Collecting Cutch

Friday, March 15, 2019

Season Stat Lines

One thing I have liked about the Donruss brand is their stat line parallels. They provide some really unique stats about the player while also making a limited number of foil parallels to chase. As a player collector I find this both thrilling and frustrating.

The three types of parallels to chase are:
Career, the most common of the stat line parallels. It represents a player's accomplished total in the 100+ range. Average, On Base, Slugging, are the most commonly used for position players.

Season, the second most common. This normally is something in the 20-100 range that the player accomplished. For position players it could be HR, RBI, SB.

Game, the hardest to track down. These are almost always under 10 and can reflect RBI, HR, SB, R, BB, Hits. THESE ARE TOUGH!!!

I will show off some of my other stat line parallels in the future, but was super excited when I saw this Season Statline Diamond King pop up from 2016 Donruss. I got it for about $7.

Cutch hit 23 Home Runs in 2015 when he came in 5th place for the MVP race.

Using a hitter friendly ballpark like Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia do you think he will hit the over or under on that number this year?

He has hit 20 homeruns in 8 straight seasons, a feat not accomplished by any other current active player since 2011 that isn't named Nelson Cruz or Giancarlo Stanton.

Thursday, March 14, 2019

Captain Marvel and Captain Cutch

Yesterday I treated myself to seeing Captain Marvel while the Miss was at work and I was enjoying a day off.

For those unfamiliar, Captain Marvel is the 21st movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The bulk of the movie takes place during the mid 90s (1995 to be specific). While I won't reveal any specific details or spoilers, but there is a major event in the film that takes place in 1989.

Coincidently, the film's star actress, Brie Larson, was born in the year 1989. She was perfectly cast by the way in case you haven't seen it.

Last year I spotlighted Brie when I was showing off the pink designed backs of a 1989 style insert I own of Cutch. You can revisit that post here to see Brie Larson in all her hotness.

In addition to the Chrome Superfractor 1/1 I showed off in that post with Captain Marvel's Brie Larson, I have another pretty awesome card using the 1989 design.

This 2014 Die Cut Mini has a nice patch from an away game Pirates uniform. The card is numbered to only 25 copies on the front and shows Cutch posing like a Steel City Superhero.

The back of the card features the traditional look of a 1989 Topps card. Black borders and a pink/magenta back taking up the majority of the card. The only year showing is Cutch's MVP 2013 SEASON accompanied with his career totals through his 2013 season. There is a writeup about how Cutch tried out for the varsity team as a 13 year old because the middle school he attended was so small it combined with the neighboring high school. At such a young age, Cutch became his own Captain Marvel as he was the team's starting shortstop and lead the county in hitting.

As promised I am digging deep into my collection to find some cards that I haven't shown off yet featuring Cutch in his Pirates gear.

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Hanging on

I never knew this parallel existed until I received a Neil Walker as a part of a trade last year.

Part of the reason is that Cardboard Connection makes no mention of them in their parallel guide.

These orange parallels were only available in Series 2 hanger retail packs.

Pretty happy that I was able to get this tough to find parallel.

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Gold Hidden Deep

Maybe it is the fact that I am getting older and holding onto nostalgia by saying things like "when I was a kid..." and "things used to be so much better when...", but honestly those older Bowman Chrome color parallels do a Chuck Norris dropkick to anything being produced by Bowman today.

The gold chrome on the older cards is so distinctive and gives it a sense of awe that is unparalled (pardon the pun) in today's hobby.

Sure we have Gold Waves and Flash Gold's and Gold Golds now, but remember when Gold was just Gold?

Man those were the days...

I said I was going to go deep into my Treasure Room to show off some early Andrew McCutchen cards I have that I never showed off before.

This 2004 Gold Chrome is probably as old as they are going to come unless I get a wallet sized little league photo of Cutch.

Prior to the 2005 MLB Amateur Player Draft, Bowman released a card set for some of the top 18 and Under high schoolers that may be selected in the draft.

The cards were released as a redemption only set and many went without being redeemed.

Numbered to 50

The card may say that it is numbered to 50 copies, but many believe that only 34 copies were made available as that is the number of sets publicly redeemed for the gold.

Monday, March 11, 2019

Amber is the color of your energy....

Since today is 3/11, I thought I should show off a quartet of cards that sorta reference a band I grew up listening to.

311 was a band that became very popular in the mid 90s and through the early 2000s. Their sound was an amalgam of pop, punk, reggae, and hip-hop.

Their first mainstream album, which was self titled included hits like All Mixed Up, Down, Guns (are for *******).

Continuing to take the radio waves and MTV by storm into the late 90s they went on to cover the Cure's Love Song, which is in my opinion one of the greatest cover songs by a rock band ever.

One of their most catchiest songs was a track called Amber.

It is believed that the song was written by lead singer Nick Hexum for his ex Nikki Scherzinger, who later went on to front the Pussycat Dolls.

I have four different Amber parallels of Andrew McCutchen from Triple Threads. To the best of my knowledge, Triple Threads is the only release that has a parallel called Amber.

Below you will see the amber parallels from 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013 Triple Threads.

All of the Triple Threads base cards tend to feature some cool things about the player on the back.

I still need the 2012 (/125), 2017 (/150), and 2018 (/199) if anyone comes across them and wants to trade I have some pretty cool trade bait available.

Let's wrap this up with a music video of Amber by 311.