Miggy, Miggy, Miggy can't you see...

500 career home runs!

Congrats Miggy!

Which active players do you think will one day join the 500 HR club?

Got more Anrew

Last Wednesday I posted about getting my Topps Now Road to Opening Day Phillies team set and inside I had gotten a red Zack Wheeler parallel numbered to 10 copies as my exclusive parallel.  You can revisit that post here.  I was a bit disappointed that I had also gotten an Anrew McCutchen card instead of an Andrew McCutchen card.  I can understand spelling his last name wrong as only 2 players in MLB history have had the last name McCutchen (coincidently they were Pirates teammates), but Anrew isn't a real word or name so how did something like that get by Topps Quality Control.

Fortunately Topps spelled the name correctly on the back. 

Well, like Topps I must have made an error because I actually ordered two sets.  I didn't even know I did this, but sure enough a week apart from my initial order I placed an order for a second team set when buying some Project 2020 cards.

And oddly enough it showed up a few days later than the first set.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that I got a blue parallel of my main collection player's alter ego, Anrew(?) McCutchen.

Speaking of alter egos...

Something awesome is coming my way very soon and it will definitely achieve the "something nice to hang on walls" want list item.

Building a Rainbow: 2016 Panini The National Exclusives

I was challenged yesterday to come up with posts about either butterscotch pudding OR superhero origins.  I am kind of short on time today, but will work on something for the weekend.  

Butterscotch pudding?  Really Fuji????  What the heck!!!!

It has been awhile since I did a post showing off some rainbows in progress.  I thought I would show off my 2016 Panini The National Exclusives rainbow in progress because there is a good chance many of you aren't familar with this release.

Details of the set can be found here.

Collectors would get special foil packs from Panini by purchasing their products at the National Sports Card Convention.  

The set focused on multiple stars and rookies across MLB, NBA, NFL, and international soccer.  Like previous sets, Andrew McCutchen was part of the MLB players featured in the set as he was coming off his 4th consecutive year as a top 5 MVP candidate. 

Base cards were produced with traditional stock, but also produced using a thick stock.  Parallels for both thickness include hyper plaid, hyper foil,  and infinite.  

Above is the infinite parallel.  It looks like circuits on a computer grid and is numbered to only 10 copies.

Above are all the standard thickness cards I have of Cutch.  As you can see I have completed the rainbow for those.  Oddly enough, the serial number for the hyper plaid isn't listed on the back of the card.

You may notice that the serial numbering for this card appears on the top right corner, which is different than all other standard thickness parallels placement of the serial numbering.

The thick stock version has the numbering on the back

Here are the 5 cards I have in my collection for this potential rainbow

I still need:

The Thick Stock versions of the base, hyperfoil, and infinite parallels.

A Big Addition

I recently came across a seller who had really good discounts on 5x7 Topps products.  I don't buy all the releases of McCutchen for their 5x7 products, but do like the idea of any vintage designs in the 5x7 format with McCutchen.

My plan is to one day get them all individually framed and put on a wall.

Does anyone have any oversized cards framed in their card caves?

Need a Forest to Finish the Rainbow

To follow up on my Earth Day post, I am once again looking for help.

This time I am not asking you to save the forests, rather I am asking you to help me find one.

I am extremely close to completing the rainbow for the 2017 Chronicles Triple Threat relic set.

I recently added the 1 of 1 Nebula parallel.

I am not sure where this parallel got it's name, but it looks nothing like Nebula from Guardians of the Galaxy.

Then again maybe the color scheme is comparable.  There's purple hues and teal hues in the Nebula parallel to match the daughter of the Mad Titan, Thanos.

By the way, if you don't like the Avengers movies or the Marvel Cinematic Universe there is a good chance you have no idea what I am talking about.

It's ok.....

Let's get back on track just from a baseball card standpoint.

With my recent addition of the 1 of 1 Nebula parallel

I now have 6 of the (possible) 7 parallels.

Top Row: Nebula, Gold, Neon Green
Bottom Row: Pink, Neon Blue, Base

They are numbered to the following quantities:
Top Row: 1, 10, 25
Bottom Row: 49, 99, 149

Here are scans of each of the other cards individually

The one card I am missing to complete the rainbow?

There is a forest green numbered to 3 or 5 for certain players.  However according to the information I have found not all players received a green.  According to Worthpoint, none have sold on eBay so I am stuck wondering if this card actually exists.

Ribbit ribbit

When I was younger I used to be fascinated by the metamorphosis of frogs.  I know that ultrasounds of humans show incredible growth and we are amazing stories of survival too, but the idea of so many tiny tadpole eggs and the development of them to one day become a frog is a journey of perseverance that nature can provide.  It absolutely amazes me that any frogs can survive so much.

I bring this up because one of the most interesting and bizarre sets that Panini has used their unlicensed baseball product line over the past few years is a release called Chronicles.  Chronicles basically takes an amalgam of their basketball and football releases and makes mini sets for their baseball release. 

Spectra Triple Threats is a very popular set that Panini uses much in the same way Topps produces Triple Threats.

The 2018 set was supposed to have a few parallels to chase.  The neon blue would be produced /99, neon pink would be /49, green would be /25, gold to /10, and nebula would be 1/1.

Shortly after release Panini stated that not all players would be featured for all parallels and some players may have less than stated numbers produced. 

Of course I wanted to grab a copy of the 2018 Neon Pink /49 for my Save The Boobies event.  Unfortunately Cutch fell in the "or less" copy. 

The Neon Blue parallel looks like tadpole eggs to me.

And much like the survival rate of a tadpole, much fewer survived than what should have.

In short, Cutch didn't survive the cut for a Neon Pink copy.  Instead his Neon Blue which should have been /99 copies was instead produced as a short print /49 card.

Thinking of a Kitchen Remodel?

If you are considering remodeling your countertop in the kitchen, may I suggest 2018 Chronicles Cornerstones for some inspiration.

These could have very well been called Countertops instead of Cornerstones.

There are four parallels to chase Quartz (/49), Granite (/25), Marble (/10), Onyx (1/1) in addition to the base (/99).

As you can see I chose a blue quartz to compliment my green marble pattern.

The Chronic What....

Panini's Chronicles set has so many different offerings that as a baseball fan you may look at it and say "WTF is this set?" 

Well as someone who doesn't collect much football or basketball it is kind of fun to see what collectors of those sports get full fledged out sets of.  Baseball fans can't get Spectra, Prizm, Contenders, or Noir.  Chronicles solved that by releasing those sets as inserts.

AND

THEY

LOOK

AWESOME!!!!!

LOOK at this green Spectra insert from 2018 Chronicles I grabbed for a winning bid of only 99 cents.

Happy Father's Day

I want to say Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.

I know that the greatest influence on my life is my own father.

He was there for me while growing up.

I still go and visit him once a week and enjoy catching up with him about whatever life is throwing his way.

As someone who is self employed I am continuously impressed with the hard work and ethics he has and how he instilled them i to me.

One of my favorite moments of my childhood was when I was 12 years old in little league. Unlike now where there are pitch limits, all my league had was 6 innings limit for a 7 day period.  My dad was the head coach and I was one of our team's all stars.  I however wasn't our best pitcher.  I was the second best pitcher on the team.  

Our star pitcher had been used for 1 inning against what equates to this year's MLB version of the Reds.  They were called the Yankees and the team stunk.  Sean, the stud pitcher, had to be used though because of other inning limits for myself and our third best pitcher, Dave, the previous seven days.

I was cruising through 5 innings of no hit ball striking out 11.  I walked 4, but my Kent Tekulve sidearm pitching style was nasty that day.  

My dad told me he was going to take me out since we had a 7-1 lead (few wild pitches caused a walk to turn into a run). 

I remember looking at him with determinition saying "I want to finish this".  

He then said "I'm probably going to need you for an inning against the Giants," the best team in the league.  

While not as firm I remember getting upset knowing that I probably wouldn't win the battle, I looked and said "please Dad".

I went out for the sixth and final inning getting one more strikeout and getting the next two guys to hit groundballs to Sean at shortstop.  

We won the game and I pitched a no hitter.  

My arm is still fine.

I didn't need Tommy John surgery despite throwing over 100 pitches.

Rain engulfed NJ for the next week so we had to reschedule the game.

Sean was allowed to pitch all six innings against the Giants, which we also won by a score of 1-0.  I got the team's only hit off their ridiculously good pitcher "Woody". I stole second and third, then came home on a sac fly.  

Those memories of my dad coaching the team, having my best friend on my team and his dad being so close with my dad are amazing memories that I will treasure for the rest of my life.

After the game we celebrated with icecream and a trip to Sports Authority.  There I got a pack of Donruss Studio 1993 and a Florida Marlins tshirt.  I remember pulling one of those throwback Will Clark cards and thinking how cool it was.

So again Thank You Dad!!!!

Thank you for inspiring me and believing in me!!!

Now here are some Cutch Father's Day released cards and parallels.

I will start with an unofficial Father's Day card.
This 2011 Bowman and it's Chrome counterparts features an image of Cutch from Father's Day June 20, 2010.  The blue armband and headband combined with the Sunday alternative pinstripe uniforms give the game away.  Cutch would go and help lead the Pirates to a victory ending their 12 game losing streak.

I have 6 of the paper parallels

And 4 of the Chrome parallels

Moving on to 2013 we have the begining of a 4 year stretch that Cutch appeared in Panini's annual Father's Day release.
Meant to look like Donruss Studio 1993 is the 20 year retro look at that classic set.  I have both the lava flow and regular versions in addition to a Cracked Ice autograph version and two production proofs.

The back features the exact same concept as the 93 version...

The 2014 Father's Day release is an extremely boring lackluster design both on the front

and the back.

I need a bunch of parallels to this set, but am in no rush to get them.  At least begining in 2014 they designated this as an official set and made it a little easier to catalog.

2015 Father's Day by Panini brought one of my favorite images of Cutch to appear on cardboard

and a reference to one of my favorite super heroes.  This card is awesome!!!  There may be an autographed version of this card as the checklist states some of the Elements photos have autograph parallels, but I can't find any additional information to confirm who got the autograph treatment.

2016 would be the last year that Cutch appears in the Father's Day yearly release.  The design is nice and there are so many parallels that I still need for both the regular stock and thick stock versions.  I currently only have this thick stock base version /50. There are hyperplaid and cracked ice for both regular and thick stock if I remember correctly.  I need that base version too.

Even though it is the same image on the back, it is nice to get an image on the back of this year's product.

I love the design of this card.

2018 Donruss provided fans with a new parallel to chase down...Father's Day blue ribbon /49.

Begining in 2017, Topps started to call their powder blue parallels a Father's Day parallel and numbered them to 50 just like the Mother's Day parallels.  I currently have both the 2017 and 2018 cards, but need the Allegheny Armada with John Jaso from 2017.