A golden opportunity

After nearly a decade of feeling overwhelmed and exhausted, I have decided to take a step back at my job.  Working over 50 hours with an hour commute both ways on top and getting at best only one day off a week has broken me down mentally.  I took an opportunity to take a slight pay cut but relieve myself of all the stress that has been building up inside and at the same time get a piece of mind.  

I am also planning on moving in the next few month's so it seems like a perfect time to take a step back so that I can move forward in life.  

Call it a golden opportunity.

On a personal level it's more golden than this 2018 Topps Update gold parallel of the 1983 insert set.  

This change in life style is certainly more limited than the 50 copies of this card produced too.

But at the same token, it presents a far more greater possibility of what may come in the future.

Why did the ChickenMan cross the Swamp?

There is 1 week every year that I am committed to my TV more than any other week.  It's not sports related , has nothing to do with politics, and is the most Jawesome week of the year.  

I am talking about Discovery Channel's Shark Week.

Shark Week has officially kicked off, but I began my shark watching obsession last week by watching some of the SyFy movies about sharks that were available to stream online. 

I started it off with future SaveSecondBase representative Kristy Swanson (I am already in the process of working on my annual event October posts) and a movie she starred in called Swamp Shark.

It's a pretty terrible yet amazingly bad SyFy movie about a fresh water shark that is eating the gators at the nearby Gator Shack restaurant.

Things get out of control and police are looking to stop the sharks as well including....

Deputy Wade Boggs?

Yup, the Hall of Famer has a cameo in the movie.

If you have been following my blog for the past few years, you are probably aware that I consider myself a Super Collector of Andrew McCutchen.  

I have shown off A LOT but nowhere near everything in my collection over the years.  A few months ago I showcased my Andrew McCutchen 1/1 cards that relate to the 1983 Topps design when I celebrated what would have been Tony Gwynn's 60th birthday.  You can revisit that post here.

Tony Gwynn's 1983 Topps rookie card was released the same year that Topps released rookie cards of other Hall of Famers Ryne Sandberg and Wade Boggs.

You can see the acknowledgement on the back of this Superfractor

I have both the autograph and "base" Superfractors of this 1983 Silver Pack exclusive cards.

I have shown off my rainbow of the autograph versions in the past

But I don't think I ever showed off the nonautograph parallels that I am looking to build the rainbow of

I have the green, purple, blue, and base.  I am still in need of the red and orange.

The backs show Wade Boggs, Hall of Famer and Actor listed on the back.

If you enjoy seeing other people's collections like I do may I suggest you check out a pair of Wade Boggs Supercollectors on YouTube

First up is Richard who has the most amazing basement bar setup I have ever seen and it is devoted almost entirely to Wade Boggs.  

He has even called it The Boggs Tavern.  You can click here to see a tour of the Boggs Tavern

Another supercollector of Wade Boggs on YouTube is John who goes by Wade Boggs Fan on YouTube.  You can see John's Boggs Room Tour by clicking here.

Celebrating Tony Gwynn's Birthday

Today would have been Tony Gwynn's 60th birthday had he not passed away back in 2014.  It's crazy to think it has been six years since his death and that it has been almost two decades since his last game played.

Tony was a generational player.

This meme from Twitter captures how good he was in his career

I didn't believe this stat when I first saw it so I went over to Baseball-Reference to verify.

Of those 4 Hall of Fame Pitchers Gwynn put up batting averages of .314, .444, .303, and .415 respectively against Pedro, Smoltz, Glavine, and Maddux.

In those plate appearances he struck out twice against Glavine, once against Smoltz, and ZERO times against Pedro and Maddux.

He worked 20 walks against only 3 strikeouts.

That is insane levels against 4 FIRST BALLOT HALL OF FAMERS.

How did he do against other Hall of Famers?

Well, Nolan Ryan struck him out the most amount of times with 9 punchouts in 67 plate appearances, but Gwynn still batted at a .302 clip against the Ryan Express.

Randy Johnson owned Gwynn at the plate striking him out 5 times in 18 plate appearances and only collecting 2 hits good for only a .278 OPS.


There is another insane stat that captures how unique a talent Tony was

Mike Trout, arguably the best player in the game today, had over 20 games last year alone with 2 or more strikeouts.  INSANE!!!


As a kid I always wanted the 1983 Topps Gwynn rookie.  I settled for a Fleer and eventually got an 83 Topps as an adult. 

I will now show off all my 1983 Topps design cards of Cutch as a tribute for the great hitter of Mr. Padre.

Back in 2018, Topps was celebrating the 35th anniversary of the 1983 design which featured Tony Gwynn's rookie card.

I have shown a few of these cards off in the past.

Red /5, White/30
Superfractor/1, Orange/25

I also have a few of the on card signatures

I have 1 buyback 1/1 card from the 2018 Transcendent Party

2015 Topps Archives Black 1/1

 2015 Topps Archives Printing Plates
1/1 Plates of Yellow, Cyan, Magenta

Even though Gwynn wasn't an All-Star in 1983, I still want to show off the near complete run of 1983 2013 Topps Archives All-Stars printing plates
1/1 Printing Plates
Yellow, Black, Magenta

Here are a bunch of them I grouped together for a picture I showed off on Twitter

On a completely different note about the way the game has changed from the 80s to current game compare these stats

It looks like the 2020 baseball season is going to be a lost season so let's look at Cutch's stats through his age 33 season (he wouldn't turn 34 until October)


Andrew McCutchen
1,560 Games
233 Home Runs
1,664 hits
.287 AVG
823 walks vs 1238 strikeouts
187 Stolen Bases
.378 OBP
.858 OPS
134 OPS+

Tony Gwynn (through age 33/1993 season)
1585 Games
66 Home Runs
2,039 hits
.329 Avg
542 Walks vs 310 Strikeouts
263 Stolen Bases
.383 OBP
.821 OPS


The game has clearly moved into one of three outcome situations (walk, homer, strikeout).  Gwynn got 1.29 hits per game over his career compared to Cutch's 1.07 hits per game played.

80s Week: More 1 of 1s

Because it is my birthday, I am continuing the theme of the 1980s all week.  As someone born in the 80s I have put together a contest for everyone to write about your favorite player born in the 1980s.  It is a blog bat around that leads into another Save Second Base contest where you can win a pink card of Gary Sheffield and Barry Larkin (two former superstars that made their debut in the 1980s).

Here are some more of my favorites from the 80s.

Video Game:
RBI Baseball

This was a toss up for me. I had an original NES and the only games I ever played were sports games or Super Mario Brothers. I never got into much else. I enjoyed playing MegaMan but could never defeat the last level.  My other favorite games growing up were Base Wars, Baseball Stars 2, and Mutant League Hockey.

If you have never seen the YouTube video of Vin Scully announcing Game 6 of the 1986 World Series to RBI Baseball, you are in for a treat. It is amazing!

Favorite "retro drink"
Ecto Cooler

I lived off of juice boxes as a kid. My cousin and I would pound a 10 pack of these in just a few hours.  Ecto Cooler has been brought back a few times since it was originally changed by Hi-C, but that original package with Slimer from the Ghost Busters is still a classic.

Favorite toy

Yesterday I said Thundercats was my favorite cartoon despite not having many toys of them.  One toy line that I had a lot of was Transformers.  It's weird that I can distinctly remember asking for certain toys and where I was when I got them or wanted them. Oddly enough they all revolve around Transformers.

I remember bringing my Rodimus Prime with me to Vermont to visit my uncle at a bed and breakfast.

I remember asking my dad if I could get one of the new Decepticon jets (Dirge I believe) and him telling me "you don't play with the ones you have". I ripped off Starscream and Skywarp's wings and threw them on the ground. "They're broke" I told him.

My favorite though was Blaster, the cool talking Autobot radio that debuted in the full feature movie.  I got him as a Christmas present from my Grandmother and played with it all the time, putting him on my shoulder like I was carrying around a boombox.  I loved that toy!

I also loved the Seacons and built the entire Piranacon combiner.

My favorite toy leads into
My favorite movie then (and still to this day)

Ok. This movie was a game changer.
I remember my dad picking me up from day care on his motorcycle as he rode us to the theatre so quickly.  My dad still tells me how I would fall asleep sometimes as he would ride me around strapped in tightly on his Honda.  Once we got the food and popcorn I sat on his lap, or stood actually leaning forward watching so intently on every animated scene. I loved all the new characters that were introduced.  Blaster and Hot Rod were my favorites.  I cried when Optimus died and didn't want to watch it anymore. Then the movie introduced Wheelie and I was fixated once again.  Everything about this movie is pure gold.  The pacing, the animation, the voice actors, and the soundtrack.  To this day it is my favorite movie I have ever watched.

I mentioned a long time ago that the soundtrack is one of my 5 favorite albums ever produced.



Now for some 1980s inspired baseball cards.

These are ALL 1/1S!
Yup, each card you see below is a 1 of 1 and is a pack produced card that drew inspiration from 80s baseball cards.

Let's start with Archives

One thing I absolutely loved about the Archives brand being reinvented in 2012 was having printing plates of current players on older Topps designs.  A lot of people hate on printing plates, but when you get them all together, they are one of the hardest parallels to piece together.

As you can see I am at 75% on a pair of 1983 inspired printing plate sets.

The 1983 All-Star design is from 2013 Archives.

The 1983 base is from 2015 Archives.

I also have this Archives black border 1 of 1 from 2015 Archives.

Topps had their annual Transcendent Party in 2018 and as a result they had a few buyback cards that were released as 1 of 1 stamps at the party.

Again, with 1983?

Sheesh....I need some other years.

80s Week! Some 1/1s revealed also

As a child of the 80s I grew up in an era with big hair, great cartoons, great toys, and collector's craze of sports cards.

I have seen others post their decade favorites and wanted to join in.  After I am done breaking down all my favorites I will show off my Andrew McCutchen retro designed baseball cards.

It should be obvious that he is my favorite player born in the 80s. Don't forget to enter my contest of favorite player born in the 80s here.

So let's get started...

Here are 5 categories
At the end are the 80s inspired cards to show off

Favorite cartoon:
Thundercats

I absolutely loved the animation of the original Thundercats opening.  As a kid I only had 2 Thundercats action figures (Slythe and Tygra with a tiny Wilykat PVC figure that came with Tygra).  I had hundreds of G.I. Joes, Transformers, Masters of the Universe, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles though.  Still, I was glued to the TV each day for the adventures of Lion-O and his Thunderian friends as he battled the forces of the Evil Mutants and Mumm-Ra, the Ever Living.

Later In life as an early twentysomething I bought all those Thundercats toys I wanted as a kid and had a complete set of every figure made except the ultra rare European exclusive Stinger and The Mad Bubbler.  I had a few Thundertanks, Cats Lair, and about a dozen sealed figures.  Unfortunately I sold them all prior to the AFA grading system (similar to PSA or BGS for baseball cards) took off and made my loose complete mint figures worth thousands.

Oh well...

Favorite TV Show (not animated)
Knight Rider

I am still amazed that my parents let me watch Knight Rider at such a young age considering some of the underlying themes of the show.  However all I cared about was that cool car known as K.I.T.T. and wanting to be Michael Knight.

My dad being the awesome person he is took me to the Philadelphia car show when I was just 4 years old to meet David Hasselhoff.

There's the proof.

Favorite Song:
Survivor- Eye of the Tiger

To this day, this is my go to song to get pumped up. 'Nuff Said

As an adult there are lots of songs I like from the 80s and they revolve around the Beastie Boys, Motley Crue, and AC/DC.
This list gets very complicated in the 90s.

Favorite Comic Book:
I didn't read many comics until the 90s, but I definitely remembering having comic books of the Inhumanoids.

When I do the 90s favorites, this list is going to be very extensive.


Favorite Baseball Card Set:
1987 Topps

I collected the entire set of 1987 Topps with my dad. I was 6 years old and had a lot of fun putting it together.  The wood grain borders, the all capital letters for players names, the circular team logo.  This set was absolutely beautiful.  I chose to show the Will Clark card because I remember having a large stack of these in toploaders.


Now to show off some of my Cutch cards using designs from the 80s.

A few years ago I showed off a bunch of these, but my collection has grown quite a bit since then and Topps/Panini has introduced even more retro designed parallels to chase.

A few years ago I had ZERO Chrome Superfractors with a design from the 80s.
Now I have 3.

A few years ago I had ZERO relic cards based on a design from the 1980s.  Now I have TWO.

This 2014 Topps 89 Relic is one of my favorite patch cards.

Cutch didn't have a base card in the 2019 Donruss set, but he did have a relic in the 1985 inspired retro set.

 There is also a bat relic numbered to 10 copies, but the design is identical.

Throughout the rest of this week I will show more 80s inspired cards and reveal more of my favorite things from the 80s. Please don't forget about my contest and share who some of your favorite players born in the 80s are.

This may look familar

Last year I showed off my first (and only) Superfractor autograph of Cutch.  It isn't on card and features him in a Giants uniform.

For those on Twitter you may have seen ONE of my recent 1/1 pickups.

I grabbed the unsigned version as well.

Here they are side by side.

After a decade of ignoring Twitter I have finally joined. You can view me @CollectingCutch

This latest pickup brings me to 13 Superfractors of the former MVP.