Upton Here, Upton Here

Each year during the month of October, I show off only pink (and shades of pink like magenta, peach, etc) to help raise awareness of Breast Cancer, a leading cause of death for females in the United States.  

Due to my own financial situation this year I will not be able to make a donation for each (meaningful, non spam) comment left by those that follow the blog.  Once things settle down on the home front though I will be looking to make a donation in 2022 based on the comments left during this year's event.  Hopefully together we can help at least one woman get a much needed mammogram.  Early detection is key!!!

If you want to make your own private donation please visit the National Breast Cancer Foundation.  There is a donate button on the main page and it only takes a minute of your time.  Every little bit helps.

I have focused primarily on cards that only feature Andrew McCutchen on the card, but in recent years have also featured cards with a cameo appearance (either being seen on the card or as a name cameo on the back of the card).  In 2019, I created Falco Files which discussed players that replaced (Shane Falco Replacements movie reference) on an active roster, number worn, or trade.  I will also be showing some Cutch's Crew cards that show pink cards of players that have played with Cutch on multiple teams. I will continue to utilize these styles of posts as we celebrate the 5th Collecting Cutch Save Second Base event (I am no longer counting my first run on the Pirates Treasure Room I did back in 2014).

I am always looking for new ways to incorporate new celebrities into the event, but today I am presenting a favorite of mine

Kate Upton

We all know who she is

She helped to promote MLB 2K12, which featured her now husband on the cover.

She has appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated

More than once...

She clearly is no stranger to baseball

One of the best memes for baseball was using rapper DMX's song lyrics Y'all Gonna Make Me Lose My Mind, Up in here, Up in here and converting it to a meme about the Upton brothers playing together in Atlanta (and again in San Diego)

Justin Upton has appeared on numerous cards with Andrew McCutchen over the years, mostly as relic cards.  I was able to secure a nice pair (no pun intended for this month's theme) of Cutch and Upton printing plates two years ago.

This is the magenta plate.

It is an uncirculated card from Just Minors.

You can view the cyan plate I showed off back in April 2019.  This post has been in draft mode for over two years waiting for the right time to show it off.  With the limited technology I have and my cards being all over NJ, I have had to resort to my scanned files of cards that I never showed off, but have scanned on a flash drive.

Have you ever drafted a post and waited over 2 years to show it off?  

23 All-Star Appearances on 1 Card

I have been counting down predominately using serial numbers or card numbers.

Today would be the 17th day before Opening Day.  I am certainly excited for that.

I am more excited to announce that in 23 days I am heading west for the Pirates home opener vs the Reds.

Here is a 1/1 card from 2010 Triple Threads highlighting 6 players that Topps thought would be Perennial All-Stars in the National League.

The players depicted on the card is a who's who of upcoming outfielders patrolling the National League at the time.

Justin Upton has been a 4x All-Star (2009, 2011, 2015, and 2017).

Ryan Braun leads the group with 6 All-Star appearances, but some of those numbers may be tainted as we later learned.  From 2008-2012 he was an All-Star.  He also represented the Brewers in 2015.

Hunter Pence had a comeback season last year and made his 4th All-Star appearance joining his resume for the 2009, 2011, and 2014 seasons.

Matt Kemp (who,was robbed of the 2011 MVP) was an All-Star in 2011 and 2012 and had a resurgent year in 2018 giving him 3 total All-Star Games.

Cutch represented the Pirates in 2011-2015 making 5 All-Star games and finishing in the top 5 for MVP in 2012 through 2015.  He won a player of month award in June 2017 and had better numbers than Josh Harrison at the time of the All-Star Game, but Cubs manager who was representing the National League liked Josh Harrison's versatility for the exhibition game more.

Jason Heyward had an incredible rookie season in 2010.  He hasn't made an All-Star game since.

 This 1/1 is the Platinum version.  I also have one of these booklets in the Emerald format (/18).  There are also Sepia, Sapphire, and Gold parallels of this book to chase.

Y'all gonna make me lose my mind, UPTON here

I have been buying up a bunch of the uncirculated printing plates from Just Minors recently for Andrew McCutchen.  Some of the magenta plates will be shown off during my 4th annual Save Second Base Event.

Some others have escaped me because I forgot to put in true max bids.

It would have been nice to add a triple autograph of former Pirates prospects for under $11.  Kudos to the winner on that.

All these Cutch cards coming out at the same time has me acting like DMX

Fortunately a pair of triple autos I have long wanted is another favorite player of mine, Justin Upton, being offered as part of a triple auto.

The card design and sticker autograph is ugly, but I now have a pair of Justin Upton autograph in my Cutch collection.

Wait until October to see my other Cutch/Upton multiplayer autograph card I snagged.

I think this puts me around 240 1/1s of Cutch now.

Y'all gonna make me lose my mind, Upton here. Upton here.  Hahaha

Future Hall of Famers, A Look Back From the Future

Back in 2013, CBS wrote a story about several players under the age of 26 and their likelihood of achieving baseball immortality in Cooperstown.

The link can be found HERE.

Many appear to still be borderline candidates, but it is crazy to look back at how much has changed in only 5 years.

Names like Mike Trout and Clayton Kershaw will have done enough once they meet the 10 year minimum to be first ballot consideration.

According to them names like Jason Heyward and Starlin Castro were already on the right path.

As Adrian Beltre recently proved though, you may not appreciate how great a player was until their career is over.

Maybe Justin Upton, Andrew McCutchen, and Matt Kemp will go on to play until theyre 40 and 10 years from now we will look back and realize "these guys were always pretty good."

But is "pretty good" over 20 years worthy enough to get you in the Hall of Fame?

Adrian Beltre may prove that longevity and consistency is more important than having 10 great years and that is basically it. 

Only 17 3rd Baseman have been enshrined in Cooperstown for the Hall of Fame.  And yet here we sit on the week of Beltre announcing his retirement and it seems almost unanimously that most talk radio shows, sports writers, and the like think he will make it to the Hall of Fame.  At any point though was he the best 3rd baseman in the game?  Would you rather have had Beltre or a guy named Wright, Rodriguez, Rolen, Machado, Donaldson manning the hot corner if you starting a franchise?  Most wouldn't say Beltre is my guess. 

I am in no way saying Beltre doesn't belong in the Hall. I am merely pointing out that we should recognize greatness as it is happening and not after it is gone.

Good luck to Mr. Beltre on his post baseball career.  You were fun to watch.

From Millville to MVP

Did anyone watch the MLB Presents Special on Mike Trout last night?

Having spent my entire life in New Jersey I have always had a soft spot for NJ born ballplayers.  Clearly Mike Trout is the biggest name in recent years to come from the Garden State.

I once thought about collecting Trout when he was putting up MVP numbers in his rookie season.  I thought they were too expensive back then at $50 a base Bowman auto.  Man, do I wish I stocked up on them.

Here's all the Trout relics I have with Cutch.


It's not officially licensed, but this Hits Memorabilia Royalty card features the inner lining of a Bryce Harper Spring Training hat, a Cutch Spring Training jersey, a Mike Trout batting glove, and a Ken Griffey Jr.  Reds jersey.

This was a card that took a long time for me to add to my collection, but I am so happy I did.

These next few I have shown off recently when discussing Cutch's Team USA teammates.

This is still one of the nicest multirelic cards I own.

To wrap things up is a Triple Threads relic that features Cutch, Justin Upton, and Trout.

So there you have it.
All my Trout relics