The Artist Who Never Gets Credited

I got a chance to learn a few things from photographer Dustin Bradford last week and I'm not sure how much he wants me to reveal, but it was fascinating to learn a bit about the Topps photography process.

Dustin is a photographer who works out of Colorado and has photographed a bunch of cards that occur at Coors Field every year.  His Instagram is loaded with many cards that he has photograohed along with some of his personal collection.  You can view his Instagram by clicking here.

He saw a card of Cutch I had posted from the July 4 2018 game where Cutch was a member of the Giants and they played the Rockies and noted that the photo used was one that he had shot.  I asked him if there were other cards of Cutch that have been produced that he may have shot.  

Well, as it turns out two cards in 2021 were shot by Dustin.

The 1992 Topps design found in 2021 Topps Update as an insert card features an image of Cutch at Coors Field.  You can view the original image at Getty Images here. Cutch went 0 for 4 at the plate in a 12-2 Phillies loss. 

The 2021 Holiday Relic also features an image of Cutch at Coors Field.  The snowman didn't make it into the lineup that day so that got generated in later. 

I asked Dustin if he could sign the pair of cards he photographed and he kindly obliged.  These are only the 2nd and 3rd autographs he has signed, the first being a Ronald Acuna Jr HR card. 

Thanks for honoring my wacky request Dustin.  For those that want to see his photography please visit his Instagram and check out all the awesome images that his eye and skill has transformed into a baseball card.

Have you ever thought about the original images used for baseball cards?  

What are some of your favorite images captured on baseball cards? 

Mine is the Kevin Mitchell 1987 Topps

Delays, delays, and more delays

We have seen many delays occur over the past few years due to the COVID 19 pandemic that struck in 2020.  

When the pandemic initially hit there were delays with nearly everything.  Panini even made a toilet paper parallel in 2021 Optic to aknowledge the craziness that occurred. 

We continue to see shipping delays occur two years later.  

In the past few months of 2022 we have seen Topps finally distribute two products originally intended for 2021.

Up first is the 2021 Big League Baseball

This product was originally scheduled prior to the All Star Break 2021, but kept getting delayed until it finally came out in the late winter months of 2022.

I've collected most of this rainbow by getting the base, rainbow foil, blue, and orange.  There is a black parallel /15 that I just won an auction for coming my way eventually. 

It is odd to see 2022 cards feature Cutch in a Phillies uniform and I've discussed my disdain for that already. I am a sucker for these kid friendly products like Big League Baseball though.  I will definitely try to get the 1/1 red foil and the /25 blue foil.

2021 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary is another recent product released that had an original street date prior to the end of 2021.

Former Miguel Cabrera and hobby shop owner, JT of TripleCrown24 sold me these two cards.  Visit his eBay store here.

This set is loaded with many parallels with lots of shiny refractors to collect.  The set features current and former stars on the 1952 set.  It is a 700 card set and features 14 different parallels to chase.  When the set was initially released it had 33 parallels announced. 

Have you purchased cards of either of these set releases this year?

What non cardboard shipping delays are you aware of still going on?

"Just do it!"

For the entire time since I got back into collecting, Majestic was the clothing manufacturer for MLB uniforms and thus were the logos that card collectors would hope to get their hands on.  

I've shown off some of my Majestic logo cards in the past.

For those that may forget what some of those Majestic logo cards looked like, here is a recap.

2012 National Treasures autograph 

Nike bought the exclusive right to manufacture MLB uniforms for the 2020 season, which meant eventually we would start to see some Nike swoosh logos pop up on cards. 

Earlier this year I picked up this 2021 Five Star 1/1 Nike Swoosh logo with on card autograph.  

If you follow me on Twitter you've seen this with my MLB Logoman of the same design.  The laundry tag is available on eBay, but it seems the seller isn't willing to budge on his $500 asking price. 

I haven't bought any of the new Nike jerseys that debuted in 2020.  All mine that I wear around are still the Majestic jerseys.

Have you have bought any jerseys with the Nike logo yet?  If so, do they feel different than the Majestic ones produced?

Besides Michael Jordan, who else do you associate with the Nike brand?

All about that base, bout that base

Only 1 new Andrew McCutchen card has come in this week.  I told you I was slowing down with the Cutch pickups.

It's the base card from 2021 Topps Big League. I got it for less than $2 delivered.  

Last week I got a big lot of Troy Polamalu careds that pushed me near the 100 unique card lot.  I want to concentrate on only the great insert cards like the Kaboom and Downtown cards I showed off in my last post. I want to focus on unique images before I start venturing down the path of chasing parallels with Troy.  Prizm has included Troy in recent years as a legend player and there are over 30 different parallels to chase of that one image.  Some are great looking. Some aren't.  

Here are a few of my recent favorite base cards of Troy I have gotten including a 2003 UD Standing Ovation rookie. 

Hobby Love?

First I want to invite everyone to follow me on Twitter and Instagram if you arent already.  I used to try and post my pickups here almost on a daily basis, but I am using other social media sites to do the "show & tell" type posts and using my blog for more thought provoking posts.  

I will continue to post here as often as possible, but for the most part have been posting daily on IG and Twitter (@CollectingCutch) fairly regularly for new pickups and the "show and tell" type posts.

Thank you all for the loyalty of this blog over the years.

⚾⚾⚾⚾⚾⚾⚾⚾⚾⚾⚾⚾⚾⚾⚾⚾

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine about baseball good versus hobby good versus role model good.

He grew up a diehard Mets fan because of the 1986 team.  I understand that.  The young brash mentality of that team has been well chronicled and many members of that team went on to have roles in film, cartoons, and tv.  That 1986 team had many different types of characters on it and many fans of that team would tell you that one of Strawberry, Gooden, Carter, Hernandez, Dykstra, McDowell, Franco, Mookie were one of their favorite players ever. 

Doc Gooden while nearly unhittable for his first few years in the league was never under serious consideration for the Hall of Fame.  Yet, as proof by the Project 2020 and Project 70 items, Doc is still loved around the hobby and outsiders of the hobby still enjoy his game and cardboard.  Granted Doc Gooden had his issues with substance problems and he may have ruined his chances at baseball immortality in the Hall of Fame due to the character clause, but there is another Doc who had very similar numbers over his career and was a 1st Ballot HOF member and is revered among players and analysts of the game as one of the best ever.

View the Doc comparisons here.

Gooden won only 9 games less and had an ERA difference of 0.13 over his career. Gooden did have slightly more CG and more SHO and more strikeouts while pitching a similar amount of innings.  Gooden gave up fewer hits, but many more walks.  The comparisons of the two Docs is really really close from the traditional stats perspective.  

Halladay doesn't get much hobby love, but got immortalized in the Hall of Fame while Gooden still gets fans collecting his cards despite being dropped from the ballot after only one year.  

We have recently seen the same thing happen with Tim Lincecum, who fell off the ballot after one year, but is still very heavily collected by Giants fans. 

Another curious case are more guys from the 80s like Dale Murphy, Don Mattingly, Darryl Strawberry, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, and Will Clark. Many of these guys fell off the ballot well before the 10-15 year period they were allowed.

In general the 80s are very under represented in the HOF, yet some of these guys have the most loyal fan base collectors in the hobby.  There are entire Facebook groups dedicated to collecting these players. 

Of course guys like Bonds and Clemens have the accolades to be in the HOF, but the steroid issues kept them out by the writers ballots.

Let's look at Darryl Strawberry.  He was an 8 time All Star, but finished his career with only 1,401 career hits and a .259 batting average. Eric Davis another 80s star had slightly more hits, more SB, higher average, but less HR than Strawberry and gets very little hobby love from what I have seen.  Yet their style of play on the field was similar and they played in the same era.  

Then you can take a player like Steve Finley who blew them both away in terms of traditional stats and he gets no hobby love in modern sets besides maybe 1 brand making him an autograph subject a year.  For a guy with over 300 career HR, over 300 career SB, and over 2,500 career hits his prices are dirt cheap. 

Why is it some players are so well loved in the hobby and others are neglected?  

Is it really because the 1986 Mets were that much loved over the 1990 Reds or 2001 Diamondbacks?

Why do Mark McGwire, Will Clark, and Don Mattingly get all the hobby love from collectors of the 90s, but first basemen like Mark Grace, John Olerud, and Tino Martinez (besides AJ of Lost Collector) of the 90s not get the same love?

As McCutchen is entering the twilight of his career with likely just a few years left before he retires, I am wondering if he will be one of those guys that gets heavily collected still post career or will he be one of those guys that gets no hobby love and few people collect his cards from what once looked like a promising Hall of Fame career.  

Here is a fairly recent pickup for my collection that features a few guys that get above average hobby love (Mike Trout, Aaron Judge, Kris Bryant, Andrew McCutchen).  

How many of them will get immortalized in the Hall of Fame?  Only time will tell...

And here is a card that features a guy that despite winning 2 MVPs before 30, I feel is undervalued in the hobby.

Bryce Harper will likely be a Hall of Famer when he retires despite not being an All Star since 2018.  His rookie card prices compared to prospects is still very undervalued.  Rhys will likely be one of those guys that is a fan favorite, but doesn't get much hobby love.  Alec Bohm may have redeemed himself a little after yesterday's comments.  The book is still very open on him, but he will need to start performing if the Philly Phaithful are to ever demand more his card prices. 

Feel free to leave your comments below and let me know if you follow any supercollectors of guys who likely will not be in the Hall of Fame (any Social Media accounts welcomed as I have started to post on Instagram and Twitter more frequently)

Building the Dynasty from Cutch's former teams

Andrew McCutchen had played for 4 teams over his 13 season career through 2021. 

He has played 1,761 games and has amassed 1,826 career hits which includes a shortened 2019 (injury) and 2020 (COVID) seasons.

Before Cutch's 1st regular season game with the Brewers, I thought it would be fun to look at the best team I can put together using only players from the Pirates, Giants, Yankees, and Phillies.  

I am doing this because I have collected an autograph of Cutch representing each team he has been on via 2021 Topps Dynasty.  Topps Dynasty is a beautiful set. On card autographs, big chunky patches, one touch cases, what's not to love????

This will be a fun exercise, but to avoid putting a roster full of mostly just Yankees All Time Greats though I am making some rules.

I can only select 1 player from that team equal to the number of seasons (even if they weren't full seasons) for each team that Cutch played for. This means that Cutch's 25 games with the Yankees during the 2018 season limits me to select only 1 Yankee to be on my roster because he only played for that team in one season.

My 13 player roster must include one player for each position (1B, 2B, SS, 3B, RF, CF, LF, C), SP, and relief pitcher.  That takes up 10 spots on my roster.  I'm also going to include a DH so I don't have to worry about taking out my starting pitcher late in games and the DH is now a universal rule in both leagues.

Now for the real fun, if a player played for same teams that Cutch played for, all teams count.  This means that if I want to use Barry Bonds for Left Field because he played for the Pirates, I can't use any other players who played for the Giants, so Willie Mays and Willie Mccovey are both out because Bonds played for the Giants and Pirates.  I will have to be diligent about my selections.

The player I select can not have played less games than Andrew did for that team.  This means that if I wanted to use one of the greatest second baseman of all time, Ryne Sandberg, and claim him as a Phillie, I can't.  Cutch played 260 games for the Phillies and Sandberg appeared in only 13 games for the Phillies. 

So here's how the maximum number of players per team will breakdown equal to the number of seasons Cutch played with them.

9 Pirates

1 Giants

1 Yankees

3 Phillies

With a team having to consist of so many Pirates, I wanted to look at the All Time Greats, especially those that played their entire careers with the Pirates.

Let's look at the guys who have statues outside PNC Park first

RF Roberto Clemente

SS Honus Wagner

1B/LF Willie Stargell

2B Bill Mazeroski

That's a good start to the team.  It takes care of my basic infield and a key spot in the lineup with Clemente being a middle of order guy and a perennial gold glove winner.  I will circle back to the Pirates after I knock out some more obvious choices

For the Giants there is only one player I want

The greatest player of All Time

CF Willie Mays

If you wish to argue against Mays being the greatest player of all time, I welcome your challenge in the comments below.

The Yankees have such a deep and rich history I could pick anyone from Yogi Berra to Mariano Rivera to Babe Ruth to Lou Gehrig and everyone in between.  So instead I will skip forward to the Phillies.

Let's fill out our infield with the best 3rd Baseman of All Time, Mike Schmidt.

Schmidt won 3 MVPs over his career along with ten Gold Glove Awards.  He is the most beloved player in Phillies franchise history ahead of notable HOF alumni, Steve Carlton. 

Now as far as pitchers go, Steve Carlton would be an obvious choice.  He started nearly 500 games for the Phillies and won 4 Cy Young Awards.  There is one problem though, he played 6 games for the Giants.  This eliminates Carlton from being used as he played for both the Giants and Phillies and played in less games for the Giants than Cutch did.  Sorry Lefty!

Roy Halladay recently had his number retired by the Phillies and won a Cy Young with the club and pitched a no hitter with them in his first post season appearance.  Unfortunately, Doc doesn't qualify because he pitched in less games than Cutch played for the Phillies.  

If I want to use a pitcher it will likely have to be someone with the Yankees (only 25 games played by Cutch in pinstripes) or be a Pirate or Phillies starter who made A LOT of starts. 

It really is a shame that Carlton played those 6 games with San Francisco disqualifying him from this team I am making.

There is one lefty in the Phillies though had a lot of success with the Phillies, more so than Hall of Famer, Robin Roberts.

I am talking about Cole Hamels

294 games started

3.30 ERA

World Series MVP

Nearly 1,900 strikeouts with Phillies

In addition to those stats he had a better ERA+ and a better WHIP than the HOF pitcher Robin Roberts.

Cole's teammates Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, and Ryan Howard could all have a place on my team.  I will have to see how the rest of my roster plays out.  I do have one more Phillies spot left on my roster. 

Catchers are thin in the history of the Pirates, I may have to look at other teams.

Buster Posey, Yogi Berra, and Thurman Munson all come to mind. I can't use Buster if I want to use Mays.  Do I really want to use my only Yankees selection on Yogi Berra?  

The answer is no. I am using my ONLY Yankees selection on the ONLY PLAYER TO BE UNANIMOUSLY elected into the Hall of Fame.  

Enter Sandman!

Mariano Rivera is my closer and my only Yankees selection.  This may be viewed as an odd selection since I only get one player to represent the Yankees.  No one dominated as a reliever quite like Mo.  Sure there are guys like Roy Face that won 18 games out of the bullpen for the Pirates, but if I want to ensure the game is won late in the game, give me Mo.

So here's what I have left to use 

1 Phillies

5 Pirates

And here is my lineup thus far

1B Willie Stargell (can also play LF)

2B Bill Mazeroski

SS Honus Wagner

3B Mike Schmidt

RF Roberto Clemente

CF Willie Mays

SP Cole Hamels

RP Mariano Rivera

I still need a LF, C, and DH

For catcher, I'm going with one of my favorite players of the late 90s and early 2000s, Jason Kendall.  Kendall is one of a handful of catchers with 2,000 career hits at the position and because he played his best years on a terrible Pirates team, he is often very under rated.  He was a 3 time All Star and finished his career with more walks (721) than strikeouts (686).  He had a .366 OBP which is a very high OBP for a catcher, higher than Carter, Fisk, and Bench.

As for LF, I'm going to put Ralph Kiner out there.  Kiner hit 301 HR over 8 seasons with the Pirates and is the only player to lead the league in HR for 7 straight seasons.  Kiner also provides another option at 1B.

As for my DH, I'm going with another slugger, Ryan Howard.  Prior to his 2011 postseason injury, Howard put the league on watch and became the fastest player in MLB history to get to 300 HR.  Dick Allen would be a fallback option with his .902 OPS in Philadelphia.

So how would I put this lineup together?

SS Honus Wagner

RF Roberto Clemente

CF Willie Mays

1B Willie Stargell

LF Ralph Kiner

3B Mike Schmidt

DH Ryan Howard

2B Bill Mazeroski

C Jason Kendall

SP Cole Hamels

RP Mariano Rivera

At first glance I was going to move Schmidt higher in the lineup but wanted to split up all the right handed bats (Wagner, Clemente, Mays, Kiner) so I threw Stargell into the cleanup spot.  The amount of HR power the 3-7 spots have without a single Yankee is mind blowing.  

Kendall can restart the lineup from the 9 hole and act as another leadoff option if needed. 

Do you agree with my selections?

How would you put together a roster using a max of 9 Pirates, 3 Phillies, 1 Yankees, 1 Giants? 

Enter The Multiverse

Now that Spider-Man: No Way Home is available for digital download I thought it would be fun to discuss the multiverse of card collecting.

If you are into the Marvel movies, go watch Spider-Man: No Way Home!!!

It's Amazing (no pun intended)

It's no secret that Topps and Panini have been pumping out dozens of parallels over the past few years.  Sometimes they may look similar to one another, but very often there are bold enough color changes that you can tell a magenta speckled from the standard pink refractor

 or differiante the lime green donut circles from the forest green flash variants.  

Every now and then though they release these variants (Loki reference) that look a lot like the original.

Right before the holiday season I was able to grab a pair of Superfractors that look nearly identical.

These Superfractors look nearly identical, right?

Well, if you turn them over you will see the only difference of these 1/1s.

One is the standard Topps Chrome Update Superfractor and the other is the Topps Chrome Update Sapphire Superfractor.

We are probably all familar with Topps releasing value boxes that contain a chrome pack with their Update release each year.  These Topps Update Chrome parallels are often very sought after as they were produced in very limited supply.  

Topps has been making a product called Topps Sapphire since 2016 and has recently made a Topps Update Sapphire addition as well.  Oddly enough this Topps Update Sapphire edition doesn't always follow the same numbering as your standard Topps Update set or Topps Update Chrome edition.  

All these parallels and multiple issues are getting tough to keep up with. 

Do you think Fanatics will continue the parallel trend that Topps and Panini has been building upon over the past few years? 

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.

Serial History: Reflecting on getting old

As I was going through my boxes of Cutch cards I discovered a bunch of low numbered autographs that I never showed off.  Trust me when I say there's a lot that still need to be shown here (literally over a hundred autographs of Cutch have never been shown on this blog before)

The card dated below is dated with today's date (2/25), but it also made me realize that I am getting old as it features a familar Topps design, one that I was very excited about when it first debuted.

It's hard to believe that this card design for Stadium Club is now over 3 decades old (31 years old).  I'm getting old!!!!

Let's reflect back on the world of 1991

Barry Bonds had only hit 142 of his 762 career homeruns* This past December, he reached his final 10th year of eligibility on the Hall of Fame ballot.

The United States was in the middle of Operation Desert Storm/Shield by fighting in the Gulf War.

OJ Simpson was a broadcaster for football games

Pogs and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were popular among boy's toys. 

Only the 3rd season of The Simpsons was starting (33 previous episodes existed of the 700+ currently produced)

The Florida/Miami Marlins, Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks, Tampa Bay Devil Rays all hadn't come to exist yet.

Do you feel old yet? 

What other memories do you have of 1991?

Down for the count...

Everything happens for a reason.

That's what I always say.  Well, I don't always say it, but I am a strong believer of it.

I enjoy working and I enjoy overtime and I enjoy spending my overtime money on baseball cards.

Unfortunately what I don't enjoy doing anymore is rummaging through the collection and I certainly don't enjoy updating my spreadsheet with my Cutch cards I own.

That may all change as I recently injured my achilles and am awaiting to see a orthopedic to find out if its a tear or just strained. I'm out of work for at least two weeks and will be having a lot of free time on my hands with limited mobility.

This seems like a good time to get those spreadsheets updated.

I should also be able to take some pictures of my cards that I've acquired over the past year(s) that I never showed off here.  

One such card is this 2021 Topps Stadium Club image variation.  I picked this up late summer and it is an absolutely fantastic image variant action shot of Cutch sliding into a base.

The Cutch Cave will have to be put on hold due to my limited availability of walking and using tools. I will at the very least try to take a picture of the progress with it. 

National Wear Red Day, A Yearly Tradition

Over the past couple years I have had a tradition of showing off red baseball cards the first Friday of February.  You can revisit all those posts here.  The reason I do this is to bring awareness to women heart disease.  

I will continue the theme of showing off some nice red parallels, but first...a reminder to please wear red today to support the movement.

Visit heart.org to help make a contribution.  They set out a goal of $3 million this year and as of Friday morning are falling well short of it as they have only raised just over $100K.

Now for the best red parallel baseball card in my collection that I have picked up over the past few months

2021 Topps Now Game Used Base and (on card) autograph celebrating Cutch's 250th career home run. The card is numbered out of only 10 copies (mine being number 2)

This is a very recent pickup and it was shipped by COMC within a week.

Shocking, right?

That is the 2021 Topps Triple Threads Triple Relic patch Ruby parallel numbered 1/1 featuring relics of Cutch, Bryce Harper, and Rhys Hoskins

You guys like bling?

Ben Baller does

And Ben Baller Did The Card for this 2021 Topps Chrome Ben Baller edition red parallel limited to 5

How about some autographs signed in red ink?

2021 Heritage High Number limited to 72 copies and 2021 Diamond Icons limited to 25 copies

And to finish things off I have a 2021 Topps Archives Red Hot 🔥 parallel limited to 50 copies

That's all for now.

Again please go visit ❤ heart.org ❤ and make a contribution if you're able to today.

Don't forget to wear your red!

Do you want to build a snowman?

The Topps Holiday release is one of my favorite each year.  It makes for a very fun rip and provides lots of joy along with a guarantee hit per box.  

It's nice to know that some parents rip these boxes with their kids and help bring younger generations into the hobby.  

For me, I just want those Andrew McCutchen cards though.  

Cutch had a base card, base metallic, Christmas tree ornament, snowman relic, hat relic, and hat relic autograph in the release.  I've manage to snag all the cards I needed and when that wasn't enough I set my eye towards making unofficial rainbows of the jersey relics.

Often times the jersey relics included in products like this, Topps flagship, Topps Heritage, and Allen & Ginter include plain jersey swatches.  

Sometimes there are so many jersey swatches for a player that they begin to "cut" into other jerseys to provide variety for the release.  

I've shown this off before with my Allen & Ginter Jersey rainbow.

Well, now it's time for 2021 Topps Holiday Wal Mart mega boxes to have the rainbow relic chase.

Pictured above are a jersey swatch from the baby blue throwback uniforms worn by the Phillies, a pin stripe home jersey, and a plain swatch from a home jersey.

Do you chase after different looking relics of the same card?

A long overdue Thank You

Because of moving and storage I didn't post much in 2021.  Along the way there were a few gifts that got overlooked.

Ray from All Cardinals All the Time sent me a 3 card random act of kindness over the summer and they were all 2021 Topps Chrome needs for the collection.

The prism refractors are absolutely beautiful. 

This is the base card from 2021 Topps Chrome.

My favorite though is the 2021 Topps Chrome sepia refractor.  The old time looking photo with new technology really make the etching on the card stand out.  It is just a great looking baseball card.

Another act of kindness came via Fuji who sent my girlfriend and I a case of Cactus Cooler, a drink that she loves that we can't find in NJ. 

I forgot to take a picture of it so the above image is a stock photo from Google.

Last, but certainly not least is a card that blew me away.  One of my followers on Twitter sent me this amazing one of a kind 1/1 from 2021 Topps Sterling

If you use Twitter please give Chris a follow @ItsRuffles318

Thanks to everyone who has followed the blog throughout the year despite not daily content.

can't you read?

I am so sick and tired of Topps lack of quality control and fact checking on the back of their baseball cards.

If it's for a low end, print on demand product where they have to create the card and get it to the presses within 24 hours, I can almost understand it.

But when you're talking about a product line like Topps Dynasty where the cards are produced with big chunky patches and a nearly $600 per card price tag attached, I expect higher quality control.

Topps Dynasty is a beautiful set with 1 card per box release.  Andrew had only appeared in the 2018 release prior to the most recent 2021 release.  

His 2021 release features cards of him in the four uniforms he had played with this far into his career: Pirates, Phillies, Yankees, and Giants.

I set out to get one example of each variation and have gotten the 1/1 for his Yankees card along with images for Phillies and Giants.

I was EXTREMELY disappointed to learn that one of Cutch's most defining moments in his career was being mislead on the back of the card.

The front of the card features a great image of Cutch in his Giants gear, on card autograph, and a large chunky S from the Giants sleeve patch.  It of course is housed inside a One Touch magnetic with the Topps Dynasty sticker holding the case together.

The back, while a nice design, is riddled with errors.

Cutch's "Dynastic Deed" occurred on April 7th, 2018 NOT April 8th.  I know this very well because I have the foul ball that was hit just before his epic walkoff blast.

It makes no mention that the walkoff was a home run.

While still early into his Giants career, it was the 7th game that Cutch wore the black and orange NOT the 3rd.  

Do you ever notice inaccurate statements on the backs of baseball cards?  What are some that you've noticed of your favorite players?

You Got Wash?

My girlfriend Danielle lost a significant member of her family yesterday as her grandmother passed away suddenly from complications with pneumonia and congestive heart failure.

Over the course of the summer her grandparents took us in while we battled the housing market trying to get a house we could call our own home.  

It wasn't easy as we had boxed up our entire lives into a pair of closets and a storage unit, but those few months gave us time to save up for this new house.  We worked hard to get there and are really excited for our new place.

Of course Danielle has many more memories of her grandmother than I will ever have because her grandparents practically help raise her after her parents divorced.  I spent several lunches talking to her grandmother and grandfather over this summer about how they always brought Danielle everywhere they went when she was much younger.  It was fun to hear these stories of what a little trouble maker she was especially with her cousin.

Gram had life down to a series of repetitions that made it easy for her to still do everything for herself and others in her late 80s.  She also had a series of phrases that her sweet caring voice echoed practically daily.

"Help yourself"

That was a phrase I heard six days a week before I left for work.  She would be watching TV, pause it to say goodbye to me and point from her same spot on the couch towards the garage area where she housed snacks and sodas.  There were always tiny bags of chips and a soda ready for me to take on the long hour and half commute before work each day.  Every day I was blessed with the care of a snack for the long road ahead.

I began working 3rd shifts this year for less aggravation at work so when it was 8am and she spotted me in the kitchen she would let out the tiniest little startled gasp "oh. What are you doing up? Don't you have to go to sleep soon?"  This also was almost a daily occurrence.  I would repeat to her the same thing every time. "I'm normally up until about 10 Gram, then I go to sleep. Do you need anything?" "Oh no no. I'm good".  

It wasn't one no.

It was two. 

She wanted me to be very much aware that she didn't need any help and not to disrupt her routine.

But my favorite nearly daily occurrence was the phrase "You got wash?"  I'll be the first to admit it, we got spoiled living there.  You see Gram liked to still be active around the house and that meant keeping a very clean organized house.  The washer and dryer were used daily.  I usually let it build up for a few days then do laundry.  Not Gram though.  She wanted laundry done every 24 hours it seemed.  48 or 72 hours?  That got her itchy to throw something of mine in the washer.  When I would attempt to do it myself she would say, just leave it to which I would reply "I can do it."  This was usually followed by her sense of sarcasm by saying "No no. The machine does all the work. Go go."  

Again, not one.

TWO nos

Stubborn and convincing

Caring and optimistic.

That was Gram.

Typing these words is incredibly hard as I know these memories that I have from briefly living there are just that now; Memories.

I will miss the simple routine she laid out for each day.  After a half mini Portuguese roll it was time to make the bed and watch the news.  I can't believe she's gone so suddenly.

I am blessed to have shared some of these moments with her and I am happy that we got a chance to show her our new house on Christmas Eve before we started moving things over.  She kept telling Danielle and myself "you guys are going to be really happy here" and proclaimed over and over how happy she was about us getting a home that checked off all the boxes for what we wanted in our first home together. 

I'm happy that we got to have Christmas dinner together and share in some laughs and fun times even though we couldn't save the green bean casserole from being an absolute disaster of a dish.

Most importantly I'm happy for the way she helped raise Danielle into being such an amazing and awesome companion that I get to go on this life journey with.  

We will miss you Gram.

I contemplated not showing any cards in this post and was typing up this testament to her just to keep my mind full of all these good memories, but my dad came over today to help paint some interior trim for us and I have to say, even if you aren't religious, God most definitely works in ways that just seem to show HIS presence.

After we closed on the house I said to myself that I wanted to treat myself to a key card for my collection and I had one eBay purchase shipped to my dad's house.  I did this because I wasn't sure if we would finally be moved in or not yet.  When he handed me the bubble mailer it came in and said "you got a package sent to my place yesterday" I had to chuckle when I opened it knowing what was inside.

Of course the first day of Gram being gone I get a package in the mail containing a 1/1 Andrew McCutchen Laundry Tag booklet card.

Yes Gram, I have wash.