Silver and Gold

I am trying to get into the Christmas spirit so in tribute to the Burl Ives song Silver and Gold from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer here are a pair of parallels from 2007 Just Minors Triple Autos.

The cards were not pack inserted, but have been slabbed by Beckett Grading Services. 

They feature sticker autos of Andrew McCutchen, Daniel Moskos, and Steve Pearce. 

The gold is limited to 10 copies and the silver is limited to 25 copies (mine is jersey numbered 22/25).

I may show off some more silver and gold parallels in the future.

What is your favorite claymation movie?

Congrats Boston Red Sox!

With the SaveSecondBase event I was running all month I completely forgot to congratulate the Boston Red Sox on winning the World Series.

Yesterday I watched some of the parade before going to a matinee showing of the new Halloween movie.

I really didn't care who won the World Series.  I was hoping the Rockies would advance further, but once they were eliminated I had two American League teams I would quietly root for thanks to the former Pirates in the organization.  Had Houston advanced I would no doubt be cheering them on for Gerrit Cole and Charlie Morton.  Alex Bregman is quickly becoming one of my favorite players to,watch also.  For Boston it was all about cheering on Steve Pearce who was just an,absolute class act baseball player while with the Pirates through the minors and his brief stint in the majors.

I can't say enough good things about Steve Pearce.

And neither can Cutch who got a lot of heat from Yankees fans for cheering on his former teammate.

Cutch put the haters comments aside with the above Twitter post though.

I don't have a lot of cards featuring Cutch with current members of the Boston Red Sox.  The only cards I have feature Cutch on Just Minors sticker autographs with Pearce and Price.

These two dual autos of Cutch with the 2018 World Series MVP are numbered to 10 and 25 copies.

I also have a triple autograph with David Price and Jason Hayward.  It is also numbered to only 10 copies.

I do have some other cards of Cutch featuring former Red Sox

Jacoby Ellsbury

Shane Victorino

Carl Crawford

Tomorrow I will recap all the pink cards I showed off and give a sneak peak at next year's month long event.

Memento starring that other (guy) Pearce

Have any of you watched the movie Memento starring Guy Pearce and Carrie Ann Moss?

I love that movie, but I feel that it is a movie you can't watch too often.  For instance the last time I saw it was probably about 7 or so years ago.

If you haven't seen it I highly encourage you to check it out.  It's a thriller which stars a man who can't make any new memories.  He uses Polaroids to try to piece together things that have happened in his life.

I began thinking about the movie when I got my latest Cutch card in hand the other day.

Why, you ask?

Well because it had a Steve Pearce autograph on it.  I bought the card fairly cheap for a Cutch autograph (under $20) and it was a card I didn't have so I felt inclined to add it to the collection.

The problem is like all Just Minors autographs there is no information about the players on the card.

Steve Pearce, I thought.

I remember him.

How?

The memories of a first basemen of the future began to surface through my brain as I remembered reading all about this prospect that rose 3 minor league levels in a single season and had 25+ HR pop with a strong hit tool that could cause him to be a .300 hitter.

In 2008 he was ranked the Pirates third best prospect below Andrew McCutchen and Neil Walker.

Look at how he ranked for individual grades though.
Best hitter for average, best power hitter, and best strike zone discipline.  Those 3 tools should keep a first baseman in the majors for a very productive career.

But what happened to him?

Did we trade him before he reached his potential like we did with Jose Bautista?

No!  Delwyn Young happened.

Steve Pearce was finally healthy at the major league level and hitting really well (by 2010 Pirates standards) when DY through a ball so far away from the 1B bag that Pearce got injured trying to stop the throw from going into the visitor bleachers.  His bat never returned to be the same as he made adjustments to try and battle through more injuries over his career.

Steve Pearce like Guy Pearce in Memento probably goes through life now recollecting everything and trying to piece together what went wrong.  After 3 stints with the Orioles, 2 times with the Yankees, and many seasons of taking the bus from Indy to Pittsburgh, Steve caught on with Toronto last year and became the FIRST PLAYER in MLB history to hit 2 Walkoff Grand Slams in the same week.