National Sunglasses Day

Since breaking into the league in 2009, Cutch has always had a sense of joy and swag wherever he played.

Here are a few cards featuring Cutch wearing sunglasses.

First I am going to show off an original piece of artwork by the extremely talented artist Josh Trout

2022 has seen my favorite low budget insert in a long time. Check out those shades!

2021 had an insert set called Stars in Service showing athletes in the community.

It also had a base card featuring Cutch sliding to make a catch for his base card in Series 2.

2020 introduced the world to a worldwide pandemic and the coolest sports card ever produced.

2019 Stadium Club had a photo variant of Cutch 

2016 Topps Triple Threads featured images of Cutch at the 2015 All Star Game

This is an original art card by Brian Kong and was used to produce the Museum Canvas Collection reprints from this original artwork. 

2014 Topps Archives 

2013 Topps Archives All Stars

2013 had photo variants of the top stars sporting their sunglasses.  The most famous is the Yu Darvish card featuring a pair of sunglasses that should be sent back in time.

2012 had a photo variant of Cutch at the All Star Game

2011 Tier One had an autograph with Adam Jones where Cutch is sporting shades atop his cap.

2005 Bowman Heritage saw him sport a pair of shades on his cap for the base, mini, and mahogany parallels.  It is strange That the photo variant doesn't feature sunglasses on the cap as it was likely from the same photo shoot.

It also saw the 2005 Bowman Heritage Signs of Greatness autographs to feature the sunglasses on the hat.

2005 Topps Chrome saw Cutch wearing the shades atop his head.

Do you have any sunglasses cards to show off? We could do a blog bat around if so.

The Card That Brought Me Back

I was furious when Topps left the Opening Day rookie class (Spencer Torkelson, Bobby Witt Jr, Julio Rodriguez) along with printing Cutch in a Phillies uniform again (he was removed from the 40 man roster in November 2021) for 2022 Topps Series 2. 

I even considered not buying any new 2022 and beyond cards because I was so irritated by the lack if quality control, set planning, and executing of their products.  I lost a lot of interest in the hobby.

Then Topps did something unthinkable.

They actually included all the RC Opening Day class as SSP and even included Cutch in a Brewers uniform as a photo variant.

Behold, the simple looking card that saved me from leaving the hobby. 

This card has fixed my cardboard itch.

It's a simple design and features just a normal photo of Cutch at the plate in his Brewers attire.  

It's perfect in everyday.  

The back even features full career stats. 

Have you ever had one card that brought you back into the hobby?

Down for the count...

Everything happens for a reason.

That's what I always say.  Well, I don't always say it, but I am a strong believer of it.

I enjoy working and I enjoy overtime and I enjoy spending my overtime money on baseball cards.

Unfortunately what I don't enjoy doing anymore is rummaging through the collection and I certainly don't enjoy updating my spreadsheet with my Cutch cards I own.

That may all change as I recently injured my achilles and am awaiting to see a orthopedic to find out if its a tear or just strained. I'm out of work for at least two weeks and will be having a lot of free time on my hands with limited mobility.

This seems like a good time to get those spreadsheets updated.

I should also be able to take some pictures of my cards that I've acquired over the past year(s) that I never showed off here.  

One such card is this 2021 Topps Stadium Club image variation.  I picked this up late summer and it is an absolutely fantastic image variant action shot of Cutch sliding into a base.

The Cutch Cave will have to be put on hold due to my limited availability of walking and using tools. I will at the very least try to take a picture of the progress with it. 

Playing In a Beer League

Continuing the theme of drinking and St Patrick's Day is a look at the only ballpark currently named after an alcoholic drink. 

I am talking about Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals.

The ballpark is named after the Anheuser-Busch Brewing company from St. Louis Missouri, distributor of such famous brands like Budweiser, Stella Artois, and Beck's.  Anheiser-Busch also helps to distribute brands like Landshark, Shocktop, and Michelob Ultra.

The Pirates and Cardinals had some pretty memorable games between 2012 to 2015 when both teams were competitive, battling for the NL Central title. Oddly enough the largest attendance for a baseball game played at Busch Stadium was on Mother's Day 2019 when the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates came to town. 

At the forefront of those competitive teams was a perennial MVP candidate, Andrew McCutchen.  

In 66 Games Started at Busch Stadium, Cutch has a .275/.353/.408 triple slash line with 6 HR and 28 RBI over 262 at bats.

The cards pictured above are both short prints from 2013 Topps and 2013 Topps Chrome respectively. 

Here is the original image used for this card, found on getty images

There are also images that Panini used for this attempted catch that were part of Panini's Elements insert set.

🍀 🍺 🍺🍺 🍺 🍺 🍺 🍀

Cutch also played at another ballpark named after an alcoholic beverage, Miller Park.  However, Miller Park in Milwaukee is now called American Family Insurace Field

In 73 games started and one pinch hit appearance, Cutch had a .296/.358/.589 triple slash line good for a .948OPS.  Cutch hit his 100th career Home Run at Miller Park and has collected 22HR over his career thus far.

This video here will show Cutch's mammoth 100th career HR (2:58 mark) along with some really awesome moments of Cutch during his Pirates career.  I encourage you to watch it.

You can revisit my post about this image here, but keep in mind that post was written on 9/11 so there are some September 11th memories on that post.

I have also shown off a few other cards of Cutch over the years that the originally photography was shot at Miller Park.

The image above was used for the 2016 Topps Heritage (and it's many parallels).  Below you will see the black refractor /67 copies.

There is a few other images of Cutch appearing at Miller Park from the 2015 season.

This image was used for Cutch's 2016 Gypsy Queen photo variant card, which you can see below.

The best Pirates alternative road uniforms of the past ten years wwre captured at Miller Park after Cutch had a strikeout.

It is the throwback jersey variation in 2017 Topps Heritage.

If you were to drink a beer, would you choose a Miller or Busch product? 

Next Year, I'm Swinging For The Fences

I missed a month long opportunity to highlight some of my Negro League throwback cards to celebrate Black History Month.  

I promise I will swing for the fences next year.  In the meantime enjoy the whimsical short print from 2012 Topps featuring Cutch and the Pirate Parrot playing wiffleball in the old Homestead Grays uniforms made famous by guys like Josh Gibson, Judy Johnson, Cool Papa Bell, Smoky Joe Williams, and Buck Leonard.

You can revisit some posts I paid tribute to those guys by clicking on their name in the links above.

Blake Delivers a Gem

Project 70 is an art project collector set that Topps is doing this year based on last year's success with Topps Project 2020.  This year the artists will all be doing their take on players of their choice to all 70 years of Topps Baseball cards.

Card number 10 which was made available on Topps.com is none other than Andrew McCutchen and it is drawn by Blake Jamieson.

Blake was one of the most popular artists on Project 2020 because of his super fan friendly personality and constant interaction with fans and artists alike.

I have a few Blake Jamieson splatter cards in my collection already, but the coolest one is this 2020 Topps Series 2 Photo Variant.

Blake offered it up for sale in September and I snatched it up immediately.  It features spray paint on the front of the card along with a gem 💎 stencil.  A beautiful blue paint pen auto is on card and it was encased in one of Blake's signature tamper proof foil stickers atop.

A certificate of authenticy was place with the card.

Will you be buying any of the Project 70 cards?  I already got the Mookie by Ben Baller and Fernando Tatis by Ermsy.

Not sure how many of these Cutch cards I'll grab. I'm thinking 10?

And Then There Was 1

I made It clear I wasn't interested in overpaying for the Andrew McCutchen SP photo variant found in 2020 Series 2 Topps Flagship.  

The weekend around release the card was selling for as much as $350 and averaged around $250 for about 72 hours.  Talk about insane prices for a card that is only a SP with an insert ratio of 1:7 packs.

I waited.

And spent my money on other things.

And I waited.

And spent more money on other things.

Then I continued to wait...

Until I was able to secure both the SP and SSP photo variants for only $75 combined.

BOOOOOOM!!!!!

I now own the most swaggy card ever made of Andrew McCutchen.

It is just shy of becoming my 3,000th unique card too as these cards bring my total to....

2,998

AND

2,999

Yup!!!

Thanks to this Twitter purchase I am 1 card away from the milestone 3,000 unique Andrew McCutchen cards

Big Pimpin'

BASEBALL IS BACK!!!!

Nathan at Bucs Stop Here is running a contest to predict the division winners. 

So like Jay-Z said when I was in high school, I'm gonna get "Big Pimpin"

Head over to Nate's blog and submit your picks and you could win a blaster of Series 2 Baseball which may have a chance to win the most swaggy card ever made by Topps.

I'm still in need of the SP from 2020 Topps Series 2, but did receive this 11x14 Topps online exclusive yesterday.

Too much swag!

A few people have already tagged me on Twitter regarding the 2020 Topps Series 2 photo variant Short Print of Andrew McCutchen.  A few coworkers who are also into cards text messaged me about the card too.

If you haven't already seen it I advise you to put on some shades because this card will blind you with it's swag.

The card community has gone absolutely nuts over this card and prices have varied from $12 to $100.

Many current auctions are in the $70+ range with days left.

The announcement that the season is moving forward and an extremely unique photo variant on a brand new release are definitely driving the price on this card.

I'm going to sit this one out for now though.  I'll let the prices drop back to the $10-$20 range which is where this card's value should be.


ESPN thinks it's a pretty cool card and I agree, but I can't pay those wild prices.

Good Social Distance Practice

Matt from Sport Card Collectors suggested a post showing good social distancing and self isolation.  This is what I came up with.

Here is a card that practices good social distancing. 

It is the photo variant of Cutch for his 2019 Topps Stadium Club release. 

Cutch is roughly 5ft10 so his wingspan from fingertip to fingertip is likely just shy of six feet. 

Good job Cutch!

Are you all trying to practice social distancing?  Are you preaching to others to do it?

Today is Opening Day (shortprints)

Today would have been Opening Day for all MLB teams.  Things have changed a lot since I started counting down to this day 3 weeks ago.  The economy is in turmoil.  Many people are working from home or have been temporarily laid off.  Sports entertainment has been non existant with the suspensions of MLB, NCAA, NHL, and NBA seasons.  Toilet paper has been trending on twitter daily.

The picture of the world we live in today is radically different and that is why today I am going to show off all my photo variants of Andrew McCutchen on Topps Opening Day cards.

Opening Day began making photo variant cards in 2013.  They featured a few members of the 2012 World Series Champions San Francisco Giants along with a few "big name" players who changed teams in the 2012 off-season.  Those cards mostly featured the players at press conferences and included guys like RA Dickey (remember when the Blue Jays traded Travis d'Arnaud and Noah Syndergaard for him?), BJ and Justin Upton, Prince Fielder, Josh Hamilton, and James Shields.  The following year (2014) Topps began using photo variants for the 25 most popular players among collectors.

My Eleanor. (Gone in 60 Seconds reference).  This card eluded for a few years until Nathan from Bucs Stop Here hooked me up with it for a bountiful of cards I sent his way.

This sliding catch of Cutch is one of my favorite images ever on a piece of cardboard.  The odds of pulling this card from a pack of 2014 Topps Opening Day is 1:222 packs or 1:65 jumbo packs.  The blue parallel of 2014 would be the last time that a color parallel gets numbered on the back.

The 2015 Opening Day photo variant features Cutch in the on deck circle at PNC Park with the beautiful city of Pittsburgh as the backdrop.  Retail odds for 2015 Opening Day variants were 1 in 2,375 packs and hobby odds were 1 in 307 packs.
****I still need the purple parallel for the rainbow****

2016

The 2016 Opening Day photo variant features Cutch with the Roberto Clemente Award that he won in 2015.  Odds of pulling one of these are 1 in 393 packs.

2017

The 2017 Opening Day Photo variant of Cutch features him in a throwback 1979 uniform.  Odds of pulling a photo variant is 1 in 256 packs.
****I still need the base for the rainbow****



2018

2018 would be the end of Cutch's appearance in Opening Day (he didn't make the 200 card set for 2019 or 2020) so naturally it ended the streak of his 5 straight years of photo variants.  It's fitting that it features an image of him hitting his first Grand Slam of his excellent career and ultimately his final homestand at PNC Park.  The joy on his face as he celebrates the homerun is one of the many reasons he became such a fan favorite in every city he played in, but especially in Pittsburgh.  Pulling a photo variant in 2018 Opening Day is a tough pull as these fall 1 in 477 packs.
****I still need the base for the rainbow****

And Here are the identification codes on the back so that you can determine if you have a SP photo variant.

The top card is a standard photo card.
The bottom card is the code for the photo variant.

2014

2015

 2016

2017

2018