The picture below might lead you to believe it is October as everyone knows what I do for that month.
All pink cards.
All month long to raise awareness for Breast Cancer.
So is it already October?
Nope. Not yet. That is still a few months away.
Instead I am using the image above of the beautiful Olivia Taylor Dudley filtered to look like a deer to formerly announce:
I AM HUNTING FOR MORE GREAT RACK (PACK)S
Back in my early days of collecting I could get what was called a rack pack that featured at least one player picture on the front of the clear packaging so you knew what was inside.
Today, everything is factory sealed and the knowledge of knowing what players you are getting inside are tough to find.
Occasionally you will get retail exclusive parallels found for sets like Gypsy Queen or Allen & Ginter.
You may even get some promotional giveaways that are sealed with only 1 card showing on the top.
Much like the collectors of the 80s looking for sealed packs of their favorite stars showing I am looking for these kinds of packs that show off Andrew McCutchen on the front.
I had to do a lot of mangling of the cards to try and figure out who else may be in this pack as it is very tightly sealed.
The pack is a Topps giveaway for National Baseball Card Day in 2016. It looks like Felix Hernandez was the card behind Cutch.
Do you go hunting for any sealed products that show a favorite player of yours on the outside?
On another note and similar to the opening picture, please give Bikinis For The Cure a follow on Twitter.
Today marks 26 years since the passing of Kurt Cobain.
Kurt Cobain was the lead singer and guitarist for the Seattle grunge band, Nirvana. He became a voice for many Generation X kids and one of the most influential musicians in the past few decades.
I will spotlight my 5 favorite Nirvana songs while also showing off a few Cutch cards and how they relate to Seattle, the city that Kurt was found dead at.
Cutch played in 9 games at Safeco Field in Seattle while as a member of the Pirates, Giants, and Yankees. He didn't leave much of an impression at SafeCo Field as there always seemed to be Something In The Way.
His career slash line is .176/.282/.382 good for only a .664 OPS. The only good stat was that he hit 2 HRs in only 9 Games.
While briefly a member in San Francisco, the Giants hosted the Seattle Mariners.
While researching playing career versus the Seattle Mariners I came across the above image and thought, well that looks familiar.
It's weird when I am browsing Getty Images I can often look at an image and think about a card that may have been used for. It feels good to You Know You're Right.
And sure enough it is a familar card and I was right.
The image of Cutch as a member of the Giants batting against the Seattle Mariners was used for the 2018 Topps National Baseball Card Day card for the Giants giveaway.
Cutch didn't have a good day at the plate in that game going 0 for 4 with only a walk in 5 plate appearances in the 10-1 Giants victory.
His performance on the field was certainly In Bloom though as over the next week following that rough series versus Seattle, Cutch would come up clutch hitting at a .500 clip and collecting 2 walk off hits versus the Dodgers and Diamondbacks respectively.
Cutch has had another card image used while playing against the Seattle Mariners. It is from his 2017 Definitive Collection.
Cutch always did well playing at PNC Park no matter who the opponent was.
In this particular game (July 27 2016) Cutch went 3 for 5 with 4 RBI falling only a triple shy of the cycle. Opposing pitchers should have been warned and Stay Away from Cutch when facing him in Pittsburgh.
While Cutch was playing at PNC Park he started 669 games, collecting 751 hits, and hitting at a Hall of Fame level of .304/.394/.498 good for an .892 OPS. With stats like that he might have been saying Come As You Are to any opposing pitcher, knowing he will likely own them in "The Burgh"
I hope you enjoyed this little tribute I put together featuring cards of Andrew McCutchen and my favorite songs by Nirvana.
Oddly enough Smells Like Teen Spirit falls just shy of being one of my top 5 favorites. The generation anthem just doesn't strike me the way others do.
I must be living in some new alternate timeline that Biff created when he took the Delorean back to 1955. My memories of Pirates Superstar Centerfielder Andrew McCutchen had him winning the National League MVP award in 2013.
The back of this Topps National Baseball Card Day card says differently.
Topps did things differently this year in regards to their National Baseball Card Day promotion. Each team got their own SGA packs with different fronts and different backs. I showed off the Pirates here.
Here are the card shop giveaway and SGA side by side.
And here's the backs.
At least Topps used different images and backs for these, something that has been bothering me more than it should lately. Topps took it one step forward and made the SGA a horizontal back despite a vertical front. Whaaaaat?
I received a card yesterday from a friend who had attended a Pirates game earlier in the week, the Trevor Williams pitching gem game in fact. Not only did he attend a great game in person, but he also got a pack of team specific cards to celebrate National Baseball Card Day.
This year Topps made their standard National release of a player from each team. In addition they created team specific cards. The Stadium Giveaways for each team feature 9 current players and 1 All-Time Franchise Legend for a total of 10 cards per team. Some of the odd legends include Wade Boggs (Devil Rays) and David Ortiz instead of any of the other Red Sox all-time greats (Yaz, Williams, Fisk). The Philadelphia Phillies recognized that they have no quality players on their team and released a 20 card legends set, not numbered.
Further details about both releases can be found here.
I have a National Release (with different picture) ordered and will probably receive it sometime later this week.
In the meantime let's (belatedly) celebrate National Baseball Card Day today!!!
Here's the 2017 Pittsburgh Pirates team specific release of Cutch.
The card back has a different write up than the National Release.
