Wednesday, March 23, 2011

2011 Topps Toppstown #TT-5 Roy Halladay

Phillies 4, Red Sox 1
Spring Training Game 25 - Monday Afternoon, March 21st in Clearwater

One Sentence Summary:  Roy Halladay appears ready for opening day as he pitched 7 2/3 strong innings against the Red Sox.

What It Means:  I've been traveling for work again, and it's been hard keeping up with the daily exploits of the Phillies given the limited Spring Training news contained with USA Today's sports section.  In any event, all indications are that Halladay pitched like Halladay, surrendering five hits and one run during his outing.

Top Hitters:  Josh Barfield, who could potentially be the odd man out now that the Phils have signed Luis Castillo, had a two-run single in the sixth.  Halladay broke up pitcher Jon Lester's no-hitter with two outs in the fifth.

Top Pitchers:  Halladay is now 3-0 with a 0.48 ERA this spring.  That's pretty good.  Ryan Madson recorded the four-out save.

Featured Card:  I've thought about trying to put together a "master" Phillies team set from this year's Topps releases, given the limited number of sets expected.  I'd steer clear from the high-end releases and 1/1 inserts, but collecting the base cards, inserts, memorabilia cards and even some of the parallels seems like an obtainable goal.  This is one of the Toppstown inserts from Topps Series 1.  If you're interested in the unused code on the back of the card, send me an e-mail or leave a comment, and I'll gladly send it to you.  I'll be updating my 2011 Phillies Wantlist shortly with my Topps Heritage needs.

Other Stuff:  In the fifth, Shane Victorino and Raul Ibanez had a scary collision in center, forcing Victorino from the game.  The collision left Victorino with a bloody nose and a black eye.

2 comments:

Section 36 said...

Yup. You can have that one two. Watch out for the nex seven.

Jim said...

And see you in October - hopefully.