McCutchen Mailday #60: Rookie Cup Manufactured Patch

I have won this card twice on eBay before and both times I failed to actually receive it. One time, the seller noticed after I won it that it was damaged by being covered in coffee as he was packaging it and spilled his morning beverage on it. He offered a full refund. The second time, I had received a different manufactured patch of Cutch in the mail and the seller said I could keep that card and offered me a full refund. I was happy with both sellers being honest regarding the card, but

This time though, I acquired it! And I Love It!!!

Ke'Bryan Update

A few new additions to the Ke'Bryan Hayes PC

I really need to start adding more Bowman, but these Team USA cards are just so nice looking.

My latest Hall of Fame & Tobacco Card Acquisition

The Pirates have 37 Alumni who played at least one game with the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Hall of Fame.  Of that group, only 11 were inducted into the Hall having played more games with Pittsburgh than any other franchise that individual had played for.

Recent inductees like Bert Blyleven and Goose Gossage had wonderful careers, but likely won't be remembered a generation from now as being on the Pirates.

The Pirates were a powerhouse in the early 1900s being lead by the greatest shortstop of All-Time, Honus Wagner, and leftfielder, Fred Clarke.

My ultimate goal is to add autographs of Hall of Famers, Roberto Clemente and Honus Wagner, but adding Fred Clarke was a major score to my collection.

This 2015 Historic Autographs includes a cut auto of the 1909 World Series Champion along with an original t206 Piedmont trading card.

Clarke finished his career with over 2,600 hits, a career batting average of .312 and an on base percentage of .386 while swiping 509 bags.  His best season may have come in his final season before joining the Pirates back in 1899 when he hit .340, stole 49 bags, and only struck out 18 times in 681 plate appearances.  He became the player manager his first year with the Bucs in 1900.

I was having a conversation with my brother the other day and what I find most fascinating about adding these incredible cut autographs to the collection is that guys like Fred Clarke had passed away before Carlos Correa's father was even born.  Wrap your head around that for perspective.  Fred Clarke was born before electricity really took off with Thomas Edison's inventions.

McCutchen Mailday #59: Printing Plate #51 added to the collection

My 59th new Cutch added to the PC this year is actually my 51st printing plate of the perenial MVP candidate.

This 2014 Mini Ext #358 gives me half of the printing plate run for the super short print mini. I have previously shown off the black plate last year.

McCutchen Mailday #57 & 58: Some Donruss Invasions

Donruss has been fantastic in the past few years, offering collectors a number of cool Statline parallels to try and chase in addition to some fun insert sets and nicely designed relics.

I grabbed two parallels to start the 2016 Donruss collection.

The black parallel is numbered to 199 and the pink Donruss Diamond Kings isn't numbered.

McCutchen Mailday #51-56: A Slew of Cutch Parallels

My recent batch of cards include a handful of 2016 Topps cards of the Pirates franchise face.

For some reason, the pink parallels are some of the hardest to find year after year despite not being super low numbered.

I snagged the vintage logo, black, purple, base, and foil parallels of this year's Flagship set so far.

Hello Newman

I finally got around to adding a Kevin Newman autograph to my collection. I'm not as sold on Newman as Keith Law is, but for $3 delivered, I thought it was time to add an autograph to my collection of the 2015 1st Round Pick.

McCutchen Mailday #50: Another Laundry Tag from 2012 NT

It's been awhile since I showed off some new Cutch cards.  Every year, I get the crazy idea to start posting only green cards for the month of March, then realize I don't have a lot of new green cards in my collection.

Instead, I have been buying up more Andrew McCutchen cards in hopes to get my Cutch PC close to 1,500 unique cards by year's end.

Technically I already have 2 others of these numbered laundry tags, but I would really like to get all 6 pieces of the laundry tag to complete the set.

Green Big Bull

Pedro Alvarez is no longer a member of the Pirates, but I still seek out cards of the former All-Star. Alvarez, when he's clicking can carry an offense. His power is off the charts, but his contact rate is low.

He joined the Orioles last week to be the team's primary DH. It will be interesting to see if he can stick with a club next year if he struggles with his strikeouts again this year.

Green is good

I've been picking up Ke'bryan Hayes cards since he was drafted last year. Many others are starting to realize the potential for Hayes as his prices have been doubled since debut.

I still fully expect him to be an everyday player in a few years.

I was lucky to grab this 10/10 Leaf Metal Green for under $20.

Countdown to Opening Day

I have my tickets for the Pirates season opener this year against the Cardinals and I am literally counting down the days. I am so excited for this season to start, it's not even funny.

The Pirates announced today that Francisco Liriano will be the Opening Day starter for the Bucs. This will mark Francisco's 3rd Opening Day start. He started for the Bucs in both 2014 and 2015. He doesn't have a decision yet as both games pitched were decided in Walk Off fashion by the home team.

I'm happy to see Franky get the Opening Day nod, but hope this doesn't mean injury issues for Cole.

Continuing the green theme this month is a 2013 Emerald Parallel I have had in my collection for awhile but never showed off.

Hall of Fame Autograph /10 for under $15....um ok

This year I really wanted to increase my collection for non Pirates. I've been adding a lot of Pacers recently because despite making it to the Conference Finals twice in the past 3 years, no one really notices that they exist in the cardboard community. The team is filled with plenty of young talented fast defensive guys that can put up the points. This current roster with the additions of Monta Ellis, Jordan Hill, and rookies Joe Young and Myles Turner are a lot of fun to watch.

The Pacers don't have many players in the Hall of Fame. The most recognized from our generation is obviously Reggie Miller and his performance against the Knicks in the mid 90s is the main reason I root for the Pacers.

Mel Daniels was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2012. He finished his career averaging double double stats in both points (18.4ppg) and rebounds (14.9rpg). He is one of only four players to have his number retired by the Pacers.

This 2013 Leaf Metal green parallel numbered 5/10 was acquired for under $15. The card features an on card autograph, which sadly isn't possible anymore. Mr. Daniels passed away last year from complications with heart surgery.

The Outlaw makes his appearance

I've been super busy with real life lately that I haven't had much time to blog. On top of that, my scanner is not functioning again.

Today kicks off NFL Free Agency which for football fans is the start of the 2016 season. The Steelers have already resigned some of their current team by restructuring contracts. In addition though, they lost a long time Steeler great when Heath Miller retired.

They will look towards young tight end Jesse James to take over the mantle. I'm not sure if he has the nickname, The Outlaw, officially but that's what I'm going to call him when I root him on.

I picked up my first (of hopefully many) Autographs of him recently for under $10.

It continues the All Green month

A cup of green coffee

I recently picked up this green parallel of Gregory "El Coffee" Polanco for $2.99 delivered. The 87/99 parallel from Finest is my first Polanco card I have acquired this year.

The Mighty Rik Smits Appears!

One of my 2016 goals was to add some Autographs of my favorite non Pirates to my collection. Over the past month, I have been watching a lot of Pacers games as they try to get better seeding in the Eastern Conference. A few nights ago, they lost to the 1st seed Cavs in the final seconds.

The current team is my favorite team in recent memory to root for. The additions of Monta Ellis, rookie Myles Turner, and Jordan Hill have helped solidify the team.

Waaaaaaay back in the day, I was a huge fan of Reggie Miller and Rik Smits.  Adding a Miller autograph would be the pinnacle of my Pacers PC, but having this Rik Smits in my collection now, helps bridge the gap from my favorite team I grew up watching.

Cole Tucker Auto

I have added a few Cole Tucker autographs in the past few months and many of them fall under $10. Today's card ran me $3.66 which is a steal if Cole can recover from his season ending surgery he suffered last season.

Cole possesses a few above average skills (defense and running) and could become a better than average hitter. His personality and work ethics are above average too.

Jason Bay kicks off going green month

I couldn't have a color event without showcasing some Jason Bay cards.
In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I will be showing green parallels this month.

Here is a few of my Jason Bay green parallel cards.

The only new acquisition of Jason Bay I have gotten this year is an Uno card from 2005.  I wish Topps wasn't the only license holder of the MLB.  These oddball cards were fun to collect back in the day.  The above card was snagged for 50 cents.

The others below are cards that have green in their designs or are green parallels.