Elf Week: Throne of Lies

All week long I will be showing off Andrew McCutchen baseball cards based on some of the best quotes from the Christmas comedy, Elf.

JediJeff got the ball rolling by using the line "You Sit On a Throne of Lies" when he recommended the quote yesterday.

That is certainly a funny quote and there have been some other really good ones suggested too.

Just before an epic fight between Buddy the Elf and a mall Santa, Buddy calls out the imposter Santa.

Topps has made a few errors in their production of cards over the years.

We know that Topps has made intentional errors in their Topps Heritage release to mimic the original year's errors.  Some of these include the "Pittsburfh" spelling and "playing multiple infield positions".  I have shown them off here.

Today though I want to look at the unintentional errors that are created because after all, they are sitting on a throne of lies.

Let's take a look at a few of them

This 2019 Archives release is supposed to be based off the the 1958 design.  All appears ok on the front.

However on the back it makes mention of Cutch receiving a fielding award in 2013.  Cutch won his only Gold Glove in 2012.
This was an unknown error and there are no corrected versions.


Topps made a mistake in 2012 Finest when they thought they would be releasing an autographed version of Andrew McCutchen's Franchise Finest card.  I wrote about it here.

This die cut chrome Refractor would have looked awesome as an autograph subject.

Unfortunately Topps forgot to put the sticker auto on it and the card was printed and released

The back even states the standard autograph signing statement that appears on the back of all Topps autograph cards.
To my knowledge this is the only KNOWN copy in existence, but it can be assumed based on actual production numbers from other players in the set that 15 copies were supposed to be produced with the auto. 

 Here are screenshots of Justin Verlander from a current $200 eBay auction.

Topps made another error when creating their 1983 inspired insert set last year in Series 1.

 The front has all the bells and whistles that the original had.  The blue is slightly brighter than the original used for the Pirates.

The back is where the lie is hidden yet again.  It states that on July 24 2017 Cutch led the Pirates over the Giants with a Grand Slam.  While Cutch was a key reason for the victory, it was his 3 run homer that helped push the Pirates over the Giants.  Cutch wouldn't hit a grand slam until September 2017.
There are no corrected versions.


By far the biggest lie I detected among Topps cards was when I showed a green parallel from when I showed a Frankenstein card and discussed Valerie Hobson who played the Bride of Frankenstein.  The card in question was a 2017 Topps Tribute jersey relic

 Most fans are eager to go online and verify their sticker to find out what game the relic is from

 Upon entering it, you get another code that was authenticated as game used from MLB.

But ultimately that code doesnt match up with the style of relic contained in the card.
I am unaware if Topps and MLB Authentication made more cards with mismatched authentication stickers and origins.


In April 2017 I wrote a post about the below 2013 Franchise Forerunners card featuring Gerrit Cole and Andrew McCutchen.

 This card would be a great card for Pirates fans and baseball fans in general as it featured one of the top five players in the game (Andrew McCutchen) and a rookie year card of Gerrit Cole (who recently signed the largest pitching contract in history)

The back however discusses Allen Webster and Pedro Martinez.
This was an unknown error. No corrected versions were made.


With all those Topps Lies, it is amazing that they still hold the monopoly of licensed baseball products.


Panini is known to make errors as well.

There are multiple parallels to chase for this 2017 Immaculate Collection

The back states that Willie McCovey is the only other Steel City Slugger to post 20+ HomeRuns for more than six seasons.

The lie occurs with the fact that it was Willie Stargell to hit those numbers, NOT Willie McCovey. "Stretch" never played for the Pirates.
This was an unknown error. No corrections were made despite the multiple parallels produced.


Panini, like Topps, has forgotten to put stickers on their cards as well.

I wrote about them here when Cutch was returning to PNC Park for the first time since being traded in 2018.

This was an unknown error and no additional signed or unsigned cards have surfaced since my post.



I hope you all enjoyed this post as I really went head first into finding some "you sit on a throne of lies" cards.

Please be sure to give me some other quotes so I can find some quotes to match up to my 2,600 unique Andrew McCutchen cards.

Read The Fine Print

I have recently begun posting on FreedomCardboard Forums and I am stunned at some of the player collector's there and their commitment to adding everything they can of certain players (mostly stars of the 90s).  Reading some of their posts and recognizing small details in the fine print and seeking them out impresses the hell out of me.

This got me thinking about a card I have had in my possession for half a decade.  No official numbers support this production error, but I have NEVER seen another show up in the past 5 years on eBay.

What you see here may appear to be a 2012 Topps Chrome Face of the Franchise die cut card.

The details are in the fine print though.  Look in the center and you can see the words Topps Certified Autograph Issue

You may notice that there's no autograph.

Maybe someone just cleverly printed that on the card.
Maybe the concept of this card is a fake.

Well, check out the back.

Looks pretty standard, right?
Can you tell the difference in the card above and card pictured below?

Again the details reveal this card's true purpose.

This card was intended to be signed.
Clearly this card was intended to be autographed, but for whatever reason this card never got the sticker autograph applied to it, nor did it receive the serial numbering to 15 copies that all other Face of Franchise autos had placed in gold foil on the back left hand side.

It is possible that there are 14 others of this card out there.  It is also possible there are more out there.  It's most likely though that there are a dozen of these in dime boxes to dollar bins of this unknown production error.

I would love to find an officially signed version of this card one day, but I haven't yet.

When was Willie McCovey a Pirate?

I know errors have existed since the beginning of trading cards.  I accept that we aren't perfect and the people that get paid to do their jobs sometimes fail at them.

Because I primarily focus on just Collecting Cutch, Charlie Morton, Roberto Clemente, and Flagship/Heritage Team sets I often don't see all the unknown printing errors that may occur.

Making errors for low budget card sets is one thing, but for packs that cost hundreds of dollars for a handful of cards I feel there should be more quality control.

Panini put out their Immaculate release a few months ago and although I have some of the higher end hits, I finally secured one of the base cards, albeit the red parallel numbered to 25. I still need the base, blue, gold, and Platinum.

Recently Topps has produced some very high end patches upside and backwards in both their Triple Threads and Dynasty releases.  I'm grateful that my Cutch All-Star booklet patch from 2015 was produced properly.

One thing that really bothers me is when legendary players are spelled incorrectly.
This is how you spell Stargell

S-T-A-R-G-E-L-L

This is how Panini spelled Stargell on the back of Cutch's 2017 Immaculate card
McCovey.

Willie McCovey was a great ball player, but Stretch never played in the Steel City.  He also only compiled four seasons of 20 doubles and 20 hr seasons.

With Cutch's 2017 campaign he now has 7 seasons of 20 doubles and 20 round trippers under his belt.

An Unknown Error

The Pirates 2017 season began yesterday and sadly despite looking like a great pitching duel was about to occur at Fenway Park, the official score keepers saw things differently.

Gerrit Cole was cruising through the first four innings facing the minimum.

With two outs in the fifth inning, Jackie Bradley hit a ball to right field that should have been just a double but Cutch misplayed it and it became a triple.  That was followed by the Kung Fu Panda Pablo Sandoval hitting an infield "single."  Jordy didn't make a perfect throw and it was a difficult play, but well I digress.  Next up came a bunt against the shift that Cole couldn't quite handle cause he was rushing to make the throw.  His facial expressions clearly showed that he was getting frustrated with the defensive alignment and the shifts were causing him to have to throw extra pitches and his time on the mound would be shortened for his first Opening Day start.  A Pedroia single and Benintendi HomeRun later and the game was 5-0 thanks to some errors (physical and mental) that weren't accounted for.

Game 1 of 162 is in the books.
The Pirates are 1 games out of first.
They have the same record as the Cubs.

Today's card is an older card from 2013 with roots in the Red Sox and no one even knew it.

The front of the card features Gerrit Cole and Andrew McCutchen as Franchise Forerunners.

The back of the card was supposed to discuss what Gerrit Cole was supposed to mean to the Pirates and how Andrew McCutchen had changed the Pirates into a winning team again after 20 straight losing seasons.

Instead it discussed Pedro Martinez and Allen Webster, who was a highly regarded prospect for the Red Sox at the time.

WEBSTER UPDATE: After being traded to the Diamondbacks he was released and picked up by the Pirates for 21 days during the 2015 offseason.  He is currently signed to a minor league deal with the Texas Rangers.