Just wanted to show off my newest dual auto dual bat booklet featuring Andrew McCutchen and Ralph Kiner. This card recognizes the feat that Cutch did during his rookie year when he hit 3 HR in a single game becoming just one of 13 Pirates to do so. Ralph Kiner accomplished the feat 4 times while in a Bucs uniform.
This 2010 Bowman Sterling booklet marks my 3rd Andrew McCutchen booklet, but my first booklet with Cutch's signature on it. Keep your eyes on this blog as my McCutchen collection continues to grow.
Blogging can get kind of boring from time to time. You often find yourself trying to come up with new ways to seem original and not post the same rants everyday. During the offseason, it's especially hard finding stuff to keep my mind entertained. When I decided I was going to do a post featuring some new Pirates letter cards I recently bought, I immediately thought of Sesame Street. When my adult male mind thinks of Sesame Street I think of this.
So with the help of Katy Perry, today's post features the letter R and the number 3.
Where does the letter "R" fit in with Jason Bay? Well, quite simply it was used to spell out Pittsburgh Pirates. Good Luck to anyone wishing to put that together.
I decided it would be fun to try and put my last name together using lettered cards of Pirates I actually liked watching play. Here's what I have so far...
S (Jameson Taillon USA)
T (Nate McLouth)
R (Tom Gozelanny)
Y (most likely it will be Bay)
K (Bill Mazeroski)
E (this letter is tough to find, I need one for D McCutchen too)
R (Nyjer Morgan)
This 2010 Triple Threads relic features jerseys of Jason Bay and David Wright and a Gary Carter (RIP) bat relic. This card is sweet!!!! It has a Wright patch and the Bay jersey swatch is red, maybe from his Red Sox days (?). This emerald variant is numbered 14/18. It cost me $45 which is pricy, but I've seen parallels of this card with higher print runs sell for $60+ where I live.
This is now the 3rd Jason Bay/Matt Holliday card I own. To top it off, it also has Carlos Lee. A sweet pickup for $5 off ebay. I actually have a double of this, so if any Astros or Rockies are looking to add this card to their collection let me know as I won both on the same day without getting sniped.
I made a commitment to get a lot of multiplayer hits with Jason Bay this year. The selection of available players Jason has appeared on cards with is not that impressive unless you like Bobby Crosby or Manny Ramirez. This card is nice because I like Jacoby, but I think it would have been 10x better if it included one of the players involved in the 3 team trade that sent Jason to Boston and Manny to LA. Granted the value and desire of said card would not have been very high, but I would have been very happy to see Andy Laroche or Craig Hansen on this card since they were supposed to be key pieces in the trade. Then again this card is called Winning Materials so why should the Pirates name be on it. Oh the cleverness of you Upper Deck. Oh the cleverness!
This 2005 Fleer Classic Clippings Diamond Signings features 2 Canadians and a Floridian. The selection of players on this card is unique in that none of them have anything in common that I see. Kotchman was drafted in 2001 with the 13th overall pick. Morneau was selected as a catcher in 1999 and Bay selected in the 22nd round in 2000. This card does feature an auto of the all-time record holder for consecutive putotus at 1B without an error in Casey Kotchman (2,379). It also has the 2006 MVP and 2004 ROY. Not a bad pickup for $22 (just a bit more than a 2012 Heritage blaster which would have no guarantee hit).
This 2005 Donruss Prime Patches Portraits features 3 game used relics of Jason Bay. The card is numbered 101/150. There's a lot of variations of this card out there. Some have autos and 1 relic. Some are dual relic no auto. I'd love to bust a box of these one day.
This Freddy Sanchez 2007 Triple Threads has 3 nice yellow swatches and also an auto of the former Pirates batting champion. A lot of the success this year for the Giants may rely on Freddy's health. With him out of the lineup, their offense was one of the worse in baseball.
Willie Stargell is a HOF legend not just in Pittsburgh but throughout all of baseball. He was the face of the franchise for many years and a leader in the clubhouse. He helped the Pirates win 2 World Series (71 & 79) and was immortalized with a statue outside the Pirates ballparks. This 2005 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia features 3 game used relics and is numbered 8/25 (his jersey number).
JASON BAY CARD COLLECTION UPDATE
Autographs 18 (3 multiplayer)
Relics 35 (8 multiplayer)
1/1s 1
Thanks to guys who saw boobs viewers like you for making this post possible.
There's a lot of Mets fans in NJ. That makes prices on Mets cards where I live very expensive which is often ok with me. There's not a single person on the current Mets team that I care about except the first Canadian to win the Rookie of the Year. Yes, this post is going to feature more Jason Bay awesomeness. Man, do I love adding Jason Bay cards to my collection. These were all recently picked up off the bay.
I am very happy to add this card to my collection for the price I paid for it. It actually looked like I was going to win this for $2 until the final 4 seconds. Final price on this canary 2011 Lineage mini relic numbered 5/10 was only $10.50. It would have been nice to walk away with a card this rare for under $10 but I'll gladly pay the 10.50 any day of the week to increase my Jason Bay collection instead of buying a blaster of Topps Opening Day.
This 2010 Topps Bat Barrel is the black variant numbered to 25, this one being number 23. Although it's not actually game used, it sure does look cool. This idea for 2010 was a lot better than the 2011 leather glove idea that Topps had. This marks my 3rd Bay hit in a Mets uniform. Hopefully for the Mets sake he can contribute more to their team than what he has the past few years. Bay is still one of my favorite players to watch play. I bought this for $4.
Ryan's Pitch recently completed a trade with me in exchange for a Craig Kimbrel relic I had laying around along with some Yankees and Braves. Here's what I got in return.
2 Gypsy Queen minis that are both new to me....and one is HOF Honus Wagner!!!!
an assortment of Pirates
and the highlight of the trade, a 2009 UD Icons Letterman Nate McLouth "T" numbered 2/40. 2 is his current number with the Pirates so this year it's an ebay 1/1
I have packages that went out to the following zip codes today
10028
90230
71203
72758
85338
29063
12571
75201
91381
29229
21117
I recently made a trade with AJ from The Lost Collector and he hooked me up an awesome sketch that he drew himself. I saw the artwork on his page and thought it would be cool to trade away an auto of Yankees prospect Jordan Cote for a sketch of a Pirate. I asked for him to pick Clemente or McCutchen. He chose McCutchen and it looks absolutely amazing. See for yourself
Thanks so much for the trade AJ. I'm looking forward to doing it again.
I've had a rookie card of the late blooming superstar Jose Bautista for a long time. After all, Jose was drafted by the Pirates in the 20th round of the 2000 draft. He played for 4 different teams in 2004 as he was a rule 5 draft pick of the Orioles. he also enjoyed time with the Royals and Devil Rays before being returned to Pittsburgh. He was supposed to be the 3rd basemen of the future until Andy Laroche arrived as part of the Jason Bay trade. In the summer of 2008 he was shipped off to Toronto. A minor mechanical change to his swing and he was a breakout superstar in 2010.
This autograph finally completes my trifecta of Joey Bats.
To recap the other 2/3 of the trifecta here's some more Bautista
Here's my loot from JABO's recent group break.
I won the A's and Pirates. 4 boxes were busted which included the cards you see below. No big hits for either team, but a nice collection of cards none the less.
I was recently at a card show at the mall where they had a box of 1/2 priced vintage. I didn't have much time to go searching and searching through every single box, but did find a few 1975 Pirates I needed to complete my team set. It was very exciting to get the cards you see below for $4. It should have been $9, but with the half price markdown it would be $4.50. Neither of us had .50 so he said $4 is fine.
This brings my needs to 3 for the completion of the 1975 Pirates team set.
I still need
29 Dave Parker
53 Dave Giusti
538 Duffy Dyer
I think I've invested less than $10 for this team set so far so that is pretty sweet if you ask me. Only 3 more cards to go.
Once I complete this set I will be have complete team sets of 1974-2012 including short prints, updates, traded, stat leaders, etc. 1972 is a year I am really lacking on, but I do have one of the big ticket Clemente already checked off. 1971 and 1970 are getting close to being completed too.
For those of you don't know already, Baseball Reference recently added the Negro League stats to their website. There's a lot of data missing so it's not entirely complete, but it does give you an idea of some of the great Negro League players.
Pictured below are 2 cards featuring HOF Negro League players. The Paige is for trade, the Gibson is not.
One of the most famous Negro League players was Josh Gibson (pictured on the card to the right). Depending on your skin color, he was either the black Babe Ruth or Babe Ruth was the white Josh Gibson. Gibson played 16 years in the Negro Leagues, was a 10x All-Star, and 2 time Negro League Champion. He played for the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords.
Depending on which source you used, you see different stats, but in only 510 career games throughout 16 seasons, Gibson hit a remarkable 107-115 HR and drove in 432+ runs while batting at least .350 AS A CATCHER!!!!!
Here's his complete stats from Baseball - Reference Keep in mind that these stats do not include his Mexican League stats where he played the entire season of 1940 and 1941. Those were another 44 HR in only 116 games.
Could you imagine if he was able to play 145 games per season with an average of 500 AB per season over the course of a 16 season career at roughly the same pace.
His stats would look like this:
8000 AB (16 year career x 500 AB per season)
476 HR (1 HR per 17AB)
1,864 RBI (1 RBI per 4.29AB)
2,867 hits (1 hit per 2.79AB)
Pretty impressive numbers and certainly HOF worthy which is where he was inducted in 1972.
Gibson died at a very young age (35) in 1947 after he refused medical treatment for brain tumors. He suffered 4 years with recurring painful headaches before passing away in Pittsburgh just three months before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier.
He currently has a statue in Nationals Park along with Frank Howard and Walter Johnson. He was ranked 18th all time in the Sporting News 100 greatest baseball players of all time back in 2000. That was the highest ranking of a Negro League player.
The card pictured at the top of this page features a Griffith Stadium Seat from Washington DC where Gibson crushed balls out of the stadium while a member of the Grays. He and Mickey Mantle are reportedly the only players to ever hit a HR over the left field bleacher seats. Mantle did it once. Gibson did it twice.
I've added a Matt Holliday autograph to my collection finally, oh and it also features a guy named Jason Bay.
This card get's me closer to my Jason Bay 2012 goal, but a Bay 1/1 is still eluding me. This ebay 1/1 will have to do for now. Numbered 10/10 This 2007 UD Exquisite Reflections features stickered autos of Matt Holliday in his World Series Rockies uniform and Jason Bay.
Spiegel from Nomo's Sushi Platter sent me a nice lot of Pirates along with a Bobby Bonilla 1989 he got signed TTM.
I have previously sent a TTM to Mr. Bonilla myself and got it back in less a couple weeks. I'm very happy to add a second Bobby Bo auto to my collection.
Here's the other cards that Spiegel sent me.
First up some quasi vintage. I like the archives cards and am always happy to add Parker, Maz, and Scoop to my collection. This image also features the Candy Man John Candaleria who played for the Pirates at the begining of his career and finished his career with the Bucs.
These groups of 9 have some of my past favorite Pirates on it.
I think I now have close to a dozen of that Jason Kendall rookie. Sweet!!! A Jack Wilson rookie that had previously eluded me and an unlicensed Bobby Bonilla Post card. I didn't buy a single pack of Topps Chrome last year because quite frankly I'm tired of it. I do however enjoy adding the Pirates to my collection when they come over in trades. Thanks for the Walker and Alvarez.
The next batch of 9 has a mini of Ryan Doumit from Goudey that I previously didn't have. Keep sending those Doumits people. 3 Nyjer Morgan rookies also highlight the second group. I always liked the energy that Nyjer "Tony Plush" Morgan brought to the field everyday. While his attitude can sometimes be questioned, there's no doubt that when he's having fun he's at his best.
Whenever I see a card of Chris Duffy, I think of how much impact bad coaching can have on a player. Duffy was hitting well over .300 throughout his entire minor league career while averaging around 30SB a season. When he made the show in 2005 he hit an impressive .341 over 39 games while stealing 2 bags and posting a .988 fielding percentage in CF. In 2006, Duffy was asked to change his swing by then Pirates manager Jim Tracy and it eventually lead to Duffy considering to retire from professional sports. He nearly had an emotional breakdown and was suspended for the rest of the season without pay. After several seasons of being called up and sent back down to the minors, he hasn't played since 2009.
Thanks so much for the trade Spiegel. I hope you enjoy everything I sent out to you today.
I purchased both of these 2009 Bowman Andrew McCutchen rookies graded as 10s for $20. $10 a pop for perfectly mint Cutch goodness. I'm a happy camper today.
Over the weekend I attended a small local card show and picked up a box each of 2012 Heritage and 2011 Allen & Ginter that were priced really well. The Heritage box was loaded with great pulls!!!!
here's the chrome I got in my box. None are refractors and all are numbered to 1963
the inserts from the packs pulled
ooohhh stickers
The big hit that's not a hit. A SSP Dan Haren with Mark Trumbo photo. These cards are selling for around $100 on ebay, but it won't cost you nearly that much if you're interested in trading for it.
a Juan Marichal 1963 mint coin card redemption. Another big hit as these are selling around $40+ on the bay.
my official hit of the box. WooHoo! Can you sense sarcastic excitement via the interwebs?
The box topper ad card. Features 2 Phillies if anyone's interested.
I also got a bunch of singles if anyone needs any just let me know. I'm probably not going to chase this set even though I like the design a lot and the player selection is pretty good. Whether I collect the entire set or not, I definitely am looking to complete the Pirates team set. Here's my needs.
151 Pirates Team card
184 Jared Hughes
259 Neil Walker
323 Chase D'arnaud
364 Jose Tabata
393 Clint Hurdle (have one already but it was damaged)
477 Derrek Lee
492 Joel Hanrahan
I'm also looking for any of the hits
McCutchen Clubhouse Collection
any of the Real One Autographs
Stargell or Clemente coin cards
Clemente Forbes Field seat
McCutchen sticker
any Pirates chrome
My Allen & Ginter box didn't yield such success
I was pretty unfortunate in getting no superstar relics in my box.
My topper was this Albert Pujols
I'm not going to post every card that I got or even type them. There's plenty of minis and inserts and sp so if you're still chasing this set, leave me a comment with your needs and I'll see if I pulled them.
ON A FINAL NOTE!!!!
I know that there are some pending trades that I need to follow up on. If you have not received your end of our agreed trade, just shoot me an email to remind me what you were getting and they will be in the mail by the end of the week. GUARANTEED! Sorry for any delays folks.
maruaderx [at] rocketmail [dot] com
