Saturday, September 22, 2012

2012 Finest #54 Chase Utley

Phillies 6, Braves 2
Game 151 - Friday Night, September 21st in Philadelphia
Record - 77-74, 3rd Place, 14 1/2 games behind the Nationals

One Sentence Summary:  Powered by four home runs, the Phils' win over the Braves pulled them within three games of the second Wild Card.

What It Means:  As frustrating as this season has been for the Phillies (and their fans), at least they're making the last few weeks interesting.  They could have easily thrown in the towel - most teams would have.  But they've rallied from a season low 14 games under .500 on July 13th to a season-high three games over .500 now.

What Went Right:  Kevin Frandsen, Ryan Howard, Carlos Ruiz and Chase Utley all homered in the win.  Howard is only hitting .228, but he now has 54 RBIs in his 65 games since returning from the disabled list.

Kyle Kendrick earned his 10th win of the year, allowing two runs on five hits in 6 2/3 innings.

Featured Card:  Utley has been on a tear of late as well.  He now has 11 home runs and 40 RBIs in his 72 games.  He's hitting .419 in his last ten games.  Most importantly, he looks good on the base paths and in the field.

This is his card from this year's Topps Finest set, released a month ago.  Does anyone still collect Finest or even realize it was released?  I may have missed it, but I don't think I've seen one other blog feature any of this year's cards.

2 comments:

Steve F. said...

I haven't seen a Finest card since the 1990s, I think. So yes, I would say it is safe to assume that some people didn't know they were still around!

Do they still come with those protective stickers on the front that you can choose to remove or leave on?

Jim said...

No more protective stickers - thankfully!