Monday, March 18, 2013

1972 Topps #324 Mike Ryan

Phillies 5, Orioles 3
Spring Training Game 22 - Sunday Afternoon, March 17th in Clearwater
Record - 10-11-1

One Sentence Summary:  The Phillies prevailed behind Freddy Galvis' two-run home run, but the big story of the day was Roy Halladay's early departure.

What It Means:  Halladay left after only one inning with what the team quickly disclosed was a stomach virus.  Worries about Hallady's health and effectiveness continue to linger.

What Went Right:  Galvis hit his home run in the fifth.  Domonic Brown and Michael Young each had two hits.

Featured Card:  The Phillies wore green jerseys and hats for St. Patrick's Day while the Orioles switched the white fronts of their hats to green.  I wanted to have some Irish connection with the featured card in this post, so I decided to go with a card of long-time Phillies player and coach Irish Mike Ryan.  Ryan played primarily with the Red Sox and Phillies during his 11-year playing career, and he was the Phils' bullpen coach from 1980 to 1995.

Ryan appeared on Phillies cards in each Topps set from 1968 through 1974, with a cameo on the Phillies Leaders card with Lance Parrish in the 1988 Topps set.  (See this post at the very bottom.)  This is his super groovy card from the 1972 Topps set.

Galvis in Green
Camp Head Count:  40 minus 4 = 36.  I'm still counting Carlos Ruiz in my tally, so if you take him and DL-bound Delmon Young out of the equation, the true camp head count now stands at 34.

The Phillies optioned out young relievers Jake Diekman and Justin De Fratus and reassigned pitcher Cesar Jimenez and infielder Josh Fields.

Memory Lane
2010 - Mike Schmidt and the entire 1986 team go green.
2011 - Chase Utley models the green jerseys worn during Spring Training 2006.
2012 - A smiling card of Tugger and Halladay models a green jersey.

2 comments:

Arsen Kashkashian said...

I love the 1972 set. It's grown on me over the years because it is so different than anything else Topps ever put out. It was also a really large set with great subsets and several traded cards of future Hall of Famers including Steve Carlton.

Jim said...

I completely agree with you. The set fits into the "so bizarre it's awesome" category.