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?

Elf Week: Son of a Nutcracker

If you're a human who thinks he's an elf that grew up in the North Pole living with nothing but cheer and merry days, you likely wouldn't curse even when things don't go according to plan.

Instead you say "Son of a Nutcracker"

John recommended this quote and I have to admit I was stumped trying to find a card featuring son or nutcracker.

It wasn't until I was putting away one of my binders containing base cards that I noticed I had a Nuts For You bobblehead from Andrew's Altoona Curve days.

It may be a stretch, but NutsForYou is a family run business (thus the son of a nutcracker).  They sponsored this bobblehead as a giveaway in 2013.

 The bobblehead features Cutch at the plate wearing his Altoona Curve jersey

 Cutch wore #10 for the Curve.

Here are a few of my other bobbleheads and oddball figures.

For more information about Nuts For You visit their website here.

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.

The Learning Curve

I was so happy to read everyone's response and comments about my two most recent posts.  It helped solidify that I am doing the right thing.

There will be a learning curve as I begin to invest my heart and posts into God more on Sundays going forward, but I think the content will be better than just the show and tells I have mostly done since creating the blog.

This Wednesday I will be attending the AA Eastern League All-Star Game in Trenton, NJ.  I am looking forward to it and all the festivities that will be available to enjoy before the game.  Bernie Williams will be playing the National Anthem on his guitar and there is a meet and greet with the All-Stars before the game.  There are a pair of Hall of Famers whose sons were selected as All-Stars (Biggio and Guerrero). 

Cutch made it to AA before turning 20 years old.  This caused him to get ranked 13th best prospect in baseball entering the 2007 season. 

He wasn't selected as an All-Star while in AA because his time was too short there.  If he were selected he would have represented the Altoona Curve. 

I have shown off a few of my minor league cards of Cutch before.

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