I'll be back

Happy 75th Birthday to Arnold Schwarzenegger!

The most famous line from Arnold's career has to be "I'll be back" from the Terminator franchise. 

Terminator is one of those rare movies where the sequel may actually be better than the original, however the more recent sequels will never live up to the original Terminator or it's sequel T2:Judgement Day.

Topps has featured Cutch in his Pirates gear a lot in recent years despite being a current Phillie or Brewer.  This is odd for me because unlike other stars of the game that have been traded from their original teams (Goldschmidt, Arenado, Baez, Bryant, Lindor, Stanton, Yelich, Miguel Cabrera, Bryce Harper) those active players aren't getting featured in insert sets as Diamondbacks, Rockies, Cubs, Indians, and Marlins unless the insert set is discussing their debuts.  

The most recent example was including Cutch in the 2022 Series 2 1987 All Star set as a member of the Pirates. While he will likely always be remembered as a member of the Pirates (unless he hits a playoff series ending HR with the Brewers this year) he hasn't played for the Pirates since 2017.  Yes he made all 5 All Star Games as a Pirate, but then why is Javier Baez featured as an All Star with the Mets (his "current team" when the cards were produced?  Javy wasn't a member of the Mets when he made an All Star game.  

Paul Goldschmidt is featured as a Cardinal in the 2022 1987 All Star Game set because that is his current team, but he never made an All Star game as a member of the Cardinals (until this year which wasn't known at the time of production and distribution).  The same can be said for last year's NL MVP, Bryce Harper, who never made an All Star appearance since joining the Phillies until this season, which again wasn't known at time of production. 

It's just a very strange situation. 

But for whatever the reason is, I'm happy to see cards of Cutch in a Pirates uniform that I didn't have.

Good to see him back. Lol

Cutch has always gotten a warm welcome in Pittsburgh whenever he "has come back home"

Some 2022 Cards of #22

Baseball will officially have a 2021 season and I have received 3 more cards for the Cutch PC this week. 

Nothing very expensive (all three cards cost $5 shipped), but they are welcomed additions to the growing collection. 

Serial History, The Zombie Connection from NJ to Pittsburgh

Each year during the month of October, I show off only pink (and shades of pink like magenta, peach, etc) to help raise awareness of Breast Cancer, a leading cause of death for females in the United States.  

Due to my own financial situation this year I will not be able to make a donation for each (meaningful, non spam) comment left by those that follow the blog.  Once things settle down on the home front though I will be looking to make a donation in 2022 based on the comments left during this year's event.  Hopefully together we can help at least one woman get a much needed mammogram.  Early detection is key!!!

If you want to make your own private donation please visit the National Breast Cancer Foundation.  There is a donate button on the main page and it only takes a minute of your time.  Every little bit helps.

I have focused primarily on cards that only feature Andrew McCutchen on the card, but in recent years have also featured cards with a cameo appearance (either being seen on the card or as a name cameo on the back of the card).  In 2019, I created Falco Files which discussed players that replaced (Shane Falco Replacements movie reference) on an active roster, number worn, or trade.  I will also be showing some Cutch's Crew cards that show pink cards of players that have played with Cutch on multiple teams. I will continue to utilize these styles of posts as we celebrate the 5th Collecting Cutch Save Second Base event (I am no longer counting my first run on the Pirates Treasure Room I did back in 2014).

I am always looking for new ways to incorporate new celebrities into the event so today I am presenting

Lauren Cohan

She is a model and actress

She is known for her fit body and roles in sci-fi pop culture 

Her most well known role is playing Maggie Grace on the zombie series The Walking Dead

Born in Cherry Hill, New Jersey January 7th 1980, the zombie killer seems perfect to finish out this year's event

Remember how I mentioned Lauren was born on 1/7?

Here is a 2021 Topps Now Turn Back the Clock Cherry parallel serially numbered 1/7.  Fun connection points for the Cherry parallel for someone born in Cherry Hill.

The card talks about rookie Pittsburgh star Andrew McCutchen hitting 3 homers in front of the hometown Pittsburgh crowd.

Fun fact, Night of the Living Dead was filmed at the Monroeville Mall and the zombie Hall of Fame was featured at the mall

Happy Halloween everyone

The Cherry on Top

So yesterday I went to visit my dad just to catch up on things and see the damage that was done around his house from the tornadoes that hit NJ Wednesday night. 

To my surprise there was a package from Topps there waiting for me.  I am still having my eBay purchases and Topps deliveries shipped to his house while Ms CollectingCutch and I continue to move and temporarily live with the in laws. 

After catching up on things I decided to open up the mail that was lingering around.

This is quite literally the cherry on top.

When Topps revealed at the National that Andrew McCutchen would be the Topps Now Turn Back The Clock subject for August 1st, I knew I would be buying a nice brick of these cards.  I picked up a 20 pack in hopes of landing one of the cherry (7 card print run) or ash (3 card print run).

I am very pleased that I have been hitting on my Andrew McCutchen print to order style cards.  I also hit a bonus foil card for the Dock Ellis Matt Taylor Project 70 card, but chose to sell that on eBay. 

Thanks for the surprise hits Topps!

Happy Birthday #87

Sidney Crosby turns 34 years old today.

He was born 8-7-87 and has always worn #87 while a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

When the Penguins won the Stanley Cup in 2009, he was at that time the youngest Captain to win a Stanley Cup.

The team would go on to win another Stanley Cup in 2016 and then again in 2017.

Because this blog focuses on my Andrew McCutchen cards (and I still don't own a Sidney Crosby autograph), let's look at some Andrew McCutchen cards featuring that classic wood border 1987 design.

Above are my 2016 5x7 Jumbo cards of the 1987 Tribute.  Both are numbered to 49 copies and were available in different color nameplates.

I also own most of the 2017 1987 30th Anniversary Designs, which you can see below.

I am in need of the Silver Pack Black Refractor 1/1 along with the 1987 insert from Series One Platinum 1/1

I doubt I will ever get those 1/1s for the collection

I do own one relic card of Sidney Crosby and it features the core of the Stanley Cup teams, minus Kris Letang.

Who are your favorite hockey players? 

The True Origin of Wonder Woman

Each year during the month of October, I show off only pink (and shades of pink like magenta, peach, etc) to help raise awareness of Breast Cancer, a leading cause of death for females in the United States.  For each (meaningful, non spam) comment left by those that follow the blog I donate a dollar to hopefully help at least one woman get a much needed mammogram.  Early detection is key!!!

If you want to make your own private donation please visit the National Breast Cancer Foundation.  There is a donate button on the main page and it only takes a minute of your time.  Every little bit helps.

I have focused primarily on cards that only feature Andrew McCutchen on the card, but in recent years have also featured cards with a cameo appearance (either being seen on the card or as a name cameo on the back of the card).  Last year I created Falco Files which discussed players that replaced (Shane Falco Replacements movie reference) on an active roster, number worn, or trade.  I will continue to utilize these styles of posts as we celebrate the 4th Collecting Cutch Save Second Base event (I am no longer counting my first run on the Pirates Treasure Room I did back in 2014.)

Please be sure to click here for a Babe Ruth relic card I am offering as a contest prize to one lucky person who posts their own pink cards for the month.  I am matching the $1 per comment on YOUR BLOGS too if you show off pink cards. 

You ready to get started?

Today I am going to talk about...

Bella Heathcoate

Continuing the theme of Wonder Woman, is a woman who starred in a biographical film about the creation of the Amazoness Warrior Princess.  The film Professor Marston and the Wonder Women is a film about Professor Marston and his early creation of the lie detector, his poly relationship with a student and his wife, and ultimately the creation of Wonder Woman. 

It is rated R for some sexual scenes so this isn't a film to share with your children, even though it has "Wonder Woman" in it.  It also goes into the deep mind and bondage fetishes of Professor Marsten as he falls in love with his student, Olive (played by Bella Heathcoate) while also loving his wife.

I recommended the movie to my brother because he likes comic books and historical movies, but did warn him of the few S&M scenes and he absolutely loved it.

The movie may not be for everyone, but if you like movies set back in time and understanding of the psychological of people in that time period, you may really enjoy it.  It is currently streaming on Hulu.

A lot of the women I show off for my #SAVESECONDBASE have large chests, but like Wonder Woman fighting for the justice of all women, I am doing the same by showing the "smaller" sizes on occasion too.

Sorry if this post doesn't get the attention that so many others do, but I wanted some diversity.  (More diversity is coming too)

Bella was born in 1987

This is the 1987 cherry mini insert found in 2017 Topps Mini.

I chose the mini because, well smaller is ok too.  

Duck Tales Woo-oooo

A few days ago Gavin made a comment about Duck Tales having a super catchy theme song.

I loved Duck Tales growing up.  I remember playing the game on my NES, seeing the movie with my grandmother, and Donald Duck being the first character I got an autograph from at my first trip to Disney World.  

Duck Tales ruled!

The intro may actually be one of the best cartoon intros of all time in terms of fans.

There have been countless numbers of people to cover it including 

Andrew Huang covering it in 10 different genres (here)

Panic at Disco!'s frontman Brendan Urie putting his own spin on it for the Jimmy Fallon show (here)

I've heard it covered in multiple languages and styles and it still kicks ass! (here)

Duck Tales is the story of Donald Duck's nephews (Huey, Duey, and Louie) and their adventures with Uncle Scrooge in Duckburgh.  They go on Indiana Jones style adventures each day.

Duck Tales debuted in 1987 and it was the flagship show for Afternoon Disney that ran for 4 years on syndication.  The success of Duck Tales lead to other shows like Tale Spin, Chip n Dale's Rescue Rangers, and Darkwing Duck. 

I remember getting home from grade school and hearing that theme song come on and immediately dancing like a duck and having a good time.   

I already mentioned that Duck Tales was the first movie that my grandmother took me to see.  She passed away over 8 years ago and I miss her terribly.  

I really like doing these 80s week cards every year because it reminds me of much happier and carefree times.  Adulting is not nearly as fun as dancing like a duck or singing Duck Tales with grandparents or collecting 1987 Topps baseball cards with my dad.  

Thank you for following along on this week of 80s posts as I turn another year older today.   

Here are my Cutch cards based on the 1987 design (one of my all time favorite designs and the first set I ever completed).

Above are the two minis I have of Cutch using the 1987 design.  They include a 2017 Topps Mini 1987 Cherry Wood parallel (numbered to only 25 copies and to be featured again next month for October) and the 2012 Topps Mini 1987 throwback insert set.

Above are cards from 2017 celebrating the 30th anniversary of the 1987 set.  I have the base and red wood parallels from the main flagship set along with the 6 main color mojo parallels from the "Silver Packs" found at Hobby stores as part of their Hobby Community Program.  The only way to get those silver packs was to purchase a disclosed amount of Topps packs which could then be redeemed at your local hobby shop for packs containing a few of these 1987 throwback cards.

Above are the backs for the 2017 cards commemorating the 30th anniversary of 1987 Topps.

These 5x7 cards are a unique situation where Topps didn't announce color parallels, but did in fact color a few cards differently with the same print run number.  Both of these, the orange and yellow name parallels are numbered 14/49.

They were released in 2016 and don't celebrate an anniversary for 1987 at all, just a random oversized tribute to an iconic set.

So there are my 1987 Cutch cards and my Duck Tales stories.

And this is a giant rubber duck that took a tour of Pittsburgh in 2013.  I saw it, but unfortunately all my pictures were taken with a digital camera and I no longer have the computer that everything was saved on.  Thanks Google for this awesome image!

Happy Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day.  Were baseball being played today there would be a lot of players donning pink in their uniforms.

I have shown off a lot of these pink cards in the past as part of my Save Second Base events I do each year.  I just grabbed a sampling of cards from 2016-2017 to show off because I was looking for this card in that binder.

This is a 2017 Topps 30th anniversary, 1987 parallel.

1987 was the first set I remember completing as a kid.  My parents would buy me a pack everytime we went to a supermarket.

My mom and dad would help me organize the cards by team and I would put them into pages jamming as many of the same card into the same pocket as I could fit.

Even though there was maybe 5 or 6 Gary Carter cards stuffed into a single pocket of the page, the backs were left visible.  I learned how to read from baseball cards and they helped me with math.  I remember for show and tell I would bring in some of my favorite cards.  My mom helped me put together a poster board and we glued my favorite players onto it.

A lot of Dwight Goodens, Kent Tekulve, and Mike Greenwells were wasted in the process of that.

A Different Kind of Junk Wax Era?

My first baseball cards I collected as a kid were 1987 Topps.

Cutch's rookie season was 2009. He made his debut early June of that year and according to the Trading Card Database he had 123 cards produced that year by Topps, Bowman, Tristar, Upper Deck, and Choice (minor league team sets).  I have 64 cards from that debut season and am missing only cards /50 or less.  At the time of Cutch's call up he was a top 15 prospect in baseball.

The consensus top prospect in baseball heading into this season is Vladamir Guerrero Jr.  He has had 579 cards produced PRIOR to the year of his debut according to TCDB.  So far in 2019, his rookie year MLB debut, he has had 1,495 cards produced.  With a month left in the year, it is very possible to see that number grow more as it has tripled since June thanks to the release of more Topps Now, Heritage High Number, Topps Update, Bowman Draft and Prospects, and many more high end sets produced.  With the hype surrounding Vlad Jr prior to the season, it is no surprise to see card numbers like that produced.  Is anyone else alarmed by this?

Let's look at another rookie who has made their MLB debut this year.  Since Cutch wasn't a top 10 prospect and didn't win Rookie of Year in his debut season, let's look at a similar resume player.  Pete Alonso is the NL Rookie of Year winner so I am going to look at Austin Riley, outfielder/3rd baseman for the Atlanta Braves.  Similar to Vlad Jr he will have another few cards released since appearing in Update, Heritage, BDP, and Now cards prior to year's end.  He currently already has 483 cards produced for this year.

The most popular shortstop of 1987 when I began collecting was Cal Ripken Jr.  He had 60 cards produced that year with brands Topps, Fleer, Donruss, Classic, Sportflics, and many local/food releases providing those quantities.

A rookie shortstop who would go on to have a Hall of Fame career, Barry Larkin, had only 16 cards produced that year.

Kevin Newman, a Pirates rookie shortstop, was having a great year at the plate but would hardly be considered the best at his position in the game despite finishing in the top 10 for the NL batting title.  He already has had 492 cards produced this year.  That doesn't even include the buyback autos for this year's Archives Signature Series Active Player collection.

With all of the parallels being produced in each new release, it feels like we are entering a new Junk Wax Era.  The presses aren't working overtime like they were in the 80s and 90s just pumping out more and more base cards, but for our small niche hobby we collect there are more cards to collect of a player than ever before.

Here are some of my favorite late 80s and early 90s junk wax era themed cards.

 1/1 Superfractors are awesome. Getting one with the 1989 design is doubly awesome.

1989 is a favorite design of mine. I love the simplicity of the set. This Patch card is extremely tough to find.

1993 Topps Finest Refractors changed the game.  A few years ago Topps made a metal version available.

1991 Topps Desert Shield was featured as a parallel in 2016 Topps Archives.  The originals of these cards actually still hold value to this day.

This set started it all for me and this mini perfectly captures the thrill of baseball card collecting.  "Oooooh you almost had it. Keep going"

What are some of your favorite designs from the junk wax era?

The 4th Annual Save Second Base Event Recap

I hope you all have enjoyed this year's month long tribute to pink baseball cards and that it grabbed your attention.

More importantly I want to thank everyone for their comments.  I was donating $1 for every nonspam comment made excluding those by myself for the month of October.

I haven't totalled everything yet, but I am certain we made the goal of $150 which is enough to provide a free mammogram to a woman.

Some people were very active this year and I will get some bonus prizes for the top 3 commenters throughout the month.

If you won a contest please EMAIL ME
bstryker81 @ gmail . com so I can confirm the prize packages and ship your cards.


For those that may have missed a post here is a recap of all the cards shown this year.
(I won't show all the lovely ladies again though.  You'll have to go back to see all those posts.)


Solo cards of Cutch

 2016 Topps Mini /5

 2018 Topps Update /50

2018 Topps Update Chrome Pink Retail Exclusive

2019 Topps Chrome

2014 Topps Heritage Logo Swap (based on 1965 design)

 2015 Topps Heritage (1966 design)

 2015 Topps Heritage Action Variant (1966 design)

 2018 Donruss Diamond Kings Pink/25

2011 Topps Lineage (1975 design)

2018 Topps Superstar Sensations Red/10

2018 Topps Pink /50

2018 Topps Mini Pink/25

2018 Chronicles Pink /25

2017 Chronicles Pink Spectra Triple Threat (triple relic) /49

Magenta Printing Plates

 2015 Topps 127 League Leaders

2010 Topps t206 Piedmont Mini

2008 Just Minors Triple Signatures w/Elvis Andrus and Carlos Santana

2017 Topps Inception

2013 Archives (1977 Cloth Sticker)

Stadium Cards

2019 Topps PNC Park /50

Cardboard Cameos

 2016 Topps /50

Name mentioned on back of card

2013 Topps Update Gerrit Cole Rookie Debut pink/50
McCutchen seen in blurry background

 2018 Topps Gregory Polanco pink/50

 Name mentioned on back of card

2013 Topps Mini Starling Marte Pink/25

Name mentioned on back of card

2019 Topps Austin Barnes pink/50
Cutch appears in background of card

Falco Files

2019 Topps Chrome Pink Chris Shaw
Chris Shaw replaced McCutchen on Giants roster when he was traded to Yankees.

2019 Prizm Pink Abiatal Avelino
Avelino was traded from the Yankees to the Giants in exchange for Andrew McCutchen in 2018.

2018 Heritage Minors Magenta Back Adam Haseley

Adam Haseley replaced Andrew when Cutch was placed on the 10 day IL.

2019 Topps Update Chrome Bryan Reynolds (Hanger Pack Exclusive Pink)
Bryan Reynolds was part of the trade package sent to the Pirates when McCutchen was traded to the Giants


Memorabilia

2017 Tristar Authentics Hidden Treasures
JSA Certified autographed
Robert Manfred Mother's Day baseball

Only 11 more months until next year when the event can grab your attention again.

That wraps up this year's event.

I can't believe we went through all month without showing off Hunter King.

Watch her scenes from Life in Pieces here.
You can thank me in the comments below.

We now return to regular scheduled programming, sorry...

I have some celebrities I am already planning to use next year along with about 10 cards ready to go already.

Here is a sneak peak at what I have planned for next year...
Shannon Elizabeth from American Pie will be on the agenda for sure

And I think Hayden Panattiere from Heroes fame should be revealed

I think Jennifer Lawrence should appear again, what do you think?

And of course there will be plenty more gorgeous celebrities from all different eras appearing...

it is going to be a fun month next year.

AND HERE IS THE #1 CARD ON MY WANT LIST I AM ON THE HUNT FOR

2013 Topps Chrome Pink Refractor /5


Who were some of your favorite celebrities I showed off this month?

Who do you want to see appear next year?