With all the flaws our country may have, let's celebrate the great things that our country has provided.
Leave a comment below why you love America.
Showing posts with label Independence Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Independence Day. Show all posts
Sunday, July 3, 2022
Let's Celebrate our Independence
The 4th of July is meant to celebrate our independence as a free country.
Sunday, July 4, 2021
Today we celebrate our Independence Day
Since 2018, Topps has been printing Independence Day parallels in their flagship releases.
The above digital format only "card" looks very patriotic.
2018 Topps Series 1
2019 Topps Series 2
2020 Topps Series 2
I have gotten the parallel each year, but so far haven't picked up the lone copy available on the secondary market from 2021 Topps Series 2.
This year's parallel just doesn't do it for me as you can see in the screenshot taken below from an eBay listing.
The stars look nice, but there's just nothing that screams out America Freedom on this design. In previous year's designs there were at least attempts at showing off not only the stars, but also the stripes of our great country. This year, nothing.
I do like the Topps Bunt app Independence Day cards though.
Let's look at the flagship parallels year by year and you can all comment below which is your favorite.
2021 Topps Series 2 (not in my possession)
In addition to discussing your favorite year for the Independence Day parallel, leave a comment below how you plan to spend your 4th of July.
Friday, December 11, 2020
USA Looking to the UK
Coronavirus has changed the way the entire world has operated in 2020.
Many of us know someone that has been impacted by it. Some of us may even know someone who may have passed away from it.
The United States is mere days away from a vaccine and I don't want this to get political, but the United States will continue to monitor the United Kingdom very closely to see the reactions caused by the COVID-19 vaccine.
I mentioned a few days ago that I didn't understand why Topps needed to make the Topps UK product.
That didn't stop me from adding 3 cards to my collection though. I already showed the base and the blue parallels.
Because I didn't need to get all of the parallels I focused on just adding the one that really stood out to me as a unique parallel. The Big Ben parallel is the most unique of all the Topps UK product. It is based on the Elizabeth Tower, formerly known as Big Ben. The tower was officially completed in 1859 and is one of the most iconic buildings in the world.
I had to add it to the collection, because unlike the gold, blue, or purple parallels actually has a connection to the United Kingdom.
It features a red and white colored design to go with the iconic building.
It is very similar to the Independence Day parallels that Topps Flagship has been doing since 2018.
What do you think of these two parallels?
Should the Big Ben have had a numbering relevant to the tower? Maybe 12 to mark the name change to Elizabeth Tower or 59 to recognize the year the tower was completed.
Monday, June 29, 2020
#TipYourCap2020
Today, thousands of people paid tribute to the century mark of the Negro Leagues being formed. From generational athletes like Ken Griffey Jr and Michael Jordan to former presidents Barack Obama, George Bush, and Bill Clinton to late night host Conan O'Brien and many many more celebrities across Twitter their caps were tipped for the Negro Leagues using the #TipYourCap2020
Andrew McCutchen began tipping his cap to his wife Maria after every homerun he hits because he saw it in the Jackie Robinson movie, 42.
Topps has captured the moment on the 2018 Series 1 card.
I thought I would show off a trio of cards to reflect on the Negro Leagues that were created and that helped pave the way for Jackie Robinson to eventually break the color barrier and started what should have been equal rights for people of all races.
Jackie was the first black player to play in MLB and suffered a lot of backlash and animosity in his playing career.
At his Hall of Fame induction speech he made a comment that he would be most happy when he could eventually see a black person managing a team.
It was clear that the Negro Leagues paved the way for Jackie and Jackie paved the way for managers like Frank Robinson and Dusty Baker.
It is also clear that in today's world there is still negative racism and we must work together to end it.
We can be the change we wish to see in the world, but it starts with all colors uniting.
Andrew McCutchen began tipping his cap to his wife Maria after every homerun he hits because he saw it in the Jackie Robinson movie, 42.
Topps has captured the moment on the 2018 Series 1 card.
I thought I would show off a trio of cards to reflect on the Negro Leagues that were created and that helped pave the way for Jackie Robinson to eventually break the color barrier and started what should have been equal rights for people of all races.
Jackie was the first black player to play in MLB and suffered a lot of backlash and animosity in his playing career.
At his Hall of Fame induction speech he made a comment that he would be most happy when he could eventually see a black person managing a team.
It was clear that the Negro Leagues paved the way for Jackie and Jackie paved the way for managers like Frank Robinson and Dusty Baker.
It is also clear that in today's world there is still negative racism and we must work together to end it.
We can be the change we wish to see in the world, but it starts with all colors uniting.
Wednesday, May 13, 2020
Is This Even a Baseball Card?
This post was partially inspired by Sport Card Collectors' box break of 1995 Topps Stadium club.
I love baseball cards. I grew up collecting baseball cards and using all my allowance, birthday, and Christmas money from 1987-1993 on just baseball cards. 1993-1995 saw me add football, basketball, and comics to the group.
I remember getting 10-15 cards in a single pack of cards just enjoying looking for singles of my favorite players.
I lost focus on card collecting around 1996 until about 2009. I still followed sports, but wasn't into collecting much anymore.
In 2010 I came back to the hobby and have been going strong ever since, but it wasn't until I was showing images of my Andrew McCutchen collection to a coworker that I got to thinking "Is this really a baseball card?"
Baseball cards (or any collectible cards) based on perception should be able to fit into a 9 pocket page and stuck in a binder.
Many of the hits these days can't do that.
Many of today's products wouldn't dare do something like that.
2020 Topps Definitive is on absolute fire 🔥 🔥 🔥 right now. Individual boxes are selling for $1,600-$2,000 a box.
Each box contains only 8 cards. I plan to eventually get a McCutchen pinstripe Phillies relic from the release, but prices are super high for a plain white swatch numbered to 50 copies.
The above green parallel is numbered to only 15 copies, features a great patch, features a Pirates jersey, and the color is bold.
When I show cards like that to non hobby people though, the consensus is "that's what a baseball card looks like now"?
Look at the thickness of this card compared to a standard flagship card.
Now look at the design of the card
It looks radically different than traditional cardboard.
Hits like this don't even have set numbers.
The landscape of trading cards has transformed drastically in the past 30 years.
Where do you think the hobby will be 30 years from today?
I love baseball cards. I grew up collecting baseball cards and using all my allowance, birthday, and Christmas money from 1987-1993 on just baseball cards. 1993-1995 saw me add football, basketball, and comics to the group.
I remember getting 10-15 cards in a single pack of cards just enjoying looking for singles of my favorite players.
I lost focus on card collecting around 1996 until about 2009. I still followed sports, but wasn't into collecting much anymore.
In 2010 I came back to the hobby and have been going strong ever since, but it wasn't until I was showing images of my Andrew McCutchen collection to a coworker that I got to thinking "Is this really a baseball card?"
Baseball cards (or any collectible cards) based on perception should be able to fit into a 9 pocket page and stuck in a binder.
Many of the hits these days can't do that.
Many of today's products wouldn't dare do something like that.
Each box contains only 8 cards. I plan to eventually get a McCutchen pinstripe Phillies relic from the release, but prices are super high for a plain white swatch numbered to 50 copies.
The above green parallel is numbered to only 15 copies, features a great patch, features a Pirates jersey, and the color is bold.
When I show cards like that to non hobby people though, the consensus is "that's what a baseball card looks like now"?
Look at the thickness of this card compared to a standard flagship card.
Now look at the design of the card
Hits like this don't even have set numbers.
The landscape of trading cards has transformed drastically in the past 30 years.
Where do you think the hobby will be 30 years from today?
Wednesday, March 25, 2020
Jeremy Bentham and the LOST Penguin Connection
I am not sure what the rest of the world is doing in this concept of isolation, but I have been rewatching some of my favorite shows I haven't seen in nearly a decade. From Veronica Mars to Lost to The Simpsons, I am on an endless assault of streaming.
One of my favorite shows ever produced is the TV Series Lost. I made sure to watch every single episode each week. The show became a mainstream success and one of the best "water cooler" shows to talk about each week.
Without giving away any spoilers, the show focused on a group of plane crash survivors and how their lives connected before the crash. There were many great characters featured in the show, but one of the most polarizing figures was that of John Locke played brillaintly by Terry O'Quinn.
In the shows fifth season, Locke was revealed to be named another character, Jeremy Bentham.
To create a Lost style post I decided to make a connection to Locke/Bentham's birthday.
February 15, 1948
There is likely only one blogger I know of who can immediately recognize what baseball player was born on that day.
If you knew it was Ron Cey, congratulations. I'm sure the Night Owl is happy that the former Dodgers 3rd Baseman got a mention on my blog.
Coincidence or maybe it's "The Island's way of controlling things" I sent Night Owl an autograph card of Ron Cey on Mr. Bentham's expired passport (December 17, 2017) date and he received it a few days later.
He posted about it here as it was his Secret Santa package for 2017.
It should be noted that Ron Cey was nicknamed "The Penguin" by his former teammates for the way he waddled around the bases.
On June 13th, 2017 Andrew McCutchen hit a homerun against the Rockies with the recent Stanley Cup Champions, Pittsburgh Penguins, in attendance. The Penguins who clinched the cup just 2 days earlier were there to celebrate with the rest of the city.
Cutch made sure to step up for the celebration.
The image of Cutch looked familar in the final clips of the MLB video so I decided to do some research about the game and see what Getty Images had to offer.
Well that looks familiar...
That homerun was used for Cutch's swansong flagship Pirates card in 2018 Topps Series 1.
Here are 9 of Cutch's 2018 Topps Flagship Series 1 parallels.
Negative, Base, Purple (TRU exclusive)
Vintage /99, Father's Day Blue /50. Mother's Day Pink /50
Independence Day /76, Black /67, Gold /2018
Sorry for scanning them all grouped together and not following social distance rules.
So just as the great show Lost connected a sequence of completely ordinary events and showed how they all connect together, I was able to do the same via CollectingCutch.
Did you watch Lost when it aired?
Have you ever gone down an internet rabbit hole and tried to connect it to a baseball card?
One of my favorite shows ever produced is the TV Series Lost. I made sure to watch every single episode each week. The show became a mainstream success and one of the best "water cooler" shows to talk about each week.
Without giving away any spoilers, the show focused on a group of plane crash survivors and how their lives connected before the crash. There were many great characters featured in the show, but one of the most polarizing figures was that of John Locke played brillaintly by Terry O'Quinn.
In the shows fifth season, Locke was revealed to be named another character, Jeremy Bentham.
To create a Lost style post I decided to make a connection to Locke/Bentham's birthday.
February 15, 1948
There is likely only one blogger I know of who can immediately recognize what baseball player was born on that day.
If you knew it was Ron Cey, congratulations. I'm sure the Night Owl is happy that the former Dodgers 3rd Baseman got a mention on my blog.
Coincidence or maybe it's "The Island's way of controlling things" I sent Night Owl an autograph card of Ron Cey on Mr. Bentham's expired passport (December 17, 2017) date and he received it a few days later.
He posted about it here as it was his Secret Santa package for 2017.
It should be noted that Ron Cey was nicknamed "The Penguin" by his former teammates for the way he waddled around the bases.
On June 13th, 2017 Andrew McCutchen hit a homerun against the Rockies with the recent Stanley Cup Champions, Pittsburgh Penguins, in attendance. The Penguins who clinched the cup just 2 days earlier were there to celebrate with the rest of the city.
The image of Cutch looked familar in the final clips of the MLB video so I decided to do some research about the game and see what Getty Images had to offer.
Well that looks familiar...
That homerun was used for Cutch's swansong flagship Pirates card in 2018 Topps Series 1.
Negative, Base, Purple (TRU exclusive)
Vintage /99, Father's Day Blue /50. Mother's Day Pink /50
Independence Day /76, Black /67, Gold /2018
Sorry for scanning them all grouped together and not following social distance rules.
So just as the great show Lost connected a sequence of completely ordinary events and showed how they all connect together, I was able to do the same via CollectingCutch.
Did you watch Lost when it aired?
Have you ever gone down an internet rabbit hole and tried to connect it to a baseball card?
Thursday, December 19, 2019
All Decade Team: 1st Team
I interrupt Buddy The Elf Week to bring some great news regarding Andrew McCutchen. MLB.com released their list of the best players from the last decade and Andrew McCutchen made the first team along with Mike Trout and Mookie Betts being the other outfielders. The complete team can be viewed here.
I wanted to do a list unique to this and show my favorite cards I own for each year of Andrew McCutchen
Now in creating this list I wanted to set some parameters so it doesn't become a mirror image of my Top 10 favorite cards. No relics (game used or manufactured) and no autographs were permitted. Strictly base cards and color parallels. Also no 1/1s would be allowed to show off.
2010
This card was a top 5 want for quite sometime before I finally added it to the collection this year. The black chrome border really makes this card stand out and the oversized rookie trophy is just fantastic.
2011
The set that has saved the hobby (2011 Update) also had one of the coolest parallels from a Topps product. The Hope Diamond as it was known is numbered to only 60 copies.
2012
I love photo variants. This one of Cutch and the Pirate Parrot taking batting practice prior to a matchup against the St. Louis Cardinals is so fun. Bonus points for the Negro League uniforms.
2013
This Select Thunder Alley gold parallel reminds me of those great 90s inserts we all love.
2014
This card was another top 5 want for many years before Nate from Bucstopshere sent it to me as part of an epic trade. I love this photo variant image of Cutch sliding to catch the ball.
2015
If Prizm was a licensed product, I think it would be the most popular set produced each year, the same as it is for basketball. Prizm makes some great parallels to chase each year, but 2015 introduced the tie dye parallel and it is still one of my favorite parallels.
My particular example is jersey numbered.
2016
This trio of cards is representing 2016 more for what they represent than the actual design. I own the entire print run of the 2016 A&G mini metals.
2017
This card wasn't difficult to get. Copies of this Aaron Judge rookie year card can surprisingly still be had for under $8. This card got me excited because after a year of struggles in 2016, Cutch was back to his MVP style production for a month. He lead the NL in OPS, on base, and hits for the month.
2018
This is my most expensive card of Andrew McCutchen with a print run over 200. This card is going for upwards of $70 now. It was one of the first McCutchen Yankees cards printed and the only 3D style card printed. If I am looking for a card to represent Cutch in a nonPirates uniform, this is the card that immediately pops in my mind.
2019
There wasn't a lot of unique inserts or sets that Cutch appeared in this year. He did have A LOT of autograph releases and even appeared in a few relic sets I was surprised about. However, this Independence Day parallel of Cutch in a Philadelphia Phillies uniform screams God Bless America.
Best of all it is numbered 17/76, a perfect numbering for our Independence Day parallel.
I wanted to do a list unique to this and show my favorite cards I own for each year of Andrew McCutchen
Now in creating this list I wanted to set some parameters so it doesn't become a mirror image of my Top 10 favorite cards. No relics (game used or manufactured) and no autographs were permitted. Strictly base cards and color parallels. Also no 1/1s would be allowed to show off.
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
Thursday, July 4, 2019
Happy 4th of July with a "1/1"
I haven't been posting nearly as much as I used to over the past few weeks. For the first two years of this blog I averaged a post every day, but lately I have been posting only once every two days. The reason for this is a few things. First, I just haven't found much inspiration in baseball lately. Outside of Josh Bell, Bryan Reynolds, and Kevin Newman there hasn't been much to root for from the Pirates. Second, the McCutchen injury has hurt my lack of interest in the Phillies. Third, I have been getting back into comic books.
I had a whole plan to celebrate America's Independence this week with a bunch of America themed posts....
But, quite honestly with as hot as it, I didn't feel like going through my cardboard and scanning.
Tonight I will be at OceanFest in New Jersey watching fireworks and partaking in some adult beverage selections. It is one way to celebrate America.
Another way is the Indepence Day parallels that Topps has provided us with over the past few years. This year the stars and stripes are even more relevant and pop more than last year's muted design.
The back of this card in particular is pretty awesome as it is numbered 17/76. That's the year America truly became independent and united.
God Bless America!
Land that I love
I had a whole plan to celebrate America's Independence this week with a bunch of America themed posts....
But, quite honestly with as hot as it, I didn't feel like going through my cardboard and scanning.
Tonight I will be at OceanFest in New Jersey watching fireworks and partaking in some adult beverage selections. It is one way to celebrate America.
Another way is the Indepence Day parallels that Topps has provided us with over the past few years. This year the stars and stripes are even more relevant and pop more than last year's muted design.
God Bless America!
Land that I love
Sunday, April 21, 2019
Scripture Sunday - He Is Risen!
John 11:25
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)