Million Dollar Talents

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 so today I am presenting

Today we are focusing on an actress/model all the way from India.

Anveshi Jain

She became the most googled Bollywood actress between 2019-2020 and this article gives insight to her rise in fame.

Rinku Singh was the first professional India born baseball player.  Him and Dinesh Patel were both signed by the Pirates in 2009 as part of the Million Dollar Arm talent search.  It became a Disney movie a few years back. 

Patel moved back to India, but Singh became a legitimate pitching prospect, reaching AA in 2012 throwing 72 innings and striking out 65 batters with a 3.00 ERA.  Injuries in 2013 kept him out of uniform, but after a healthy off season he was invited to Spring Training as a non roster invite.  Unfortunately it was discovered that Singh had elbow issues and would need Tommy John surgery.  He missed all of the 2014 season and was later resigned by the Pirates in 2015.  He pitched one inning in relief in 2016 (a scoreless one at that) but ultimately decided to hang up the spikes. 

He was very close to becoming the first India born baseball player in MLB.

Had he done that, his home ballpark of PNC Park would be a spotlight for one of the world's largest countries each time he took the mound.

Today Singh is signed to the WWE where he wrestles under the stage name Veer.

Besides Macho Man Randy Savage, can you think of any other former minor league baseball players that became affiliated with professional wrestling?

Do you have a favorite Indian food dish? 

Thoughts on Ms. Jain or Mr. Singh?

25 Days Countdown

With Spring Training games currently going on, baseball is just a few weeks away from a new season.

There is only 25 more sleeps until Opening Day 2020!!!!

I proposed a couple different ways to countdown to Opening Day.  The general consensus was to mix it up.

So that's what I am going to do.

2017 Chronicles offered an absolutely horrible base set, but a sampler tray of all the Panini products often found in basketball and football.  The above black parallel is the Gold Standard style card.  These are thick cards with great looking design.  The black parallel is numbered to only 15 copies.  It is the lowest number of the parallels to chase.

Cutch was card number 25 in the 25 card set.

Did I mention it's only 25 days until Opening Day????



Serially I could show off a card to countdown to Opening Day too...

As this 2011 Triple Threads Unity relic shows under the Triple Threads logo

It is numbered 25/xx

Welcome Home!

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month.  Visit the official site here.

Breast Cancer will be detected in one of eight women in the US each year.
It is the second leading cause of cancer death among women each year.
On average every 2 minutes a woman will be diagnosed with breast cancer and every 13 minutes one person will die from breast cancer.
There are currently 33 million breast cancer survivors in the USA.

It's important to support the research for cancer.  Breast Cancer is often associated with the color pink so I will be showing off some pink Cutch cards.

In addition, you can expect to see some boobs with each post.  Who doesn't love boobs?

So let's start with what we're hoping to save!

Emily Ratajkowski is the subject today.

With a last name that can earn some serious points on a Scrabble board, it is no wonder why some people may not have heard of her and those that do probably can't spell her name.

Her big break came in 2013 when she appeared as a model/dancer in the music video "Blurred White Lines" which was one of the top songs of that year.

It should be easy to figure out why it became popular.

She went on to become a Hollywood star and model.

She is often seen turning heads at sporting events around Hollywood including Dodgers games and Lakers games.

With the Dodgers getting eliminated by the Nationals she won't be attending any World Series games this year.

Sorry Dodgers fans.

Her acting may not be as good as her looks, but with looks that good, the standard is high

She appeared in a movie called Welcome Home

Cutch got a warm welcome home last year when as a member of the San Francisco Giants he returned to his former home, PNC Park.

In typical Cutch fashion, he laced a double down the left field line and threw a runner out at home.

Fans cheered for the former MVP as he got a standing ovation during every at bat.

Cutch Home: Lake by the River

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month.  Visit the official site here.

Breast Cancer will be detected in one of eight women in the US each year.
It is the second leading cause of cancer death among women each year.
On average every 2 minutes a woman will be diagnosed with breast cancer and every 13 minutes one person will die from breast cancer.
There are currently 33 million breast cancer survivors in the USA.

It's important to support the research for cancer.  Breast Cancer is often associated with the color pink so I will be showing off some pink Cutch cards.

In addition, you can expect to see some boobs with each post.  Who doesn't love boobs?

So let's start with what we're hoping to save!

Lake Bell

This stunning beauty has recently shown up in voice actor roles like Secret Life of Pets and Poison Ivy (Harley Quinn animated series).

But Lake Bell has appeared in multiple TV shows (Children's Hospital and Boston Legal) among many movies.

In addition to being a model she has also transformed herself into a director and screen writer.

I fell in love with Bell's character in a certain Disney movie though.

Million Dollar Arm featured Lake Bell playing the role of Brenda Fenwick.

The movie told the story of Dinesh Patel and Rinku Singh, the first Indian born professional baseball players signed in 2008 but made their professional debuts in 2009, the year of Cutch's MLB Debut.

Neither made it to the majors although Singh did look like a promising left handed prospect before injuries derailed his baseball career.  (Last year Singh signed a contract with WWE as part of their NXT program and he is currently attempting a career as a professional wrestler.)

Had either of Singh or Patel made it to the majors they would have no doubt been pitching at PNC Park near the Allegheny River.

This 2019 stadium card is one of the stadiums you can expect to see this year as I revisit old stadiums that Cutch played his home games in.

I wish Singh or Patel would have made it to the majors.  They would have had quite the entrance and brought in an entire country to support Pirates baseball.

Now Singh is trying a different career, as a wrestler for WWE.

He has matured into a Jason Mamoa looking strong guy.

Josh Bell (55) standing next to Rinku Singh

Compared to the young teenager he was when he was in the low A ball with current Pirates star Josh Bell.

Josh Bell next to Singh in 2012

And for good measure, here is another pink card featuring Josh Bell

Josh was one of the few bright spots on the Pirates this year.  He finished with 37 HR, 116 RBI, and a .936OPS while being an All-Star for the first time in his career.

Welcome To PNC Park, Chris Archer

The Pirates sacrificed two of their young athletes (Austin Meadows and Tyler Glasnow) in addition to a third unknown player to be named later to acquire Chris Archer.

I will be heading over five hours west to get to the game so that I can see his Pirates debut at the beautiful PNC Park.  The weather looks to be cool (75 degrees) with a slight chance of showers.

For some people the beach is their happy place.  For me, it's PNC Park.  It is one of the most visually appealing stadiums with the Clemente bridge in the background.

Really looking forward to Chris' debut today.  I think it is so cool that he chose not to wear his old number 22 out of respect for Cutch's significance to the franchise.

I will take pics of the game to share.

On a completely unrelated note, former Pirates utility guy Steve Pearce had a heck of a game against the Yankees last night when he lead the Red Sox over a massive victory by powering 3 homeruns and 6 RBIs.  I wrote an article about him here and stand by the fact that if he was given enoigh consistent playimg time he could be a star.

Home Opener!

For the first time in 5 years I am not attending the Pirates home opener.  The Pirates came off a successful series in Detroit where they swept the Tigers.

They enter today tied for first place with the Brewers.

Jameson Taillon will take the mound at PNC Park to face off another interleague series, this time against the Twins.

It's going to be strange seeing former MVP, 5xAll-Star, 4xSilver Slugger, Gold Glove Winner, and all around good community leader Andrew McCutchen not patrolling the outfield at PNC Park this year.

But thanks to this 2018 Opening Day Diamond Relics I can always have a piece of PNC Park in my collection with Cutch on it.

The odds of pulling these is 1:7,722 packs.  That means that on average if you gave every fan in attendance at Pirates games this year a pack of Opening Day to open, only 2-3 would be pulled.  Yup, I suspect attendance will be that bad this year.

The card has a Fleer look to it.