These are not the racks you are looking for

I missed an opportunity to highlight women this month so with only a day left in Women's History Month I present to you the history of the celebs I have had a crush on since my childhood. 

A top 10 if you will... (Listed in alphabetical order by first name)

Alexandra Daddario

Alison Brie

Evangeline Lilly

Jennifer Love Hewitt

Jessica Alba

Jessica Biel

Kat Dennings

Kate Upton

Milana Vayntrub

Olivia Taylor Dudley

Now with all those great images of those beautiful women with the assets only slightly showing, but mostly sealed I thought I could show a recent sealed pack of cards with Andrew McCutchen on the cover.

Since rack packs don't exist in the traditional sense anymore, this is the closest I can come up with.

Above is the 2006 sealed set of Altoona Curve featuring Andrew McCutchen on the front and

Neil Walker on the back.

Do you miss rack packs?  Would the current hobby craze make rack packs impossible to keep sealed if Tatis, Acuna, or Trout were on the cover?

Before Cutch22 there was Cutch62

Andrew McCutchen was invited to participate in a few Spring Training Games back in 2006, one year after being drafted as a high school outfielder.  Because he wasn't part of the 40 man roster yet, Cutch was given one of those "football jersey" numbers. His spring training career didn't start off in stellar fashion as he went 3 for 17 over 10 games as a recently turned 19 year old.  The following season Cutch made it very difficult for the Pirates front office to send the 20 year old back to the minors after slashing .321/.367/.482 over 56 at bats and 20 games.  On the last day before the regular season started Pirates manager Jim Tracy informed Cutch that he would return to the minors to start the 2007 season despite being the team's best offensive player over a small sample size. He remained off the 40 man roster for the rest of the season and the Pirates played the service clock game with him until June 2009. 

It was against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on March 12, 2006 that Cutch suited up wearing number 62 and made a SportsCenter top catch that made Pirates fans excited for his defense. 

I was able to purchase a small lot of older signed cards and photos from Spring Training Games and among the lot were these two focal points.

This photo is printed on Costco paper and appears to have been signed by Cutch in his early minor league career.  Prior to his more recognizable ACutch signature, Andrew used to sign items using his full name.  The photo captures the difficult running jumping catch that Cutch made in his very early career to impress Pirates front office and fans.

I also got this card, which shows the jersey number 62 as an inscription on the card.  Many minor leaguers (even top prospects) will sign their jersey number as an inscription to indicate who they are.  Since they haven't appeared in the majors yet, many want fans to recognize them from before they made it to the show.  

I think both of these items are pretty unique additions to the collection as they are a part of Cutch's road to the show. 

Do you have any cards or memorabilia signed by players before they made it to the majors?

A Pair of Uncirculated 1/1s Leads To A Question

I am having a bit of writer's block so I decided I would go through some autographs sitting in a box that were never scanned in.  

I remember desperately trying to get to 100 unique autographs of Cutch back in 2015.  

I now have almost three times that total.  

There are two boxes of cards with certified autographs that haven't been scanned yet.  Among them are the two 1/1s pictured above.  I acquired these from a seller who has a LARGE inventory of Just Minors products. 

If there is one thing I really want to focus on with my collection this year is getting the collection updated in my Google spreadsheet document.  

With a staycation planned in a couple weeks, I think it is possible to tackle getting the collection fully updated by March.  Getting everything scanned in? That likely won't happen.

How do you find time to scan and update?  Do you have a specific day or time you do it?  Do you catalog everything upon receipt of the new cards for your collection?  Any websites or tools you use to assist with it?

The Channel is Phil's Pulls

What's up everyone?

His name is Phil. 

The channel is Phil's Pulls

In case you are unfamiliar, Phil Hughes, a former top pitching prospect for the New York Yankees collects baseball cards and has a YouTube Channel.

I have a pair of Phil Hughes/Andrew McCutchen printing plates that were never released from Just Minors in 2006.

It should also be noted that the former World Series Champion also sold me a very special 1/1!

My 4th superfractor of my other main PC guy, Charlie Morton.

Phil sent this card in record time, receiving it only 2 days after payment was made.  Thanks Phil!

I had some packages go out today to the following zip codes 07044, 95119, 36618, 46516, 62450.

Elliptical Man, please email me your address to collect your prizes.

They Call Me MelloYellow

Being a supercollector can be exhausting and frustrating.  It is almost like an addiction.  On one hand you have the mentality of "I need every card possible", the reality is you can't have them all.  This is especially true if you collect a player that is one of the top 100 players in the game and has played for teams with loyal fan bases like the Yankees, Giants, and Phillies. Did I mention that he was the face of the Pirates franchise for nearly a decade?

Andrew McCutchen may not have all the hype of guys like Acuna, Alonso, Tatis Jr, Guerrero Jr, or Trout but trust me when I say that he is collected and has a VERY LOYAL following of collectors.

I have made some trades with other Cutch collectors and have bought large collections from guys that sold their Cutch cards after the Pirates traded him to San Francisco last year.

That being said there are at least two other collectors of Cutch that have been buying up his stuff lately.  One I was told has unlimited funds and has purchased a card for $100 more than a copy of it that sold the day before.

Now the pictures used by the seller may have influenced one being sold too much and one being sold too little, but that is a huge discrepancy for a 24 hour difference of basically the same card.

I am not going to buy new releases of Cutch in a team's uniform I'm not even a fan of for double or triple prices just to cross something off a list.  The Red Tribute /10 auto is probably a $40-$50 card.  Definitely not $133. If these other collectors want to battle?

Have fun!

I am sitting on several hundred cards that I have never shown off here ranging from high end autographs and 1/1s to base cards.

With getting 3 of my top 5 cards on my want list in the past few months, I am going to decide to lay low for a bit to not get into bidding wars with other collectors while they are being in my eyes too aggressive buying recent cards of the former MVP.

I'm sure some of you may remember the chaos that occurred a few years ago when a pair of collectors were battling each other for Omar Vizquel and Andres Gallaraga cards.  Some 1/1s were going for thousands of dollars.  I am not prepared for that $#*+.

Call me chicken.
Call me yellow.

Call me what you will, but I'm out of this madness for awhile until it settles down.

Today's post features just 5 of the 1/1s I have never shown off before.  They are all yellow printing plates, a fitting color for my recent admission to get out of buying new cards.  Of the five shown off today, the only one that has been bought recently was the Tristar Elegance pictured above.  I won it in June for only $9.99, before one of the other Cutch collectors resurfaced.

Cutch V Batman: Dorkness Recesses aka F**k Batman

San Diego Comic Con is in full effect at the time of typing this.  I had always wanted to attend it just once as I am a nerd deep inside.

Fans were previewed a trailer for the new Titans TV show exclusive to DC's streaming service.

The trailer begins with Robin saying "F*** Batman".  The DC Universe aka Zak Snyder's playground is always so dark.  When I think of the Titans I think more fun than brooding and morbid.  The show should have followed in Marvel's footsteps and did something similar to how the characters of Guardians of the Galaxy interact.  Instead we get "F*** Batman"

Let me clarify something, I am a big fan of Batman.

I am not a big fan of the Reds.  They historically have beaten my Pirates in all the important games.

Let's travel back to the year 2012.
With the Pirates on the cusp of finally breaking their 20 year losing streak they would have to face the Reds in the final home series and win out or risk losing their 82nd game and thus ensuring another losing season.  That year, like the previous year, the Pirates were in first place at the All Star break.  Like the previous year the team suffered a second half collapse.

On September 28th, 2012 the Pirates would face Homer Bailey.

Homer Bailey, who looks an awful lot like Christian Bale, made sure the Pirates would lose their 82nd game in a way only the Pirates and their faithful fans could bear witness too.  Bailey was masterful that day as he pitched a no hitter using 115 pitches over 9 innings.

His only blips were a walk to Andrew McCutchen and an infield error that Scott Rolen booted off a Clint Barmes one base error.

With Bailey having a terrible season, it seems appropriate to show off how well Cutch has hit Bailey over his career.

Oddly enough, the only year that Bailey contained Cutch was during Cutch's MVP 2013 season.

Following the 2013 season, Bailey met with new Reds manager Bryan Price and wanted to make sure the team was heading in a direction of winning divisions and competing for the postseason.  The Reds seemed determine to go deep in October and signed Bailey to a 6 year $105million extension in February 2014.  It is currently one of the worse contracts given out in the past few seasons only being outdone by the Chris Davis Orioles contract.

I took advantage of a 20% off coupon on eBay a few months ago and snagged this card that I had long desired.  While the price is still too high for a guy who has had a WHIP over 2 and ERA in the 6s the past few years, I wanted the card to remember the guy who secured the Pirates 82nd loss of the 2012 season as it would be the last time the Pirates would have a losing season for 3 years.

Oh and "F*** Batman" this is one of only 2 copies in world.

Love My Dad

Today is my dad's birthday.  He will be 59 years old today and has lived an amazing life albeit a small and humble one.  Never to do anything famous or travel the world or anything of that magnitude, he has always kept his roots at home...where his heart is.  I love him for that and respect him for that.  He is currently living in a house on a road that he grew up in.  He's incredible in every sense of the word.  I know I have told stories of how much he has influenced my life, but here is one more.

Back when I was a teenager, I was involved in several bands ranging from punk to metal to nu-metal (rap/hardcore/metal). We would play a bunch of small gigs as favors to one of my friends as a way to make extra money.  There was a local firehouse who would rent out their space to us and we would pack it FULL!!!  Well, one night some fans got a little reckless and in the middle of the set someone punched a hole while the mosh pit and crowd surfing got out of hand.

My band, myself, and my friend who was promoting the show were like WTF!!!????

My dad is a painter/wallpaper hanger and does some general small contracting stuff.  At around 11:30pm I called him up telling him what happened and how we would likely lose the venue as a place for future shows if we couldn't fix it.  He said not to worry and that he would swing by in the morning and fix it up.

I told my buddy Richie who was the promoter to let the fire chief know we would have it fixed in the morning.

After a 1am diner run (New Jersey is known for their 24 hour diners) we finally went to my friend Kyle's house and crashed for a few hours.  At around 9am my bandmates, myself, Kyle, Richie, and Mel all got up and went to the firehouse to meet my dad for 10am when he said he would be there.

He was already there in his work van ready to get to work.

My dad hated the music we played, but loved the message as we were a positive youth hardcore/punk band.  He greeted all my friends most of whom had tattoos and piercings and crazy colored hair.  He offered us doughnuts that he picked up on the way then proceeded to get to work.

Once inside he kept insisting that "you kids don't need to stay here and watch me do this. Go to the mall or something."

What's funny is that even though we were all 17 to 22 years old we wanted to hang out with the old balding dude and watch him gut the wall, spackle it up, expediate drying it, and eventually paint it.  We wanted to hear stories of how he would ride his dirt bike around the farm he grew up on when he was our age.  We wanted to just spend time with him.

After a few hours of watching him work he ordered pizza for us and by 2pmish the job was complete.  He had fixed the giant hole and literally made it look brand new.

I wish I had more of the pictures from that day, but sadly that was before smart phones and I could only find this one actual picture of me and my dad as he was drying the spackel.

I wish I had the picture of all of us in front of the hole in wall doing the metal sign and my dad attempting to do it (If memory serves correctly he did the hang loose sign instead).

Such a fun day!!!

The previous night was pretty fun too...but I won't get into all that.

Looking back at some of the pictures from those days was a lot of fun.  Oh 1999 and early 2000s you were so kind to my hairline. Lol!!! Maybe I shouldn't have ruined you with blonde hair dye, giant spiked hair, bandanas and beanies.

I was thinking about not showing any baseball cards today, but to tie in with my story about my dad is this Crawdad 25 year anniversary card from last year.  Last year the Hickory Crawdads (now a Texas Rangers affiliate) released a 25 card set showing off the best players to come through the Crawdads over the team's existence.  Included were a bunch of Pirates and Rangers and of course Cutch made the cut.

The front of the card is a throwback image to when the player was a member of the Crawdads.

The back features the stats of the player while a Crawdad along with what the player accomplished in the majors.

The set has a border that features the multiple logos the team has used during it's history.

Some TriStar parallels

I am having so much fun going back through and looking at all the cards I have in my collection as I am begining to sort and scan and eventually upload to my site.

I completely forgot how many base cards 2005 Topps Update cards I had of Cutch including 4 Golds!

Among all the Bowman Heritage and Topps cards I came across a few TriStar minor league cards.

Cutch was never one of the big hobby names while in the minors despite getting ranked as high as #13 on Baseball America's Top Prospect lists prior to 2007.  While in the minors "prospecters" were going crazy for Brandon Wood, Andy LaRoche, Justin Upton, Travis Snider, and Jay Bruce.  Guys like Cutch and Kershaw were largely ignored.

Back in the mid 2000s the Bowman prospecting craze with 18 different color parallels hadn't started yet.  There was no such thing as a bubble refractor or carbon fiber refractor 1st year Bowman card.

There was a draft pick card in Update, some Bowman Heritage draft pick cards, one Bowman card with only 4 different parallels,  Just Minor, and TriStar products.

More competition and less products.  What a simpler time it was....

I found two TriStar cards I own of Cutch while a member of the A ball affiliate Hickory Crawdads (more on them tomorrow).  They include the green parallel to 50 copies and the base.

I also own a trio of TriStar cards from his days with the Altoona Curve.

These include the Green (/25), Reflective (Foil Refractor not numbered), and base.

These make some pretty unique minor league cards of the player actually wearing their minor league uniform.   I always prefer minor league cards to airbrushed affiliate cards for players who haven't made their debut.

To put into perspective, Charlie Hayes' son Ke'Bryan Hayes, has reached AA Altoona Curve and currently has 409 different cards including 1/1s.  That is a little bit crazy....just a little.

Trouble with the Curve?

Congratulations to the Pirates AA team, Altoona Curve on their Eastern League Championship.  Top prospect Mitch Keller dominated the playoffs.

I wasn't able to see any of the playoffs games this year, but vividly remember the Curve winning the Championship in 2010.  I was in Trenton when they won the Championship lead by efforts of Justin Wilson, Rudy Owens, Josh Harrison, Chase d'Arnaud, and Andrew Lambo.

The young group of men playing for the Curve look like future big leaguers and should make the Pirates position depth very good beginning as early as next year and beyond.

Of all the players on the team I am pulling for the most is former 1st Round Pick, Cole Tucker.  If anyone has some Tucker cards they wouldn't mind giving up, I will happily take them off your hands.

I love to chase down early Cutch minor league cards.  I have quite a few and would like to add some more.

Above are all my Andrew McCutchen cards in an Altoona Curve outfit.

Here are a few of the Curve Stadium Give away figures and bobbleheads I have gotten over the years.

Out of this World Bobblehead

MVP bobblehead

OYO figure

There is one more Cutch Curve bobblehead that I need in a standard batting pose.

Here's a few others I have though

Tony "Elementary" Watson bobblehead

Starling "Martay Partay" bobblehead

The Shark Tank Bullpen (Hughes, Watson, Wilson)

The Curve's marketing department has really upped their game in terms of SGAs over the past few seasons.  Other notable figures include a Gerrit Cole Garden Gnome (on my desk at work)
Along with these that I don't own
 Jordy Mercer "Lloyd Christmas"
Jameson get your "Suit and Taillon"
Josh "Need more cow-" Bell
Gregory "El Coffee Barista" Polanco