My attention span isn't very good. I tend to lose focus fairly quickly. It happens in all forms of entertainment. I tend to lose focus with TV shows after a few seasons. The same can be said for books. On the rare occasion I do read a book cover to cover (and it isn't a comic book graphic novel), it usually involves an athlete I loved to learn about.
Below you can see the latest book(let) I read cover to cover. There wasn't much to read, but it definitely grabbed my attention from the moment I opened the cover.
An on card autograph in big blue bold pen complete with a jumbo camo swatch from a Pirates Thursday alternate uniform.
Yeah, I am interested.
It's true what they say. You can't judge a book by it's cover.
As a reminder, I will be showing more of my Pirates (and "Pittsburgh baseball club") cards that I have neglected to highlight on this blog.
Hopefully you will enjoy these Black History Month segments this month as there seemed to be some modest responses to the idea.
In addition to the Homestead Grays, the Pirates have paid tribute to another Negro League team throughout the years, the Pittsburgh Crawfords.
The Pirates have worn this uniform once each year since 2012.
It features a gray uniform with purplish pinstripes and red piping along the edges in addition to the numbering and lettering.
While I am not aware of any cards of Cutch being produced wearing this uniform, there have been a few relics produced where the uniform is clearly from an old Crawfords jersey.
This 2016 Gypsy Queen is my favorite as it has the purple like pin stripes and the red Majestic logo worn along the sleeve. I will show more swatches of this jersey in future posts along with other Pittsburgh Crawfords legends.
One of the first stars that the Pittsburgh Crawfords saw rise to prominence was Hall of Fame pitcher, Satchel Paige.
I don't have nearly enough cards of the former Negro players.
Satchel had a rough childhood even landing himself in reform school before gaining the attention as a teenager and signing a contract to play for $250 a month.
Soon after that initial contract, Satchell began to sign on and play for anyone who would be willing to pay for his electric arm.
Satchel is still the oldest player to make his MLB debut at the age of 42 years old when he began his career with the Cleveland Indians in 1947.
There are many urban myths about Satchell including my personal favorite where he had his team sit down on the field with bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th and clinging to a one run game. Naturally as the story goes, Paige struck the batter out.
He is to this day considered one of the greatest pitchers of all time.
He was elected to the baseball Hall of Fame in 1971.
If you have 30 minutes to spare, I strongly suggest you listen to this video called Black Diamonds: The Satchell Paige Story.
The YouTube video is below.
It is essentially an interview with Satchell. Truly worth the listen if you love baseball and the history of the game. There is an interesting segment where Satchell talks about how Jackie Robinson wasn't even on the starting roster for the Kansas City Monarchs. He would go on to say that any Negro League team could have beaten a team in the majors because those players in the Negro Leagues were tops in the country.
Baseball is a game with a rich history. It's been described as a thinking man's game and all the statistics, sabremetrics, analytics would help support that.
Sometimes though we forget about the history.
That's where the cardboard insider comes in. The job of the Cardboard Insider is to reveal how my favorite player, Andrew McCutchen, connects to the game's rich history.
I have to be completely honest, prior to looking at the back of this card, I had never heard of Charlie "Piano Legs" Hickman.
Why am I bringing up Charlie Hickman on a blog about Andrew McCutchen?
Because Hickman, Luis Gonzalez, and Andrew McCutchen are THE ONLY PLAYERS IN THE HISTORY OF THE GAME to extend a hit streak to at least 15 games with a walk off homer.
(The front of the card will be shown at the bottom along with a recap of the game)
Considered to be a utility player, Piano Legs was one of the original pitcher/hitter players. Playing before Babe Ruth and Shoehei Otani, Ol'Piano Legs hit 59 homeruns and won 10 games in his career.
Take that Shohei!!! I wonder what his "Piano Legs" Bowman Bubblefractor Autos would have sold for.
Luis "Gonzo" Gonzalez might be one of the most underrated players of the 90s and early 2000s.
In addition to having the most memorable hit in Diamondbacks history, Gonzo also accumulated 51.5WAR, 5 All-Star appearances, and is on a who's who list of players with over 300HR/300SB, 500 doubles, 2500hits. That list is pretty exclusive and includes names like Bonds, Mays, Rodriguez.
Do you ever look on the back of cards and see a name you have never heard of?
If so, do some research and you may find it very interesting to learn more about the history of the game.
This is it...
Andrew McCutchen is coming home.
The longtime face of the Pirates franchise will be coming home to Pittsburgh this weekend after being traded to the Giants in the offseason.
The back of this Triple Threads unity relic card talks about Cutch and his dominance in PNC Park
I will be attending the game between the San Francisco Giants and Pittsburgh Pirates tomorrow. I have also entered a code for the Home Run Challenge in for the next three days in hopes that Cutch goes yard one of those days.
Topps often reminds us on the back of their cards that the materials used are not from any specific season, game, or event. While football fans often blast Panini the same way baseball fans blast Topps, my only complaint is the lack of logos.
My favorite release year in and year out is National Treasures. The effort Panini puts into the product is what a high end release should be.
My favorite new addition was the Dated Materials subset produced where they actually tell you what game the jersey was used and how the player did. You might have missed my writeup about it last year, but can click here to see the card in question.
Obviously I own a lot of Andrew McCutchen relics as I currently have over 2,200 unique cards of the 2013 NL MVP.
It is safe to assume that my latest pickup (which was free thanks to eBay bucks savings) has a giant swatch from that same jersey worn on May 7th, 2015.
Oh and it's a few days late for Star Wars day as it is another 4/5 card.
On May 7, 2015 Cutch lead the Pirates to a 7-2 victory over the Reds thanks to a 3 for 4 performance and a strong pitching performance by AJ Burnett.
Even with the victory the Pirates were only 13-15 on the young season, 2 games under .500. They would go on to win 97 that season.
Cutch known for being a slow starter was able to raise his batting average above the Mendoza line creating a slash line of .210/.302/.320 which extends to a .622 OPS. He would finish the season 5th in NL MVP voting, earn his 5th All-Star appearance, 4th Silver Slugger and a slash line of .295/.401/.488 good for an OPS .889. He had the 4th highest offensive WAR that year in the senior circuit.
The back of the card talks about Cutch's performance on May 17th which I will discuss in a future post.
I promised yesterday that I would show off a massive card today and I intend to keep that promise.
Each year, National Treasures tends to be one of my favorite releases due to the quality they put in the product.
2016 NT was no different. I've already shown some of my cards from this year's release. This one however is by far, my biggest one yet. It's so big in fact that when unfolded it didn't fit entirely on my scanner.
It's not as low numbered as other NT cards I have shown, but this card does feature some of my other favorite players in MLB. Jumbo jersey relics of Anthony Rizzo, Nolan Arenado, and Giancarlo Stanton all join Cutch in this Quad Relics Booklet.
This is my first Arenado relic I have. I would like to add more in the near future.
I missed out on the two previous ones listed on eBay and when this hit, the seller and I negotiated a deal to get this in my hands for a price what my two missed opportunities went for.
I am grateful that I can cross this off the list now. The trouble is displaying it. I just ordered a custom case from hardball34 to get this thing properly displayed.
Three of these Superstars will be on Team USA. Stanton looks to be starting in Right Field and Arenado will likely be the team's starting 3B.
Tomorrow I will show off my other Stanton cards that I have paired up with Cutch.
