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He wasn’t even playing that day. His season had ended seven weeks earlier with a torn ACL, but on July 27, 2019, the Philadelphia Phillies were wearing those 1979-style burgundy uniforms with the zipper front and there was no way he wasn’t putting that on. Tack on some shades and a big ol’ chain and a photographer at the right place at the right time and now the 2020 Topps Series 2 Andrew McCutchen SP photo variation is suddenly the hobby’s hottest current card.
Phillies legend Dick Allen, who exuded plenty of cool himself (especially while juggling baseballs as a cigarette dangled from his mouth in that famous Sports Illustrated cover) quickly caught wind of it.
Congrats to @TheCUTCH22 for securing what may be the coolest baseball card ever #Phillies @Topps pic.twitter.com/KToJ1sthwT
— Dick Allen (@DickAllen_15) June 26, 2020
McCutchen was pretty pleased, too, tweeting “I must say, this is my all-time favorite card.”
The Getty Images photo by Rich Schultz was smartly used by Topps as a chase card in the newly-launched Series 2. It’s an SP (short print) but not an SSP (super short print), so there should be enough opened eventually to satisfy most of the demand, but right now, the card is on fire, especially after ESPN posted it on their social media channels. It’s been shared over 10,000 times on their Facebook page alone. Other media outlets have also shared it or written about it, which should do good things for Series 2 box sales. It also generated a ton of recollections from lapsed collectors about favorite cards from childhood.
Several of the “McCutcheon swagger” cards have sold for three-figure prices on eBay already, with more posted for sale over the weekend.
There are also more photos where that one came from.
Getty has at least 2 other similar images of Andrew McCutchen. What are the chances one of these shows up as base card in a future Stadium Club release. pic.twitter.com/8V05guvTop
— phungo (@phungo2008) June 28, 2020
McCutchen also has an SSP that’s far more scarce but less interesting. It’s just a shot of him crossing the plate. There are other Series 2 SSPs that are made from interesting photos including a colorized version of the famous image that shows Babe Ruth signing a massive number of baseballs and a bunch of others.
Interestingly, it’s not the first time there’s been some wackiness involving a McCutchen card. Back in 2009, TriStar put his picture on the front of Daniel McCutchen’s card while the two were making their way to the majors as teammates on the Indianapolis Indians. You can buy that one for just a couple of bucks.
Daniel has now been out of baseball for several years and shared a funny chat with minor league broadcaster Tim Hagerty.
Here’s Daniel McCutchen’s story about his erroneous baseball card with Andrew McCutchen’s picture on it. @DanielMcCutchen @TheCUTCH22 pic.twitter.com/U1R8r2KXTd
— Tim Hagerty (@tdhagerty) June 19, 2020
The interest will likely die down in the days ahead as more hit the market and the masses move on, but the McCutchen card from Series 2 will take its place among the modern era cards that are memorable for their photos than their value.
About Rich Mueller
Rich is the editor and founder of Sports Collectors Daily. A broadcaster and writer for more than 30 years and a collector for even longer than that, he’s usually typing something somewhere. Type him back at [email protected]
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