Saturday, April 18, 2015

2015 Topps Highlight of the Year #H-19 Mike Schmidt

Nationals 7, Phillies 2
Game 11 - Friday Night, April 17th in Washington
Record - 3-8, Tied for 4th Place, 5 games behind the Mets

One Sentence Summary:  The Phillies dropped another game to the Nationals, getting outpitched and outhit in a 7-2 loss.

What It Means:  The Phils have lost six in a row.  They have the Marlins equally poor start to thank for keeping them out of sole possession of the cellar in the N.L. East.

What Happened:  Nationals starting pitcher Max Scherzer allowed just a run on four hits in his eight innings of work.  Phillies starter Sean O'Sullivan was chased after five innings having allowed four runs.  Bryce Harper hit a three-run home run in the first off O'Sullivan and the game was pretty much wrapped up at that point.

Featured Card:  There's going to be a lot of flashing back to happier times this year in these game summary posts.  Yesterday marked the 39th anniversary of Mike Schmidt's big four home run day against the Cubs at Wrigley Field in a crazy 18-16 victory.  Schmidt's feat is celebrated as the 1976 Highlight of the Year in the eponymous insert set from Topps Series One.

Topps has rightfully caught their share of flak in recent years for messing up key details of historic games and not proofreading their own baseball cards.  I'm happy to say it appears as if Topps got all the details right on the back of Schmidt's card.  Even better, Topps chose a picture of Schmidt in his 1976 road uniform for this card.  The National League Centennial patch worn by N.L. teams in 1976 can be seen on Schmidt's right shoulder.

If this set idea is brought back in the future, I highly doubt a Phillies player will be featured as the 2015 Highlight of the Year.

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