The New High Five?

The world today is radically different than it was a few months ago due to COVID-19.

I'm curious if the social distancing will continue after things settle down and life begins to get back to normal with businesses opening back up.

If so, will we ever see forearm bashes again?

High Fives again?

Today is National High Five Day and I miss the social interactions.

A New Top 10 Card in the Collection

I haven't bought a lot of cards from Twitter, but the ones I have are all quite impressive.

They are all 1 of 1s.

I have had this card in my possession for nearly 2 months waiting to show it off on the blog today, Jackie Robinson Day.

That is the patch worn by Andrew McCutchen on Jackie Robinson Day April 15, 2018.

The card also features an on card autograph.

And it features the MLB Authentication sticker to verify it is game used.

My only gripe with the card is the picture used is not from that game the patch was worn.

Topps already paid Getty Images for the rights to the picture below because it was used on the 2019 Topps Gypsy Queen photo variant.

Here is the photo variant front

I know we all get on Topps for recycling the same images, but a nice cropped shot like this would have really brought the card together more.

Or personally I think this image would have been even better

Despite the mismatched photo to relic I am still incredibly happy to add this to my collection. It has landed itself into the top 10 cards of my collection and is only my 3rd Twitter purchase.

My 1st Twitter purchase was a 1/1 bat barrel nameplate from 2019 Topps Museum that featured Cutch in his new Phillies uniform.

My 2nd Twitter purchase was literally a white whale purchase.

This 2011 Topps Triple Threads printing plate autograph/relic card is marked as a white whale on the back.

This is my 3rd Twitter purchase and I still can't believe I was able to get it.

Thanks again to RBICRU7 for posting the card and for @mycards79 for selling it.


Do you use Twitter to buy cards?

Be sure to follow me on Twitter @CollectingCutch

This Day In Cutchstory, Cutch's Only 2019 Triple

Something I have been obsessing over is the research of matching an image used for a Topps product to an actual at bat.

The 2019 Heritage High Numbers action variant is from a game played April 14, 2019 where the Phillies beat the Marlins in a 3-1 contest in 14 innings.

Highlights of the game can be seen in the video below.  Head to 3:50 mark to see the (slightly foul) absolute bomb that Cutch hit off Wei-Yin Chen.

You can see the image used for the card directly from the Getty Images screenshot above, but the near homerun shot would have been a cooler "action shot" mainly for the fan jumping up precelebrating.

Despite just missing the go ahead homer, in typical Cutch form he put everything he had in to the next pitch to leg out a triple to give his team a chance to take the lead.  Fortunately Jean Segura hit a homer that put the Phillies up 3-1 and improved their record to 9-5 on the very young season.



Which of the three images below do you think would have been better for an action variant?

Do you ever research the images on Topps cards?

Cutch 22 Pickup

My latest Cutch22 card came in the mail over the weekend and I absolutely LOVE this card.

Between watching multiple seasons of Community, updating my Cutch PC, and ripping open half a box of 2019 X-Files: UFOs and Aliens I have been taking things very easy and lazy.

Despite adding nearly 70 new autographs to my collection and updated on my spreadsheet, I am really enjoying these  Cutch22 cards (cards numbered 22/xx).  With Cutch appearing in less and less products these days I will continue to focus on adding these serial number cards to the collection.

Hoppy Easter

 Hoppy Easter!!!

I mean Happy Easter

Let's Draw A Picture

A lot can be made for early season predictions.

Many times fans and writers predict how they think the season will go and while often close to the truth, very few people can completely nail a prediction over the course of a 162 game season and month long postseason that could last an additional 20 games for a team depending on how challenging the series are they face (Wild Card, LDS, LCS, WS)

This article discusses how despite making a huge off-season acquisition of Bryce Harper prior to the start of the 2019, that it was Andrew McCutchen who would be the most important part of the Phillies success in 2019.

That article written proved to be a very accurate statement as the Phillies had the SECOND BEST leadoff hitter in the league prior to Cutch's injury.  The Phillies were 33-26 (7 games above .500) at the time of the injury.  This is a .559 winning percentage.  Had the Phillies kept this pace they would have finished with roughly 91 wins which would have given them a Wildcard Berth in the postseason.

After Cutch's injury, well they had the second worse leadoff stats in baseball and unfortunately the Phillies finished 81-81, giving the Phillies eight seasons without a winning record.

We currently have no live baseball to watch and are forced to draw our own predictions about what kind of baseball season we may see in 2020.

There's talks of a shortened season, an Arizona season, no season, Grapefruit League vs Cactus League, daily double headers, the discussions are endless.

Today's card draws (pun intended) on the idea of what ifs.

It is a 2019 Pack inserted Topps Gallery 1 of 1 sketch card drawn by Douglas Stromenger

It is my 6TH PHILLIES sketch of Cutch in my collection.



The others can be seen below

Jayson Johnson
Personal Sketch Card

Juan Rosales
2019 Topps Series 2 Artist Proof

Juan Rosales
2019 Museum Collection Artist Proof

Carlos Cabaleirro
(used to produce the base card for Cutch 2019 Topps Gallery)

Louise Draper
(Used to produce the 2019 Topps Gallery Heritage insert card)



Now let's draw our own predictions, if player safety is met to a standard agreed upon by the MLBPA and CDC...
What kind of season do you think we will see and what will the Post Season look like?

It's Showtime!

Yesterday Cutch made a video with his voiceover on MLB:The Show 2020.

I legit had to lol at his voiceovers.

You can see the video on his twitter here.

Cutch is no stranger to The Show

I personally haven't played video games for at least 5 years if not longer.  I do enjoy the older gaming systems, but don't have anything more recent than a PS3.

I have a signed copy of MLB The Show 2013 despite not having this gaming system.

I would love to find any kind of promotional materials for the game to one Day add to my collection.  Posters, magazine ads, anything featuring Cutch on MLB The Show.  If you come across anything let me know.


Additionally it was revealed that MLB will have players play a simulated season on MLB The Show.  The Pirates have Cole Tucker as their representative.  For a full list of participants and details click here.

What video game systems and games do you play currently?

How do you feel about players playing The Show as a simulated season to pass time?