Collecting Update

Last week I was gifted with a 1/1 Topps Blank Back card in the mail from a longtime Twitter friend and Bryce Harper collector.

Cutch got his 1,000 career RBI that same day.  He did it on a weak infield ground ball fielder's choice that he couldn't be doubled up on. 

Topps honored the event with a 24 hour Topps Now card available which I snagged from apizzo1482 as a preorder for only $5.20

What a career!

He got his 200th stolen base and 1,000 RBI this year.

As of the 1,000 career RBI he was then missing some milestones by just a few marks

56 hits shy of 2,000

9 doubles shy of 400

13 HR shy of 300

24 walks shy of 1,000

I know that many people have come to check out my blog on a daily basis each October, but as with my collecting of Cutch cards I am truly burned out from it.  I may do a few posts, but it won't be the same as years past and due to financial struggles still residing from my torn achilles earlier this year I will not be able to make a donation based on comments left.  I also won't be able to do any contests.

Sorry guys!

Thank you to those still reading the blog.

1 MONTH SOBER!!!

For the first time since 2009 I went 30 days without purchasing an Andrew McCutchen baseball card.  I've gone stretches of 10-14 days before, but I have never gone a full month.  This may sound like a first world problem, but I actually did become addicted to adding cardboard of the former MVP. 

Last year was the least amount of card purchases I made of Cutch in over a decade of "CollectingCutch".

Then this year happened and my purchases are even less (partially because he hasn't been in many products this year so far). 

I used to search eBay 3-6 times a day while also looking at other after market card places like COMC, blowout, mercari, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc on a daily basis.  

Now I check out my Cutch searches maybe once or twice a week. 

Collecting cardboard can certainly be addicting and fun, but with Cutch's career coming to a twilight I'm just not as emotionally invested in it as I once was.  Having him join a division rival on a one year deal where the Brewers likely won't make the playoffs isn't helping.  

Here is the very last Andrew Mccutchen baseball card I received in the mail.  

It is the 2022 Select Scope parallel (unnumbered).

I made the purchase on the last day in July and received it about a week later.

Now I can say that it has also been over a month since I last received an Andrew McCutchen card in the mail. 

What is the longest stretch you've gone without adding a card to the PC?

Have you overcome any addictions and been proud after the first month?

What killed the dinosaurs?

Continuing my posts about Arnold Schwarzenegger we have a line from Batman & Robin where Arnold played the villain, Mr. Freeze.

What killed the dinosaurs?

The Ice Age

Above are my Bowman Platinum silver ice parallels of Cutch 2016-2019. 

What are some other great Arnold one liners you'd like to see?

Serial History: A No-No and No.400 chop suey style

I always love to use serial numbers as an inspiration for posts especially when I have writer's block.

This 2022 Topps Heritage card is serially numbered 7/15 and is based on the 1973 design

It also has a 1973 nickel.

7/15/1973

Let's look at some important things that happened that day.

Nolan Ryan threw his 2nd career no hitter.

You can hear the radio call on YouTube here.  The best part of this story is that Norm Cash with 2 outs in the 9th went to bat with a table leg before being told to use a real bat.  

It's my understanding that there's not a full video available if the entire game online. 

Willie McCovey became the 15th player in MLB history to hit 400 career homeruns. He would eventually go on to hit 521 over his 22 year career.  I couldn't find video of his 400th career, but here's a few HR highlights video of Stretch.

The drummer for the metal band System of a Down, John Dolyman was born.  

I got a chance to meet John at New York Comic Con around 2009 if I remember correctly.  He had his drum set on display which featured artwork by a number of elite comic book artists including Jim Lee, Bernie Wrightson, Art Adams, Tim Bradstreet, and many more. Unfortunately this was when I was still taking pictures with a digital camera and those files (and that PC) are long gone.  I had some on MySpace, but most of my photos were set to private and it's been at least 12 years since I logged in. Below are a few pics of the drum set I found online if anyone is interested.

Wolverine by Jim Lee on one side and 

Batman by Jim Lee on the other side

Jim is a legendary comic artist who drew one of the best Batman stories ever created (Batman: Hush) and also the highest selling comic book of all time (X-Men #1) and helped form Image Comics with his creator owned series WildC.A.T.S

All three of these things occuring on July 15th, 1973 and how there's no video of them in entirety got me thinking of what other pre 2022 items have been lost due to not having the cloud and digital formats more readily available. 

Since we live in an era where everything is forever forged in a digital footprint, what are some things you wish we had images or video of?  Let's keep it to only things after your birth year.  I'm sure it would be fun to imagine Instagram in the early 1900s, but let's be realistic. 

#CutchsCrew: Zero Year Teammate

Andrew McCutchen made 5 straight All Star seasons from 2011-2015.  He debuted with the Pirates in 2009.  

Josh Harrison was traded from the Cubs to the Pirates organization in 2009.  He made his MLB debut in 2011.  He didn't become an everyday player in the lineup until 2014 when he made his first All Star game.  

The two would go on to form a great friendship on the field and be two of Pittsburgh fan favorites in recent years both receiving everything from T-shirts to bobbleheads to garden gnome giveaways. 

It could be argued that Cutch was more deserving of being named to the 2017 All Star Game than Josh Harrison as you can see in the comparison below.

Cutch lead JHay in every offensive category except Stolen Bases.  Joe Maddon, the NL ASG manager, felt differently though and liked JHays versatility. 

After Cutch got traded in 2018 Josh Harrison made statements that he too wanted to be traded seeing two franchise favorites (Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole) get traded within days of each other. 

JHay played one more season with the Pirates in 2018 before going to join the Tigers for the 2019 season.  

Cutch joined the Phillies in 2019 and it looked like he was trying to get "the band back together" for the 2020 season as the Phillies had signed both Neil Walker and Josh Harrison to minor league contracts with spring training invites. 

The 2020 season was put on pause due to the Coronavirus and Topps had to alter their production and distribution of sets because of it.  There were a few guys who got cards in 2020 but didn't make appearances with the teams featured when the regular season came around.  

One such card was Josh Harrison's 2020 Topps Update card which features Harrison in a Phillies Spring Training uniform even though the Phillies would not bring him north and he would play the 2020 season with the Washington Nationals. 

He also got the Topps Heritage treatment for a Phillies card.

I would have loved to seen Walker, Harrison, and Cutch all make meaningful contributions to the 2020 Phillies team and get a triple relic of those 3 Pirates fan favorites on a Phillies card.  That would have been cool. 

On a completely side not, Josh Harrison has had some amazing Topps Flagship cards over the years that show how fun and scrappy he is as a player. 

What are some of your favorite cards featuring an athlete that never played an actual game for the franchise?

What former All Stars have played together on different teams that you're a fan of?

The Artist Who Never Gets Credited

I got a chance to learn a few things from photographer Dustin Bradford last week and I'm not sure how much he wants me to reveal, but it was fascinating to learn a bit about the Topps photography process.

Dustin is a photographer who works out of Colorado and has photographed a bunch of cards that occur at Coors Field every year.  His Instagram is loaded with many cards that he has photograohed along with some of his personal collection.  You can view his Instagram by clicking here.

He saw a card of Cutch I had posted from the July 4 2018 game where Cutch was a member of the Giants and they played the Rockies and noted that the photo used was one that he had shot.  I asked him if there were other cards of Cutch that have been produced that he may have shot.  

Well, as it turns out two cards in 2021 were shot by Dustin.

The 1992 Topps design found in 2021 Topps Update as an insert card features an image of Cutch at Coors Field.  You can view the original image at Getty Images here. Cutch went 0 for 4 at the plate in a 12-2 Phillies loss. 

The 2021 Holiday Relic also features an image of Cutch at Coors Field.  The snowman didn't make it into the lineup that day so that got generated in later. 

I asked Dustin if he could sign the pair of cards he photographed and he kindly obliged.  These are only the 2nd and 3rd autographs he has signed, the first being a Ronald Acuna Jr HR card. 

Thanks for honoring my wacky request Dustin.  For those that want to see his photography please visit his Instagram and check out all the awesome images that his eye and skill has transformed into a baseball card.

Have you ever thought about the original images used for baseball cards?  

What are some of your favorite images captured on baseball cards? 

Mine is the Kevin Mitchell 1987 Topps

Delays, delays, and more delays

We have seen many delays occur over the past few years due to the COVID 19 pandemic that struck in 2020.  

When the pandemic initially hit there were delays with nearly everything.  Panini even made a toilet paper parallel in 2021 Optic to aknowledge the craziness that occurred. 

We continue to see shipping delays occur two years later.  

In the past few months of 2022 we have seen Topps finally distribute two products originally intended for 2021.

Up first is the 2021 Big League Baseball

This product was originally scheduled prior to the All Star Break 2021, but kept getting delayed until it finally came out in the late winter months of 2022.

I've collected most of this rainbow by getting the base, rainbow foil, blue, and orange.  There is a black parallel /15 that I just won an auction for coming my way eventually. 

It is odd to see 2022 cards feature Cutch in a Phillies uniform and I've discussed my disdain for that already. I am a sucker for these kid friendly products like Big League Baseball though.  I will definitely try to get the 1/1 red foil and the /25 blue foil.

2021 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary is another recent product released that had an original street date prior to the end of 2021.

Former Miguel Cabrera and hobby shop owner, JT of TripleCrown24 sold me these two cards.  Visit his eBay store here.

This set is loaded with many parallels with lots of shiny refractors to collect.  The set features current and former stars on the 1952 set.  It is a 700 card set and features 14 different parallels to chase.  When the set was initially released it had 33 parallels announced. 

Have you purchased cards of either of these set releases this year?

What non cardboard shipping delays are you aware of still going on?

"Just do it!"

For the entire time since I got back into collecting, Majestic was the clothing manufacturer for MLB uniforms and thus were the logos that card collectors would hope to get their hands on.  

I've shown off some of my Majestic logo cards in the past.

For those that may forget what some of those Majestic logo cards looked like, here is a recap.

2012 National Treasures autograph 

Nike bought the exclusive right to manufacture MLB uniforms for the 2020 season, which meant eventually we would start to see some Nike swoosh logos pop up on cards. 

Earlier this year I picked up this 2021 Five Star 1/1 Nike Swoosh logo with on card autograph.  

If you follow me on Twitter you've seen this with my MLB Logoman of the same design.  The laundry tag is available on eBay, but it seems the seller isn't willing to budge on his $500 asking price. 

I haven't bought any of the new Nike jerseys that debuted in 2020.  All mine that I wear around are still the Majestic jerseys.

Have you have bought any jerseys with the Nike logo yet?  If so, do they feel different than the Majestic ones produced?

Besides Michael Jordan, who else do you associate with the Nike brand?

You like metal?

I've been showing off a bunch of Allen & Ginter cards lately and this will be my last A&G post for awhile.

I thought it would be fun to show off all my metal cards from Allen & Ginter

This is the only non Pirates metal mini I have. It's from 2019 and features him in a Phillies uniform. Strangely enough the 2019 versions didn't have the standard hand numbering that others have.

Above is the 2015 version. The 2015 Rip Cards weren't coated inside with the proper wax sealant which caused all the metal and art cards to get EXTREMELY scratched up.

This is the 2016 extended SP mini metal

And here is the base of which I own all 3 of the print run.

I've talked about being a metalhead on here a few times sighting bands like Vision of Disorder (V.O.D.) and Pantera being two of my favorite bands of all time.  

I am not up with bands post 2005 though.  I don't really have the time now to listen to music other than driving home from work on occasion. 

Having been in a teenage metal band, I think the sounds of guitars shredding, double bass pedal drumming, and deep bass lines will always be in my blood. 

Do you listen to any metal bands? 

WOOD you believe I forgot a 1/1?

A few days ago I showed off my wood minis of Cutch from 2015, 2016, and 2017.  

I forgot to show off my 2019 though.

This is my only non Pirates wood mini

The 2018 A&G wood minis never surfaced except for a few of the "extended" sp set.  Cutch was included in that set and I was negotiating to get it shortly after the release day, but when it was revealed none of the base set wood minis made their way into the set, the seller pulled the item and I have never seen it again. 

Do you collect cards of your favorite players in other uniforms besides your favorite teams?

National Sunglasses Day

Since breaking into the league in 2009, Cutch has always had a sense of joy and swag wherever he played.

Here are a few cards featuring Cutch wearing sunglasses.

First I am going to show off an original piece of artwork by the extremely talented artist Josh Trout

2022 has seen my favorite low budget insert in a long time. Check out those shades!

2021 had an insert set called Stars in Service showing athletes in the community.

It also had a base card featuring Cutch sliding to make a catch for his base card in Series 2.

2020 introduced the world to a worldwide pandemic and the coolest sports card ever produced.

2019 Stadium Club had a photo variant of Cutch 

2016 Topps Triple Threads featured images of Cutch at the 2015 All Star Game

This is an original art card by Brian Kong and was used to produce the Museum Canvas Collection reprints from this original artwork. 

2014 Topps Archives 

2013 Topps Archives All Stars

2013 had photo variants of the top stars sporting their sunglasses.  The most famous is the Yu Darvish card featuring a pair of sunglasses that should be sent back in time.

2012 had a photo variant of Cutch at the All Star Game

2011 Tier One had an autograph with Adam Jones where Cutch is sporting shades atop his cap.

2005 Bowman Heritage saw him sport a pair of shades on his cap for the base, mini, and mahogany parallels.  It is strange That the photo variant doesn't feature sunglasses on the cap as it was likely from the same photo shoot.

It also saw the 2005 Bowman Heritage Signs of Greatness autographs to feature the sunglasses on the hat.

2005 Topps Chrome saw Cutch wearing the shades atop his head.

Do you have any sunglasses cards to show off? We could do a blog bat around if so.