38 cents a rookie?, why not...

I like Andrew McCutchen cards from his draft yearmore than any other cards.  This is because that is the year I started following the Pirates again and started to collect baseball cards again after nearly a decade away from the sport entirely.

So when I can find cards of Cutch for Bowman, Topps, Just Minors from 2005 and they are reasonably price I tend to snag them up like Cookie Monster at the Keebler Factory. 

I added 4 more single copies of his 2005 Bowman Heritage card to my collection.

Top Row: Base and Mini
Bottom Row: Photo Variant and Mahogony Parallel

Not bad for 38 cents a card!

Is This Even a Baseball Card?

This post was partially inspired by Sport Card Collectors' box break of 1995 Topps Stadium club.

I love baseball cards.  I grew up collecting baseball cards and using all my allowance, birthday, and Christmas money from 1987-1993 on just baseball cards.  1993-1995 saw me add football, basketball, and comics to the group.

I remember getting 10-15 cards in a single pack of cards just enjoying looking for singles of my favorite players.

I lost focus on card collecting around 1996 until about 2009.  I still followed sports, but wasn't into collecting much anymore.

In 2010 I came back to the hobby and have been going strong ever since, but it wasn't until I was showing images of my Andrew McCutchen collection to a coworker that I got to thinking "Is this really a baseball card?"

Baseball cards (or any collectible cards) based on perception should be able to fit into a 9 pocket page and stuck in a binder.

Many of the hits these days can't do that.
Many of today's products wouldn't dare do something like that.

2020 Topps Definitive is on absolute fire 🔥 🔥 🔥 right now.  Individual boxes are selling for $1,600-$2,000 a box. 

Each box contains only 8 cards.  I plan to eventually get a McCutchen pinstripe Phillies relic from the release, but prices are super high for a plain white swatch numbered to 50 copies. 

The above green parallel is numbered to only 15 copies, features a great patch, features a Pirates jersey, and the color is bold.

When I show cards like that to non hobby people though, the consensus is "that's what a baseball card looks like now"?

Look at the thickness of this card compared to a standard flagship card.

Now look at the design of the card

It looks radically different than traditional cardboard. 

Hits like this don't even have set numbers. 

The landscape of trading cards has transformed drastically in the past 30 years. 

Where do you think the hobby will be 30 years from today?

To Infinity and Beyond

About two weeks ago I talked about picking up some discounted 5x7 cards of Andrew McCutchen.

I always prefer the gold's of the 5x7s because they offer a slightly different look than the traditional size cards. 

The fact that they are gold and numbered to only 10 copies make them more appealing.

The size of these are huge compared to the traditional.

Today's Movie: The Lost Miller Time Catch (rated PG13)

Last week, I received a PWE from AJ @ The Lost Collector.  Coincidently I sent him a package the same day just to say "hey".

AJ hit me up with a sampling of 3 of my favorite players

Reggie Miller is my favorite basketball player ever.  The way he faced off against super teams like the Bulls and Knicks almost single handily is a testament to the absolute scoring machine that he was.

This 1999-2000 Upper Deck Encore Electric Currents insert is my favorite card of the half dozen Miller cards he sent.

Paul George is another of my favorite basketball players.  Were it not for the Miami Heat super squad, I think the Pacers could have won a title this past decade. 

PG13 is a two way player.  He is one of the best defensive forwards in the game and makes some of the most electrifying dunks I've seen since the days of Vince Carter.

That is such a cool shot!!!

 AJ also included this sticker of Cutch getting ready to make a sliding catch.

Thanks for the thoughtful PWE AJ.  You should have received the random act of kindness I sent you and I hope you enjoy it.

Happy Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day.  Were baseball being played today there would be a lot of players donning pink in their uniforms.

I have shown off a lot of these pink cards in the past as part of my Save Second Base events I do each year.  I just grabbed a sampling of cards from 2016-2017 to show off because I was looking for this card in that binder.

This is a 2017 Topps 30th anniversary, 1987 parallel.

1987 was the first set I remember completing as a kid.  My parents would buy me a pack everytime we went to a supermarket.

My mom and dad would help me organize the cards by team and I would put them into pages jamming as many of the same card into the same pocket as I could fit.

Even though there was maybe 5 or 6 Gary Carter cards stuffed into a single pocket of the page, the backs were left visible.  I learned how to read from baseball cards and they helped me with math.  I remember for show and tell I would bring in some of my favorite cards.  My mom helped me put together a poster board and we glued my favorite players onto it.

A lot of Dwight Goodens, Kent Tekulve, and Mike Greenwells were wasted in the process of that.

Celebrating Tony Gwynn's Birthday

Today would have been Tony Gwynn's 60th birthday had he not passed away back in 2014.  It's crazy to think it has been six years since his death and that it has been almost two decades since his last game played.

Tony was a generational player.

This meme from Twitter captures how good he was in his career

I didn't believe this stat when I first saw it so I went over to Baseball-Reference to verify.

Of those 4 Hall of Fame Pitchers Gwynn put up batting averages of .314, .444, .303, and .415 respectively against Pedro, Smoltz, Glavine, and Maddux.

In those plate appearances he struck out twice against Glavine, once against Smoltz, and ZERO times against Pedro and Maddux.

He worked 20 walks against only 3 strikeouts.

That is insane levels against 4 FIRST BALLOT HALL OF FAMERS.

How did he do against other Hall of Famers?

Well, Nolan Ryan struck him out the most amount of times with 9 punchouts in 67 plate appearances, but Gwynn still batted at a .302 clip against the Ryan Express.

Randy Johnson owned Gwynn at the plate striking him out 5 times in 18 plate appearances and only collecting 2 hits good for only a .278 OPS.


There is another insane stat that captures how unique a talent Tony was

Mike Trout, arguably the best player in the game today, had over 20 games last year alone with 2 or more strikeouts.  INSANE!!!


As a kid I always wanted the 1983 Topps Gwynn rookie.  I settled for a Fleer and eventually got an 83 Topps as an adult. 

I will now show off all my 1983 Topps design cards of Cutch as a tribute for the great hitter of Mr. Padre.

Back in 2018, Topps was celebrating the 35th anniversary of the 1983 design which featured Tony Gwynn's rookie card.

I have shown a few of these cards off in the past.

Red /5, White/30
Superfractor/1, Orange/25

I also have a few of the on card signatures

I have 1 buyback 1/1 card from the 2018 Transcendent Party

2015 Topps Archives Black 1/1

 2015 Topps Archives Printing Plates
1/1 Plates of Yellow, Cyan, Magenta

Even though Gwynn wasn't an All-Star in 1983, I still want to show off the near complete run of 1983 2013 Topps Archives All-Stars printing plates
1/1 Printing Plates
Yellow, Black, Magenta

Here are a bunch of them I grouped together for a picture I showed off on Twitter

On a completely different note about the way the game has changed from the 80s to current game compare these stats

It looks like the 2020 baseball season is going to be a lost season so let's look at Cutch's stats through his age 33 season (he wouldn't turn 34 until October)


Andrew McCutchen
1,560 Games
233 Home Runs
1,664 hits
.287 AVG
823 walks vs 1238 strikeouts
187 Stolen Bases
.378 OBP
.858 OPS
134 OPS+

Tony Gwynn (through age 33/1993 season)
1585 Games
66 Home Runs
2,039 hits
.329 Avg
542 Walks vs 310 Strikeouts
263 Stolen Bases
.383 OBP
.821 OPS


The game has clearly moved into one of three outcome situations (walk, homer, strikeout).  Gwynn got 1.29 hits per game over his career compared to Cutch's 1.07 hits per game played.

Cardboard Cameo: Steel City, Black n Yellow

The Steelers schedule was released last night and it looks like they will be playing a whole bunch of mediocrity.  It might be a fun swan song for Big Ben to lead the black and yellow back to a deep playoff run.

I know Ben wants to play another 3-5 years, but I would be shocked if it lasts that long.

It's time for the black and yellow to thrive again!!!

Steel City!!!

"When you play Pittsburgh, you play the whole city"

I've shown off a few of these 2020 Donruss cards of Josh Bell in the past because of the name cameo of Andrew McCutchen.  I will continue to pick them up when they're cheap enough like this Value Box exclusive I got for under $2.