Keep Grinding for the Super Collection

This will likely be my last big mailday for awhile, but don't worry I have plenty of cards to show off.

The first is actually the highest numbered card of today's mailday.  It is a 2021 Topps Five Star Inscription autograph. 

The card is numbered 9/20 and comes with an inscription saying "Grind"

In my job, our owner often thanks us for all the hard work we do and says "I know it's a grind, but thank you for everything you do." I guess Cutch lives by that same motto...just keep grinding.

The other two cards I got today were both one of ones.  Yup, a mailday consisting of two 1/1s.

Topps Gallery really changed up the product last year.  Rather than using artist drawn cards with a limited number of parallels, this year's set only had artist drawn cards for inserts and really upped the number of parallels this year including a bunch of new shiny sparkly parallels.

The 1/1 red parallel requires sunglasses to look at as the shine on this card is unlike anything I have ever seen from a Topps retail exclusive set before.

My other 1/1 was a very generous gift from a Twitter friend Josh JrNoble1

This is the 2020 Topps Chrome Update cyan printing plate.  I have the magenta and Superfractor. Maybe I will chase after the yellow and black printing plates to complete the set.

Rediscovering The Hobby Fun

So I did a thing while still (temporarily) living with the in laws.

I dug out some of my boxes of Cutch cards that I never scanned or sorted or entered into my spreadsheet.

This is just one of the five boxes of relics, autos, printing plates, and manufactured relics boxes I have to go through.

I am certain that there will be cards in here that I forgot about and I am certain I will find cards that I scanned but never entered into my spreadsheet and vice versa. 

I found so many awesome cards just hanging out in these boxes.

My goal is to knock out one of these boxes every ten days to sort, enter into my spreadsheet, and maybe even find some gems to blog about.

One card that caught my eye was this 2015 Topps silver frame league leaders card.

The 2015 silver frame cards were limited to only 20 copies and followed the success of the 2014 Topps Gold Label framed inserts.

The fronts and backs are identical to the standard base card, but they have a very heavy and sturdy silver frame outlining the card along with a serial number marking on the front of the card.

If you were playing NL Batting Title Bingo at the begining of the season and you had Ben Revere, Jonathan Lucroy, Josh Harrison, Denard Span, and Jayson Werth you just might have won.  

It's always fun to look back at some of the stat leaders and who were the guys you wouldn't expect to be in competition for that stat leader.

Cutch finished third in the batting title race in 2014 behind teammate Josh Harrison and former teammate Justin Morneau.

I thought it would be fun to look back at that 2014 batting title race between three guys who finished the 2013 season with the Pirates.

By the rules to qualify for a batting title, a player must have 3.1 at bats per game in a 162 game season.  This equates to 502 at bats to qualify for a batting title in a standard season.

Coincidently Justin Morneau had exactly 502 at bats in the 2014 Season and played in only 135 games.  On September 26th, Justin Morneau had his 501st at bat of the season and was substituted out of the game after a 2 for 3 performance at the plate and raising his average to .319.  The 4th place Rockies chose not to play Morneau in the second to last game of the season and would use him as a pinch hitter in the 7th inning to close out the season.  He got out, but kept his batting average at .319 if you round it up from it's original .318725 mark.  This pinch hit at bat on the final game of the season gave Morneau the opportunity to clinch a batting title.  If he had walked or gotten injured before completing this pinch hit at bat, Morneau would not have qualified for the batting title and the Rockies who finished the season with a 66-96 record would have one less thing to celebrate in a pretty forgettable season.

The Pittsburgh Pirates were battling for their second straight postseason push and were within a few games reach of winning the division heading into the final week.  

The Pirates had to play their stars to continue to make the push for their best shot at the postseason.  

In the final four games of the season, Cutch went 4 for 12 with an additional 4 walks.  Had Cutch gotten 3 more hits over the course of the season while maintaining his 548 at bats, Cutch would have won the batting title with a .319343 mark.  

The last Pirates player to win a batting title was Freddy Sanchez in 2006.  

Do you remember these silver frame parallels?

Who was the last player on your favorite team to win a batting title?

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?

Monsters of Baseball?

I was going through some old articles I had bookmarked just in case there were ever a need to show off some cards relating to it and stumbled across a little gem about the Philadelphia Phillies.

Wow, have things changed a lot in 5 years.

Look at this article from 2016.

It discusses how the Phillies will again become a juggernaut in Major League Baseball with a monster payroll supporting home grown stars like Mikael Franco, Odubel Herrera, Jerad Eickoff, Vince Velasquez, and Aaron Nola.  

Well they were right about Nola.

It also mentioned the Phillies flexibility to add talent to the "historic free agent class" of 2018 when guys like Matt Harvey and Jose Fernandez will be available along with Bryce Harper and Manny Machado.

The article goes on to talk about their farm system and the expectation of JP Crawford "becoming a star" and Cornelius Randolph being the best prep bat in the previous year's draft.  

It wasn't too long ago that I did a post about the Pirates fall from success and how only 1 player remains with the team that won 98 games in 2015 (Gregory Polanco) and many of their top prospects coming out of that season have all been traded and are no longer a part of the organization (Josh Bell, Jameson Taillon, Tyler Glasnow, Austin Meadows, Harold Ramirez, Reese McGuire, Nick Kingham).

Monsters of baseball?

I think not.

Good start to the 2021 season for the Phillies by sweeping by the Braves?  

Yes I think so.

I really like the Bryce Harper card above from 2020 Topps.  I may seek out some of it's parallels to chase.  

To wrap things up I will show 3 cards of Cutch in a Phillies uniform.

2019 Topps Fire Dual Auto with Rhys Hoskins limited to 20 copies

2019 Allen & Ginter Double Rip with Rhys Hoskins limited to 25 copies

2019 Topps Museum bat barrel nameplate 1/1

Each Phillies sweep this year will be followed up with a post featuring Cutch in Phillies gear.  Among the cards posted will be at least 1/1 during each sweep. 

Interrupt With An Important Announcement

If you have been following my blog for at least a year, you know we are approaching one of my favorite months of the year, October.  Each October I like to bring awareness to breast cancer, one of the leading causes of death in all females.  

While browsing Twitter today, I came across a message from Brandon Crawford and his wife with support from Andrew McCutchen and his wife.

Here is a link to the Catch A Cure Twitter with support from Brandon Crawford, Andrew McCutchen, Buster Posey, Greg Maddux, Eric Hosmer, and many others.

Taken directly from Tiny Turnips page where you can buy merchandise to support children with cancer is this message

"100% of Profits from the sale of items in the “Catch A Cure” Collection will benefit The Peckham Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Rady Children’s Hospital – San Diego.  The Peckham Center is home to a full range of specialized cancer treatments and hematology services, as well as psychosocial resources, life-after-cancer programs and pace-setting clinical research. As a not-for-profit hospital that ranks among the top pediatric hospitals in the country, Rady Children's relies on philanthropy to continue to provide world-class care to more than 250,000 children each year"

I know I ask for people to donate in October, but here is a chance to not only help benefit children fight cancer, but you can also get some neat swag too.

Personally, I'm going for one of those cool mugs and maybe a t-shirt with my name on the back.  I hope I can share the story about the organization to anyone that asks "What's Catch a Cure" mean?

MLB has recently began allowing players to wear a golden ribbon on their uniform in September.

Many of the 2019 Gypsy Queen autograph cards of Andrew McCutchen feature him wearing the gold ribbon to support Child Cancer Awareness.

I am still in need of the base autograph, but have the Bazooka Back, Fortune Tellers Mini, Rainbow Foil, and Black and White parallels.  

And here is a card that features 3 of the more famous players to support the Catch a Cure program.

It is my 2018 Triple Threads booklet card with some very large patches including a sleeve patch, the R in a San Francisco grey uniform and the G in a home Giants uniform.  

🔥 A Dual Auto Hit From Retail? 🔥 -or- Why Rhys is calling Cole Tucker, Daddy?

For the past few years Topps has been issuing a retail exclusive set to both Target and Wal-Mart.  Wal-Mart has gotten the hand drawn set known as Topps Gallery.  My favorite though is Target's exclusive release, Topps Fire.

Finding the hits from these products has been incredibly tough to come across.

I remember having a discussion with Brad from Brad's Blog while we were waiting in line for the September 2019 McCutchen signing at the Philly Show about hoping to add one of the McCutchen/Hoskins dual autos.

Well, right around the New Year, I was able to finally secure one.

With both Hoskins and Cutch being involved with viral videos over the weekend I thought it was time to finally show this card off.

Here is the card.  It is a dual auto of Rhys Hoskins and Andrew McCutchen.  The card features sticker autos, but with all the flashy vibrant colors it isn't that distracting.

The card is limited to only 20 copies, mine being 12/20.

From MLB.com here is the link that introduced fans to Uncle Larry, Andrew McCutchen's new alter ego.

I can't wait to see more of Uncle Larry in the future.


Speaking of future, Cole Tucker was playing Rhys Hoskins in The Show and made a bold statement that if Rhys hit a HR off Cole, he would name his first born after...(BOOM! HR!)

To see the home run and read more about the future Rhys Tucker click here.

Boomo Delivers a Super Rare Auto

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.

From Zoltan to Zoltar or How I Scored a Yankees Autograph of Cutch

In 2012, the Pittsburgh Pirates used a hand gesture called "the Zoltan" made famous in the movie Dude Where's My Car?

I even remember doing the Zoltan symbol with my brother and his groomsmen at his wedding in 2013.

I've shown off a few of my Zoltan cards with Cutch on them before.  The card pictured above is a 2014 SSP photo variant autograph numbered 4/5.  The image is from the 2013 Postseason Game 3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

I also have this booklet of Marte and Cutch that I got from Matt at BobWalkThePlank as part of our epic trade a few summers ago.

It is also numbered to only 5 copies.

Five Years after the last Zoltan style card of Cutch got produced, I picked up a Zoltar inspired card of Cutch.

What's that you say?

You don't know Zoltar????!!!

Zoltar is a mechanized prophet you can find at boardwalks across America.

It was made famous in the movie Big.

Tom Hanks had a big role in the movie (pun intended)

Zoltar machines are known for telling fortunes for a small fee.

Not to be outdone, Andrew McCutchen is a fortune teller of sorts too.

Well at least according to this 2019 Gypsy Queen Fortune Teller mini on card autograph.

It's my first autograph of Cutch in a Yankees uniform (it won't be my last though).  I purchased it from someone who is a Brewers fan and has a Ryan Braun collection that could rival my Cutch collection if he ever put it online.  He also included a 2015 Heritage Refractor as a bonus, just because he loves the hobby and appreciates a fellow player collector.

Production on this Fortune Teller was limited to ONLY 20 copies of this card.