2011 Topps Charlie Morton 1/1 Printing Plate

There's several players that I currently try to get as many cards of (Jason Bay, Andy Van Slyke, Andrew McCutchen), but there is only one player that I truly consider myself a supercollector of and that's Charlie Morton.

Morton was born in my hometown Flemington, New Jersey and moved to Connecticut early in his youth. He was selected in the 3rd round of the 2002 draft out of high school by the Atlanta Braves.  He ascended through the minor leagues at an average of a level per year before making his MLB debut in 2008 against the Angels.  The following year, he was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates with Jeff Locke and Gorkys Hernandez for Nate McLouth.

Once I learned of Charlie's addition to the Bucs, he instantly became my favorite pitcher to root for in the Steel City.

Since then, I've been on a mission to track down as many cards of his that I can get my hands on.

2011 Topps Update Series Cyan Printing Plate 1/1

Most recently I grabbed the above 2011 Topps Update Series Cyan Printing Plate on ebay for $15.  This marks my 3rd 1/1 of Charlie.

You can see my 1/1 2012 Topps Mini Black Printing Plate and 2012 Topps Wooden Parallel 1/1 by clicking on the respective links.

Charlie was pitching a pretty good game yesterday until he made a bad pitch that Matt Holiday lifted for a two run homer.

McCutchen Monday: Cutch, Kemp, Victorino!!! Triple AUTO!!!!!!

My current favorite player in baseball is Andrew McCutchen.  Quite honestly, he might be my favorite player I've ever gotten a chance to see play. I currently own almost 300 unique cards of Cutch and hope to get that number closer to 400 by the end of the year.  Amongst my cardboard collection of Cutch are many autographs, over a dozen 1/1s, and almost enough jersey material to put his jersey back together.  Back in 2011, I created Morton Mondays, but with the lack of Charlie Morton cards available, I changed it to McCutchen Mondays so each Monday I will show off one new card from my Cutch collection.

To see all my Andrew McCutchen relics, autos, printing plates, manupatches, etc ... check out this link.

The Pirates are currently battling to advance further in the NL Playoffs being lead by their superstar centerfielder Andrew McCutchen.  The Dodgers are rallying to win their ticket to the NLCS without their star outfielder and former MVP candidate Matt Kemp.  The Red Sox are having a fantastic year with Shane Victorino handling the right field duties.  The card below shows all 3 of those players autographs on a 2012 UD Superstars Triple Auto numbered to 25 copies.

2012 UD Superstars Triple Signatures 19/25: Kemp, Cutch, Victorino

I've been after this card for a long time.  I always see it go in the $60-$80 range though and just never wanted to pull the trigger for a card with sticker autos and no images of the players for that price.  When I saw one listed with a BIN or Best Offer, I rolled the dice and asked if the seller would sell it for $40 shipped.  Less than 24 hours it was mine and on it's way to NJ.  For $13.33 an auto, I'm happy to add another certified auto of Cutch to my collection.

I think I may need to add some more Cutch autos to my collection.  I only have 68 so far.

Tracked down a short print Pops

There's no football in Pittsburgh this week due to the bye week.  So instead, I'm going back to baseball.

Every year Topps adds "Legends" players as short prints to their base Topps set as short prints.  Every year it seems there is a Pirate involved.  I've often considered these not part of the base set and therefore I don't chase them to tuck away in my binder.  However I managed to find this 2010 Topps SP Willie Stargell in a $1 bin at a local mall card show so I figured I should add it to my collection.

Upon doing so I realized I need several of the past Pirates legends from the past few years.  They include
2009 Honus Wagner (#UH98)
2010 Honus Wagner (#600)
2011 Honus Wagner (#20)
2012 Roberto Clemente (#497)

These cards can fetch over $10 and are actually low on my want list, but if anyone has them for trade, I'd happily trade for them.

2010 Topps Willie Stargell SP 

In the meantime though, I'm going to file this Pops card away with the rest of my Pops collection seperate from my 2010 Topps base cards.  Those binders are exclusive to the base cards..no inserts, no short prints, no parallels.

Another Austin Meadows Major MOJO HIT!!!!

When the Pirates had the fortune of having Austin Meadows drop to them at 9th overall in the 2013 draft, I instantly went on ebay in search of some of his cards.  While I haven't had much luck at making crazy good snipes like I had hoped, I am happy to finally add another major hit to my growing PC of the Pirate Prospect.

I have to hand it to Pirates GM Neal Huntington and owner Bob Nutting for not shying away from talent in the draft just because of coveted signing bonuses.  If only the Pirates had this kind of support behind them like in the 2007 draft when they overlooked Matt Wieters for a middle reliever Daniel Moskoes (ugh!!!!).

2012 Panini USA Prime Patches 23/24

Pictured above is my prime patch of Austin Meadows from 2012 Panini USA.  It's numbered 23/24 and makes my first jersey relic of the 5 tool teenager.

Meadows had a very good first year in pro ball after a slightly rocky start.

In the Gulf Coast League he batted a .294/.399/.519 line (.918OPS) as a Center Fielder 18 year old.  Of his 47 hits, he had 11 doubles, 5 triples, and 5 homeruns while driving in 20 over the course of 43 games.  Defensively he committed 1 error, but had 3 outfield assists and 1 double play.

After the Gulf Coast League season ended, him and fellow 1st round pick Reese McGuire became members of the NY Penn-League Jamestown Jammers where he played in 5 games and hit 2 HR and batted a .529/.636/.882 line for an OPS of 1.519 while walking more than striking out.  To say this kid isn't going to be something special would be disrespectful.  From video I've seen, he's going to be one of the game's best in a few years.

If you had previously missed my post where I showed off autographs of the Pirates recent draft picks in Team USA gear, click this link to see autos of Cole, Taillon, McGuire, and Meadows.

$1 BOB: Gerrit Cole

I love buying Gerrit Cole cards for $1.

This 2013 Bowman Platinum Top Prospects  was picked up for just that.  $1.  Not a bad price for a sharp looking card like this.

Gerrit Cole came up huge in today's victory against the Cardinals to even the series up at 1-1.  

Mario Lemieux Rookie!!!!!

The Penguins 2013-14 season kicks off today so I figured, now is as a good a time as ever to show off one of my summer acquisitions.

Mario Lemieux is one of the greatest hockey players of all time.

And now I own his rookie card from 1985-86 Topps.  I grabbed this beauty for $42.  That's half the price that many others have sold for.  Sorry for the crooked scan.  I don't know what's wrong with my scanner.

LET'S GO PENS!!!!

Purple Rain from the eBay

No I'm not talking about a song from that formerly known as artist, I'm talking about a couple of baseball cards with purple variations.

2012 Bowman Chrome Purple Variant 186/199

Up first is my main man from 2012 Bowman Chrome.  This Cutch card is numbered 186/199.  This was had for a winning bid of .99.

2013 Topps Toys R Us Travis Snider 

Next up is a purple Toys R Us variant from 2013 Topps of Travis "Lunchbox" Snyder.  Snyder was once considered one of the top 10 prospects in baseball.  His career hasn't taken off the way many people thought it would, but he's still just 25 years old so there's still time for him to break out into a star like many thought he would.

The last card just might be my favorite.  The photo used for this Gerrit Cole card is great looking and gives an interesting perspective.  It's from the new 2013 Topps Chrome series which just hit shelves last week.  I may chase the rainbow of these Cole cards.