Leftover from the Save the Boobies event

Back in October I ran a month long event of all Pink Parallels I called Save Second Base.  The event raised nearly $100 donated to Breast Cancer Awareness.  One card that I planned to highlight during the event, but never showed off was a 2012 Leaf Draft /25 Pink Parallel autograph of Barrett Barnes.

Barnes was a 1st round Comp pick the Pirates received for the Twins signing free agent Ryan Doumit.  His pro career has been marred with injuries season after season.  In terms of depth, he's a nice player to have in the minors, but I don't think he will be making his MLB debut anytime soon for the Bucs considering he plays Centerfield and there are currently 3 true centerfielders on the active 25 man roster for the Pirates (Polanco, Cutch, Marte).

In 3 professional seasons, he's only managed to play in 101 games.  When he is on the field, he has good stats .271/.371/.425 with 12 HR and 24 Stolen Bases.  Getting Barnes to stay healthy will be the challenge and could decide if he can become a major league ballplayer or be a player hidden in the minors for years.

I mentioned earlier this month that I may consider doing  a "Go Green" event for St Patty's Day where I highlight only Green or Emerald cards for the month.  Would you all be interested in an all green event for March?

McCutchen Mailday #3: 2014 Stadium Club Luminous Die Cut

In my quest for 100 NEW unique Andrew McCutchen cards to add to my collection, I came across this awesome die cut Luminous insert of Cutch from 2014 Stadium Club.

In a short time in 2015, I have already added 2 new diecuts of Cutch to my collection with a few more on their way.  I truly think that adding 100 new Cutch cards to the collection will be the most fun part of my collecting goals in 2015.


With a winning bid of $2.55 I was able to secure my 3rd new Cutch of the New Year and it's an absolute beauty!!!!  Stadium Club due to it's great photography and unique inserts was a great success in 2014.  I hope Topps brings it back for 2015 and improves on it.

The back, while not informational does feature a pretty cool background.

Triple Threads Reverse Box 2for1 Challenge Update

During the final month of 2014 I was closing on completing a 2 for 1 Reverse Box Challenge.  My most recent addition (a triple relic of Sandoval, Beltre, and Alvarez) brought my total to $91 and left me needing only a triple relic/auto, a jumbo relic/auto, and a handful of base/parallels.  With only $59 it would be a difficult challenge.  To further make it more of a challenge I decided to enhance my box with one extra hit by "pulling" an auto of Gregory Polanco instead of a parallel.

This great looking auto ran me an extra $22 delivered and brings me to only $37 left in the funds for a triple relic/auto and a jumbo relic/auto along with a few more base cards.  I've already grabbed the jumbo relic/auto for a very reasonable price so this crazy goal might actually work out.

Throwback Thursday: My Name is Earl

Last Month, I attended the local mall sports card show that is put on every 8 weeks and grabbed a small amount of vintage needs, some supplies, and a few Jackson Jaguars cards for my brother as a Christmas gift.  

Among the overpriced Clemente cards I needed were these two vintage beauties stashed away in a box labeled 2 for $1.  Grabbing early 1960s cards for a half buck?  Count me in!!!

I needed both of these cards for my vintage needs.

There's not much on Earl Francis on the internet.  He was born in 1935, and passed away in 2002.  He was a member of the 1960 World Series Pirates, but wasn't part of the World Series roster.  He finished his career having pitched in 103 games for 405 innings pitched.  Based on what I can view from his Baseball Reference page, he was mainly a mopup middle reliever/spot starter with poor command (4.0BB/9)

McCutchen Mailday #2: 2013 Black Friday Lava Flow

In my quest for 100 NEW unique Andrew McCutchen cards to add to my collection, I came across this Black Friday LavaFlow dating back to 2013.

There's one thing I HATE ABOUT COLLECTING ANDREW McCUTCHEN!!!!
IT'S WHEN PEOPLE SPELL HIS NAME WRONG (more on this later in the post)

I like cards that feature players in civilian clothes or posed shots.  Donruss Studio used to be one of my favorite sets when I was younger.  This card of Cutch features him looking like a rockstar sporting (most likely) some designer clothes and holding a baseball bat.  The lavaflow is one of my least favorite parallels that Panini puts out each year.  I hate how they scan and in person they don't look very good either.

It's almost ironic that the 2nd McCutchen I added this year is also numbered 2 in the set.

Many of us have complained about the quality control at Topps and how they often use the same player photos or put replacement level players in the same set with two different numbers.  Nothing irritates me more than when a company spells a player's name wrong though.  Almost 3 years ago I showed off a trade post I had with Drew where Upper Deck put Pat Maholm instead of Paul Maholm.  The same post also featured a Jose Tabata card with a Ronny Cedeno image.  I can overlook those because the players involved were not star caliber players.

BUT THIS IS ANDREW McCUTCHEN!!!!
2013 NL MVP
4 x ALL-STAR
2012 GOLD GLOVE WINNER
3 x SILVER SLUGGER

HOW DO YOU MISSPELL HIS NAME!!!?????

IT'S NOT MCCUTCHEON!!!!!!

Grill Cheese is Toast

Over the course of 2014 I added several Chris Henderson sketch cards to my collection.  For those that don't know Chris' work, he has done Allen & Ginter Highlight Sketches, some Rittenhouse sketch cards, among many other sketch cards for various companies.

Chris has an uncanny ability to capture the athlete perfectly in time and recreate it on a tiny trading card.  Need proof of his majestic prowess with art supplies, check out the Travis "I just got suckered punch in the eye" Snider.

I've had this sketch card in my collection for many months, but with the announcement earlier in the offseason of Grilli going to my hated Atlanta Braves, I felt now was a good time to show it off.  It's not like the other sketches I've gotten from Chris because this one is vertical compared to Morton, Marte, McCutchen, Cole, Martin, and Walker.

Even though Grilli was one of my favorite relievers to ever put on a Buccos uniform, I can't cheer for him in a Braves uniform.  I absolutely loathe the Braves.

McCutchen Monday: a double pair of Gypsys

My Andrew McCutchen Collection has been taking off in recent months thanks to 2 major lot purchases at COMC and sportlots which when combined shipping ran me an average of around 50cents a card.

Up first are the base and blue parallel (361/499) of 2014 Gypsy Queen

Next up is a pair of minis (the regular and photo variant)

My goal for the end of January is to get a fully updated list of all Andrew McCutchen cards I own.