The Artist Formerly Known As...

Today would have been Prince's birthday.  I was never a fan of his music with the lone exception being the soundtrack to the 1989 "Michael Keaton/Tim Burton" Batman.  That soundtrack was Prince's 11th studio album and is celebrating the 30th anniversary this year.

Prince is mostly remembered for Purple Rain and as such is commonly associated with the color purple.

I wanted to show off only my 22 favorite purple parallels, but I realized many of these have never appeared on this blog.

So with that being said here are (more than) my 22 favorite Cutch cards in the shade of purple.  Besides the first one I am going to show off, they are not ranked by preference.

Let's begin with the centerpiece of my Andrew McCutchen as a member of the Phillies collection.  I mentioned a few weeks ago that I preordered a /99 or less autograph from Twinsjake the day he listed this Road To Opening Day.  I received the lowest number he had.

Now for some others...

This gets some more high preference too because it is jersey numbered (22/xx).

The final Opening Day card of Cutch in a Pirates uniform (even though he actually appeared on the Giants Opening Day roster).

The patch on this card is awesome.  The fact that it has a sticker to research what game it's from is awesome.  My only problem with the card is Topps says this is a purple parallel, but it looks more blue than purple.

2015 Topps Tek was a lot of fun to collect.  I can't imagine what it must have been like collecting the original set with over 90 patterns and two different parallels.

Cutch purple parallel Toys R Us exclusive from his MVP season?  Yes, please.

Toys R Us purple exclusive parallels will surely be missed in my collection going forward.  I know that there is another retailer taking over the purple exclusives, but I don't have any Meijer near me.

Anyone else like Heritage?  I fricking love the set!

I am going to group all three of these Prizm together.  I love the Prizm color parallels.

Another Panini logoless product, but the triple parallel for batters is a pretty tough pull despite not being numbered.  The left side of the card is made of acetate, hence the Clear Vision name for this insert set.

I showed this die cut off when discussing the unique numbering of these cards by Elite.  The purple cards are all numbered to the players jersey number.

The following year, the purple diecut represented the other side to make 100 (100-jersey number) when the Inspirations Purple was changed to 78 for Andrew.

Chris from The Collector hooked me up with this purple parallel from 2017 Triple Threads.

Here is another trio of high end purple parallels.
2015 Tribute (/10!!!), 2015 Triple Threads, 2014 Triple Threads

Topps Chrome 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2015.  I am missing the 2014 Purple Chrome, but do have the Toys R Us exclusive from the Series 1 Flagship

These two are pretty neat from 2015 Bowman.  The purple ice on left is produced at only 20% of the base purple on right.

Another TRU exclusive, featuring the batting leaders for the 2014 season.  It contains all former Pirates.  Just a personal opinion, but how nice are purple parallels featuring Rockies players?

A trio of Bowman Chrome with decreasing print run numbers.


Let's finish with a bang!

Not that kind of bang.  I'm talking about the kind that leads to parties.

As in Transcendent parties with Topps.  The highest priced box of all time for baseball can get you a chance at a purple Transcendent frame auto.  Every box granted the purchaser an invitation to attend the Topps Transcendent party with past special guests being Mike Trout, Kris Bryant, Hank Aaron, and Shohei Otaku.

Now that's a party, man (Prince pun intended)

Other Players I Would Collect

So news is out there that Cutch is out for the season with a torn ACL.  I think as a fan of his and baseball in general this is worse than when he was traded.  At least I could still watch my favorite player (albeit for another team) throughout the season.  News of him losing four months of a season and potentially a playoff run with the Phillies is crushing.

I still plan on Collecting Cutch and have some big cards coming up on the blog soon.  I don't see myself starting new PC players or stopping my collection, but I got to,thinking about some guys I would consider collecting if I was so invested in Collecting Cutch.

All my other true player collections I have are all Pittsburgh related guys.  I don't super collect them the way I do Cutch, but I do have over 80% of Charlie Morton's cards, nearly 300 Roberto Clemente cards, and over 2500 unique Andrew McCutchen cards.  I also have over 200 Gerrit Cole cards of which 70 are autographs.

So here is a list of other players I would consider starting PCs of that have ZERO Pittsburgh influence.

Up first is a guy I already have a PC of that many people don't know about.  I loved watching Reggie Miller single handily go up against the Knicks in the mid 90s.  He is my favorite player of all-time on the court.  I have just over 100 cards of his and would love to add some more.  I don't have an autograph yet so that would be the featured card I would want.

Gary Sheffield

A lot of people don't care for him too much because of his off field and media problems over the years, but I remember trying to be a 12 year old with that batting stance.  It didn't work for me because I didn't have the strength like him to twist that bat over my head, but he has had a lot of cool cards over the years.  As a third baseman and centerfielder in Little League Sheff was a guy I really want to be like while playing baseball.

Nolan Arenado

This dude is the second best player in the game behind only Mike Trout.  Wish I had gotten more cards of him when he was cheaper.

Justin Upton

When you steal a homerun from my favorite player, you grab my attention.

Daredevil

DD is one of my favorite comic characters.  I used to have a complete run of the Frank Miller era along with the entire run of Volume 2 until it went back to it's original numbering at issue 500.  I loved the Netflix series and have toyed with the idea of buying a box of Season 1 to rip in hopes of building a base set and getting an autograph.

Injuries Suck!

So I am sure everyone heard the news by now.  Phillies star outfielder and leader, Andrew McCutchen will be out for the remainder of the 2019 season.

This sucks!  

Cutch had a legit shot at being an All-Star this year at the time of his injury he was leading the National League in walks, top 5 in runs scored, and a top 15 in On Base Percentage.  With only a third of the season in the books at the time of the injury, Cutch is hoping that he can recover and be ready for Opening Day 2020.

While the injury sucks and losing four months of the season will hurt his statistics, he remains optimistic and said he would like to remain a part of the team for as much of the season as possible.

Andrew McCutchen is one of the true professionals in the game.  Next year, uponbrecovery, he will look to add more hardware to his trophy case by going for Comeback Player Of The Year.

Injuries happen in sports.

ACL tears happen and many players have gone on to have long and great careers after such tears.  Let's take a look at some of them.

The rest of the world calls football what we call Soccer.  One of the biggest American female Soccer stars is Alex Morgan.

Morgan teamed up with Andrew McCutchen in 2017 to be Chevy's Ambassadors of youth sports.

Morgan, like McCutchen tore an ACL in high school and went on to have a very long and recognizable career, winning the Women's World Cup in 2011.

I purchased this Alex Morgan autograph last year as part of a contest I was thinking about running, but liked it so much I never put it up as a prize.



Tom Brady
Known as American Football to the rest of the world, we just call it football.  And while some many argue if he is actually the G.O.A.T. no one can deny that Tom Brady knows how to win and puts up great numbers year after year after year.  Since tearing his ACL and MCL in the first quarter of the first game of the 2008 season Tom Brady has emerged in discussions for being one of the greatest football players of all time.

Rob Gronkowki
Brady's teammate is no stranger to ACL tears as he has also gone on to produce a Hall of Fame career even after tearing an ACL in 2014.

Adrian Peterson
Eight months after tearing his ACL, "AP" went on to fall just 9 yards short of the single season rushing record.

Kyle Schwarber
Kyle tore his ACL on the third game of the 2016 season and would miss the entire regular season.  During October of that year, Schwarber returned in the Post Season and helped the Cubs win their first World Series in over 100 years.  Schwarber even had a stolen base in the contest.

Mariano Rivera
After toying with the idea of retiring following the 2012 season, Mariano tore his ACL shagging fly balls on the outfield early in the 2012 season.  He told the media that he wasn't going out like that and that he would return for the 2013 season.  During his final season, the 43 year old closer became an All-Star yet again.  He became the first unanimous Hall of Famer.


Can anyone think of other star athletes who went on to have great careers and moments after tearing an ACL?

CARDBOARD Gifts From Gavin (Baseball Card Breakdown)

I had to use the word cardboard in this title to see if I can get some more views.

Gavin of Baseball Card Breakdown sent me a trade package for some 12/25 cards I sent him.

Among them are a pair of Andrew McCutchen cards I needed for the PC.

A pair of Jack Wilson, the most underappreciated defensive shortstop of the 2000s, along with a purple Adam Frazier purple Chronicles parallel and a card of the Mayor, Sean Casey.

And to wrap things up a sweet purple parallel of Mitch Keller, Kevin Newman, and Austin Meadows.

It's Draft Day

The NFL draft is by far the best draft for any of the four sports.  The reasons are pretty simple to understand.

-College Football is insanely popular and potential draftees must spend a minimum amount of years at college before they can be drafted.  That gives the average sports fan more time to learn about the upcoming draft class.

-The draftees audition at a combine that is nationally televised which gives (again) the average sports fan more of a window and rooting interest for those that can be drafted.

-The draft itself is an event filled with block parties, live music, celebrity cameos, and fan interaction.

-With each pick there is suspense that the potential pick could pick traded to another team.  All other sports allow this with the,exception of baseball.

-Once drafted the players have a strong chance to be immediately impacting that upcoming season's games.

I know MLB is trying to make the draft more entertaining to fans, but until the top talent has the opportunity to play in front of it's fans sooner, the fans have opportunity to see the players get drafted, and the scouting of future players is more approachable to fans (more College baseball on television) I just don't see the MLB draft progressing to the levels of the NFL or even NBA.

I began rooting for the Pirates and baseball in general back in 2005 in large part because of Jason Bay, Ryan Doumit, and wanting to see what this high school kid from Florida, Andrew McCutchen, could do.

Above are All my 2005 Topps Update Draft cards of Cutch.  As you can tell I have 15 base and 4 gold.  I would love to add more, but am in no rush as the price has to be right.

By Cutch's debut, Jason Bay was traded.
Ryan Doumit was nearing the end of his club control and many of the other players I rooted for over the past four years were already gone.

The signed 8x10 photo you see above is from Cutch just after he signed with the Pirates.  He was only 18 in the photo.

Cutch and His Amazing Phriends

I am so excited for the new Spider-Man movie coming out next month.  Because I used to collect comic books and the original art used to produce them, I have started buying singles from those mid 90s Fleer (Metal, Flair, Masterpieces) cards of characters I grew up loving.  Daredevil, Gambit, Iron Man, Venom, Wolverine, and Ghost Rider were some of my favorites.

Over the years Spider-Man has become one of my favorites too, but it is mostly because of his villains.  I have gravitated towards liking Spider-Man in my adulthood because of the villains he faces off against and has to overcome all having rivalry with both Peter Parker and Spider-Man.  That to me is a fascinating story and one that I am really enjoying more than just the visuals of a guy with his head on fire (Ghost Rider) or a dude who essentially throws playing cards like they're bombs (Gambit).

I am learning to enjoy the characterization of these fictional characters more than ever before and the characters that Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, John Romita, John Romita Jr, Todd McFarlane, Jack Kirby, etc all created are becoming fascinating to me.

I bring this up because of the Pirates and Reds rivalry that is getting a bit out of hand this year and has been ongoing since the 70s.  When Cutch was in his prime 2012 to 2015, the Reds were also very good.  I hated the back and forth bean balls between the teams and it is shocking that no one got greatly injured because of them. 

Since those 2015 years both teams had been on the downward slope and the rivalry started to die off as the teams were rebuilding and restocking farm systems. 

The Pirates traded away Andrew McCutchen, Gerrit Cole, Charlie Morton, and Neil Walker and they let Pedro Alvarez go via wavers and AJ Burnett retired.

Meanwhile Brandon Phillips, Todd Frazier, Aroldis Chapman, Jay Bruce, Homer Bailey, and Devin Mesorroco have all changed teams.

Along the way, my favorite player has had to team up with some of these guys that once were heated rivals.

Let's take a look at some former Reds and what they are up to in the past week.

AROLDIS CHAPMAN
The guy who used to own the record for fastest pitch thrown (against Andrew McCutchen no less) was a key part of the rivalry between the Pirates and Reds between 2012-2015.  He became a teammate of Cutch last year when Cutch was traded from the Giants to the Yankees late August 2018.  He leads all American League closers in strikeouts and after early concerns about him in that role, trails only Shane Green for the American League in saves. 

I got a bunch of Yankees autographs I will be showing this year. A BUNCH!!!

JAY BRUCE
News just broke today that the Phillies are set to acquire Jay Bruce from the Mariners.  Details of the prospects heading to Seattle or the amount of the Phillies absorbing the nearly $20+ million left on the contract remain unknown.  This is probably a sign that they are planning on moving on from Odubel Herrera after his recent Atlantic City arrest for domestic violence.

I just showed off a pair of Jay Bruce autos a little over a week ago.  It was called "Thanks For Being A Loser, Greg Maddux".  It looks like these two former back to back 2005 draft picks will now be teammates for the Phillies.

TODD FRAZIER

I love pancakes.

Who doesn't?

Evidently Todd Frazier is some kind of weirdo that thinks the edges of pancakes aren't any good.

What? Why?

The story broke a few days ago.

Does anyone know if he signs TTM?
I would love to send this out to him with the hopes of one day getting Cutch to sign it at a Phillies game.  The two were teammates for the 2015 National League All-Star Game.

This post was brought to you by the awesome soundtrack of Venom.

Sometimes it's ok to shake hands and celebrate with an old enemy.

COMC Pickups

I got a package last month containing about 40 cards from my latest COMC pickups.  Among them were half a dozen pink cards that I will show off for my SaveSecondBase event in October along with nearly two dozen Roberto Clemente cards and a smattering of other PC needs.  I won't show everything below, but here is a sample of my pickups.

First up the Cutch cards

The Triple Threads were a trio of needs I hadn't yet acquired.  The star of the show for me is the diecut Pinnacle.  These although relatively inexpensive are incredibly difficult to find. I have only seen a handful since release in 2013 appear on COMC or eBay.  The Gold Optic is numbered to 10. The blue diecut I featured a few weeks back.

Now the non Cutch cards

Everyone probably knows I also PC Charlie Morton because of his birthplace being the same as mine.   I picked up 3 2018 Topps Fire parallels along with an All-Star Game relic numbered to 50.

I also like to collect Pirates Topps Heritage cards.  So I grabbed a black refractor rookie cup of Jose Tabata, a real one authentic Vern Law auto, and a pair of Heritage buybacks (1962 team photo and a 1968 Matty Alou)

And now for some of the Clemente cards, of which I have shown some off already on Chasing 3000.