"The Greatest Day" STARRING RUSSELL MARTIN!!!

The best words a baseball fan can hear "Pitchers and Catchers report today"

Russell Martin, despite having only a short term part of the Pirates history, may be easily one of the top 5 catchers the organization has ever known.  Manny Sanguillen and Jason Kendall will obviously be above him and a lot of fans have fond memories of Tony Pena and Mike LaVaillere, but in a very short time (2 seasons), Russ helped to reunite an entire city with their love of baseball.

I'm going to miss not seeing him be the backstop for the black and gold this year.  I purchased the above printing plate earlier in the year for under the price of a blaster.

It goes well with my Tony Sanchez black printing plate I showed in January.

King Kang is Coming!!!!!

When it was announced that the Pirates had won the exclusive right to negotiate contract terms wtih Korean baseball megastar, Jun Ho Kang, I immediately started my research into the card industry to see what was out there.

Wouldn't you know that 30 minutes from my house, a seller was selling some cards of the Korean star in lots for around $8 each.  I thought hell yeah!!!! I'm gonna add me some of these even if they aren't official.   I wanted to be one of the first to show them off.

Well, here they are!!!!

Baseball is literally just around the corner this week.

McCutchen Monday: Getting Tek'd out again

Earlier in the month I showed off a very rare Andrew McCutchen 2014 Topps Tek Tektonics card that I purchased in 2015.  Also this year, I showed off 3 Gregory Polanco Topps Tek cards I purchased.  Here's the card that I fell in love with at the end of last year that started my Topps Tek short lived craze.

I don't know what it was about this card, but when I first saw it on ebay at the end of December I knew it had to be mine.  I received it on New Year's Eve and have been patiently waiting to add it to the blog until I thought the time was right.  Since I don't want to show off any of the major purchases yet of the other Cutch cards I've had in my possession before 2014 ended, I thought this was an appropriate time.  WOW!!! That was terrible English.  Oh well...enjoy the card.

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.

Keep snowing!!!

Just a random LeSean McCoy 2014 Father's Day Elements card for another snowy day in New Jersey.

Stay safe!

$5 gamble? Dual Auto of Austin Meadows and Reese McGuire

I normally don't buy non certified autographs online unless they come from a respected source that I have personally dealt with in person.  However, when the Pirates two 1st Round draft picks of 2013 ended up on the same card as in person autographs for $5 I just couldn't pass it up.

The seller lives not too far from me and claims that he got both of them at a West Virginia Power game.  That makes sense as their are several teams that play the Power within a two hour drive.

I seriously think the autos are real, but even if they aren't it's a nice looking card with some cursive writing and nice pen marks of two of baseball's top prospects.  I'll take that gamble every time for $5.

Reverse Boxin: Update #5 SICK SICK PATCH OF GREGORY POLANCO

I just showed off a nice 2 color jersey from Jameson Taillon, but it fails in comparison to this colossal jersey of sophomore right fielder Gregory Polanco.

The above prime jersey patch of "El Coffee" ran me under $19 and brings my total for the reverse box to $192 with 3 cards left in the reverse box (2 more autos and 1 more auto, relic, or gem hit.)  The prime jersey patch looks like it could be part of the number 5 which would be awesome!!!!

I think that once I complete the reverse box I will just continue adding cards of players I like until I reach that $425 limit ignoring the under 50 rule.

To recap my other items in the reverse box featuring only Pirates and only cards numbered to 50 or fewer copies see below

Roberto Clemente bat relic /25

Willie Stargell Cut AUTO and jumbo bat booklet /10

Gerrit Cole on card AUTO and jumbo jersey /49

Jameson Taillon Jersey Patch /25