I Held The Coveted Card and a McCutchen Mailday (120-126)

Yesterday I went to the Chantilly Virginia sports show with my brother because he wanted to attend a few of the Jacksonville Jaguars player signings. It was my last day of vacation and I tagged along for the ride. In less than two months I will be an uncle as my brother and his wife are expecting a baby girl in Early May. I viewed this little get away to be one of the last times him and I get to hang out without a baby or our ladies around.

I really wasn't interested in any of the player signings except Antonio Brown, but his prices were way too high.

Instead I just browsed the dealer's area and picked up some supplies, dime box cards, and some vintage I needed.

Oh and I got to see an authentic T206 Honus Wagner in person AND get my picture with it.

BOOOM!!!!!

This sure beats the heck out of all the reprints I have seen in my time.

I did find this unique oddball card talking about the prized card in the 25 cent bin.

As if that wasn't enough, I also grabbed a bunch of supplies, some vintage, and a few Cutch cards I needed.

When I got home these were in the mailbox.

I will return to normal updates to show all the Cutch cards I have gotten between my 72nd new PC additions and 119th new PC additions.

Holding the Wagner and getting a trio of Cutch rookies needed an immediate update though.

Overall though, I am very very happy with how the Cutch collection has grown to Supercollector status over the past year.

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.

Owen Wilson visits the Treasure Room

Growing up, I never gave into peer pressure to smoke or drink thanks to a huge influence of XstraightedgeX hardcore punk rock music.  Bands like Minor Threat, Youth of Today, Chain of Strength, Strife, and many more helped me decide to stay away from those dangerous substances as a teenager.

Today, I finally succumbed to the nicotine addiction.

Kind of...

I added a T-206 card to my PC and it is none other than Owen Wilson.

Not that Owen Wilson from all those terrible Ben Stiller movies.

I'm talking about the 1909 World Series Champion
The 1911 RBI leader
The Single Season record holder for triples (36)

That's the Own "Chief" Wilson I am talking about.

On the back of the card it features the Sweet Corporal Cigarette logo.

Maybe tobacco isn't so wacko
I grabbed this card for less than the price of a few packs of cigarettes.

McCutchen Mailday #14: 2009 Topps t206 Bronze

The Quest for 100 carries on as I have begun to fill in some older holes in the Cutch collection by adding this 2009 t206 Bronze card to my collection for $1.99 delivered.  Not a bad price to pay for a rookie card of one of the best outfielders in the game today. I almost forget what Cutch looked like predreads.

The front and back of the card feature many of the old printing techniques that Topps has used recently with their Gypsy Queen, Allen & Ginter, Turkey Red, Heritage cards.  They are printed on non glossy stock with a vintage feel.

The back of the card discusses McCutchen's debut in the majors when he hit .329 and hit safely in 18 of his first 20 games in 2009. The "stain" on the card can be seen on all versions of the card.

HONUS WAGNER T206!!!!!

As a baseball card fan and a Pittsburgh Pirates fan to be more specific, I have always wanted to add a Honus Wagner T206 to my collection.  I have 3 options regarding this goal.
1) Sell my house to buy 1 baseball card and live in my car.
2) Give up the dream
3) Get a reprint version that is worthy of being on display

After getting back my tax return I decided to splurge and go for option 3.

This Honus Wagner T206 from 2002 Topps T206 features an actual bat relic of Honus.  The card is fricking gorgeous. 

Check that off the bucket list.

The greatest shortstop of all time is now in my collection

I have longed for a relic of any kind featuring the greatest shortstop of all time. 

Who am I talking about? 
The Iron Man?

 The Captain?

 The Wizard?

Sure...it would be nice to add one of the above cards to my collection.  I grew up watching them all play and they are all sensational athletes.  However, my collection of treasures features PIRATES!!!!  That's right, those battling bucs and 5 time World Series Champions. 

The first World Series was played in 1903 and the Pittsburgh Pirates were a dynasty in the early 1900s having won the NL Championship in 1901, 1902, 1903, and 1909 (which they also won the World Series). 

A main reason why the Pirates were so good back then was a shortstop nicknamed Honus, Hans, or the Flying Dutchman. "Honus" was born Johannes Peter Wagner in 1874 and was cited by Ty Cobb as "maybe the greatest star ever to take the diamond". 

He won 8 NL batting titles, collecting 3,415 hits, and 1,732 RBI and finished his career with a .327 batting average through out his 21 pro seasons.  He still holds the records for most stolen bases as a shortstop with 723.  More impressive though is that he was only caught stealing 23 times in his career.  Some major leaguers border on 20 caught stealings in a season or two.  He was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1936 as one of it's original members as a first ballot Hall of Famer with 95.1% of the vote.  He won a World Series championship in 1909 as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates. 

In 1955 a life size statue of Honus Wagner was unveiled outside Forbes Field where a very frail Honus Wagner attended the game and waved to his fans.  Later that year, he passed away at the age of 81.  The Honus Wagner statue has been a fixture to Pirate stadium since it was created and now resides outside PNC Park facing where the former stadium of Honus played. 

I have always wanted a bat or jersey relic of The Flying Dutchman, but those cards always seem to be out of my range, often times going for the same amount of money that a Ruth or Gehrig or Cobb would go for. 

When I saw this 2001 Donruss Classics Stadium Stars pop up for less than $20, I had to have it.  Granted it's just a stadium seat card, but it's a nice looking card featuring a relic from something that saw history happen in the early 1900s when baseball was just begining to become America's past time.  I really enjoy the backs of the early 2000s Donruss relics.  There's something neat about seeing the actual jersey or bat or seat (in this case) used to make the card.  I included scans of the front and back of the card to show off this card. 

As an additional note, I'm going to try and collect as many reprints of the T206 famous Honus Wagner card as I can get my hands on.  Anyone have any lying around?  I'll gladly take an original too.  LOL!

old tobacco is good for the PC

Bill Abstein was a member of the 1909 World Series Champions Pittsburgh Pirates.  He finished a career in which he played 170 games over the parts of 3 seasons professionally (1906 & 1909 Pittsburgh Pirates, 1910 St. Louis Browns).  His 1909 numbers at the age of 26 were very respectable for that era as he hit 10 triples, 20 doubles, 1 home run, and drove in 70 runs (6th best in the league).  He also stole 16 bases, batted .260 and had 1,402 put outs (3rd best in league) at first base that year.  Unfortunately he also committed 27 fielding errors which was the 2nd most in the league.  I really want to research more about him, partially because I want to find out what made him retire at such an early stage in his career.

Here's the very first authentic T206 tobacco card in the collection.  It's a Piedmont 350 series from 1910 of Bill Abstein.  It's not a perfect specimen of any stretch of the imagination as you can tell by the multiple creases on the card, but it's over 100 years old now.  From what I've seen of these cards, there was an orange tint "variant" and the "red" variant. I believe the red is the harder version to find. 

What do you guys think of my girlfriend's $20 splurge on this item?  Worth it? I think so, if for nothing else to say we now have a T206 in our collection.