You're a teenager now!

I forgot to post these items a few days ago so here is a belated Happy Birthday for Cutch's 13th anniversary of his first HR.

This card is from 2015 Topps Tribute and features a ball used in the game for Cutch's first HR game.  

It is not the actual ball Cutch hit for his 1st HR, I believe that belongs to Cutch.

I also own the lineup card from Cutch's 1st HR

I won this in an auction a few years ago for only $100 (plus taxes and buyer's fee). 

It has been authenticated by JSA.

I also have a ticket stub from the game featuring a great image of Joe Mauer.

He didn't miss it, he crushed it

Have you ever wanted to own a Home Run baseball from your favorite player?  

Well, I can say that I do.

It was authenticated by MLB and Hunt Auctions.

With the unfortunate COVID pandemic that plagued the world this year, no fans were permitted to watch a Philadelphia Phillies game in person.  Fortunately however, the Homerun baseballs were auctioned off for charity and I was able to acquire the 238th career homerun of Andrew McCutchen.  On September 1st, 2020 Cutch launched (and if you watch the video below, that may be an understatement) his 5th homer of the shortened year.  He would hit 5 more in the month of September to finish with double digit homerun totals for the 12 straight season joining a list of only 3 other active players to hit double digit round trippers since 2009.  The other three players are Nelson Cruz, Robinson Cano, and Edwin Encarnacion.

You can click here to see the video on YouTube or hopefully I was able to embed the source correctly from MLB below.

The Sequence Of "High Drive, Left Field, It is Outta Here"

Last week I showed off an Andrew McCutchen cameo card on a 2019 Austin Barnes card.  I never would have expected that Cutch who played for the Phillies in 2019 would be pictured on a 2019 Dodgers card while he served as a member of the Giants.

Funny thing about that card which looks like a popup to the catcher.

The image was taken on April 7th, 2018.

That sounds like a date I have talked about before on this blog.

Maybe because I have used that date as a This Day In Cutchstory for the past two years since his 6 hit night.

That's right! In case you don't remember, Cutch collected 6 hits in that April 7th 2018 game and it ended in a walk off homerun.

So how did Cutch do in the 4th inning that Austin Barnes card is based on?

Well on the 6th pitch of the at bat versus Rich Hill, Cutch laced a line drive single to center.  He fouled two pitches off including the pop up out of play that was caught in the action shot of the 2019 Topps Austin Barnes card.

While it is pretty neat to see Cutch in a cameo card from that night, the reason why the game is so memorable for me is that walk off homer.

I've shown off a ticket stub I purchased shortly after the homer happened.

I've also shown a Topps Heritage Box Topper

Both were shown on a post on April 7, 2019 to celebrate the 1 year anniversary.

More recently I talked about that game when I showed off a 2019 Luminaries Home Run Kings On Card Autograph which spotlights Cutch with his 6 walkoff Homers.

I am always looking for anything relating to this game.  I would love to add a program, scorecard, and any game used items to this impressive night of hitting.

It was a home game for the San Francisco Giants who were celebrating the team's 60th Anniversary.

The balls used that season look like the example you see above.  As you may be aware, MLB Authentication Services will place a hologram on a baseball that can be looked up and verified on line.

The stickers look like the example you see there.  Can you read the authentication sticker?

It says JB851938

Let's plug that into the MLB Authentication site.

Pitch 11 of the at bat versus Wilmer Font in the bottom of the 14th.

What happened on pitch 12?

The very next pitch after the foul ball I now own was a walk off homerun that capped off his career best 6 hit night.

If you're a fan of baseball and want to get inside the mind of a really great hitter from the past decade you should check out the below video.

In this episode of The Sequence, Trevor Plouffe walks through the 12 pitch sequence of Andrew's extra inning walk off homer.  It's fun to see the ball that I now own be seen on camera.

Trevor and Andrew look at this sequence of pitches and Andrew gets pretty deep into analyzing what he was thinking as Wilmer Font and him battled that night.

I would love to get this blown up to an 8x10 and make it a part of a shelf on my bookcase.  Talk about perseverance.


Do you have any game used memorabilia from a player you admire?

3 Important Rules

There is only a week left for my 4th Annual Save Second Base Event.  The 3rd contest is closed with Brett winning thanks to a Yuli Gurriel double.

I am getting very close to my $150 raised based on comments left.  Keep them coming so we can provide one woman a free mammogram to Save Second Base.

There wasn't many suggestions this year so I took on a challenge that Fuji gave me.

I specifically wrote this post for Fuji who commented twice about his childhood crush Phoebe Cates earlier in the month.

It's easy to see why Alba would be on a same list with Coates.  They look like they could be related.

Alba was just born when Coates was becoming a legend in 80s movies.

Since Fuji is always commenting on everyone's blog, I felt obligated (and challenged) to come up with a way to incorporate Phoebe Cates into a post.
I hope I do some justice for ya buddy.

She broke out as a star in Fast Times at Ridgemont High

And that scene is one of the most famous scenes of the 80s.

So famous in fact it "sort of" appeared in the Netflix series Stranger Things as seen above.

In 1989 she married Kevin Kline and they are still married today.

That's an impressive long relationship that we don't see from celebrities these days.  Congrats to them.


The movie I like most that Phoebe Cates appeared in is Gremlins.

Surprisingly Topps hasn't used the Gremlins design for one of their #TBT themes yet.

Gremlins follows the story of Gizmo, a Mogwai who was gifted to Billy.

We learn early in the movie that there are 3 simple rules to follow with the mogwai.

Don't expose it to bright lights or sunlight.  It will kill it.

Don't let it come in contact with water.

And most importantly don't feed it after midnight.

This Mother's Day ball sealed in a UV protected ball cube made the most sense for such a comparison.

This autographed baseball is from Tristar Hidden Treasures and is also JSA certified.

I have the next week mapped out, but am looking for suggestions for NEXT YEAR's event.  It's never too early to start Saving Second Base.

Still Time For 1st of 4 Contests

It's only a month away...
The 4th Annual Save Second Base
Pink Cards For Breast Cancer Awareness event is about to kick off and this year will be the biggest yet!

I announced the first of 4 contests I plan on running for the Save Second Base contest. Please go here before September 1st and predict who you think will lead the National League in doubles by season's end. All rules for that contest are in the post.

Here are the contestants so far
Fuji-Blackmon
Matt of Diamond Jesters-Rendon
Brett A-Seager
Lost Collector-Story
John Sharp-Rendon
Johnny Trading Spot-Albies
Gavin-Javy
Pgn3540-Rendon
Nate-Bell
Jafronius-Javy
Daniel-Seager
Henry-Blackmon

I will reveal my next contest and announce the winner of the contest pimp next week.

In the meantime, here is another memorabilia item of Cutch I own.

It is a signed Breast Cancer Awareness Mother's Day ball obtained last year when Cutch returned to PNC Park as a member of the Giants.

Juan Soto and Bryce Harper touched my ball

Clickbait? Yeahhhhhh...

But it's true.

I have been trying to acquire game hit baseballs of Cutch in different stadiums now that my cardboard collection has gotten completely out of control.

With the addition of Statcast in every stadium, game used baseballs go to a whole new level of collecting fun.  By entering the code at MLB.com authentication site you can learn everything there is about that baseball.

So we learn that this baseball was used in a game with the San Francisco Giants playimg against the Washington Nationals in Washington.

It was the first pitch thrown by Ryan Madson in the top of the 7th inning to Andrew McCutchen which lined it to Bryce Harper for a distance traveled of 236 feet at a speed of 80.27MPH.

Using the same ball, on the very next pitch, Evan Longoria scorched it on the ground to Juan Soto.  It left the bat at 103.7MPH and traveled a distance of 215 feet before being retrieved by Juan Soto.  It was hit with an angle of only 1.43 degrees.

Upon retrieval of the ball, Ryan Masson threw it to catcher Nick Huntley and it was a ball.  At that point Madson must have said "this is all your fault" to the 108 stitched piece of equipment and asked the umpire for a new ball.

Gypsy Queen :The Big Hits!!!

The past few years, Topps has provided fans with some incredible hits in their Gypsy Queen release.

First up the autographs

One of the hardest cards for me to track down in my early days of Collecting Cutch, this on card autograph also features a plain relic.  A few people were trying to put the set together and with only 25 produced, it is almost impossible to track one down now.

This dual auto/dual relic of Hall of Famer, Ralph Kiner and Andrew McCutchen is one of my first Cutch dual autos I added to the collection.

The 2012 card is limited to only 15.

I have gotten the jumbo patch cards in each of the past two years and both cards feature really awesome patches.

The 2015 patch features a massive swatch from Cutch's number and is limited to only 5 copies.

The 2016 patch features the Majestic Logo from the sleeve of a Crawford Grays jersey worn by the Pirates in the 2012 season.  It is numbered to 10 copies.

Easily one of my top 10 favorite cards is this dual button card of Team USA teammates Adam Jones and Andrew McCutchen.  I'm sure there is an Adam Jones supercollector out there who has one of these making the rarity of one of these hitting the market soon very scarce.

Only 3 exist.

While it's not in my Top 10 cards, this Laces Around The League card gets an honorable mention because it is a super thick card that has a massive chunk of a baseball on it.  If it was labeled similar to the Topps Tribute moment cards where you can see the authentication or determine what game it is from, it would be a top 10 card.

Only 5 exist.

To wrap things up is an extremely limited manufactured flag patch.  I am not a big fan of manufactured relics, but I got this for about 75% of the average sale price of these.

Much like many of the other hits on this post, it is numbered to only 5 copies.