Who wants this card? Red Sox fans? Yankees Fans?

I had been waiting for a redemption of Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole to come from Topps for about 6 months.  Today, I finally received my replacement.

2013 Topps Redemption DUAL AUTO ARod & David Ortiz 6/10

WTF!!!!  Don't get me wrong a numbered /10 dual auto of two players with 1,055 career Home Runs is incredibly nice, BUT I'M A FRICKING PIRATES FAN TOPPS!!!!!  C'mon send me a dual auto using all those Ralph Kiner and Neil Walker stickers you have in the vault.  I am incredibly disappointed that this is my replacement.

I'm throwing this out there as trade bait.  Let me know if anyone wants it.

More Gerrit Cole Goodies

Gerrit Cole is fricking good!!!!
He's had a few rough starts as of late, but other than that I can't say enough good things about the future arm in the Pirates rotation.  He'll likely be up by the end of June and could be a key piece to the Pirates finishing above .500 baseball for the first time in 20 years.

I managed to snag a 2012 Bowman Futures Game jersey relic of the young hard throwing righty for $8.

89/199

My journey for Gerrit Cole doesn't end with one jersey card though...

I've been on a streak of buying Gerrit Cole and Jameson Taillon autographs like crazy.  I managed to grab a 4 card lot of Gerrit Cole autographs (2 were numbered to 99) for less than $40.  Less than $10 a card for on card autographs of (hopefully) a future ace.  Hell yes!!!!

2011 Leaf Valiant Blue AUTO 6/99

2011 Leaf Draft AUTO 

2011 Leaf Draft "Refractor" AUTO 48/99

The real highlight of this post is that I was able to meet Gerrit Cole at a Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs (minor league Phillies) vs. Indianapolis Indians game.

Gerrit was extremely generous to the fans asking for autographs.  He went around and signed photos, balls, posters, cards, for anyone that dangled something in front of him as he came out of the walkway to the clubhouse.

Here's my OMLB signed by Gerrit.  It's a shame it's not on the sweet spot, but when I asked if he could sign it there, he laughed and said "I'll probably get in trouble if I do."  I guess Mr. Boras doesn't want his agents signing for free on the sweet spot of baseballs.  Oh well...I still love the fact that Gerrit was signing before the game 

McCutchen Mondays: 2012 A&G Dual Post

My current favorite player in baseball today is Andrew McCutchen.  Quite honestly, he might be my favorite player I've ever gotten a chance to see play. I currently own almost 300 unique cards of Cutch and hope to get that number closer to 400 by the end of the year.  Amongst my cardboard collection of Cutch are many autographs, over a dozen 1/1s, and almost enough jersey material to put his jersey back together.  Back in 2011, I created Morton Mondays, but with the lack of Charlie Morton cards available, I changed it to McCutchen Mondays so each Monday I will show off one new card from my Cutch collection.

My internet was down yesterday due to a problem with my modem so I'm doing two cards today for my McCutchen monday post.  It's an Allen & Ginter Double Header from 2012.

2012 Allen & Ginter Autograph

Up first is the autograph...my 57th certified autograph of Cutch

I grabbed this for $33 off ebay

2012 Allen & Ginter Jersey Relic

and now the jersey relic which was snagged for a 5 spot

$1 Bob

The Price is Right when I grab new Cutch cards for an average of $1 a piece.

Nothing too fancy here.  No super fancy relics or autographs.
The Triple Threads is numbered 102/240, but shows heavy wear on the corners.  The nicest of the lot is the 2013 Gypsy Queen white frame.

1st Goal of 2013 COMPLETE!!!!!!

One of my 2013 collecting goals was to add another 2 cards to my collection featuring the Pirates Jolly Roger logoman.

Last month I showed off my Neil Walker logoman patch I picked up for a bit over $30.

NOW....

IT'S HAMMER TIME!!!

2013 Topps Gypsy Queen Mini Relic #6/10

NUMBERED 6/10

While Joel Hanrahan is no longer with the Pirates, he was a 2 time All-Star with the Bucs and was one of my favorites when he stepped up to the mound.  I'll still be rooting for the Hammer when he recovers from his season ending surgery and hope that his career isn't over.

This Hanrahan Gypsy Queen mini framed relic cost me $29 shipped.  Of the 10 copies, this is the only one that I've seen pop up on ebay so far.

Random Pirates auto of the day

2003 Leaf Second Edition Kip Wells

Kip Wells had a solid season in terms of the Pirates in 2003.  He finished the year with a 10-9 record while starting 31 games and finishing with a 3.28 ERA.  He had 147 strikeouts and 76 walks over 197.1 innings.  Most impressive though was the he was the 9th most valuable pitcher in the NL that year according to WAR with 4.9 Wins Above Replacement.

Like all things early millenium Pirates, he regressed the following year and by 2005 he was leading the NL in losses with 18.  Wells is currently a 36 year old free agent who last pitched 7 games for San Diego in 2012.  He did not appear in the majors in 2010 or 2011.

This 2003 Leaf Second Edition ran me a whopping .99 on ebay and I can honestly say that I have no regrets.

This is how you celebrate Gypsy Style

Last night the Bucs came back to beat the hated division rivals Brewers in a 12 inning affair.  There were a lot of bad breaks for the Pirates throughout the game, but karma started to turn things around and fix themselves when Jean Seguera threw a cutout relay throw to homeplate that was about 6 feet wide and high allowing Neil Walker to score from 1st on a double by Russel Martin.  That tied things up in the 8th.

In the bottom of the 12th inning, my favorite ball player Andrew McCutchen came up and roped a line drive homerun to right center for a walkoff blast.

2013 Topps Gypsy Queen Andrew McCutchen SSP Variant

I recently snagged this Andrew McCutchen SSP Celebration variant in 2013 Gypsy Queen for $30.  These come roughly 1 in 800 packs so the odds of coming across one is pretty rare.