FlawLESS Victory Contest

Saint Patrick's Day is here so I wanted to run a contest perfect for a celebration of green.

Here is one of my favorite "green" cards of Cutch.

It is from 2017 Flawless and is the green emerald parallel which features an on card autograph numbered to only 3 copies (!!!!) And encapsulated in a nice one touch case complete with a Flawless sticker.

From 2016 Flawless I have a giant patch of the Jolly Roger sleeve logo on an Emerald card numbered 2/5.

Flawless Victory

Speaking of Flawless Victory

Above is a video of the Pirates clinching their playoff spot back in 2014.

I have a bottle that was used in the champagne showers that evening and it is signed by Andrew McCutchen.

Here is another image of the bottle. I shrink wrapped around the signature so it won't fade over time.

Here is the authentication for the bottle

The Pirates 2014 team was a fun one to root for despite them not advancing very far in the Postseason.   They, like everyone else in the 2014 Postseason, got Bumgarnered. There are a few other reasons though why I can't label it my favorite team roster.

That distinction belongs to the predecessor year, 2013.

2013 was a magical year for Pirates fans.  It marked the end of the 20 year losing streak.  More important though there was a group of men that I watched develop into one of the best teams in baseball.

2013 was loaded with many individuals getting hardware and personal accomplishments.

Andrew Mccutchen was MVP, Player's Choice MVP, silver slugger

Clint Hurdle was Manager of Year

Pedro Alvarez was a silver slugger and HR champ

Francisco Liriano was Comeback Player of Year

Jason Grilli won Reliever of Month twice and was featured on Sports Illustrated

Pirates All Stars included Cutch, Alvarez, Grilli, Jeff Locke, and Mark Melancon.

The team had veterans like Garrett Jones, Russell Martin, and AJ Burnett built around a young core coming into their prime.

We saw flashes of brillaince from rookie "future ace" Gerrit Cole as he won his first 6 games and beat former Cy Young Winners: Tim Lincecum, Clayton Kershaw, and Zack Greinke in his first three games.  My brother got married in 2013 and I made a bet with him that if the Pirates made the postseason in 2013, he would name his first son Cole because of Gerrit Cole.  I love my niece, but am still hoping I get a nephew one day and my brother lives up to that bet.

Even the bench and role players were fun to root for.  Travis Snyder may have been a top prospect a long time ago, but his career never blossomed into superstar.  Still, Lunchbox as he was known was an everyday guy who fans could root for. The same can be said for guys like Mike "The Fort" McHenry and Clint "Journey" Barmes.  I suspect Pittsburgh is the only city that gave Clint a standing ovation as a visiting player in his career.

So here is the contest.
Make a post about a year your favorite team DIDN'T win the World Series.  Be sure to include why that year's roster stood out to you.  Who were your favorite players that aren't superstars? Did any members of that team go on to Hall of Fame careers? Tell as much as you can about that team and any many memories you may have about that year in general.

After you make the post, leave a comment here with a link to your post.  (Please reference my contest in your post)

On April 2nd, 2019 I will hit the randomizer 3 times.  The person at the top of the randomizer will receive...

2004 Topps Tribute Carl Yastrzemski Green Wall Relic card.

I thought with it being St. Patrick's Day, a green wall relic of one of the most historically trophyless franchises (prior to 2004 at least) seemed appropriate.

Happy St Patrick's Day

Stay safe!

Don't drink and drive!

Wear your green proudly

I'm not going to show all my green Cutch cards this year like I did last year.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

So much has changed in only a week. 

I had a post planned today relating to only 9 days until Opening Day and it was a green card.

Instead I am going to keep the trend from last year showing off a green parallel from Panini's Flawless set.

Flawless is exactly what it states in it's brand name, a flawless design by the logoless competition to Topps.  

With only 3 copies produced of these on card autographs, I am very happy to have this in my collection.

Stay safe!!!

Wear That Green!!!

It's St Patrick's Day!

Today I'm going to just stick with showing off some green cards.

2020 Absolute Baseball Sweet Spot green stitches Auto /5

2018 Transcendent Vertical Frame green parallel Autograph /15

2017 Definitive Jumbo Patch green /15

2017 Triple Threads Wold Baseball Classic USA green parallel triple relic /18

2020 Triple Threads Jumbo jersey green parallel /18

2020 Triple Threads "Leadoff Dividends" green parallel triple relic /18

2020 Chronicles Spectra Green /75

2020 Topps Gallery green

2020 Triple Threads green /275

2019 Prizm Forest Green /5

2020 Topps Update Chrome green /45

2021 Topps Hanger 1986 green exclusive on top

Murphys, Bailey's, and Guiness

There are three drinks that come to mind when I think of Irish beer: Murphy's, Baileys, and Guiness.

Let's run through that list and see if there are any McCutchen references hidden in my collection.

When I think of Murphy and baseball, I immediately think of Dale Murphy.

Being a supercollector I have come across many other player collectors over the years.  While many have bigger collections of certain players, no other collector has more artistic talent than Daniel Jacob Horine and his popflypopshop 

Daniel is a big time Dale Murphy collector and recently released another limited Dale Murphy art print based on the reverse negative Upper Deck card.

I've talked about his work in the past and tried to get you all on board for his extremely affordable and limited prints back when I was doing my Cobra Kai week and discussing the Dave Parker print he did.  He currently has a fantastic Billy Ripken "F face" print available. 

He has also done a limited gold sticker print run (only 50) of the Andrew McCutchen 2 cups swag image.  You can revisit my post about this here.

I also think of Dropkick Murphy, a Boston band, that requested former Red Sox closer not to use their song, Shipping up to Boston, when Jonathan Papelbon left Boston to join the Philadelphia Phillies for the 2012 season. 

In 4 career plate appearances, Cutch went 0 for 3 with a walk versus Papelbon.

I don't have any Cutch related items, but Papelbon's 2014 Bowman card is taken from a game that he got Andrew McCutchen to pop out to the catcher and eventually recorded the save when he got Pedro Alvarez to strike out looking.

No for the best option of the Irish drinks: Baileys

The 2009 AL Rookie of Year, Andrew Bailey faced Andrew McCutchen only one time in his career and Cutch went 0 for 1.

Homer Bailey

Because of the rivalry between the Reds and Pirates, Cutch has faced Homer Bailey more than just a small sample size.  

Bailey does have the rare feat of throwing a no hitter against the Pirates.  It occurred on September 28th, 2012.  The only base runner that was Bailey's doing was a walk to Andrew McCutchen.

In 54 at bats, Cutch managed to get 16 hits while also piling on 11 walks.  While not getting many extra base hits, Cutch was still able to get on base at a .424 clip versus the Christian Bale doppelganger. 

While on base, Cutch also swiped four bags. 

Guiness...

Well I got nothing, but think if there was a category for Guiness record for most Andrew McCutchen items, I might be in the discussion for holding that record.

Playing In a Beer League

Continuing the theme of drinking and St Patrick's Day is a look at the only ballpark currently named after an alcoholic drink. 

I am talking about Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals.

The ballpark is named after the Anheuser-Busch Brewing company from St. Louis Missouri, distributor of such famous brands like Budweiser, Stella Artois, and Beck's.  Anheiser-Busch also helps to distribute brands like Landshark, Shocktop, and Michelob Ultra.

The Pirates and Cardinals had some pretty memorable games between 2012 to 2015 when both teams were competitive, battling for the NL Central title. Oddly enough the largest attendance for a baseball game played at Busch Stadium was on Mother's Day 2019 when the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates came to town. 

At the forefront of those competitive teams was a perennial MVP candidate, Andrew McCutchen.  

In 66 Games Started at Busch Stadium, Cutch has a .275/.353/.408 triple slash line with 6 HR and 28 RBI over 262 at bats.

The cards pictured above are both short prints from 2013 Topps and 2013 Topps Chrome respectively. 

Here is the original image used for this card, found on getty images

There are also images that Panini used for this attempted catch that were part of Panini's Elements insert set.

🍀 🍺 🍺🍺 🍺 🍺 🍺 🍀

Cutch also played at another ballpark named after an alcoholic beverage, Miller Park.  However, Miller Park in Milwaukee is now called American Family Insurace Field

In 73 games started and one pinch hit appearance, Cutch had a .296/.358/.589 triple slash line good for a .948OPS.  Cutch hit his 100th career Home Run at Miller Park and has collected 22HR over his career thus far.

This video here will show Cutch's mammoth 100th career HR (2:58 mark) along with some really awesome moments of Cutch during his Pirates career.  I encourage you to watch it.

You can revisit my post about this image here, but keep in mind that post was written on 9/11 so there are some September 11th memories on that post.

I have also shown off a few other cards of Cutch over the years that the originally photography was shot at Miller Park.

The image above was used for the 2016 Topps Heritage (and it's many parallels).  Below you will see the black refractor /67 copies.

There is a few other images of Cutch appearing at Miller Park from the 2015 season.

This image was used for Cutch's 2016 Gypsy Queen photo variant card, which you can see below.

The best Pirates alternative road uniforms of the past ten years wwre captured at Miller Park after Cutch had a strikeout.

It is the throwback jersey variation in 2017 Topps Heritage.

If you were to drink a beer, would you choose a Miller or Busch product? 

Happy St Patrick's Day Week Celebration

Since yesterday's long and thought provoked post got very little views and comments, I'll just go with more pictures, less words to keep the Irish St Patrick's theme moving forward.

After all a picture is worth a thousand words?

Kevin-John is a famed artist for Topps and Disney.  He has also done some baseball sketches in Museum Collection.

You can visit his site by going to Kevin-john.com

Here they are side by side with the matching green backgrounds.

Oh yeah, more pictures...