Happy Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day

Here are some Mother's Day parallels from Donruss and Topps

Only 145 more days until October 1st

(Belated) Congrats LA Dodgers Fans

I know it's a week late, but every November 2nd post is filled with these as I always continue my Save Second Base uninterrupted then do a recap.

In case you didn't know already the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Tampa Bay Rays to win the 2020 World Series.  

Today I will show cards of Andrew McCutchen with players of the Dodgers. 

Let's begin with the legendary pitcher and longest tenured Dodger, Clayton Kershaw.

In 39 at bats, Cutch owns a .282/.317/.436 slash line against the 3 time Cy Young winner.  He does have 1HR against Kershaw.

These Face 2 Face inserts are pretty neat even for an unlicensed product. 

Above is a Boxtopper from 2015 Topps Heritage.  It is based on the 1966 Topps design.

This is a nice quad relic card of some former MVP winners all on one card.  

Above is an even nicer relic featuring 9 of the best players at each position for the past decade.  It features Kershaw, Posey, Abreu, Cano, Cabrera, Tulowitzki, Stanton, McCutchen, and Trout.  I think it's a little silly that they put Cabrera at 3B because around the year this card was made that's where he was playing for a season due to Prince Fielder playing 1B for the Tigers.

Now I will show off some former Dodgers and how they impacted the current World Series Champs.

Safe to say the Mookie Betts trade to Los Angeles finally helped push LA into winning the World Series?  Well the former AL MVP Betts, came to the Dodgers from Boston along with David Price in a trade that sent Alex Vertigo and Jeter Downs to Boston. 

Price didn't play the 2020 season, but I think it was his large salary that helped make the trade of Betts possible as it allowed the Red Sox to reset the luxury tax cap hit.  Price is still technically a part of the 2020 World Series Champions.

But how did Jeter Downs, a former Cincinnati Reds prospect end up in the Dodgers organization to begin with?  Well, the Dodgers got Downs, Josiah Gray, and Homer Bailey from the Reds in exchange for long time tenured Dodgers mainstays Yasiel Puig and Matt Kemp.  I have a lot of Kemp and Puig cards paired up with Cutch.

Let's first look at Kemp.

I always liked Matt Kemp and his early 2010s skill set.

He possessed a fun energy with a rare power speed combo in the early 2010s. 

This made him a Perennial All-Star.

I also have the 1/1 booklet.

Greg of the blog  Night Owl wrote of these Team Pinnacle cards when I gifted them to him as part of his Secret Santa gift a few years back.

Hey Shane Victorino was a Dodger at one point too.

And now, the Wild Horse, Yasiel Puig.

The only type of cards I have of Puig with Cutch are the 2014 Topps Update All Star Stitches triple jersey cards all numbered to 25 copies.

In addition to Cutch and Puig appearing on all three of these cards there are appearances of Carlos Gomez, Josh Harrison, and Giancarlo Stanton as well.

Were it not for the trade of Puig and Kemp to the Reds, the Dodgers wouldn't have had Jeter Downs in their system.  The Dodgers may have been able to still work out a deal to acquire Mookie Betts and David Price from Boston.  History was written with the Dodgers getting Betts and history tells us the trade of Puig and Kemp to the Reds helped make it happen. 

Another long tenured Dodgers player that finally got a ring is Joc Pederson.  You may recall the Dodgers tried to ship him off in the off-season, but the deal that saw him become a member of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim was ultimately reversed.  Joc stayed with the Dodgers and hit a memorable homer in Game 5 of the World Series (his fifth career World Series Homerun).  In limited play in the World Series, Joc went 4 for 10 at the plate.  His team mates all commented on how he elevates his game when on the biggest stage.

In 2015, he was on a pretty big stage too as he had made it to the Home Run Derby Finals as a rookie.  He also made his first All-Star Game that year.  Topps, as you can see above, captured the outfield of Bryce Harper, Joc Pederson, and Andrew McCutchen on an All-Star Stitches Tandem card.

To finish up, let's look at the man who started the Dodgers rally in Game 6 of the World Series.  Tampa Bay Rays starter Blake Snell was cruising with a 1 hit shutout until he gave up a single to Dodgers catcher, Austin Barnes.  We know what happened next as the Rays couldn't Cash in to preserve their 1-0 lead.

You may recall seeing these pink cards from my Save Second Base events of 2019 and 2020 as I have shown off both the flagship (/50) and mini (/25) in the past two years.

I don't think I have shown all of these off though.  

2019 Topps Sapphire Orange (/25), Purple (/10), Red (/5)

2019 Topps Flagship Meijer Purple, Father's Day Blue (/50), and 2019 Topps Mini blue (/10)

I think that covers all my pairings I have of Cutch with players who (somehow) impacted the 2020 World Series Roster.

The New Order!

You may be thinking that the title of this post may have ties to what is going on in the world.

It doesn't. 
I will not get into politics on this blog. 

Instead it is the first thing I thought of when I was grabbing some cards to scan in. 

Nothing but blue cards.

On a Monday.

You could say it's a Blue Monday.

Tell me, how does it feel...

To treat me like you do...

A few of these cards I have written about wanting for a long time.

I wrote about the 2018 Bowman Holiday Blue card here.  It was a key want card when I redid my Wanted List last December.

And I have recently written several posts showing off the 2019 Austin Barnes card which features a Cutch cameo here.  I now have the Father's Day Blue to go with the mini blue I showed off less than 2 weeks ago.

And I just mentioned a few days ago about needing to up my Charlie Morton game in 2020.

And on Saturday I showed my Gold Medal blue parallel I needed to complete the rainbow excluding 1/1s, pictured below.

I have been getting a lot of blue parallels in the mail between my COMC shipment from April and some recent eBay purchases.  I also have gotten 3 new pink cards to show for October.

My Mini Dodger Collection Gets a Nice Blue Addition

I don't collect Dodgers cards.

I don't even really have a lot of players on the Dodgers I like.

I do collect Andrew McCutchen cameo cards and that has lead me to save "Austin Barnes 2019 Topps" as a favorite in my daily eBay searches.

I am starting to get a nice "mini collection" of Dodgers cards with a Cutch cameo going and this card is the best example of it.

It is literally a mini that I added.

This 2019 Topps Mini is the blue parallel.  It is numbered to only 10 copies just under the Topps foil logo.  Blue parallels and Dodgers cards go really well together.

I also have the pink mini in hand which I will save for my October Event I do annually. 

I have also picked up the red parallel (numbered to only 5) but don't have it in hand yet due to all the COMC complications.

Do you have any PCs that involve a cameo of a player, team, logo?  Leave a comment down below.

A Purple Gem Is Added

I have shown off a few of the 2019 Topps Austin Barnes card and yesterday I discussed the game that the card was from (arguably one of Cutch's greatest single game performances).

I am continuing to seek out any of the parallels for this card.

Yesterday I got a big one in the form of 2019 Sapphire purple.

The purple parallel is numbered to only 10 copies.

Cardboard Cameos: Something New and Shiny

Chris from The Collector clued me into this card even existing back in August of last year.  I was completely unaware of McCutchen appearing in a Giants uniform on a Dodgers card on a cardboard release the year that McCutchen played for the Phillies.  I am forever grateful that he pointed it out.

I am VERY SLOWLY trying to put this rainbow together.  I wanted to knock out my favorites first.

So I grabbed the pink and mini pink to use for my SaveSecondBase Event I do annually. 

I am now going after the Chrome Sapphire cards because that shine is amazing.

This is the orange parallel of 2019 Topps Sapphire numbered to 25 copies.

Thank you again Chris for pointing out this cameo.

Current needs for this card include
Flagship: base, black, fathers day blue, independence day, gold, Montgomery Club, vintage stock, platinum

Mini: Red, base

Sapphire: Superfractor, Red,

Cardboard Cameo: Oh Austin, beeeeeehave

The finish line is in sight.  Thank you all for another fun Save Second Base event.

1 In 8 women will be detected with breast cancer in their life.  Early detection is the key.

Thanks to all the comments made we have met the goal of raising $150 to allow one 1 woman a free mammogram.

With Halloween tomorrow I was looking for some Halloween inspiration and noticed a perfect mix of Devil's Night and Halloween.

Elizabeth Hurley is that perfect mix.

Like a fine wine, she has actually gotten better with age.  Look at that body!

Not sure if it's bedazzling mojo or something else, but it is definitely working.

It seems appropriate to show off a woman who played the Devil tonight since it is Devil's Night.

When she played Satan in the Brandon Frasier comedy Bedazzled she took the phrase "hot" to another level.

It is odd that she played the Devil AFTER playing opposite Michael Myers, a name we all associate with Halloween.

However this Michael Myers was carving up laughs in Austin Powers

Oh Austin, behave...

I want to thank Chris from The Collector for pointing out this cameo appearance.

Anyone know what happened to his blog?  I was enjoying his all time roster series.

In researching the card, I learned that it didn't lead to a catch.

It actually lead to one of Cutch's best games offensively when he went 6 for 7 and hitting a walk off homer in extras

Thanks again to Chris for the tip about this cameo.

I hope you enjoyed this Devil's Day production as we lead into Halloween tomorrow.  Michael Myers will not be making an appearance tomorrow.

However if you say a name 3 times, stranger things will happen.