The Art of Chuck Styles

Uncle Larry is Andrew McCutchen's alter ego.  He created the character when a Philadelphia reporter sited Andrew McCutchen, but called him Larry McCutcheon, the former running back from the NFL.  

Andrew did play football in high school, but he was a receiver.  During the pandemic, Andrew began posting videos and introduced the world to Uncle Larry, an old school no BS comedic personality.

Fans loved the character and Chuck Styles decided to make the first official Uncle Larry Project 70 Topps card.  

Like many of the Topps Project artists, Chuck Styles offered a limited number of autographed cards through his website for purchase.

The version I chose was the blue signature version numbered to 6 copies.  Chuck signed it right above the Uncle Larry name in a powder blue paint pen.  He also provided a new sticker atop the one touch magnetic holder replacing the traditional Project 70 sticker.

Came with an autographed box

The box was numbered in addition to the card

Mine is 2/6

Super Collectors Helping Out

By large I consider myself a player collector more than anything else when it comes to this hobby.  I feel like I have always been a "player collector" since taking up hobbies as an adult.

I've talked before about my collections I have had over the years from 80s toys to comics to sports cards.  

In looking back though I was always a player collector and super collector in the mindset.

The weird thing is I was never invested in the upper tier of collecting.

When I was collecting 80s toys I was focused on Voltron and Thundercats.  Neither of those toy lines had the sports player mindset, but I was obsessed with getting everything that had Voltron on it.  If it had 5 robot lions on some licensed merchandise I needed it for my collection.  Children sneakers in size 3?  Yup I was buying them.  Pencil pouches and folders for my school supplies at age 25?  Yup...I needed them.  

Voltron and Thundercats both had loyal fan bases, but they fall into the second tier of great 80s cartoons behind things like Transformers, G.I. Joe, Masters of the Universe, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Fast forward to my comic book collections.  Growing up my introduction to comic books was the 1992 X-Men cartoon and my two favorite characters were the mutant couple Gambit & Rogue.  Once I got into reading comic books I was hooked on the Flash and Daredevil.  I began buying every comic that featured those characters.

Again, great characters but definitely not top tier like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Hulk, or Wolverine. 

In 2005 I attended a baseball game for the first time in a decade and decided I was going to root for the Pittsburgh Pirates and began following the career of that year's draft pick, Andrew McCutchen.

For a three year run, many could argue that Cutch was top tier in the league as he was basically the National League version of Mike Trout.  Unfortunately he didn't sustain that level of success for decades like some of the all time greats like Pujols, Jeter, Griffey, etc.

My Cutch collection has been my longest tenured collection in any hobby I have ever been a part of.  It has outlasted everything I ever collected and in the span of over a decade and half of collecting his cards I have made some pretty awesome online friends because of the collection.  

About a month ago I received an awesome random act of kindness from another player collector via Twitter.  

As many of you may be aware Blake Jamieson kicked off his Project 70 checklist with a Cutch card.  Well dmoose8 on Twitter received a signed black ink (not numbered) autograph from Blake and he chose to send it to me.  I've had a few interactions with him and his dad on Twitter over the years.  He collects Erik Moustakas cards to the supercollector level and his dad has a fully finished Man Cave of Steal dedicated to Rickey Henderson.

This hobby is awesome!

I love seeing these super collections and being known for my Cutch collection.

Uncle Larry debut!

Topps Project 70 had Andrew McCutchen debut with card number 10 by Blake Jamieson.  The always fan favorite and charismatic McCutchen was left without another card in the Project 70 run until yesterday.  Philadelphia artist Chuck Styles just created a card featuring Cutch's Uncle Larry persona.

Of course I had to pick one up and you should too.  Just head over to Topps.com and grab your copy.  

I of course will be on the lookout for foils when they surface, but did preorder one of the artist proof cards limited to 51 copies also.  

The card design is loosely based on the 1976 Topps design, a design that Cutch hasn't appeared on yet.  Instead of a cartoon ballplayer in the corner, we have a drinking cup (made famous by that swag dugout photo)

I love everything about this card and will be possibly picking up a 10 pack prior to the 70 hour window closing.  At the very least I have a base and artist proof coming my way.

Hopefully other artists like Alex Pardee, distortedd, efdot, and Ermsy join Blake Jamieson and Chuck Styles in making more Cutch cards.  

What are your thoughts on the Chuck Styles Uncle Larry card? 

Kindness Crushings

AJ from the terrific blog, The Lost Collector told me he was going to be sending me a PWE.

AJ has sent me a bunch of cards over the years, but nothing has ever looked like this.

Check out this art card he made for me!!!

Blake Jamieson of Project2020 would be proud.

He also sent along a 2020 Big League Baseball card of my other main PC, Charlie Morton.  Since Charlie got traded to Philadelphia in 2016 and ultimately left via free agency for Houston and Tampa Bay, my Ground Chuck PC has not been as big a focus as previously.  I still love to collect his cards, but I am way behind the "I own every Charlie Morton non 1/1 card" supercollection I once had.  There's just too many parallels these days to supercollect McCutchen and Morton.

This 1985 insert from 2020 Topps Series 2 was the main card of the PWE I was anticipating.  It's a nice photo of Cutch making a catch.

Thank you AJ!!!

I also got a card sent to me via Bryan on Twitter

Please follow Bryan on Twitter @I_am_steele

He posts a lot of cards for sale and is an incredibly kind neighbor of the north.