Throwback Thursday: Honus Wagner Career Hits Debate

Just a few days ago, there was many announcers stating that Derek Jeter had moved into the sole possession of 7th (8th if you count the real hit king) place on the All-Time Hits list.  However in doing research, I have seen multiple sources state different numbers for Honus Wagner's career hits.  While it will often be debated who is the greatest All-Time shortstop, one thing is for certain...Honus Wagner was the greatest before Jeter came along.

It even says it on his Hall of Fame plaque.

Here's a list of the various internet resources all stating different totals for Honus' hits totals
The back of the card above states 3,420
Baseball Reference siting 3,420
ESPN siting 3,415
Baseball Almanac siting 3,430

I think it's safe to say that Jeter will pass the 3,430 mark needing only 8 hits over the next two months, but what if he hadn't gotten to that mark.  Who would you claim was higher up on the All-Time hits list?

Furthermore who do you think is the greatest Shortstop of All-Time?
Also, what do you think about my latest Honus Wagner I grabbed from 2013 Cooperstown for $1?

Seeing Red: Charlie Morton 2008 Bowman Chrome /5

I don't like doing more than 1 Seeing Red post a month, but I am so enraged with today's game that I needed to post a card that I am very happy to own.

Here's a card I've had in my possession for over 3 years, but never highlighted on the Treasure Room.  When it comes to my baseball card collection, I do not remember where I got every single piece of cardboard.  This card however is the exception and I got it for a hell of a deal.

2008 Bowman Chrome Red Parallel 5/5

I was attending a FMI conference (Food Market Institute) to represent my company and knew that this auction I had been watching would be ending while away in Dallas.  I took note of the time it would be ending and hoped that I didn't have a conference to attend during that time.  I was in luck as there was a 2 hour gap of "free time" between meetings.

Rather than go out to lunch with the rest of my coworkers I went to my hotel room and pulled up the ebay app on my phone and watched the time click away. 30 minutes. 29 minutes. 28 minutes.  I stared at it for almost 30 minutes without being distracted.  When it got to 1 minute, my then girlfriend tried calling me which I promptly hit the "F U" button for and continued staring at it until it went to the final seconds.  I entered my high bid again and BAM I had won a very low numbered 2008 Bowman Chrome Red Parallel of Ground Chuck numbered 5/5.  I then called back my then girlfriend only to find out that all she wanted to tell me was that it was a new episode of Smallville that night.  As if I really needed to be reminded of that as there was only a few episodes left...

The Pirates game just wrapped up and they now fall 2 games behind the Brewers for the NL Central Division.  Overall it was a very sloppy game played by the Pirates.  Charlie couldn't find the strikezone consistently.  The Pirates made the strangest play I have ever seen on the basepaths when they got into a double play on a walk to load the bases.  There was several errors that lead to runs.  Andrew McCutchen continued his recent struggles at the plate.  It was just an overall bad game that they deserved to lose.  Here's hoping they can take a four game series from the Diamondbacks in Arizona.

Cole is coming back soon!!!!

Gerrit Cole, the #1 overall pick in the 2011 draft will begin to make his rehab starts as he recovers from the DL.  If Cole can be the dominant flame throwing future ace we saw last year down the stretch, the Bucs might just have enough pitching and hitting to win the division.  A lot of pressure will be put on the youngsters of the team (Polanco & Cole) to perform at their ceilings.

The above Prizm rookie card of Gerrit Cole was grabbed for $1 at my local mall sports card show.

McCutchen Monday: WAR what is it good for?

Andrew McCutchen is currently sitting 4th in the National League in terms of WAR.  Could Cutch repeat his MVP performance?  Well, it's very possible as he is already sitting at a career high .974 OPS entering July 24th.

My latest Cutch insert is from 2014 Topps and discusses Andrew's WAR stat from last season when Mike Trout was the only position to post a higher WAR than Cutch.

The above card was won for $1.49 delivered and gets me even closer as I continue my pursuit of 500 unique Andrew McCutchen cards. 

Keep your eyes on this blog as I approach that magic number because there will be a contest. 

Black is the New Black: Reese McGuire Auto

One of my silly 2014 collecting goals was to obtain Bowman Gold rookies of the Pirates top prospects.  After realizing how much I really don't like the designs on some Bowman products and the absurd prices that most of them were going for, I quickly killed that goal and changed it to the Bowman Black line that Bowman puts out each year.  I prefer silver sharpie autos on black and also like the horizontal design of the Bowman Black card line.

I've acquired quite a handful already and still have a few more that I want to grab.  One player that I won't be grabbing the Bowman Black card from is Blake Taylor, who was traded for Ike Davis earlier this year.

2013 Bowman Black AUTO 18/25

My latest addition is the second of the Pirates two 2013 draft picks, catcher Reese McGuire.
It will fit in nicely with my 3 Tyler Glasnow autographs, Gregory Polanco, Jameson Taillon, Gerrit Cole, and Starling Marte Bowman Black autos. 

McGuire has had a decent year at the plate in A ball as a 19 year old backstop hitting .257 with 26 RBI in 66 games.  The power numbers aren't there yet as he's only slugging .302 with 1 HR, but he's also hitting at a level he is nearly two and a half years younger than the competition.  When McGuire was drafted, there was no doubt about his advanced defensive abilities and he has shown that at a tremendous rate this year gunning down 43% of potential baserunners (33 Caught stealing compared to 43 stolen bases allowed).  Could he be a future gold glove Yadier Molina type catcher in the Pirates organization?  Only time will tell.

Here's my dilemma....

When I come across Jason Bay autographs on ebay for only 99 cents, how can I pass them up even when I have 50 unique certified autographs of the former Pirates rookie of the year winner?

Quite simply, for whatever reason...I can't.  I needed to get that 51st unique autograph of the recently retired left fielder. Is that crazy?????

Couldn't pass up a golden opportunity

Being a supercollector of a non superstar player is great.  It allows me to attempt to collect 100% of all cards of a favorite player of mine without having to eat ramen noodles every night and live in a cardboard box.  Charlie Morton, while a very good pitcher, is not labeled as an ace or one of the game's top pitchers.  This allows me the opportunity to add numbered parallels of his very very cheap.

2013 Topps Update Gold Parallel (515/2013)

Such was the case for the above 2013 Topps Update gold parallel you see above.  It cost me a winning bid of 10 cents with a respectable 49 cents shipping.  I just couldn't pass up the golden opportunity to add this card to my collection for 59 cents especially since I somehow had previously not added it to my collection.

The Bucs are in Colorado this weekend and are only a few games out of first place.  Let's hope Charlie can keep the ball low and get a lot of weakly hit groundball outs and the offense continues to roll like it has the fast few nights.  Let's Go Bucs!!!!