead used it to buy items I needed for my Cutch collection. The real challenge was I could only buy cards at the height of the SP Frenzy when they were going for $200-$300 regularly. This all occurred between the evening of June 27th to the morning of June 30th. Roughly 48 hours was the stretch of this card going for on average $250.
I was able to knock out 1 card on my top 10 list during that time and also was able to add an on card autograph too. These are both pretty sweet adds to the collection if you asked me.
I had the 1/1 version of the autograph you're going to see below, but being able to add another on card autograph with a print run of ONLY 5 COPIES to the collection seemed like a good move.
People can hate on Panini for not having logos, but when they choose images like this, it's not as noticeable as other images they choose to use. The piping is still noticable on the pants for the team colors and the helmet is turned at a way that you can't tell the "P" is missing.
The card was purchased through an eBay auction via Seven Out Cards & Collectibles
It came shipped incredibly well and I highly recommend them for any future auctions they have.
The card ran me $38.25 delivered.
This brings the totals for the SP Frenzy Challenge to $83.14
That may sound like a lot of money (and it is), but that is still only ONE THIRD the price the 2020 SP Cutch card was getting at the height of the frenzy. I still had over $160 to play with for getting cards I need during the SP Frenzy Challenge. I'm still waiting on my COMC order (obviously) and about a dozen other eBay purchases to roll in.
I got quite a few packages in the mail yesterday, but unfortunately I am going to interrupt the Cutch SP Frenzy Challenge to show off one of the coolest On Card Autograph Patches I have in my collection.
It's America's Birthday so let's celebrate!
That is a 2019 Topps Tier 1 Prodigious Patches on card autograph of Cutch.
It is numbered to only 5 copies.
It features a game worn patch from the 4th of July game between the Giants and Rockies in 2018.
The Rockies and Giants were having a pitching duel and Rockies pitchers held the Giants to only 2 hits through 8 innings and only 2 walks during that time as well (one was McCutchen). With the Rox winning 1-0 and with two outs in the top of the 9th up stepped McCutchen to rope a single and keep the game alive for Giants fans.
Buster Posey then walked advancing Cutch to second base (I couldn't find any images of Posey's 9th inning at bat on Getty Images)
Ultimately Brandon Belt lined out to right field ending the game and pushing the Giants and Rockies into a virtual tie for second place in the division on the main summer holiday.
I have a few other jersey patches that show off pieces of this jersey, but this one is by far the biggest of them. I like that you can see the grey away jersey along with the massive patch of Americana.
What kind of cards do you have in your collection that celebrate America's Birthday?
Any USA Cards, cards with 4th of July uniforms, any cards with big American Flags on them? Show them off and leave a link to it in the comment section below.
Today's black card for my Black History Month posts is this 2019 Gold Label black parallel frame autograph.
I have a few other of the parallels including base, red, and blue.
It's Presidents Weekend so I thought I would connect this card to a name similar to a former president.
John Kennedy, not the president, was the Phillies first black baseball player.
He appeared in only 5 games in his career and received only 2 At Bats. He was primarily used as a pinch runner or shortstop defensive replacement in the 1957 season. He didn't get a hit and scored only 1 run.
More of Kennedy's displacement in the Phillies organization can be found here.
The Phillies were one of the last three organizations to have a black baseball player on their team. MLB put out an article in 2017 about the number of black players on each team. That article can be,seen here. It's sad that so few black athletes are playing baseball these days.
In the 80s/90s they were plentiful with names like Gwynn, Henderson, Jackson, Griffey, Thomas, Sheffield, and Bonds.
Millions and millions of Americans will celebrate Memorial Day today.
Sadly, the true meaning of the National holiday has been forgotten and it has unofficially become the start of the summer. For me it means relaxing by a pool or the shore and/or watching a baseball game while drinking beers and grilling some hotdogs and burgers.
Here are a pair of 2018 Flawless National Team USA cards I have. Cutch didn't receive the Ruby parallel. He is only listed for the Gold and Blue as seen in the picture above along with a black (never seen it available)
The back discusses how Cutch lead Team USA 18 under squad with the most walks and scored the second most runs for the team. These traits remain active as he leads all National League players in walks, hits, and runs scored since his 2009 MLB debut.
Well...those damn D'Backs beat the heck out of the Bucs again yesterday. Thankfully we won't have to see them again until 2020 as the Pirates were 1-6 against them this year and got swept by them last year in Pittsburgh.
Moving on......
To formally kick off Serial History, I am going to look at an older Andrew McCutchen on card autograph from 2011 Triple Threads. There are multiple parallels of this card to track down including the base/99, sepia/75, emerald/50, sapphire/10, wood/1, and ruby/1.
Sadly the only copy I have is this Gold version numbered 19/25.
I will be looking at the 1925 Pittsburgh Pirates team in this segment of Serial History.
The Pirates won the World Series in 1925. It was their second World Series title, the other being from 1909. Three more titles would follow in 1960, 1971, and 1979.
The 1925 Pirates had 3 future Hall of Famers on their team: Kiki Cuyler, Pie Traynor, and Max Carey.
Some highlights of the World Series Champions that occurred during the season can be described below.
Hall of Famer, Kiki Cuyler lead the league in triples (26), times on base (291) and runs scored (144). (Sadly I don't have a single card of Kiki)
This cut auto easily pushes Glenn to be my starting shortstop on my All Autograph Pirates team. Sorry Jay Bell.
In addition to having a Glenn Wright cut auto, I also have autographs of the following:
Hall of Famer, Max Carey
Max Carey was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 1961 by the Veterans Committee. He was a ten time National League stolen base champion and is 9th All-Time with 738 career stolen bases. He finished his career with 2,047 singles (47th all time). He had 290 career sacrifice hits showing his ability to help his team win games selflessly. That remains 13th best all time. Despite playing fewer games in left field than center field throughout his career, he still holds the 8th most double plays turned as a left fielder with 30. As a Centerfielder he appears in the top 20 All-Time for a number of defensive stats including assists (4th most 221 total), putouts (14th most with 4,589), and double plays (4th most with 58).
Hall of Famer, Pie Traynor has been on my want list for an autograph for awhile and I was able to add his 1933 Goudey card and a cut auto just about a month ago.
He is the team's greatest third baseman in the history of the Pirates. The Pirates retired numbered 20 in honor of Pie.
He finished his career with 2,416 hits and a .320 batting average while amassing 1,273 RBI over 1900 career games at the hot corner. He was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1948 on his 5th year on the ballot.
Babe Adams may not be a Hall of Famer, but he is one of the greatest Pirates pitchers in their long history. He holds the team record for wins by a right hander (194), shutouts (47), and lowest walk rate 1 walk per 14+ innings pitched.
One of his most memorable moments was pitching all 21 innings of a pitching dual in 1914. He didn't allow a walk in all 21 innings.
I have a ridiculous amount of Andrew McCutchen baseball cards. Sometimes I get writer's block and can't think of things to write about regarding a one time perennial MVP candidate who is having declining years ahead of him.
However....
I discovered something while looking at this incredible on card autograph of Cutch from 2019 Inception.
Not only is it just one of a handful of Cutch autographs featured in a short lived Yankees uniform, but it is very low numbered.
The serial number on this card is 6/10.
Anyone who knows anything about Yankees baseball knows the Yankees have retired numbers 1-10 from being worn in the future.
Number 6 was worn by Hall of Fame manager, Joe Torre
Torre famously managed the Yankees for a decade and won the World Series four times in that period. He collected 2,342 hits as a player for the Braves, Cardinals, and Mets.
Torre is a baseball lifer having worked in many aspects of the business. As a player he is often forgotten for having a great career. A 9 time All-Star, Torre won the National League MVP, batting title, and RBI crown in 1971. In addition to those accomplishments he won a gold glove in 1965.
Number 10 was worn by Hall of Famer, Phil Rizzuto.
Prior to the outcry of Harold Baines being the worse player inducted into the Hall of Fame, many felt Phil Rizzuto was the worse.
His career WAR was just over 40 wins above replacement which is 4 wins less than Troy Tulowitzki. He missed three of his prime years due to service in the Navy, but finished with only a .706 career OPS.
SEVEN ZERO SIX!!!
Still with an MVP, 6 All-Star appearances, and 7 World Championships he is a legendary Yankee. Prior to Derek Jeter, he was often considered the greatest Yankees shortstop of all-time despite amassing less than 1,600 career hits.
My only memory of Phil Rizzuto comes from the movie Billy Madison when Adam Sandler's titular character can't write Rizzuto in cursive.
This idea of looking at serial numbers for inspiration is something I will be doing at least once a month going forward. It will be a segment I call Serial History where I look at the serial numbers and discuss them.
A 2015 card of Cutch in a Pirates uniform may be numbered 19/25 so I may look at the Pirates team from the year 1925 or I may look at how many winning seasons the Pirates had since 1925 or maybe the Pirates players who wore 19 and 25 or maybe what pop culture things were happening in 1925 and how relevant was that to 2015.
The possibilities with over 1,500 serially numbered cards of Cutch are almost endless regarding what I can come up with.
2019 Inception just came out about two weeks ago and I joined a couple of player breaks and team breaks. Boomo99 has provided me with entertaining group breaks in the past.
He delivered for me again, hitting an on card autograph numbered to only 20 copies. He pulled this from the first case of a 4 case player break which was 11 minutes into the break.
I joined a few other group breaks held by other breakers for the Pirates because I wanted to get some Nick Burdi autographs. Unfortunately I didn't get any huge hits, netting just a pair of Kevin Newman green parallels and a single each for Newman, Kramer, and Burdi base.
My attention span isn't very good. I tend to lose focus fairly quickly. It happens in all forms of entertainment. I tend to lose focus with TV shows after a few seasons. The same can be said for books. On the rare occasion I do read a book cover to cover (and it isn't a comic book graphic novel), it usually involves an athlete I loved to learn about.
Below you can see the latest book(let) I read cover to cover. There wasn't much to read, but it definitely grabbed my attention from the moment I opened the cover.
An on card autograph in big blue bold pen complete with a jumbo camo swatch from a Pirates Thursday alternate uniform.
Yeah, I am interested.
It's true what they say. You can't judge a book by it's cover.
As a reminder, I will be showing more of my Pirates (and "Pittsburgh baseball club") cards that I have neglected to highlight on this blog.
