The Art of Juan Rosales

You may have seen me talk about the amazing talent of Juan Rosales on this blog before.

Amazing is Just one word to describe his style.  

I have gotten at least one sketch card of Cutch from Juan for the past 6 years.  

It was time to add another sketch card from Juan to the collection.  I thought about what image I wanted Juan to use as reference and ultimately chose for him to use the last HR Cutch hit as a member of the Phillies as inspiration. 

In typical fashion of Cutch's career he made a lasting impression with the Phillies fan base by hitting a home run in his final at bat with the club (it should be noted that he hit a HR in his first at bat with the club also). He also went on to celebrate in a very fun manner as he had done all year long, by wearing a straw hat with the Phillies logo under it.

Here is what Juan came up with

He added the lime green and neon pink to the background as a tribute to the Miami theme.

What is your favorite moment of your favorite player from the 2021 season you'd like to see turned into a sketch card? 

The Mount Rushmore, non HOF edition

MLB Radio recently was discussing Mount Rushmores of MLB teams and it got me thinking about who the Pirates Mount Rushmore would be.  Many teams Mount Rushmores (including the Pirates) can be quickly identified by retired jersey numbers and bronze statues outside the ballparks.

The 4 best players for the Pirates are 3 guys who spent their entire career with the Pirates (Willie Stargell, Bill Mazeroski, Roberto Clemente) and one guy who was pillaged from another team that it actually changed the team name to the Pirates (Honus Wagner).

All obvious choices, but what about the unsung legends of our favorite franchises lore?  

Who are the guys who likely won't be in the Hall of Fame, who won't have a statue outside a ballpark, and who won't have their number retired? 

Who are those guys that fans of the franchise will talk about for many years to come?

I think we all know who I'm going to lead off with on my Mount Rushmore of Pirates legends not in HOF, number retired, or bronze statues....

Andrew McCutchen

Pictured above is a canvas photo signed by Cutch that is hanging in the Cutch Cave.

Now for a pair of guys who were legends on the 1979 World Series Championship Pirates

As you descend into "The Pitt" my Pittsburgh sports theme bar area in my basement I have some great pieces of artwork by Dan Horine of Popflyshop.

Dave Parker

Another MVP winner, but also a member of the last time the Pirates won the World Series, Parker was a batting champion, All-Star MVP, Gold Glove winner with the Pirates before going on to be a member of 

Kent Tekulve

His most famous years were with the Pirates when he was the closer for the 1979 World Series Champions. He later went on to be in the bullpens of the Phillies and Reds. He also served as the post game analyst for the Pirates home games over the past few decades before officially retiring a few seasons ago.

Temporarily hanging up in the utility area of "The Pitt" is this canvas photo signed by Steve Blass and Manny Sanguillen.

Steve Blass

An odd choice I know, when you consider guys like Jason Bay, Jason Kendall, Barry Bonds (he will be remember more as a Giant), Al Oliver, Manny Sanguillen will be omitted, but I have to give it to Steve Blass who was the pitcher on the mound when the Pirates won the 1971 World Series and would later go on to broadcast for the Pirates for nearly three decades.  

Who are the top 4 non hall of famers on your favorite team?

Honor The Game

I was in the process of building the McCutchen Museum or Cutch Cave or Uncle Larry's Lounge (still working on the name of it).

Since I am restricted to only lifting 5 pounds that has really limited me in terms of what I can do in the man cave area.

One thing I put up using only heavy duty command strips was this really awesome Marucci cardboard store display.  I am not sure what year it was produced but we do know it is post 2017 since it has Alex Bregman on it. 

The saying on this display by Marucci is Honor The Game.  That's something the owners and players should try to do as soon as possible to ensure there is a game in the future.  

I fear if the season is severely jeapordized the game will die very quickly due to the rising interests in other sports.

When do you think the season will start?

IYKYK, acquiring a super rare card for under $5

I see people post hash tags with IYKYK and I'm often looking at that saying IDK.  This new social media talk has got me worried about the future where all vowels will be obsolete and many common phrases will just be abbreviated. 

Anyway IYKYK means If You Know You Know.  It's often associated with something in the hobby that is known to hobby collectors, but the common collectors may not be aware.

I recently purchased a card off eBay for under $5 that tends to sell for over $100.  It shouldn't be valued that much, but the urban myths surrounding this card make it very very rare despite being serial numbered on back to 2013.

Unlike many cryptids like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, this card does exist and has been documented with proof of it's existence.  That doesn't make it any less rare.

There were some posts on blowoutcards back in 2013 and 2014 about this rare card which you can visit here.

I contemplated messaging the seller about his very low Buy-It-Now price, but since I am a Super Collector and not going to flip it, I thought it would be ok to just take advantage of this good fortune.  In addition I have a goal to display all my gold parallels of Cutch in a large frame once he retires so I couldn't pass it up.

The seller also included a very nice note thanking me for the purchase and asking for feedback upon receipt of this card.

I still can't believe I got one of these for under $5. 

Have you ever told someone that a card you wanted to buy was way underpriced?

3 1 of 1s in 1 day

As a player collector there are so many cards produced and I know I can never acquire them all.

I will continue to add unique cards to the collection whenever the opportunity presents itself though.

Topps Vault is a way to inflate the 1/1 count without breaking the bank. They are one of the final steps in the printing process and Topps has often made these "test proofs" blank back cards available for sale via their eBay page.

I won the Class 1 and Class 2 cards with no competition ($10ea), but the Class 3 card had a few extra bidders.  I went for it and won it for the price of the other two combined.

This is a pretty unique rainbow even if it is a gimmicky item.

Do you own any of the Topps Blank Back cards?

My First 2022 Cutch

I received my first 2022 card of Cutch in the mail yesterday when I got a Major League Materials jersey relic from a twitter follower @Mike_McKenna aka The 🐟 Farm

I feel like the design for this jersey relic would have been better last year.  Last year's Topps design had strange bars and depth that resemble whatever the heck is going on the left side of this card.

Hopefully there will be a baseball season this year and hopefully there will be some more Andrew McCutchen cards in Series 2 (hopefully with whatever new team he signs with).

Have you gotten any 2022 cards yet?

Serial History: Reflecting on getting old

As I was going through my boxes of Cutch cards I discovered a bunch of low numbered autographs that I never showed off.  Trust me when I say there's a lot that still need to be shown here (literally over a hundred autographs of Cutch have never been shown on this blog before)

The card dated below is dated with today's date (2/25), but it also made me realize that I am getting old as it features a familar Topps design, one that I was very excited about when it first debuted.

It's hard to believe that this card design for Stadium Club is now over 3 decades old (31 years old).  I'm getting old!!!!

Let's reflect back on the world of 1991

Barry Bonds had only hit 142 of his 762 career homeruns* This past December, he reached his final 10th year of eligibility on the Hall of Fame ballot.

The United States was in the middle of Operation Desert Storm/Shield by fighting in the Gulf War.

OJ Simpson was a broadcaster for football games

Pogs and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were popular among boy's toys. 

Only the 3rd season of The Simpsons was starting (33 previous episodes existed of the 700+ currently produced)

The Florida/Miami Marlins, Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks, Tampa Bay Devil Rays all hadn't come to exist yet.

Do you feel old yet? 

What other memories do you have of 1991?