The Mount Rushmore, non HOF edition

MLB Radio recently was discussing Mount Rushmores of MLB teams and it got me thinking about who the Pirates Mount Rushmore would be.  Many teams Mount Rushmores (including the Pirates) can be quickly identified by retired jersey numbers and bronze statues outside the ballparks.

The 4 best players for the Pirates are 3 guys who spent their entire career with the Pirates (Willie Stargell, Bill Mazeroski, Roberto Clemente) and one guy who was pillaged from another team that it actually changed the team name to the Pirates (Honus Wagner).

All obvious choices, but what about the unsung legends of our favorite franchises lore?  

Who are the guys who likely won't be in the Hall of Fame, who won't have a statue outside a ballpark, and who won't have their number retired? 

Who are those guys that fans of the franchise will talk about for many years to come?

I think we all know who I'm going to lead off with on my Mount Rushmore of Pirates legends not in HOF, number retired, or bronze statues....

Andrew McCutchen

Pictured above is a canvas photo signed by Cutch that is hanging in the Cutch Cave.

Now for a pair of guys who were legends on the 1979 World Series Championship Pirates

As you descend into "The Pitt" my Pittsburgh sports theme bar area in my basement I have some great pieces of artwork by Dan Horine of Popflyshop.

Dave Parker

Another MVP winner, but also a member of the last time the Pirates won the World Series, Parker was a batting champion, All-Star MVP, Gold Glove winner with the Pirates before going on to be a member of 

Kent Tekulve

His most famous years were with the Pirates when he was the closer for the 1979 World Series Champions. He later went on to be in the bullpens of the Phillies and Reds. He also served as the post game analyst for the Pirates home games over the past few decades before officially retiring a few seasons ago.

Temporarily hanging up in the utility area of "The Pitt" is this canvas photo signed by Steve Blass and Manny Sanguillen.

Steve Blass

An odd choice I know, when you consider guys like Jason Bay, Jason Kendall, Barry Bonds (he will be remember more as a Giant), Al Oliver, Manny Sanguillen will be omitted, but I have to give it to Steve Blass who was the pitcher on the mound when the Pirates won the 1971 World Series and would later go on to broadcast for the Pirates for nearly three decades.  

Who are the top 4 non hall of famers on your favorite team?

I Love The 80s: Those Uniforms Tho...

As I marched towards remembering the 1980s and at the same time promoting my contest, today I will be looking at some of the uniforms and players from the 1980s.

I will specifically look at the four teams that Andrew has played on and talk about the uniforms they wore in the 1980s along with my favorite from each team during the 80s.

Let's start with the team that Cutch played the fewest amount of games with, the New York Yankees.  Rich in tradition, the Yankees uniform remains unchanged for nearly a century.  The pinstripes are world famous, there are no names on the back, and the NY has largely remained the same on the front since the days of Babe Ruth.

(This card is insanely overpriced. It had a print run of less than 250 copies and can fetch over $50.)

Choosing my favorite Yankee of the 80s is a no brainer. It has to be Donnie Baseball.

Mattingly looked to be a lock for a Hall of Fame career as he was winning batting titles, MVP, and gold glove awards all before his age 30 season. I don't have any specific memories of Donnie Baseball, but my best friend in grade school would brag about having his 84 Topps card.

The Giants had a white home jersey with big bubbly letters for the G and S, but those uniforms haven't been worn by the team in a long time.  During Cutch's tenor with the team they used a road grey jersey worn in the 80s. It included a SF over the left breast plate of the player.

The uniform is very noticable on the 2018 Topps Update and all it's parallels including the autograph versions.

Favorite player from the Giants in the 80s? Will "The Thrill" Clark.  I collected a bunch of his cards and he was always a pesky hitter at the plate.  Will was also a good fielder.  After nearly two decades since his last game played in San Francisco, the team is doing the right thing and retiring #22.

The Pittsburgh Pirates will likely always be the team that Andrew is associated with and he helped bring a winning tradition back to the Steel City for a brief time from 2013 to 2015.  This three year stretch was only the second time since the 1979 World Series Champions made the playoffs.  The uniforms made famous by the 1979 "We are Family" Pirates were worn into the 80s by the Battlin' Bucs.

For me, there is no pitcher that influenced my little league life than Kent Tekulve.  I felt like I was him on the mound. Tall and a string bean with not enough arm strength to throw over the top.  I loved everything about this dude.

His current uniform of the Phillies has a throwback variant and has already started showing up on cardboard.

Wondering who may favorite Phillies player of the 80s is?

It's this guy again!

Merry Cutchmas! from my Secret Santa

It isn't often that Steelers fans and Browns fans can get along, but the joy of Christmas can bring out the best in everyone.

My secret Santa this year was Angus of the blog Dawgdaycards.

Included in the nice Christmas card he sent was also some impressive cardboard.

I waited until Christmas to open it and I was very impressed that he was able to add a Cutch card to my collection that I didn't already have.  Sweet score on that!!!

Also included were some Pirates All Time greats including a Kent Tekulve rookie card along with a sweet team card that I believe is the last team card to feature Roberto Clemente. 

A Roberto Clemente Ted Williams Etched in Stone card that I didn't own helps round this batch out.

A Willie Stargell and Bill Mazeroski from 1971.  Sweet!!!!

But as Angus pointed out these were printed in Canada.  Man am I happy to add this Canadian brethren to the Stargell and Maz binders. Oh Canada, Oh Canada!!!

And 4 oversized cards from Pirates alumni.

I have no idea what these are from. Anyone have any information about them?

What an awesome Christmas gift.

Lets Go Browns!!! Beat the Ravens!!!!

An oddball is added

Herodecks offers fun caricature designed playing cards of your favorite athletes, celebrities, etc.

I was given Steelers and Penguins ones for Christmas a few years back, but my true sports love is the Pirates and baseball.  Thanks to some eBay bucks I still had, I decided to finally grab the Pirates one.

The cover features 3 very memorable outfielders of the Bucs.

Inside, the playing card suits are broken down by the eras they played.

Cutch and the millenium Pirates (2000-current) are spades.

Some of the other eras you can figure out by looking at a few of the cards below.

Sorry Matt, no one can draw Bob Walk.  His majestic look is no match for card games.

The Poison brothers and the Pittsburgh Poison Takers can be seen below.

If you are into oddball cards, look at these hero decks to add to your collection.