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? 

You Got Wash?

My girlfriend Danielle lost a significant member of her family yesterday as her grandmother passed away suddenly from complications with pneumonia and congestive heart failure.

Over the course of the summer her grandparents took us in while we battled the housing market trying to get a house we could call our own home.  

It wasn't easy as we had boxed up our entire lives into a pair of closets and a storage unit, but those few months gave us time to save up for this new house.  We worked hard to get there and are really excited for our new place.

Of course Danielle has many more memories of her grandmother than I will ever have because her grandparents practically help raise her after her parents divorced.  I spent several lunches talking to her grandmother and grandfather over this summer about how they always brought Danielle everywhere they went when she was much younger.  It was fun to hear these stories of what a little trouble maker she was especially with her cousin.

Gram had life down to a series of repetitions that made it easy for her to still do everything for herself and others in her late 80s.  She also had a series of phrases that her sweet caring voice echoed practically daily.

"Help yourself"

That was a phrase I heard six days a week before I left for work.  She would be watching TV, pause it to say goodbye to me and point from her same spot on the couch towards the garage area where she housed snacks and sodas.  There were always tiny bags of chips and a soda ready for me to take on the long hour and half commute before work each day.  Every day I was blessed with the care of a snack for the long road ahead.

I began working 3rd shifts this year for less aggravation at work so when it was 8am and she spotted me in the kitchen she would let out the tiniest little startled gasp "oh. What are you doing up? Don't you have to go to sleep soon?"  This also was almost a daily occurrence.  I would repeat to her the same thing every time. "I'm normally up until about 10 Gram, then I go to sleep. Do you need anything?" "Oh no no. I'm good".  

It wasn't one no.

It was two. 

She wanted me to be very much aware that she didn't need any help and not to disrupt her routine.

But my favorite nearly daily occurrence was the phrase "You got wash?"  I'll be the first to admit it, we got spoiled living there.  You see Gram liked to still be active around the house and that meant keeping a very clean organized house.  The washer and dryer were used daily.  I usually let it build up for a few days then do laundry.  Not Gram though.  She wanted laundry done every 24 hours it seemed.  48 or 72 hours?  That got her itchy to throw something of mine in the washer.  When I would attempt to do it myself she would say, just leave it to which I would reply "I can do it."  This was usually followed by her sense of sarcasm by saying "No no. The machine does all the work. Go go."  

Again, not one.

TWO nos

Stubborn and convincing

Caring and optimistic.

That was Gram.

Typing these words is incredibly hard as I know these memories that I have from briefly living there are just that now; Memories.

I will miss the simple routine she laid out for each day.  After a half mini Portuguese roll it was time to make the bed and watch the news.  I can't believe she's gone so suddenly.

I am blessed to have shared some of these moments with her and I am happy that we got a chance to show her our new house on Christmas Eve before we started moving things over.  She kept telling Danielle and myself "you guys are going to be really happy here" and proclaimed over and over how happy she was about us getting a home that checked off all the boxes for what we wanted in our first home together. 

I'm happy that we got to have Christmas dinner together and share in some laughs and fun times even though we couldn't save the green bean casserole from being an absolute disaster of a dish.

Most importantly I'm happy for the way she helped raise Danielle into being such an amazing and awesome companion that I get to go on this life journey with.  

We will miss you Gram.

I contemplated not showing any cards in this post and was typing up this testament to her just to keep my mind full of all these good memories, but my dad came over today to help paint some interior trim for us and I have to say, even if you aren't religious, God most definitely works in ways that just seem to show HIS presence.

After we closed on the house I said to myself that I wanted to treat myself to a key card for my collection and I had one eBay purchase shipped to my dad's house.  I did this because I wasn't sure if we would finally be moved in or not yet.  When he handed me the bubble mailer it came in and said "you got a package sent to my place yesterday" I had to chuckle when I opened it knowing what was inside.

Of course the first day of Gram being gone I get a package in the mail containing a 1/1 Andrew McCutchen Laundry Tag booklet card.

Yes Gram, I have wash. 

Another Runner Up Performance

Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.  

Isn't that the saying?

I'm not sure if that could be related to Cy Young Awards, but Gerrit Cole has to start feeling like that at this point in his career.

Despite leading the American League in Wins in 2021, it was announced Wednesday night that Gerrit finished second in the Cy Young voting.  

I believe that the "sticky stuff" conversations hurt Gerrit's chances of capturing his first Cy Young award. 

Since 2015 Gerrit has finished in 5th place (2018), 4th place (2015 and 2020) and 2nd place (2019 and 2021).

The 2015 Pittsburgh Pirates were one of my favorite teams to watch and sadly failed to win a single postseason game (eliminated in the Wild Card game).  They had a starting rotation of Gerrit Cole, Charlie Morton, AJ Burnett, and a resurgent Francisco Liriano.  They also had top pitching prospects like Tyler Glasnow, Jameson Taillon, Clay Holmes, and Nick Kingham in the minors.  That pitching staff could have become legendary if they reached their ceiling of talent and stayed healthy together.

I really missed that 98 win team and the way the management tore down the position player core within a year and the entire starting rotation in 2015 was gone within 3 years.

One of the most famous pitchers to have an incredible career, but never win a Cy Young award is Nolan Ryan.

Through their Age 30 seasons here is a comparison of Cole vs Ryan

Cole

117 Wins

3.20 ERA

1,449 Innings Pitched

1,673 Strikeouts (10.39K/9)

1.12 WHIP

5 top 5 Cy Young Finishes

4 All Star Games

Ryan

141 Wins

3.06 ERA

2,234 Innings Pitched

2,426 Strikeouts (9.77 K/9)

1.31 WHIP

3 top 5 Cy Young Finishes

4 All Star Games

The all time strikeout king had only SIX top 5 finishes for the Cy Young Award.  His career 4.7BB/9 may be a reason why.  He was always giving up free passes. For comparison sake yet again, Gerrit Cole's BB/9 is only 2.3BB/9 (twice as good as Nolan Ryan).

Do you think Gerrit will eventually win a Cy Young Award in his career?

Do you think Gerrit Cole's career will be tarnished by the spider tack allegations that occurred this past season?

1,178 Home Runs!!!!

I have been so extremely busy preparing for our closing date of moving into our new house.  

It has been an absolute roller coaster of emotions.  From the fun moments of looking at houses to putting in offers and the anticipating of knowing if the offer would be accepted to all other things this process has been extremely stressful and taxing mentally and physically.  Hopefully we will have everything finalized early in December and I can show off the new Cutch Cave early next year.

About 2 months ago I showed off a box of relics that I never logged or showed off.  I haven't had much time to go through all my boxes still as I prepare for the move, but did come across this nice card from 2015 Topps Museum.

What a beauty of a card!

The Cutch and Josh Donaldson patches are really nice!  I love the tiny sliver of silver from the Stanton patch too.

It's unfortunate that the Trout relic is just a boring grey jersey relic.  

Fun fact, this card has 1,178 career Home Runs between the 4 players featured on it.

Giancarlo Stanton leads the pack with 347 career homers.  He hit 35 last year leading the four featured players in 2021.  He won the NL MVP in 2017 and finished second in 2014.

Mike Trout has the second most career round trippers, but hit only 8 last year due to injuries.  He has 9 seasons of top 5 MVP votes.  He has played only 9 full seasons in the majors, winning the award three times.  He is this generation's greatest ball player.

Cutch has 270 career homers and hit the second most in the 2021 season among the four with 27. He has finished in the top 5 MVP votes in 4 consecutive seasons (2012-2015), winning it in 2013.

Josh Donaldson has 251 home runs and hit 26 in 2021.  He was the AL MVP for the 2015 season and has finished in the top 5 three times. 

Overall these are extremely impressive numbers for the four players featured on the card.  

How many of these guys do you think will be immortalized in the Hall of Fame one day? 

Happy Birthday Ms. CollectingCutch

My girlfriend and I have birthdays the same week.  Theyre seperated by a few years, but we typically celebrate our joint birthdays on the 3rd.

Her birthday is today.  We both have to work overtime and won't be able to do anything tonight.

My birthday is Saturday so it's more likely we do something over the weekend to celebrate.

Since she was born in 85, here are some 1985 inspired Topps (and 1 Donruss) designs.

2020 1985 Jersey Relic (prime patch) red parallel numbered to 25 copies

2020 Topps 1985 Jersey Relic (pinstripe)  black parallel numbered to 199 copies.

2020 Topps 1985 gold parallel numbered to 50 copies

2020 Topps 1985 design

This came courtesy of AJ from The Lost Collector

2013 Topps Archives (1985 design) Base, Gold Foil /199, Day Glow Orange parallel

2019 Donruss 1985 Relic

It is strange that Panini produced a card of Cutch in 2019 from his Pittsburgh days, but I'll take it.

That's all I have in terms of 1985 inspired designs sans one pink card I will be showing off next month...

Happy Birthday Ms. CollectingCutch

So, you're a Trade-er?

Today is the trade deadline so I thought it would be appropriate to discuss one of the more surprising trades that has happened.  The Scherzer/Turner to LA is a topic for another day, but I really want to discuss Anthony Rizzo, long time face of the Cubs and the player who owns the ball which ended the 100+ year World Series drought has been traded to the New York Yankees.  This came just one day after Joey Gallo was traded to the Yankees.  Rizzo has the face and personality to win over New York Yankees fans immediately, but I am sad to see him leave Chicago.  I know he was drafted by the Red Sox and played briefly as a rookie for the Padres, but I will always associate Rizzo with the Cubs and their complete rebuild which ultimately lead to a championship.  Rizzo was the Cubs, through and through.  

I've shown off some of my Cutch and Rizzo cards in the past including the one in today's post.

One of my favorite booklet cards I own is a quad patch card of Nolan Arenado, Anthony Rizzo, Andrew McCutchen, and Giancarlo Stanton.  

It's an impressive piece of oversized cardboard, containing massive chunky jersey cards from

Nolan Arenado

3xTop5 NL MVP

6x All Star

4x Silver Slugger

8x Gold Glove

43.1 WAR (career)

⚾ ⚾ ⚾ ⚾

Anthony Rizzo

1x World Series Champion (2016)

2x Top 5MVP

3x All Star

1x Silver Slugger

3x Gold Glove

36.6 WAR (career)

⚾ ⚾ ⚾ ⚾

Andrew McCutchen

2013 NL MVP (4xTop5 MVP)

5xAll Star

4xSilver Slugger

1xGold Glove

46.1 WAR (career)

⚾ ⚾ ⚾ ⚾

Giancarlo Stanton

2017 NL MVP (2x Top 5)

4x All Star

2x Silver Slugger

42.1 WAR (career)

All players on this card have been traded since they signed their contract extensions.

3 of these players have been traded to the Yankees (McCutchen, Rizzo, Stanton).

All four players signed contract extensions for 6-10+ years with the teams depicted on this massive booklet.  

Many fans of these franchises were hoping these players would all finish their careers with the Rockies, Cubs, Pirates, and Marlins respectively.

It seems that 1 team franchise players will long be a thing of the past.  The days of Cal Ripken Jr, Derek Jeter, Chipper Jones, and Todd Helton type players appear to be gone.  I love the extensions given to Tatis and Acuna, but feel they will one day be traded as well.  

What active player do you think has a chance at staying with one franchise for his entire career?  Can you see Clayton Kershaw or Jacob Degrom pitching for another team?  Will Freddie Freeman test free agency next year and sign with another team? 

Buck buck buck

It's been a long time since I showed off a chicken themed post.  I got another amazing card for what the chicken says (only a) "buck"

The card you see below was won for only $1.

A single buck!

With shipping, it cost only $5.

5 bucks!!!!

For a card limited to only 5 copies???!!!

Granted it's Panini so it's not officially licensed with team logos, but the image used makes it difficult to even realize it's missing the Phillies logo on the helmet.

Did I mention it was limited to only 5 copies and is numbered 5/5?

Um, yes please!!!

The Pirates jersey patch pictured with McCutchen is guaranteed to be game used, which you don't see often with Panini's football releases.  

Have you picked up any card card steal of a deal lately? If so, what have you gotten?

FLAWLESS VICTORY!!!!

You may recall that I ran a contest and had a blog post with this exact title just over two years ago. 

Well after watching the 2021 Mortal Kombat film on HBO Max last night, it's time to bring back the Flawless Victory!!!

Here are some of my favorite Panini Flawless cards in my collection

Team USA is represented from Cutch's 18U days.  These Flawless cards feature either on card signatures or actual gems (diamond, ruby, sapphire) inside.

Another pair of on card signatures, both limited to under 10 copies

A nice patch and on card autograph from his Pirates days

How about that sleeve patch of the Jolly Roger?!!!!

And these team up????

Starling and Cutch made for one of the best offensive/defensive outfields in baseball from 2012-2015.

No spoilers on the movie here, but the fact it was an R rated film really made this Mortal Kombat movie 10x better than the others.  I loved the introduction of so many familar Mortal Kombat faces.  

The battle of Scorpion and Sub Zero is epic.

Sonya Blade is a badass and hot!!!

Kano is a d**kbag just as you would expect.

The whole movie was great. It was a perfect video game movie.  There, I said it!

Did you ever play Mortal Kombat?  What were some of your favorite characters to play as?

Prime Phillies Patch

Yup, I've added another Phillies patch card to my ever expanding Andrew McCutchen collection.  This particular card is from 2020 Topps Update and is numbered to only 25 copies.

It comes courtesy of @WillsCollection on Twitter

Will also included 3 other McCutchen cards as a throw in. 

Hey! Can you give me a hand?

Every now and then I pick up an item for my Cutch collection that goes beyond cardboard and I get really excited about it.  I've shown off some pretty cool items in the past which I may go into a recap post in the future, but below is an item that is a first for me.

Above is my first pair of game used batting gloves.  They were both autographed by Andrew McCutchen and both have a game used inscription by Cutch.

They come certified by Hunt's Auctions.

Best of all though you can see Cutch wearing this style batting glove on a variety of his Phillies cards from 2019 to 2021.

2021 Topps 70 Years of Topps 1955 design insert

2020 Topps Fire green parallel

2019 Topps Heritage Throwback Uniform 5x7

2020 Topps Big League blue parallel

2020 Topps Series 2 Independance Day parallel

2020 Topps 1985 Patch relic red border

2020 Topps Museum

2019 Topps Tek purple

2020 Topps Triple Threads "Getting Started" gold triple relic parallel

How would you display an item like this? Shadowbox? Frame?

Both showing the signed side or one side,showing the game use? Should I put some 5x7s inside it? 

Give me your thoughts...

Wear That Green!!!

It's St Patrick's Day!

Today I'm going to just stick with showing off some green cards.

2020 Absolute Baseball Sweet Spot green stitches Auto /5

2018 Transcendent Vertical Frame green parallel Autograph /15

2017 Definitive Jumbo Patch green /15

2017 Triple Threads Wold Baseball Classic USA green parallel triple relic /18

2020 Triple Threads Jumbo jersey green parallel /18

2020 Triple Threads "Leadoff Dividends" green parallel triple relic /18

2020 Chronicles Spectra Green /75

2020 Topps Gallery green

2020 Triple Threads green /275

2019 Prizm Forest Green /5

2020 Topps Update Chrome green /45

2021 Topps Hanger 1986 green exclusive on top