And then there was two....

Due to the news of my favorite pitcher, Charlie Morton, having hip surgery that will take 6-8 months to heal, I figured I should show off a card that has haunted me for what seems like forever.

My pursuit to grab a copy of all Charlie Morton cards is nearing a close.  With the card below, I only need 2 more non 1/1 card to have a single copy of every Charlie Morton card produced.  They are the 2012 and 2014 Topps Factory Orange parallels.  PLEASE HELP ME FIND THEM.  A 2014 Factroy Orange ended a few months ago on ebay, but it was a one day listing that I didn't get my bid in on time with.

I will always continue to try and add to my collection, but this has been an absolute blast supercollecting someone born in the same town as me and playing for my favorite baseball team.

2002 Upper Deck Future Gems Quads 500/600

Pictured on this oversized card are Val Majewski, Joey Gomes, and Daniel Cevette.  Bonus points if any of you actually know any of these guys.

Unlike Drake starting from the bottom and now he's here, I'm going to start at the top and work my way around clockwise.  Val Majewski, like Charlie Morton, was born in New Jersey.  He attended Rutgers University and was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the 3rd round of the 2002 draft.  He played in a total of 9 games for the Baltimore Orioles from August 20th through September 8th 2004 and posted a .154 batting average playing centerfield, pinch hitter, and DH.

Charlie Morton...I kind of have talked a little bit about him during my time blogging.  Need proof?  Click here

Joey Gomes is a journeyman minor leaguer who never reached the status of his brother Johnny Gomes.  Joey last played in AA as a 31 year old in 2011.  I'm not sure why he was never given a shot at the majors as his numbers in the minors were all very good .300/.362/.460 with 101 HR over 870 games.  There's a great article about Joey and his continued love of baseball here.

Daniel Cevette is another minor leaguer journeyman who never got a chance to appear in a major league game.  I never realized until I got this card, how crushing it can be to get so close to your dream, but to never complete it.  It reminds me of Archie Moonlight Graham from Field of Dreams.  Cevette had good stuff as a relief pitcher in the minors posting 356 Ks over 380 innings with a 3.86 ERA.  His biggest drawback was a 4.1 BB/9 in the minors.  The Pirates actually signed him to a minor league deal and he had been ascending the minor league ranks last year, finishing the season for AA Altoona Curve where he pitched 2 and 1/3 scoreless innings, striking out 2, but allowing 3 hits and 1 walk.

Cross another off the list

I've been actively adding to my Charlie Morton collection for about 4 years now.  You'd think that for a guy with only 85 cards produced (before 2013 hit stands), acquiring his cards wouldn't be that hard.  Hahahahaha! Think again.  Ground Chuck has over 30 1/1s somewhere on this Earth.  I have 3.  Yup! Just 3.  Not good percentages.

However, of the non 1/1s (54) I now own 50.  That's right, I added another Charlie Morton to my collection thanks in part to some kindness on my brother.

2002 UD Premiere Prospects Future Gems Quads 313/600 with David Bush, Joey Gomes, and Josh Johnson

He bought me the 2002 Upper Deck Prospect Premieres Future Gems Quad featuring Joey Gomes, Josh Johnson, Charlie Morton, and David Bush. The card ran about $9 and was one of the five remaining non 1/1s I needed to complete my Charlie Morton collection.   Now I'm down to only 4.

2002 Upper Deck Prospect Premiere Future Gems Quads came in very large 1 per pack box toppers back in the day.  I included a scan of the pack next to an average sized bowman card to show the difference.

Pretty large, right?  Well it has to essentially hold an uncut piece of cardbaord for 4 baseball cards.  These cards were all numbered out of 600 and finding them on the market today is very difficult.

Here's the back of the card my brother got me.

I am still in search of another that features Charlie Morton along with Val Majewski, Joey Gomes, Daniel Cevette.  I've yet to see that card available for sale anywhere.

It's one of only 4 non 1/1s I need.

Just four!!!!  Like the amount of players on this card.  I only need 4!
I've given some thought to which player I might PC in the future where I can collect every parallel of that player.  As much as I like Cutch, it's just impossible to collect all those different parallels.  I've been leaning towards Justin Wilson who is a hard throwing lefty the Pirates have in the bullpen.  I met him several times as he was developing in the minors as a starter and was at the 2010 Eastern Conference championship game when he was awarded MVP honors.  The problem is that his name is pretty common so saving it as an ebay search tool would be very annoying.