Ground Chuck Update

Chris from The Collector suggested that I show off some other Pirates players I collect when I asked for some writer's block suggestions.  I figured I would honor that request.

Another of my main Player Collections is former Pirates pitcher and 2017 World Series Game 7 Winning Pitcher, Charlie Morton.

My reasons for collecting Ground Chuck are because he was my favorite pitcher of the 2009 Pirates pitching staff AND he was born in my hometown.

I haven't posted many Charlie Morton updates here since I predicted he would be the winning pitcher for the Astros in the 2017 World Series.  Gavin from Baseball Card Breakdown even made a post about my bold prediction.

So because it has been a very long time since I showed off any Morton cards I thought I would share SOME of my Morton cards I have acquired over the past few years.  I won't bore anyone with base cards or standard parallels.

This is All Killer, No Filler

 2019 Topps Now Wild Card Game Used Base (featuring A's name on base) Autograph Purple Parallel

This is the back of the above card which discusses how Morton did in the game.

 2019 Triple Threads Patch/Auto blue parallel to 10 copies

Austin Meadows/Charlie Morton dual autograph, dual patch
2019 Topps Update /10

 2019 Triple Threads Triple All-Star Game patch /9

 2019 Triple Threads All-Star Game Majestic Logo 1/1

2018 Heritage 100 Anniversary /25
2 copies 2018 Heritage Magenta Back /10

 2017 Postseason Topps Now cards (I boldly predicted Morton to be winning pitcher of Game 7 World Series back in September 2017)

 2008 Bowman Printing Plates 1/1 yellow and black

2012 Topps Wood 1/1

I picked up a couple of the 2020 Archives Active Signatures.  They feature a blue label on top

I also picked up a few of the 2019 Archives Active Player Autos.  They feature a red label on top.


So theres a few of my Charlie Morton updates.  Prior to leaving the Pirates in 2016, I had every non 1/1 for the NJ born Morton.

Sweet 16!!!

If the regular season starts on time and isn't delayed because of the Coronavirus scare, there will be two former MVPs and former Yankees/Team USA teammates that will be on the injured list.

Giancarlo Stanton suffered a calf strain and is expected to miss Opening Day.

Andrew McCutchen tore his ACL last June and is also expecting to miss Opening Day.

 Here is a dual laundry tag 1 of 1 I never showed off.

It pairs well with this  dual patch numbered to 10 copies I also never showed off.

Which pairs nicely with this dual relic I have shown off a few times.

It is numbered 16/49.

The card number for the set is also 16.

They look pretty good together.

The MLB season is supposed to kick off in 16 days.

The Firsts of Firsts

There was a lot of requests made for some famous black history that was made in relativity to them being the firsts to do it.  I am going to do a combination post on some of them and relate it to this card you see below.

The above 2019 Topps Tribute black parallel is a dual patch relic card of Buster Posey and Andrew McCutchen.  The pair were teammates for the 2018 season.

This black parallel is numbered 1/1.

🏒Willie O'Ree 🏒

Willie O'Ree was the first black player in the NHL.  The 5ft9inch winger broke the hockey color barrier in 1957.  He stated that Jackie Robinson was an inspiration to him and that he met Jackie when he was younger.  In November 2018, O'Ree was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

He played only a few seasons with the Boston Bruins, but like Robinson helped pioneer black athletes in hockey.

Similar to the Roberto Clemente award in baseball, in 2018 the Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award was created to spotlight an individual who has made the culture and community better through their outreach and hockey.
Darcy Haugan and Rico Phillips have won the 2018 and 2019 awards respectively.



🎾Althea Gibson 🎾

Althea Gibson was born in South Carolina in 1927 and faced much adversity in her path to become one of the first black athletes to cross the color barrier of international tennis. She grew up on a cotton farm and during the aftermath of the Great Depression.

In 1956 she became the first African American to win a Grand Slam (French Championships).  The next year she won Wilbeldon and (what eventually became known as) the US Open.  She won them both again the following year.  In 1957 and 1958 she was voted Female Athlete of The Year by the Associated Press.

In her career she won 11 Grand Slam tournaments and would eventually be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame and International Women's Sports Hall of Fame.

Venus and Serena Williams have stated In numerous interviews over the years that they are honored to follow in Gibson's footsteps.

In the early 1960s she also became the first black player to compete in Women's Professional Golf Tour.  More information about Althea's golf career can be found here.



 🏃🏈 🎾I will spotlight other black athletes who helped break the color barriers as the month goes on. 👣 🏃🏈

Serial History: Super Bowl Connection

In case you're living under a rock, today is Super Bowl Sunday.  The Kansas City Chiefs will be facing off against the San Francisco 49ers.

I am going to show off a pair of Black parallels that relate to the cities and then I will talk about the best black athlete from each team in my opinion.

Cutch played only a few months with the San Francisco Giants to start the 2018 season.

This particular autograph from 2018 Topps Brooklyn Collection, black parallel is numbered 7/10.

There is a lot of Super Bowl connections with that serial numbering.

The 7 represents the former 49ers Quarterback who was under center the last time the San Francisco 49ers were in the Super Bowl.

I am of course talking about Colin Kaepernick.  Kaepernick was an above average quarterback, but in his final two seasons was below average.  He has Been out of the NFL for a few seasons and has a career passer rating of 88.9 and a completion percentage under 60%.  In his final two seasons the 49ers went 3-16 under his guide and his QBR was 43.4 and 49.5 resepectively in those final two seasons.  50 is average QBR.

He began to become an activist and spokesperson for racial inequality when he took a knee during the National Anthem.  Kaepernick started the movement in response to police brutality, but has continued to be outspoken regarding equal rights for all races.

In addition to being an activist he is also a devoted Christian with several tattoos representing God and Jesus Christ on his arms.

In 2015 he became a vegan and has been following that lifestyle ever since.

He has recently been in the news because the NFL refused to air a PETA commercial that Kaepernick endorsed.



The card that the print run is numbered to /10) represents the current quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo.

I won't go into any comments about Jimmy G but I think that Patrick Mahomes is the better QB in this year's Super Bowl.

Andrew McCutchen is a five time All-Star.  One of his All-Star game appearances was in 2012 in Kansas City.  Cutch had two cards in 2012 Topps Update to represent his All-Star appearance.  In addition to being selected as a participant he also took Giancarlo Stanton's place in the Homerun Derby.  I am still missing a homerun derby (US9) card but do have his All-Star game card in the Black parallel.

My particular copy of US87 is numbered 15/61.

Wanna guess the connection of 15/61 to this year's Super Bowl?

Well Patrick Mahomes, the superstar Quarterback of the Kansas City Chiefs is number 15.

Mahomes was born the son of longtime journeyman relief pitcher, Pat Mahomes.

He showed a promising career as a pitcher and toolsy outfielder and was drafted out of high school by the Detroit Tigers.  He ultimately decided to play football and in his first full season won the NFL MVP.  Were it not for an injury early in this past year, he would have likely garnered some additional MVP votes.

He is only 24 years old and has a completion percentage of nearly 66% with a 76-18 TD-INT ratio.

If he has a big game today he could become not only the face of the NFL, but one of the most popular athletes in any sport globally.

I am picking Chiefs to win 36-20.

This Day in Cutchstory: Quality Control?

Where the heck is the quality control at Topps?

They release a high end set with a suggested retail price of roughly $300 per box and said box contains only 1 card.

The design is awesome.

The box it comes in is equally awesome.

The information about dynastic deeds is awesome.

IF ONLY IT WERE TRUE THOUGH!!!

Look up the boxscore for  April 20th, 2017.  The Diamondbacks played the San Diego Padres and lost easily 4-1.

Was Cutch a member of the Padres then?
Nope!

Ugh....

Karaoke Night with Bon Jovi

Woooooooaaaah We're halfway there....

I have the left side of the Majestic patch taken care of with numbers 2/4 and 3/4.  Now I just need 1/4 and 4/4.

#tbt: Paige(ing) Another Legend

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.

Majestic Museum Addition

A few weeks ago Nike and MLB agreed to an exclusive license agreement that would have all players wear Nike footwear and uniforms beginning in 2020.  Details can be found here.

At one point it was discussed that Under Armour would take over the rights in 2020, but last year the agreement was broken leaving the opportunity for Nike to take over and claim three quarters of the North American sports enterprises.

This means that all relic cards will no longer have a chance at featuring a Majestic logo.  Majestic had been the sole producer of on field jerseys for MLB since 2004.

I have a lot of Majestic patches and may one day show them all off.

Here is one of my most recent pickups.

It's from 2016 Topps Museum and is numbered to only 10 copies.

On The Block?

The August nonwaiver trade deadline is literally just days away.  Andrew McCutchen has cleared waivers and news broke today that Josh Harrison has cleared also.

Could the Giants trade Cutch to a contending team looking to bolster their outfield and lineup?

Could a team use a super utility guy like Josh Harrison to be a late inning bat bench?

One thing is for sure these 2014 MVP candidates are not viewed by their current teams as being cornerstones to build around anymore.

With the offensive decline of both players I have been able to pick up a few cards here and there of both of them for significantly less than their previous prices would have commanded. 

There was a time in 2015 when a certified Elite Extra Edition sticker autograph of Harrison numbered to 600 would command $50. Now?

I am able to buy autographs of him in Topps Archives for under $10 delivered for on card signatures of my favorite cards he has appeared on.

This will likely be one of the last dual cards of Cutch and Harrison produced and it's Majestic.

Well...partially

I love bad puns.