Thursday, February 28, 2013

1995 Topps Traded #162T Lenny Dykstra & Kirby Puckett AS

Twins 12, Phillies 5
Spring Training Game 5 - Wednesday Afternoon, February 27th in Fort Myers
Record - 1-3-1

One Sentence Summary:  The Phils lost again behind more shaky defense and an even shakier bullpen.

What It Means:  The mantra heading into this season is that the Phils will compete if:  1.) They're healthy, 2.) They play solid defense and 3.) Their bullpen is stronger than last year.  So far, the latter two must be giving Charlie Manuel indigestion.

What Went Wrong:  Three errors led to three unearned runs in the fourth.  Relievers Justin De Fratus and B.J. Rosenberg gave up three runs each in back to back innings.

On the plus side, John Lannan looked decent in his spring debut and Carlos Ruiz went 2 for 2 with 3 RBIs.  Ben Revere, facing his former team for the first time, went 2 for 4 with 2 stolen bases.

Featured Card:  I listened to the first few innings of the game on the Twins radio broadcast yesterday, and the Twins announcers were absolutely gushing about Revere.  The announcers talked about how seeing Revere in a Phillies uniform was weird, and how much the organization is going to miss him.  They also compared his energy and overall positive clubhouse demeanor to that of a young Kirby Puckett.  These are all good things for the Phils, as one of the things the team seemed to be missing last year (especially after the trade of Shane Victorino) was a lot of positive energy.  While the announcers were discussing Revere's aggressiveness on the base paths, he stole his first base on queue.

This is one of two Puckett cards in my Phillies collection.  The other features him along with Mike Schmidt and Brewers pitcher Juan Nieves on a 1988 Sportflics card.  I have no idea what Puckett, Schmidt and Nieves could possibly have in common.

2 comments:

Carl Crawford Cards said...

Phillies stole Revere from the Twins. He's a heck of a player.

Jim said...

More good news! Can't wait to see him play in person.