Button Up! It's gonna be a Marte Partay

Last night in a night where the Pirates blew another save opportunity by giving up a run in the 9th inning, Starling Marte finally came through with a huge hit.  Marte had been batting just around .200 all season with only one homer.

In the 10th inning he hit a game winning homer to put the Pirates up 5-3.  

2014 Gypsy Queen offered the best grouping of relics from a Pirates viewpoint in recent years.

I have shown my dual button of Cutch with Adam Jones a few times over the years

I also have a really nice dual button of Francisco Liriano and Gerrit Cole.

The Cutch/Marte is fairly new to my collection, having gotten it a few months ago.  The other two I have had for a few years.

The Archer's Quest: 4 New Additions

I picked up four new Chris Archer cards recently.  One is from Hits Memorabilia and features the E in ARCHER from a Rays uniform (top right).  The other three are from 2019 Topps Heritage.  I have the mini (top left).  I also picked up the black border and black chrome.

Jackie Robinson Day

Today we should remember Jackie Robinson for his courageous efforts made to unite this country regardless of skin color.

Gypsy Queen has been producing Jackie Robinson variants in the past couple years.

The "4" from the 42 Jersey is tough to see and if I was just opening a pack of cards, I wouldn't recognize this as a 42 parallel.  The only way you can tell is the small code on the back or the online checklist that lists McCutchen as a 42 parallel in a Giants uniform.

Here is the backs featuring the same description, but with different team names due to the subject matter on the front. The tiny code in bottom right corner helps distinguish it as a 42 parallel.

Here is the 2018 Gypsy Queen base and logo swap parallel of the Jackie Robinson Day parallel.

Thanks for the parallels of parallels to chase Topps!

I really like this photo parallel.  The 42 is very prominent and noticeable.

Scripture Sunday

With it being Palm Sunday...

Here is a blue parallel of Cutch from his 1983 insert from 2018 Topps.

John 12:12-13
The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!"

Serial History: Legendary Yankees?

I have a ridiculous amount of Andrew McCutchen baseball cards.  Sometimes I get writer's block and can't think of things to write about regarding a one time perennial MVP candidate who is having declining years ahead of him.

However....

I discovered something while looking at this incredible on card autograph of Cutch from 2019 Inception.

Not only is it just one of a handful of Cutch autographs featured in a short lived Yankees uniform, but it is very low numbered.

The serial number on this card is 6/10.

Anyone who knows anything about Yankees baseball knows the Yankees have retired numbers 1-10 from being worn in the future. 

Number 6 was worn by Hall of Fame manager, Joe Torre

Torre famously managed the Yankees for a decade and won the World Series four times in that period.  He collected 2,342 hits as a player for the Braves, Cardinals, and Mets.

Torre is a baseball lifer having worked in many aspects of the business.  As a player he is often forgotten for having a great career.  A 9 time All-Star, Torre won the National League MVP, batting title, and RBI crown in 1971.  In addition to those accomplishments he won a gold glove in 1965.

Number 10 was worn by Hall of Famer, Phil Rizzuto. 

Prior to the outcry of Harold Baines being the worse player inducted into the Hall of Fame, many felt Phil Rizzuto was the worse.

His career WAR was just over 40 wins above replacement which is 4 wins less than Troy Tulowitzki.  He missed three of his prime years due to service in the Navy, but finished with only a .706 career OPS.
SEVEN ZERO SIX!!!

Still with an MVP, 6 All-Star appearances, and 7 World Championships he is a legendary Yankee.  Prior to Derek Jeter, he was often considered the greatest Yankees shortstop of all-time despite amassing less than 1,600 career hits.

My only memory of Phil Rizzuto comes from the movie Billy Madison when Adam Sandler's titular character can't write Rizzuto in cursive.

This idea of looking at serial numbers for inspiration is something I will be doing at least once a month going forward.  It will be a segment I call Serial History where I look at the serial numbers and discuss them.  

A 2015 card of Cutch in a Pirates uniform may be numbered 19/25 so I may look at the Pirates team from the year 1925 or I may look at how many winning seasons the Pirates had since 1925 or maybe the Pirates players who wore 19 and 25 or maybe what pop culture things were happening in 1925 and how relevant was that to 2015.  

The possibilities with over 1,500 serially numbered cards of Cutch are almost endless regarding what I can come up with.

Pair of Low Numbered Giants Cards

It doesn't get much lower numbered than a 1/1 and a red /5.

It also doesn't get much lower for the expectations of the Giants for the 2019 season.   With a 5-9 record to start the season and a dismal farm system, along with some expiring contracts at season's end it looks like the Giants will be forced to go into rebuild mode by midsummer.

Cutch's New Phillie Phriends

Topps Heritage is good for making box toppers combining players that often wouldn't get paired up together.

This box topper combines the National League Batting Leaders card #215 with Blue Jays Manager John Gibbons number 279
along with 2015 Rookie Pitchers Hector Neris and Chris Heston number 401.

Gibbons retired.
Morneau retired.
Harrison left for Detroit.
Heston hasn't appeared in the majors since 2017.

Hector Neris is now Cutch's teammate on Philadelphia and like the rest of the Phillies bullpen was struggling early in the year.  He hadn't allowed an earned run in four straight outings since a miserable March when he gave up 4 ER in 3 outings.