The Phillies Room

1992 Topps Phillies

2012-01-29T07:00:00.004-05:00

1992 Topps #244, #30, #383 and #200

1992 was a year of change. I moved 500 miles away from my hometown and started my freshman year of college. I left my family, my house and my baseball card collection behind and embarked on a new, exciting and occasionally scary journey.

I remember feeling particularly blue one fall day in '92 and being pleasantly surprised to find the Sundry Shop on the Quad sold packs of baseball cards. There was nothing too exciting for sale - just a few packs of left-over 1992 Topps and 1992 Fleer packs. I bought two or three packs that day and I'll admit that I spent money intended for food on more packs in the weeks ahead. Flipping through my 1992 Phillies binder now, I'm reminded just how comforting those packs of baseball cards were to me.

1992 Topps #30 (Back)

The Set

Number of cards in the set: For the 11th and final year in a row, there are 792 cards in the base set and 132 cards in the traded set.

My very brief thoughts on the set: This was the first Topps flagship set since 1980 that I did not hand collate. As I alluded to at the outset, I took the end of High School fairly hard and I all but ignored baseball cards for a big chunk of the year. (I think Santa brought the factory set for Christmas that year.) That being said, it's a nice set. After years and years of gray cardstock, it was a bit stunning to hold a Topps baseball card produced on thinner, white cardstock. The panoramic view of Veterans Stadium on the backs of some of the cards was a very cool touch. And I appreciated the return to horizontal card fronts on some of the cards for the first time since 1974.

Notable competition: 1992 was a good year for baseball cards. It seems as if each of the manufacturers stepped up their game and tried to bring something new to their customers. The cards were glossier and more thought went into each set's design. After the lackluster collecting years of 1990 and 1991, the card companies turned things around and started making product that baseball card collectors wanted to collect. Unfortunately, the card companies did not know when to say when, and we as collectors would soon be bombarded with an absolute deluge of new product in the years ahead. This was the year the dam started to crack before the flood of way too many different sets overwhelmed me from 1993 through the mid-2000s.

1992 Topps #587, #52, 1992 Topps Traded #5T and 1992 Topps #14

1992 Phillies

Record and finish: With a record of 70-92, the Phils finished in last place in the N.L. East, 26 games behind the Pirates.

Key players: Darren Daulton finally arrived, leading the league with 109 RBIs and hitting 27 home runs. Dave Hollins matched Dutch's 27 home runs and drove in 93 runs to boot. He finished second in the league with 104 runs scored. John Kruk enjoyed a solid season, hitting .323 with 10 home runs and 70 RBIs. The newly acquired Curt Schilling led the pitching staff with 14 wins and a 2.35 ERA. Terry Mulholland put together another steady season with a 13-11 record and a 3.81 ERA, while leading the league with 12 complete games. Closer Mitch Williams saved 29 games. So what went wrong?

Key events: What went wrong was that 17 different players spent time on the disabled list, including key contributors such as Lenny Dykstra, Tommy Greene and Dale Murphy. The active roster consisted of a revolving cast of prospects and suspects throughout the year as 48 different players suited up for the 1992 Phillies. Mickey Morandini recorded an unassisted triple play in September and reserve catcher Jeff Grotewold became the first player in history to hit three pinch-hit home runs in three consecutive games.

1992 Phillies in 1992 Topps

Cards needed for a complete team set: There are 32 Phillies cards in the base set and another 3 Phillies cards in the traded set. Once again, Topps opted to include 26 players from Team USA in the traded set, denying several deserving Major Leaguers their traded cards.

Who’s in:

Cards of the eight starting position players - 7 cards

#244 Darren Daulton (c), #30 John Kruk (1b), #587 Mickey Morandini (2b), #383 Dave Hollins (3b), #30T Mariano Duncan (lf), #200 Lenny Dykstra (cf), #5T Ruben Amaro, Jr. (rf)

Shortstop Juan Bell was acquired in August and took over shortstop duties from the struggling Kim Batiste/Dale Sveum combination.

Cards of the starting pitching rotation - 3 cards

#100T Curt Schilling, #719 Terry Mulholland, #83 Tommy Greene

Kyle Abbott, who started 19 games, was omitted from the traded set, as was Ben Rivera who started 14 games.

1992 Topps Traded #100T, 1992 Topps #719, #763 and #83

It's a bit jarring seeing the team's new uniform side-by-side with their old uniforms. When teams update their uniforms now, the Photoshopping gremlins at Topps busily transform players into their new-look uniforms before the cards are released. As a side note, I always thought it was cool that there were no Phillies cards in the first series of 1992 Leaf. Leaf waited until they had photos of the Phillies in their new uniforms before dropping every Phillies card into its second series.

Base cards of players who played with the Phillies in 1992 - 15 cards

#14 Wes Chamberlain, #103 Ricky Jordan, #258 Jim Lindeman, #331 Steve Lake, #353 Braulio Castillo, #434 Wally Backman, #456 Pat Combs, #484 Mike Hartley, #497 Andy Ashby, #514 Kim Batiste, #544 Cliff Brantley, #599 Steve Searcy, #633 Mitch Williams, #680 Dale Murphy, #791 Danny Cox

Base cards of players who didn't play with the Phillies in 1992 - 8 cards (with new teams listed)

#63 Randy Ready (A's), #135 Von Hayes (Angels), #159 Darrin Fletcher (Expos), #307 Bruce Ruffin (Brewers), #471 Jose DeJesus (injured), #557 Dickie Thon (Rangers), #696 Joe Boever (Astros), #754 Charlie Hayes (Yankees)

#1 Draft Pick card - 1 card, #764 Tyler Green
Manager card - 1 card, #669 Jim Fregosi

1992 Topps #633, #484, #361 and #478

Who’s out: Rivera and Abbott might have appeared in the traded series if not for the Team USA cards. Relievers Bob Ayrault (30 games) and Wally Ritchie (40 games) were also deserving of cards.

Phillies on other teams: An entire 9-pocket page (+1) is needed to contain the 1992 Phillies players who had cards in the set featuring them on other teams. Ruben Amaro, Jr. (#269 with the Angels), Mariano Duncan (#589 with the Reds) and Curt Schilling (#316 with the Astros) all wound up in the traded set as Phillies. But these 7 players did not: #52 Juan Bell (Orioles), #85 Jose DeLeon (Cardinals), #361 Barry Jones (Expos), #373 Don Robinson (Giants), #478 Dale Sveum (Brewers), #581 Stan Javier (Dodgers) and #763 Kyle Abbott (Angels).

What’s he doing here: One of the things I like about the recent Series 1 releases from Topps is that they give us cards of players on their new teams, as long as those players switched teams early in the off-season. Ready, Von Hayes, Fletcher, Ruffin and Thon were all long gone by Christmas 1991, but they appear as Phillies in the 1992 Topps set.

Cards that never were candidates: Grotewold, Bell, Rivera, Abbott, Javier, Sveum, Jones and Don Robinson. Robinson wrapped up his 15-year career with 8 uneventful starts for the Phillies.

Favorite Phillies card: There are some great action photos on these cards, but my favorite two are Spring Training shots featuring Greene and Mulholland on the mound. Greene's card edges Mulholland's due to the blurry ball heading towards the photographer. My favorite non-Phillies card is Javier's, which features two soon-to-be members of the 1992 Phillies squad on it.

1992 Topps Traded #30T, 1992 Topps #581 and #103

Other Stuff

Recycled: If Topps has re-used this design for any Phillies cards since 1992, I don't have them in my collection.

Blogs/Websites: There aren't many people out there writing about the 1992 Topps set, so I'm going to go ahead and link to a few of my prior Scrapbook Sunday posts. Here's a post featuring the 1948-style uniforms the team wore on its Turn Back the Clock day on June 21, 1992. My scrapbook page from the 1992 All-Star Game features a rare photo of Kruk wearing a Braves jersey. And here's a page from the start of the '92 season, when the team first started to realize that things were going very wrong, very quickly.

Did You Know?: On Opening Day 1992, I skipped school to go to the game and see the team's new uniforms first hand. This was before the days of internet leaks, so Opening Day 1992 was truly the first time all 60,000+ of us in attendance were witnessing the new look Phillies. The team went so far as to conduct Spring Training that year wearing their old maroon uniforms. I seem to recall the Phillie Phanatic blowing up a safe during a pre-game ceremony containing the new uniforms and then proudly displayed the new duds to the excited crowd. Little did we know that we'd have very little else to cheer throughout the upcoming season. (However, with the exception of one pitch from Mitch Williams to Joe Carter, 1993 would turn out just fine.)

Dang Blogger label limitations mean that Stan Javier and Ricky Jordan won't be tagged in this post. Sorry guys.

2003 Topps 205 Triple Folder Polar Bear #TF51 Juan Pierre & Jim Thome

2012-01-28T10:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning, the Phillies came to terms with outfielder Juan Pierre on a minor league contract that includes an invitation to Spring Training. Pierre immediately jumped to the top of the list of candidates to break camp as the team's fifth outfielder. The left-handed hitting Pierre hit .279 last year in 158 games with the White Sox. His stolen base totals dropped dramatically from 2011 to 2010 (down to 27 from 68), but he's still a threat on the base paths at 34 years old.

This signing brings the number of non-roster invitees to a whopping 18. And what are the chances Dominic Brown gives up his number 9 so that Pierre can reclaim the number he wore during his best years?

Player (position) - 2011 Organization - Last Major Cardboard Appearance

18. Juan Pierre (of) - White Sox - 2011 Topps Allen & Ginter #229 (White Sox)

1954 Bowman #95 Robin Roberts

2012-01-27T07:30:00.000-05:00

I recently added this wonderful Robin Roberts baseball card to my collection through a recent impulse purchase from Checkoutmycards.com. The twelve, nine and six-pocket pages within my 1950's Phillies binder are slowly filling up with vintage Bowman cards featuring the Phillies players of my Dad's youth.

Today would have been my Dad's 68th birthday.

The last few months without Dad have not been easy, but our family has managed to rally through the tough times together. We're going to gather tonight in his honor and I'm sure we'll tell the same old stories and laugh at the same old memories.

There are dozens of things throughout each day that remind me of my Dad or that make me want to pick up the phone and call him. One such instance happened recently when my oldest son Doug informed my wife that he was glad we were getting closer to April because "that's when the Phillies start to play again." He went on to explain to her a promise I had made to him. I had told him that once he was five, I'd take him to a lot more Phillies games and that we'd get to stay for the whole game. I had reasoned with him that I was five when my Dad started regularly taking me to Phillies games. I had said this to Doug in passing, months ago, but my declaration stayed with him and he plans to hold me to it.

That is what it's all about, isn't it? Fathers and sons and baseball.

"You're a lucky man," my Dad would have told me upon hearing this little story. I couldn't agree more.

2011 Chachi Transactions #9 Wilson Valdez

2012-01-26T10:00:00.001-05:00

There has been a deal. Just when I thought the Phillies 25-man roster was all but set, they go ahead and trade utility everywhere guy and fan favorite Wilson Valdez to the Cincinnati Reds for left-handed pitcher Jeremy Horst. Horst appeared in 12 games for the Reds last season, striking out 9 and walking 6 in 15.1 innings pitched. He could provide the team with a little more lefty reliever depth behind Dontrelle Willis and Antonio Bastardo. Horst becomes the 17th non-roster invitee to camp:

Player (position) - 2011 Organization - Last Major Cardboard Appearance

17. Jeremy Horst (lhp) - Reds - 2011 Bowman Draft #47 (Reds)

Valdez, who will be best remembered for his 19th inning pitching performance last season, joins former teammate Ryan Madson on the Reds. The Phils are apparently comfortable going with either Michael Martinez or Pete Orr (or even Hector Luna) as their utility infielder option off the bench in 2012.

Moving On

Dane Sardinha (10-11) 10/10/11 - Filed for free agency

Brandon Moss (11) 10/17/11 - Outrighted to Lehigh Valley and filed for free agency (Signed a minor league contract with the Oakland A's)

Brad Lidge (08-11) 10/24/11 - Team option declined

Roy Oswalt (10-11) 10/24/11 - Team option declined

Ross Gload (10-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency

Raul Ibanez (09-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency

Ryan Madson (03-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency (Signed with the Cincinnati Reds)

Juan Perez (11) 11/2/11 - Became a minor league free agent (Signed a minor league contract with the Milwaukee Brewers)

Scott Mathieson (06, 10-11) 11/29/11 - Released (Signed with the Yomiuri Giants)

Ben Francisco (09-11) 12/12/11 - Traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for pitcher Frank Gailey

John Bowker (11) 1/10/12 - Released
Wilson Valdez (10-11) 1/25/12 - Traded to the Cincinnati Reds for pitcher Jeremy Horst.

Coming Back

Pete Orr (11) 11/3/11 - Re-signed by the Phillies as a minor league free agent with an invitation to Spring Training

Brian Schneider (10- ) 11/17/11 - Re-signed by the Phillies to a one-year contract

Jimmy Rollins (00- ) 12/19/11 - Re-signed by the Phillies to a three-year contract with a vesting fourth year

New Additions

Jim Thome (03-05) 11/5/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Cleveland Indians

Jonathan Papelbon 11/14/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Boston Red Sox

Ty Wigginton 11/20/11 - Acquired with cash from the Colorado Rockies for a player to be named later or cash

Laynce Nix 12/8/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Washington Nationals

Dontrelle Willis 12/15/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Cincinnati Reds

2011 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions #112 Mike Schmidt

2012-01-25T10:00:00.000-05:00

I recently acquired a nice-sized lot of 2011 Phillies cards from Checkoutmycards.com for several reasons:

1. I wanted to clear out the easier to find (cheap) base and insert cards from my 2011 Phillies Wantlist before the 2012 cards starting hitting the shelves in a few weeks.

2. I got the itch. I haven't added many "new" Phillies cards to my collection since the fall and I was anxious to sample some of the cards I missed from the Topps Tier One, Marquee and Finest releases. I'd never buy packs of these brands, but I'll admit I'm kind of impressed with the quality of these cards.

3. I absolutely, positively had to add the card featured here to my collection. This card goes squarely into the so bad, it's good category. Upper Deck no longer holds a license from Major League baseball and so it is not allowed to feature team logos or team names on its cards. So in lieu of a shot of Michael Jack Schmidt swinging a bat or fielding a grounder, we get this shot of him doing his best 1970's Mike Brady impersonation. Far out.

1984 Tastykake Phillies - Phillies Broadcasters

2012-01-24T10:00:00.003-05:00

I learned on Monday night that long-time Phillies announcer Andy Musser passed away over the weekend at the age of 74. Along with every other baseball fan in the Delaware Valley, I spent countless hours listening to Musser, Harry and Whitey call the games for the better part of two decades. I very rarely feature cards on this blog that I've previously posted, but I'm willing to make an exception today.

I can only imagine the conversations those three fine gentlemen are having now. Rest in peace, Andy.

2011 Choice Williamsport Crosscutters #29 Mickey Morandini

2012-01-23T10:00:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend, I featured a card of Mickey Morandini that doesn't actually feature the former Phillies second baseman. In fact, the player featured on the Morandini card bears an uncanny resemblance to former Phillies catcher Darren Daulton.

Rest assured, the card featured here is actually Morandini, as advertised on the card's front. As Phungo points out in the comments section of this weekend's post, Morandini was recently named the new manager of the Class-A Lakewood BlueClaws. It's a promotion based on his performance in 2011 with the Low-A Williamsport Crosscutters, in which the first year skipper led his team to a second place finish with a 43-33 record.

As is typical for a lot of teams, the Phillies tend to bring back their own when filling the ranks of their minor league field staffs. There are quite a few former big leaguers and Phillies career minor leaguers on these staffs, but here's the list of former Phillies who will be riding the minor league buses during the upcoming baseball season:

Player (Years with Phillies) - 2012 Position
Ryne Sandberg (1981) - Manager, Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs
Mickey Morandini (1990-1997; 2000) - Manager, Single-A Lakewood BlueClaws
Greg Legg (1986-1987) - Coach, Single-A Lakewood BlueClaws
Andy Tracy (2008) - Manager, Low-A Williamsport Crosscutters
Aaron Fultz (2005-2006) - Coach, Low-A Williamsport Crosscutters
Kevin Jordan (1995-2001) - Coach, Gulf Coast League Phillies
Steve Schrenk (1999-2000) - Coach, Gulf Coast League Phillies
Mike Compton (1970) - Minor League Field Coordinator

This will be Legg's 31st season with the Phillies organization.

1991 Topps Phillies

2012-01-22T07:00:00.001-05:00

1991 Topps #689, #545, #345 and #603B

There was a lot of change going down in 1991. It was the last year the Phillies would wear their maroon pin-striped uniforms with the big bubble "P" that is still synonymous with the team's success in the late '70s and their first World Championship in 1980. It was also the last year Topps would issue its baseball card set on the gray cardboard of my youth. In 1992, Topps would switch to a leaner, whiter cardboard that is still in use today for their base set. 1991 was my last full year in High School as I was set to graduate in the Spring of '92 and venture out on my own. And as a few readers reminded me in the comments of my post on the 1988 Topps set, 1991 was, in my opinion, the last truly classic Topps baseball card set.

1991 Topps #345 (Back)

The Set

Number of cards in the set: Once again, there are 792 cards in the base set and 132 in the traded series.

My very brief thoughts on the set: Topps did a nice job of redeeming itself after the debacle that was the 1990 Topps set. The front of the cards feature a special "40 Years of Baseball" logo to celebrate the ruby anniversary of the Red Backs and Blue Backs released in 1951. Topps made an effort to coordinate the colors featured on the fronts with the actual colors of the player's team, and the logo of the team name is a nice touch as well. So what say you? Is this the last truly classic Topps base set?

Notable competition: I think the Topps set is the best baseball card set of the year. Honorable mention goes to Score's set and the first ever Fleer Ultra set. The Donruss, Fleer and Upper Deck sets were all fairly forgettable. However, Donruss gets an honorable mention for the awesome Dr. Dirt and Mr. Clean card in its set featuring Lenny Dykstra and Dale Murphy - two completely polar opposites on the field and in life.

1991 Topps #89, #342, #439 and #312

1991 Phillies

Record and finish: The Phils took a slight baby-step forward, winning one more game than they did in 1990. They went 78-84 to finish in third place behind the Pirates in the East.

Key players: This is the year John Kruk started growing out the mullet and came into his own as a big-league hitter. He hit .294 with 21 home runs and 92 RBIs while splitting time between first base and the corner outfield positions. Murphy enjoyed a solid season (.252, 18 home runs, 81 RBIs) in his first full year in Philly and Dykstra hit .297 in a season abbreviated by self-inflicted injuries. Terry Mulholland led the pitching staff with 16 wins, followed by Tommy Greene's 13. Mitch Williams, acquired from the Cubs right before the start of the season, saved 30 games.

Key events: In events that would foreshadow his troubles in the future, Dykstra was placed on a year's probation by commissioner Fay Vincent for his involvement in a gambling ring. Thirteen games into the season, with the team at 4-9, manager Nick Leyva was fired and replaced with Jim Fregosi. In May, Dykstra and Darren Daulton were seriously injured when Dykstra wrapped his car around a tree following a night of drinking at Kruk's bachelor party. In happier news, Greene pitched a no-hitter in Montreal on May 23rd and Murphy tallied his 2,000th career hit on May 29th.

1991 Phillies in 1991 Topps

Cards needed for a complete team set: There are 29 Phillies cards in the base Topps set, but 30 if you include both Wes Chamberlain variations, which I am. There are 4 more Phillies cards in the traded set.

Who’s in:

Cards of the eight starting position players - 8 cards

#89 Darren Daulton (c), #689 John Kruk (1b), #342 Mickey Morandini (2b), #439 Dickie Thon (ss), #312 Charlie Hayes (3b), #603B Wes Chamberlain (lf), #345 Lenny Dykstra (cf), #545 Dale Murphy (rf)

Cards of the starting pitching rotation - 5 cards

#413 Terry Mulholland, #486 Tommy Greene, #232 Jose DeJesus, #25T Danny Cox, #637 Bruce Ruffin

1991 Topps #413, #486, #232 and #637

Base cards of players who played with the Phillies in 1991 - 15 cards

#9 Darrin Fletcher, #15 Von Hayes, #43 Roger McDowell, #137 Randy Ready, #159 Joe Boever, #173 Jason Grimsley, #186 Rod Booker, #264 Dave Hollins, #524 Darrel Akerfelds, #571 Pat Combs, #618 Sil Campusano, #661 Steve Lake, #712 Ricky Jordan, #3T Wally Backman, #127T Mitch Williams

Base cards of players who didn't play with the Phillies in 1991 - 3 cards (with new teams listed)

#209 Ken Howell (Injured), #282 Don Carman (Reds), #603A Louie Meadows (Phillies Triple-A)

I'm counting the Chamberlain/Meadows variation in the official tally. Card #603 can be found in a corrected version (with Chamerlain's picture) and an error version (with Meadows' picture). Meadows appeared in 15 games with the 1990 Phillies and he never actually appeared on a Phillies card of his own.

#1 Draft Pick card - 1 card, #471 Mike Lieberthal
Manager cards - 2 cards, #141 Nick Leyva and #43T Jim Fregosi

1991 Topps Traded #127T, 1991 Topps #15, #712 and #264

Who’s out: Topps made the decision to include 26 Team USA cards in its traded set, in lieu of giving 26 more cards to actual Major Leaguers with their new teams. Arguments could be made for either John Morris (85 games) or Jim Lindeman (65 games, .337 average) getting a card with the Phillies in the traded set. Wally Ritchie (39 games in relief, 2.50 ERA) also could have had a card in the traded set.

Phillies on other teams: Backman (#722 with the Pirates) and Williams (#335 with the Cubs) are in the base set with their former teams, but in the traded set as Phillies. There are three more players who appeared with the 1991 Phillies with cards in the set - Mike Hartley (#199 with the Dodgers), Steve Searcy (#369 with the Tigers) and Dave LaPoint (#484 with the Yankees).

1991 Topps #603A

What’s he doing here: Really the only questionable selections are Carman and Lieberthal. Carman became a free agent after the 1990 season and Lieby didn't make his debut until 1994. Overall, Topps did a really nice job with the Phillies player selection.

Cards that never were candidates: Morris, Lindeman and Ritchie are deserving. And how about a card for Rick Schu, who returned to the Phillies after a three-year absence and appeared in 17 games. (Although he'd hit .091).

Favorite Phillies card: The Dude edges out Dale Murphy. I was very excited to finally have a Topps card featuring Murphy as a Phillie, but the shot of Dykstra, asking for time in his dirt-stained uniform is baesball card greatness. It's sad that Dykstra has allowed his life to completely self-destruct.

Other Stuff

Recycled: The cards of Dale Murphy and John Kruk in the 2004 and 2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites set use the 1991 Topps design. Also, for the second year in a row, Topps produced a Debut set, featuring the 1991 Topps design and cards of every player who made his big league debut during the 1990 season. (Hat tip to 14,000 Phillies for the reminder. And I wish they'd bring this set back.)

Blogs/Websites: To date, I don't own any 1991 Topps Desert Shield cards, but I've always been fascinated by this rare parallel set. Here's a comprehensive article on the card set, including a primer on how to spot counterfeit Desert Shield cards.

Did You Know?: At the outset of this post, I referenced the team's maroon 1970's and 1980's uniforms with the big bubble "P," in use for the last time during the 1991 season. The team wore those uniforms for 21 full seasons, beginning in 1971. (The uniforms made their debuts at the tail-end of the 1970 season.) This may be hard to believe, but the team is now entering its 21st season wearing the uniform set first introduced in 1992. If the team wears the same uniforms in 2013, and there is no indication that they won't, the 1992 to present day uniforms will surpass the 1971 to 1991 uniforms in terms of longevity. Crazy, isn't it?

1991 Classic Game #187 Mickey Morandini

2012-01-21T10:00:00.001-05:00

I've been spending a lot of time with my 1991 Phillies binder recently, and I thought this card perfectly summed up this past week for me: Not that bad, but just a little off.

2012 Chachi Transactions #8 Jamie Moyer

2012-01-20T10:00:00.001-05:00

We here at (in?) the Phillies Room certainly want to wish Jamie Moyer well in his quest to pitch in his 25th season at the age of 49. Moyer recently signed a minor league contract with the Rockies and received an invitation to spring training. Moyer missed the entire 2011 season while he recovered from Tommy John surgery.

Everything I've read indicates that Moyer could be a long-shot to crack the Rockies pitching rotation. However, I'll definitely be rooting for him throughout the spring. The Rockies will visit Philadelphia twice in 2012, with their first visit coming in mid-June. If Moyer makes the team, and if he just happens to pitch during that series, he should be prepared for a very, very warm welcome from the fans at Citizens Bank Park.

2003 E-X Behind the Numbers #BTNGU-JT Jim Thome

2012-01-19T10:00:00.001-05:00

Tuesday night marked the passage of an important milestone on the off-season calendar. On Tuesday night, the Phillies updated the roster section of their website to include new uniform numbers for all off-season acquisitions and non-roster invitees. Per my review of the new numerology, there were also several players who decided to switch to new numbers for the upcoming 2012 season. I say without a tinge of sarcasm that this type of thing truly excites me. We're getting closer to baseball again. Here's a run-down of the number happenings:

New Players
#7 Laynce Nix - Nix assumes the number of the departed Ross Gload.
#24 Ty Wigginton - Brandon Moss wore #24 in 2011. Wigginton has most frequently worn #21 throughout his career, but Wilson Valdez currently owns that number for the Phils.
#25 Jim Thome - No surprise here.
#53 Dontrelle Willis - How many people remember Juan Perez wearing #53 in 2011? Anyone? This is the inverse of the number (#35) Willis wore during the most successful phase of his career with the Marlins. Cole Hamels, the $15 million man, will hopefully be wearing #35 for the Phillies for years to come.
#58 Jonathan Papelbon - No surprise here either.

New Numbers
#4 Pete Orr - This was Dane Sardinha's number during his two-year stay with the Phillies in 2010 and 2011.
#5 Pete Mackanin (bench coach) - And this was Orr's old number. It appears as if Mackanin gave up his #22 to non-roster invitee Scott Podsednik. I find this one a little odd as I can't recall an established Phillies coach ever surrendering his number to someone who has at best a 50-50 shot at making the team. Or maybe Mackanin just really wanted #5.
#37 Antonio Bastardo - Switched from #58 which is now worn by Papelbon.
#44 Michael Schwimer - He jumped from #39 up to #44, which belonged to Roy Oswalt the past few years.
#78 Justin De Fratus - This one confuses me. De Fratus wore #37 with the Phils last year and it appears as if he surrendered the number to the slightly more veteran Bastardo. But why go with #78?

2010 Topps #183

Other Stuff

- From 1 to 60, the following non-retired numbers are still up for grabs - #13, #29, #45 and #54.

- The Phillies have long had an unwritten rule of not assigning the number of a recently departed significant player for at least a year following his departure. I'm guessing that's the reason why no one was assigned #54, the former number of the departing Brad Lidge. And it also could be the reason no one has #29, which was worn by Raul Ibanez. But it's a little surprising to see #46 assigned to non-roster invitee Raul Valdes. #46 was the number worn by former Phillie Ryan Madson since he switched from #63 following the 2008 season.

- The low numbers assigned to some of the non-roster invitees surprise me. (See the sidebar at left.) Only the back-up catchers received high numbers.

- Non-roster invitee Brian Sanches was given the same number (#48) he had during his first stint with the team back in 2006 and 2007.

- Austin Hyatt and B.J. Rosenberg aren't listed on the team's non-roster invitee listing, despite their invitations to Spring Training. I'll go ahead and predict these guys will end up with #65, #67 or #68.

1999 Fleer Tradition #391 Paul Byrd

2012-01-18T10:00:00.001-05:00

The Phillies added another option to their growing stable of back-up/Plan C/reclamation-type non-roster invitees yesterday, signing righty Joel Pineiro to a minor league contract. He's the 16th and perhaps final non-roster invitee set to suit up in Clearwater in just 30 short days. Pineiro appeared in 27 games with the Los Angeles Angels in 2011, going 7-7 with a 5.13 ERA. He started 24 of those 27 games.

Player (position) - 2011 Organization - Last Major Cardboard Appearance
16. Joel Pineiro (rhp) - Angels - 2011 Topps #263 (Angels)

Not knowing much about Pineiro, I headed over to Baseball Reference. Save for a three-year stint with the Cardinals from 2007 to 2009, Pineiro has spent the majority of his 12-year career in the American League with the Mariners, Red Sox and the aforementioned Angels. The information I found most interesting on his BR page was the listing of fellow pitchers with whom Pineiro shares the closest Similarity Scores. Topping the list were former Phillies Paul Byrd and Vicente Padilla, now a member of the Boston Red Sox.

* * *

Of course the bigger news from yesterday was the announcement that the Phils and Cole Hamels had avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year $15 million contract. Hamels, who can become a free agent following the 2012 season, is rumored to be seeking "Cliff Lee Money" which could translate to a 5-year, $120 million contract. The Phillies also avoided arbitration with utility infielder/late inning reliever Wilson Valdez, who agreed to a one-year, $930,000 contract.

1990 Donruss #643 Mike Schmidt

2012-01-17T10:00:00.001-05:00

I think I speak for all bloggers when I say I love to receive comments on my posts, although occasionally I'm genuinely surprised by which of my posts receive multiple comments. Take for example my recent post on the 1990 Topps Phillies cards. I thought for sure this would be one of those posts that languished in the Land of No Comments, but to my surprise that post received comments from four different readers. The wealth of knowledge of our baseball card community and the passion we share with regards to something as mundane as deciding the least worst baseball card set of 1990 just amazes me.

A comment from 14,000 Phillies actually had me going back to my 1990 Phillies binder because I didn't remember the Mike Schmidt tribute card from the 1990 Donruss set he referenced. The card doesn't feature a great photo, but it should get recognition for being the first baseball card to contain Michael Jack's complete year-by-year statistics from 1972 through 1989. Say what you will about the Halloween paint splatter design on the front, Donruss definitely got one thing right by including this final tribute card to Schmidt in its 1990 set.

2012 Chachi Transactions #7 Ryan Madson

2012-01-16T10:00:00.002-05:00

I'm tired of waiting for the official announcement that Ryan Madson is the newest member of the Cincinnati Reds, so I'm posting this card prematurely. (Wednesday seems to be as good a day as any for a physical.) Frankly, I think Madson's agent, Scott Boras, did his client a huge disservice by declining the Phillies offer of arbitration and holding out for a multi-year mega-contract. Madson would have easily earned more with the Phillies in 2012 then he's set to reportedly earn with the Reds.

On a more personal note, I'm actually sad to see Madson leave the franchise. He's home grown and he was one of the longest tenured members of the team. He made his Phillies debut way back on September 27, 2003, when the Phils were still playing at The Vet. He won a ring with the team in 2008, and he was a huge part of that championship season. Despite who he chose as his agent, I hope Madson receives a warm welcome when his Reds visit Philly in August.

Moving On

Dane Sardinha (10-11) 10/10/11 - Filed for free agency

Brandon Moss (11) 10/17/11 - Outrighted to Lehigh Valley and filed for free agency (Signed a minor league contract with the Oakland A's)

Brad Lidge (08-11) 10/24/11 - Team option declined

Roy Oswalt (10-11) 10/24/11 - Team option declined

Ross Gload (10-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency

Raul Ibanez (09-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency

Ryan Madson (03-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency (Signed with the Cincinnati Reds)

Juan Perez (11) 11/2/11 - Became a minor league free agent (Signed a minor league contract with the Milwaukee Brewers)

Scott Mathieson (06, 10-11) 11/29/11 - Released (Signed with the Yomiuri Giants)

Ben Francisco (09-11) 12/12/11 - Traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for pitcher Frank Gailey

John Bowker (11) 1/10/12 - Released

Coming Back

Pete Orr (11) 11/3/11 - Re-signed by the Phillies as a minor league free agent with an invitation to Spring Training

Brian Schneider (10- ) 11/17/11 - Re-signed by the Phillies to a one-year contract

Jimmy Rollins (00- ) 12/19/11 - Re-signed by the Phillies to a three-year contract with a vesting fourth year

New Additions

Jim Thome (03-05) 11/5/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Cleveland Indians

Jonathan Papelbon 11/14/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Boston Red Sox

Ty Wigginton 11/20/11 - Acquired with cash from the Colorado Rockies for a player to be named later or cash

Laynce Nix 12/8/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Washington Nationals

Dontrelle Willis 12/15/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Cincinnati Reds

1990 Topps Phillies

2012-01-15T07:00:00.000-05:00

1990 Topps #515, #710, #542 and #469

The early '90s were an awkward time for me. I was an awkward teenager with awkward hair and awkward acne collecting awkward baseball cards. Flipping through my binder of 1990 Phillies cards recently, there was one overriding theme - these cards did not age well. Cards from the '50s and '60s are classics, cards from the '70s are cool and cards from the '80s remind me of a happy childhood. Cards from the '90s are . . . awkward.

1990 Topps #542 (Back)

The Set

Number of cards in the set: No surprises here. There were 792 cards in the base set and another 132 cards added to the traded series for the ninth year in a row. (There would be two more years with this configuration before Topps mixed it up in 1993.)

My very brief thoughts on the set: It amazes me that the creative people at Topps actually gave the green light to this set. There are too many posed shots and there are too many orange and purple and green Phillies cards. It's not an attractive set and it may actually be my least favorite Topps flagship set of all time. If anyone cares to defend this set and show me the error of my ways, please leave a comment. (I just re-read those last few sentences. I honestly don't mean to come off as angry about the 1990 Topps set. I still managed to hand collate the set back in the day, so I wasn't completely disgusted by it.)

Notable competition: If I was forced to pick a favorite set from 1990, I'd have to go with Score's set. Donruss did this, Fleer had a completely uninspiring design, and Upper Deck basically just copied their 1989 design but rotated the base line to the top of the card. The Leaf set was cool, but they didn't sell packs of Leaf at my Wawa and even if they did, the packs would have been too expensive for me.

1990 Topps #216, #297, #269 and #577

1990 Phillies

Record and finish: The Phillies actually showed some signs of life in 1990, going 77-85. They finished in a fourth-place tie, 18 games behind the Pirates.

Key players: Lenny Dykstra flirted with the National League batting title all season, finishing the year with a .325 average. Von Hayes (.261, 17 home runs, 73 RBIs) and Darren Daulton (.268, 12 home runs, 57 RBIs) also enjoyed decent years. John Kruk hit .291 in his first full season with the Phils. Pat Combs (10-10, 4.07 ERA) and Terry Mulholland (9-10, 3.34 ERA) gave the team two reliable starting pitchers for the first time in a few years. Roger McDowell (22 saves), Darrel Akerfelds (3.77 ERA in 71 games) and Joe Boever (2.15 ERA, 6 saves) anchored the bullpen.

Key events: On August 3rd, in a trade that blew my mind at the time, the Phillies acquired Dale Murphy from the Braves (with Tommy Greene) for Jeff Parrett, Jim Vatcher and Victor Rosario. I was thrilled when this move was made, as it seemed (at the time) that Murphy was the final piece the Phillies were seeking to put them over the top. Mulholland pitched the first no-hitter by a Phillies pitcher at Veterans Stadium on August 15th.

1990 Phillies in 1990 Topps

Cards needed for a complete team set: There are 29 Phillies cards in the base set and another 3 Phillies cards in the traded set.

Who’s in:

Cards of the eight starting position players - 8 cards

#542 Darren Daulton (c), #216 Ricky Jordan (1b), #297 Tom Herr (2b), #269 Dickie Thon (ss), #577 Charlie Hayes (3b), #469 John Kruk (lf), #515 Lenny Dykstra (cf), #710 Von Hayes (rf)

Cards of the starting pitching rotation - 4 cards

#384 Pat Combs, #657 Terry Mulholland, #22 Bruce Ruffin, #756 Ken Howell

1990 Topps #384, #657, #22 and #756

Base cards of players who played with the Phillies in 1990 - 14 cards

#39 Curt Ford, #69 Todd Frohwirth, #103 Marvin Freeman, #129 Ron Jones, #183 Steve Lake, #356 Randy Ready, #439 Jeff Parrett, #493 Jason Grimsley, #625 Roger McDowell, #633 Dennis Cook, #731 Don Carman, #1T Darrel Akerfelds, #41T Dave Hollins, #68T Carmelo Martinez

Base cards of players who didn't play with the Phillies in 1990 - 3 cards (with new teams listed)

#154 Mike Maddux (Dodgers), #204 Bob Dernier (Retired), #607 Steve Jeltz (Royals)

#1 Draft Pick card - 1 card, #74 Jeff Jackson
Manager card - 1 card, #489 Nick Leyva
Phillies appearing on Turn Back the Clock cards - 1 card, #662 Mike Schmidt

As much as I didn't care for the set, I was grateful that Topps gave us one last Schmidt card following the year he retired. His 1980 Topps card is featured on the card looking back to ten years prior.

1990 Topps #625, #633, 1990 Topps Traded #1T and 1990 Topps #750

Who’s out: It would have been awesome if Murphy had been included in the traded set, but he was left out. (Both Fleer and Score managed to work him into their update sets.) Jose DeJesus, acquired in a March trade with the Royals, should have also made it into the traded set. DeJesus went 7-8 in 22 starts for the Phils. There are also quite a few bench guys, rookies and relievers deserving of cards, including Rod Booker (73 games), Sil Campusano (66 games), Mickey Morandini (made his debut in September), and Boever.

Phillies on other teams: Martinez appears with the Pirates on card #686 and he made it into the traded series as a Phillie. Four players only had cards with the former teams - #410 Joe Boever (Braves), #534 Louie Meadows (Astros), #595 Jose DeJesus (Royals), #750 Dale Murphy (Braves).

1990 Topps #662

What’s he doing here: A few years back, the player's union came up with a bunch of baseball card related rules that prevented Topps (and Upper Deck at the time) from including players in "main" sets who were not on team's 40-man rosters. It's a good rule. I remember opening a pack of 1990 Topps cards and coming across the card of Phillies top draft pick Jeff Jackson and thinking "Why?" I didn't want cards of draft picks. I wanted cards of players whose names I was seeing in box scores - the utility guys, middle relievers and defensive replacements. Jackson never made it to the majors as he kicked around the minors until hanging up his spikes in 1998. I mean no disrespect to Jackson here, but I would have rather pulled a card of Chuck McElroy.

Cards that never were candidates: Murphy, Boever, DeJesus, Booker, Campusano and Morandini. I'll also add Wes Chamberlain to the long list, as Chamberlain was acquired from the Pirates at the end of August and hit .283 in 18 games.

Favorite Phillies card: I'll go with Kruk's card, by default. Kruk is pictured with his pre-beard and mullet look.

Other Stuff

Recycled: As far as I know, Topps hasn't gone back to this design for any Phillies cards. And why would they? I took a stab at creating a final tribute Schmidt card a few years ago.

Blogs/Websites: I can't say I'm shocked there isn't a blog dedicated to this set. However, I love that Shoebox Legends did a series of posts highlighting his favorite cards from his "guilty pleasure" set. I'd also like to highly recommend The Greatest 21 Days, which is highlighting each and every card from the 1990 CMC minor league set.

Did You Know?: Other than a few oddball issues, Schmidt wouldn't be featured on another mainstream baseball card until 1994's Ted Williams set. When these new Schmidt cards were released, it was big news for me at the time and I remember actively seeking out his cards from the main Ted Williams set and the special 9-card insert set which chronicled the slugger's career. It seems strange now to go three to four years without a new baseball card of a Hall of Famer. Over the past few years especially, it seems as if Schmidt is featured in just about every "legends" based insert set that Topps releases.

1955 Bowman and Topps Phillies - Not for Use with Bicycles

2012-01-14T08:50:00.001-05:00

1955 Bowman #41, #110
#111 and #210

I've managed to stretch the bounty received from the "Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim" tradition into several posts and this is my sixth and final installment. My Dad had been diligent in tracking down Phillies cards from the 1951 and 1955 Bowman sets over the past several years solely because those are the sets he remembered best from his childhood. He told me on several occasions that he definitely had a complete 1955 Bowman set when he was younger, but it mysteriously disappeared after he left home for college.

My Mom also clearly remembers the "TV Set" as being the cards that made the loudest and coolest sounds when folded and inserted into the spokes of a bicycle. While she was shopping around for cards featured on my Phillies wantlists, she decided to add a few TV Set cards to my growing vintage collection.

Thanks to her pure awesomeness as a Mom, I'm now four cards closer to a 1955 Bowman Phillies team set.

Also included in the magic Christmas shoebox were three cards from the 1955 Topps set. This set was the older brother to what would become probably the best baseball card set of all-time - the 1956 Topps set.

1955 Topps #29, #33 and #114

2011 Topps Phillies #PHI17 Citizens Bank Park

2012-01-13T10:00:00.000-05:00

2012 Topps Series One releases in 18 days.

Pitchers and catchers report in 35 days.

Opening day is 82 days away.

We can do this.

1989 Topps Phillies - Missing Links (Incomplete)

2012-01-12T10:00:00.002-05:00

I've mentioned in a few posts already how I began the process a few years back of creating Topps Phillies cards for those unfortunate few players omitted from the Topps base or traded series for the year(s) they wore red/burgundy pinstripes. To date, I have created a complete run of missing link players from 1980 through 1988. I got to 1989 . . . and completely stalled out.

There were 19 players who appeared with the Phils in 1989 who did not merit a Topps baseball card that year. I started creating the cards and then, to be perfectly honest, I completely lost interest in the project. I guess Floyd Youmans and Gordan Dillard and Jim Adduci will do that to a guy. (As a side note, it was very difficult for me to replicate the curvature of the player's name on the 1989 Topps cards. I found I had to rotate and adjust each letter to get the right look. This probably contributed to the abandonment of the project.)

In any event, here are the five cards I did manage to complete. The remaining 14 will hopefully be completed at some point. After all, how could we live in a world in which Steve Stanicek doesn't have a 1989 Topps Phillies card?

PR2

PR3

PR7

PR9

PR10

And in case you're wondering, here are the 14 players still missing 1989 Topps Phillies cards: Jim Adduci, Dennis Cook, Gordon Dillard, Curt Ford, Charlie Hayes, Terry Mulholland, Dwayne Murphy, Tom Nieto, Randy O'Neal, Al Pardo, Mark Ryal, Bob Sebra, Steve Stanicek and Floyd Youmans.

1974 Topps #149 Mac Scarce

2012-01-11T10:00:00.004-05:00

It's been a while since I've done one of these off-season player tracking posts, as things have been quiet on the Phillies transaction front since before Christmas. Yesterday, we learned the team had released outfielder John Bowker to allow him to pursue an opportunity in Japan. (He's been linked to the Yomiuri Giants, so he could be a teammate of Scott Mathieson again soon.) I really liked David Hale's post over on his Philled In blog which informs us that Bowker's career offensive stats as a Phillie (0 for 13 with 7 strikeouts) puts him in dubious company.

In terms of Phillies position players, Bowker's 0-fer is second only to Fred Tauby who went 0 for 20 with the 1937 Phillies. If you include pitchers, Bowker is sixth on the list, behind such notables as pitcher Mac Scarce (0 for 18 between 1972 and 1974) and pitcher Kent Bottenfield (0 for 17 in 2000). For all these players, you could say that hits were . . . scarce.

Moving On

Dane Sardinha (10-11) 10/10/11 - Filed for free agency

Brandon Moss (11) 10/17/11 - Outrighted to Lehigh Valley and filed for free agency (Signed a minor league contract with the Oakland A's)

Brad Lidge (08-11) 10/24/11 - Team option declined

Roy Oswalt (10-11) 10/24/11 - Team option declined

Ross Gload (10-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency

Raul Ibanez (09-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency

Ryan Madson (03-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency

Juan Perez (11) 11/2/11 - Became a minor league free agent (Signed a minor league contract with the Milwaukee Brewers)

Scott Mathieson (06, 10-11) 11/29/11 - Released (Signed with the Yomiuri Giants)

Ben Francisco (09-11) 12/12/11 - Traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for pitcher Frank Gailey
John Bowker (11) 1/10/12 - Released

Coming Back

Pete Orr (11) 11/3/11 - Re-signed by the Phillies as a minor league free agent with an invitation to Spring Training

Brian Schneider (10- ) 11/17/11 - Re-signed by the Phillies to a one-year contract

Jimmy Rollins (00- ) 12/19/11 - Re-signed by the Phillies to a three-year contract with a vesting fourth year

New Additions

Jim Thome (03-05) 11/5/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Cleveland Indians

Jonathan Papelbon 11/14/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Boston Red Sox

Ty Wigginton 11/20/11 - Acquired with cash from the Colorado Rockies for a player to be named later or cash

Laynce Nix 12/8/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Washington Nationals

Dontrelle Willis 12/15/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Cincinnati Reds

1992 Pinnacle Rookie Idols #9 Kim Batiste/Barry Larkin

2012-01-10T10:00:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to former Reds shortstop Barry Larkin, who was elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame yesterday. Larkin appeared on 86.4% of the ballots cast by voters, easily surpassing the 75% required for election. I'm sure former Phillies shortstop Kim Batiste will join me in congratulating his former idol.

Thanks to having my entire Phillies collection now organized on Zistle, I was able to find instances of most of this year's Hall of Fame hopefuls within my collection. Here is where you can find a few of this year's Hall of Fame misses (and possible 2013 inductees) within my Phillies baseball card collection:

Player (% of Vote) - "Phillies" Card
Jack Morris (66.7%) - 1984 Topps #136 - Strikeout Leaders with Steve Carlton
Jeff Bagwell (56.0%) - 2001 Fleer Triple Crown Glamour Boys #3 - with Scott Rolen and Bernie Williams
Lee Smith (50.6%) - None
Tim Raines (48.7%) - 1987 Fleer #642 - Super Star Special with Juan Samuel
Alan Trammell (36.8%) - None
Edgar Martinez (36.5%) - None
Fred McGriff (23.9%) - None
Larry Walker (22.9%) - 1993 Fleer #715 - Super Star Special with Darren Daulton

Raines also appears on a few Topps Rub-Down/Tattoo cards (from 1984 and 1985) with Mike Schmidt and Walker is featured on the same League Leader card as Bobby Abreu in the 2000 Fleer Tradition set.

Former Phillie Dale Murphy, on the ballot for the 14th year, received only 14.5% of the vote and next year is his final year of eligibility. After that, he'll presumably be passed along to the Golden Era Committee, who elected Cubs great Ron Santo last month. Sadly, Terry Mulholland, on the ballot for the first year, received no votes.

1984 Topps #136 and 2001 Fleer Triple Crown Glamour Boys #3

Two More Non-Roster Invitees

2012-01-09T10:00:00.000-05:00

2011 Multi-Ad Reading Phillies #15 and #22

The Phillies recently invited two more right-handed pitchers to Spring Training, bringing the non-roster tally to 15. Barring any other additions, the Phils will send 55 players to Clearwater in mid-February in an attempt to whittle down to the best 25. All that is left to do is to assign the non-roster guys uniform numbers in the 60's and 70's and then load up the equipment truck.

Both Austin Hyatt and B.J. Rosenberg, the 14th and 15th non-roster invitees respectively, spent their 2011 seasons with Double-A Reading.

Player (position) - 2011 Organization - Last Major Cardboard Appearance
14. Austin Hyatt (rhp) - Phillies - 2011 Bowman Chrome Prospects #BCP63 (Phillies)
15. B.J. Rosenberg (rhp) - Phillies - Only minor league cards so far

1980-1989 Phillies

2012-01-08T07:00:00.007-05:00

1982 Fleer #637, 1985 Fleer #627, 1988 Fleer Award Winners #35 and 1989 Fleer Update #U-131

Next Sunday (or thereabouts) I'll feature the 1990 Topps Phillies cards in a post. I knew when I started this series of posts that the '90s could be my downfall. If this series were to ever stall out, it was going to come when I was trying to write about the 1994, 1995 or 1996 teams. Hopefully, I'm able to maintain enough steam to push through the lean years to see this project through.

Before we get there though, I want to take a look back at the 1980's - the decade that started with so much promise for the Phillies only to end in a heap of festering poo.

Decade MVP
For the second decade in a row, Mike Schmidt was the team's most valuable player. He won three National League MVP awards, six Gold Gloves and he was named to eight All-Star games. He was voted to start at third base for the National League All-Stars in 1989, despite having announced his retirement several months before the game.

1981 Donruss #273, 1982 Donruss #1, 1983 Donruss #16 and 1984 Donruss #305

Leaders
Games - Schmidt (1320), Von Hayes (1002), Greg Gross (969), Juan Samuel (852), Steve Jeltz (653)
Average* - V. Hayes (.278), Schmidt (.277), G. Gross (.272), Garry Maddox (.268), Samuel (.263)
Home Runs - Schmidt (313), V. Hayes (107), Samuel (100), Glenn Wilson (49), Ozzie Virgil (46)
RBIs - Schmidt (929), V. Hayes (474), Samuel (413), Wilson (271), Maddox (249)
Stolen Bases - Samuel (249), V. Hayes (177), Bob Dernier (99), Milt Thompson (82), Jeff Stone (68)

Games - Kent Tekulve (291), Don Carman (253), Steve Bedrosian (218), Ron Reed (212), Kevin Gross (203)
Wins - Steve Carlton (93), K. Gross (60), Shane Rawley (59), Carman (47), Dick Ruthven (41)
ERA** - Tug McGraw (2.84), Carlton (3.12), K. Gross (3.87), Rawley (3.88), Carman (4.04)
Strikeouts - Carlton (1299), K. Gross (727), Carman (523), Rawley (447), Charles Hudson (399)
Saves - Bedrosian (103), Al Holland (55), Reed (39), McGraw (35), Tekulve (25)

*At least 6 seasons with the Phillies, completely subjective
**At least 5 seasons with the Phillies, again completely subjective

1980-1989 Topps
Total Phillies Players (1980-1989): 179, which is a big jump over the 142 players who suited up with the Phils during the '70s.
Total Phillies Players with Topps Phillies Cards: 113. Topps managed to get 63% of all Phillies from the decade onto cardboard in its main or traded sets. That's a small increase over the 59% success percentage from the '70s.
Managers with Cards: Dallas Green (2 cards), Pat Corrales (1 card), Paul Owens (2 cards), John Felske (3 cards), Lee Elia (2 cards) and Nick Leyva (1 card).
Topps Phillies Cards of Non-Phillies: 1 card - Jim Wright (1981).

Card Statistics
Most Featured: Carlton (26 cards), Schmidt (26 cards), Pete Rose (17), G. Gross (10 cards), Samuel (9 cards), McGraw (9 cards), V. Hayes (8 cards) and Maddox (7 cards).
Most Games (Batter), No Phillies Topps Card: Curt Ford (108 games in 1989), Dwayne Murphy (98 games in 1989), Charlie Hayes (84 games in 1989), Mike Young (75 games in 1988), John Vukovich (60 games in 1980-1981), Mike Easler (33 games in 1987), Jackie Gutierrez (33 games in 1988) and Francisco Melendez (30 games in 1984 and 1986).
Most Games (Pitcher), No Phillies Topps Card: Dave Shipanoff (26 games in 1985), Lerrin LaGrow (25 games in 1980), Dennis Cook (21 games in 1989), Terry Mulholland (20 games in 1989), Randy O'Neal (20 games in 1989), Rocky Childress (18 games in 1985-1986), Don Larson (17 games in 1980-1981) and Danny Clay (17 games in 1988).

1985 Donruss #23, 1987 Donruss #12, 1988 Donruss #13 and 1989 Donruss #24

The Phillies Topps 60
Continuing my imaginery checklist of the top 60 Topps Phillies cards since 1951:

31 - 1980 Topps #270 Mike Schmidt
32 - 1981 Topps #404 Tug McGraw WS
33 - 1982 Topps Traded #28T Bob Dernier
34 - 1983 Topps Traded #40T Von Hayes
35 - 1984 Topps Traded #105T Juan Samuel
36 - 1985 Topps #454 Glenn Wilson
37 - 1986 Topps #200 Mike Schmidt
38 - 1987 Topps #209 Rick Schu
39 - 1988 Topps #440 Steve Bedrosian
40 - 1989 Topps Traded #27T Len Dykstra

1984 Fleer #35, 1987 Fleer Star Stickers #116, 1988 Score #386 and 1987 Donruss Opening Day #158

Cards That Never Were Series
This set is getting a little out of hand, as we're now up to 140 cards. And I could probably count on one hand the number of people who would actually want to possess a baseball card set featuring Dave Wehrmeister, Joe Cowley and Mark Ryal.

93 - 1980 Topps Bob Walk
94 - 1980 Topps Marty Bystrom
95 - 1980 Topps George Vukovich
96 - 1980 Topps Bob Dernier
97 - 1981 Topps Luis Aguayo
98 - 1981 Topps Mark Davis
99 - 1981 Topps Future Stars - Len Matuszek/Bob Dernier/Ryne Sandberg
100 - 1982 Topps Julio Franco
101 - 1982 Topps Dave Roberts
102 - 1982 Topps Porfi Altamirano
103 - 1983 Topps Charles Hudson
104 - 1983 Topps Kevin Gross
105 - 1983 Topps Sixto Lezcano
106 - 1983 Topps Larry Andersen
107 - 1983 Topps Juan Samuel
108 - 1983 Topps Paul Owens MG
109 - 1984 Topps Tim Corcoran
110 - 1984 Topps Al Oliver
111 - 1984 Topps Shane Rawley
112 - 1984 Topps John Russell
113 - 1984 Topps Jeff Stone
114 - 1984 Topps Dave Wehrmeister
115 - 1985 Topps Darren Daulton
116 - 1985 Topps Dave Shipanoff
117 - 1985 Topps Tom Foley
118 - 1986 Topps Bruce Ruffin
119 - 1986 Topps Ron Roenicke
120 - 1986 Topps Ronn Reynolds
121 - 1986 Topps Mike Maddux
122 - 1986 Topps Dan Schatzeder
123 - 1986 Topps Greg Legg
124 - 1987 Topps Mike Easler
125 - 1987 Topps Joe Cowley
126 - 1987 Topps Keith Hughes
127 - 1987 Topps Michael Jackson
128 - 1988 Topps Bob Dernier
129 - 1988 Topps Ricky Jordan
130 - 1988 Topps Ron Jones
131 - 1988 Topps Greg Harris
132 - 1988 Topps Mike Young
133 - 1988 Topps John Vukovich MG
134 - 1989 Topps Pat Combs
135 - 1989 Topps Charlie Hayes
136 - 1989 Topps Dennis Cook
137 - 1989 Topps Terry Mulholland
138 - 1989 Topps Dwayne Murphy
139 - 1989 Topps Curt Ford
140 - 1989 Topps Mark Ryal

Links to the Past
1950-1959 Phillies

1960-1969 Phillies

1970-1979 Phillies

Curt Simmons - Two New Bowman Cards

2012-01-07T10:00:00.001-05:00

1953 Bowman Color #64

If I had been a kid growing up in the early '50s, I'm not sure I would have been happy when Bowman disappeared following the 1955 season. I'm starting to think that if you match up the Bowman baseball cards to their Topps counterparts, year-by-year, from 1951 through 1955, the Bowman cards are actually superior.* I know some people may think that's crazy talk, but this 1953 Bowman Color Curt Simmons card is far more attractive than some of the cards included within the 1953 Topps set. Prompted by the innovative nature of the 1952 Topps cards, the 1953 Bowman cards are much larger than their predecessors and they feature small bios on the backs along with a few lines of statistics.

My Mom added this card to my collection via the "Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim" magical Christmas shoebox. Simmons joins the Del Ennis card as the only two cards to date that I have from this wonderful set.

1950 Bowman #68

A few days after Christmas, a package arrived from reader John with Simmons' 1950 Bowman card. He had purchased the card inadvertently, not realizing it was already in his collection, and he e-mailed me to see if I would give it a good home. "But of course!," I responded, and I'm very happy to have the card in my collection.

*Maybe with the exception of the two company's 1952 sets.

* * *

I featured Simmons' 1956 Topps card way back during the first month of this blog. I had mistakenly thought I had met Simmons at a baseball card show back in the '80s.

1951 Bowman Phillies - 1 More to Go

2012-01-06T10:00:00.002-05:00

1951 Bowman #185 and #292

A few weeks ago, I posted the Ken Johnson card my Dad gave to me last year for Christmas. At the time, he thought it was the final card I needed to complete the 1951 Bowman Phillies team set. I didn't have the heart to tell him that I still needed three more cards, so I agreed with him and we marveled at our latest joint collecting feat - a complete 1951 Bowman Phillies team set.

As part of the "Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim" haul, brought to me this Christmas by my Mom, I added two of the final three cards I actually needed to complete the team set. Jimmy Bloodworth and Eddie Pallagrini have now taken their places among one of the nicest looking baseball card sets around. (I like the set so much that the Dick Sisler card from the set is the centerpiece of this blog's banner.)

As of this writing, I just need card #255, Milo Candini, for the complete '51 Bowman Phillies team set.

My First Fairfield Repack

2012-01-05T10:00:00.001-05:00

1982 Donruss #595, 1987 Topps #719, 1990 Fleer #102 and 1992 Upper Deck #769

One of my stocking stuffers this past Christmas (courtesy of Mrs. Claus herself, my wife Jenna) was a Fairfield Repack she found in the baseball card aisle in Target. Knowing that I would have a blast opening it, she bought me one. Those of you who have opened these things before know there's not much in the way of hidden treasure within these blister packs. But one thing is for certain - the repack itself was a lot of fun to open. And when it comes right down to it, shouldn't the act of opening baseball cards be fun?

There were only a few Phillies in the bunch, but there were a lot of ex-Phillies in the package. The oldest card I received was a 1982 Donruss Randy Lerch card. I also received multiple cards of Bob Boone and Mark Davis, which I think speaks to the pure volume of cards available for both those players.

There were quite a few 1987 and 1989 Topps cards in the package. And as could be expected, the package was heavy with cards from 1987 through 1993 with a smattering of cards from the late '90s and early '00s. The most recent card included was a 2009 Upper Deck First Edition Josh Willingham card.

So again, not much in the way of hidden treasure . . . but it sure was a lot of fun to open!

Drafting the 2012 Topps Checklist

2012-01-04T10:00:00.000-05:00

2011 Topps Factory Set
All-Star Bonus #3

Mrs. Claus was kind enough to get me a 2011 Topps factory set for Christmas, as has become her habit over the past few years. I spent a lovely evening over the break going through the set and sorting the cards into number order. Included within the box were five bonus All-Star cards, including the Roy Halladay card featured here. After much consideration, I've decided to remove this Halladay card from the factory set box and store it within my 2011 Phillies binder.

As I was sorting the set, I started pondering what I'd change about the Topps flagship offering. I even toyed with the idea of putting my ideas into an actual working checklist for a re-imagined 2012 Topps set. Time permitting I may tackle this project, but for now, here are my thoughts on how the 2012 Topps set should look. (Of course, we're way too late in the process for any of these ideas to take effect, but it was fun to think this all through.)

Set Logistics
- The complete set would consist of two regular series of 396 cards each and a third series of 264 cards. That's a total of 1,032 cards, which some may think is about 300 too many, but stick with me here.
- First series would be released on February 1st, second series would be released on June 1st and the third series would come out on October 1st.
- I don't like how Topps sprinkles highlight cards and award winner cards and other such nonsense throughout the set. These are subsets. Back in my day, these cards would be grouped together consecutively, as nature intended.
- If you're a free agent or if you've been traded between the end of the season and December 15th, you're not included within the first series. This would mean no Phillies cards for Ryan Madson, Roy Oswalt, Ben Francisco or Jimmy Rollins in the first series.

2011 Topps #214

Set Composition - Series 1
(Caution: There be math ahead.)
- 7 highlight cards start the set.
- 15 N.L. team cards and 15 A.L. manager cards would be included and I'd permit these to be inserted randomly throughout the series - no need for grouping.
- Somewhere in the middle of the first series would be 8 league leader cards featuring the prior year leaders in the major statistical categories from each league and the cards would be numbered consecutively.
- 6 postseason cards, as follows - one for each of the divisional series and one each for the league championship series. Again, these would be grouped consecutively.
- 3 checklist cards.
- 12 cards for a to be determined fun subset (or two). Boyhood photos? Super Veteran cards?
- 330 player cards, 11 players per team. To be clear - the players included would have all played with their featured teams in 2011 and there would be a 95% or greater chance they'd be coming back in 2012. For example, the Phillies base card checklist for the first series would be as follows - Carlos Ruiz, Chase Utley, Placido Polanco, Shane Victorino, Hunter Pence, Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Wilson Valdez, John Mayberry Jr., Joe Blanton, Antonio Bastardo.

2011 Topps #460

Set Composition - Series 2
- 15 A.L. team cards and 15 N.L. manager cards.
- 8 World Series cards. One for each game and a recap
- 10 cards for a to be determined fun subset. I'm thinking about father/son cards or mascot cards or even classic combo cards, but only if the combo is in fact classic.
- 3 checklist cards.
- 345 player cards, either 11 or 12 players per team. These cards would be for the guys who switched teams during the off-season or who were free agents. Again, as an example, here's the Phillies base card checklist for the second series, giving the Phils 12 cards - Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, Cole Hamels, Vance Worley, Jonathan Papelbon, Jim Thome, Ty Wigginton, Laynce Nix, Dontrelle Willis, Michael Martinez, Kyle Kendrick, Michael Stutes.

Set Composition - Series 3
- 18 cards for the All-Star Game starters.
- 7 highligt/record breaker cards for first half achievements, including the obligatory home run derby champion card. (I could cut down on the amount of highlight cards and replace with new manager cards, if needed.)
- 2 checklist cards.

2011 Topps Update #US92

- 237 player cards, either 7 or 8 players per team. These cards would be for in-season acquisitions, rookie sensations or guys who just didn't fit into the first or second series. For the Phillies team set - Jose Contreras, Justin De Fratus, Brian Schneider and five other players from a pool of new additions or guys like Joe Savery, David Herndon, Pete Orr, Michael Schwimer, Domonic Brown, John Bowker, Scott Podsednik or Pat Misch.

In summary, if Topps were to use my set composition guidelines, we'd have 1,032 cards in a set, subsets grouped together and anywhere from 29 to 31 players from each team. I know if I had a spare half a day, I could come up with the complete checklist for the first series and probably half the checklist for the second series. (Topps: Let me know if you're interested and I'm sure we could negotiate an acceptable form of payment.)

And have I mentioned there would be either no or only one insert set included within the packs? Maybe that's a topic for a future post . . .

1952 Topps Phillies - 5 Cards Added

2012-01-03T10:00:00.000-05:00

1952 Topps #47, #74, #203 and #221

When my Mom decided a few months ago to try to track down some older Phillies cards from my wantlists, something I had included on my 1950-1954 Phillies Wantlist caught her eye. Before listing out the Phillies cards from the 1952 Topps set I need, I've typed, "1952 Topps (Yikes - Intimidated just typing that.)"

Gathering from my declaration that these cards would be tough to collect, she thought she'd start there. Because of her willingness to tackle the challenge of finding reasonably priced 1952 Topps cards to add to my collection, the five cards featured here were added to my collection through the "Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim" Christmas tradition. These five join Nippy Jones as the only Phillies cards from the 1952 Topps set currently in my collection

1952 Topps #107

These cards all came from Kit Young and they're in remarkable shape. Each had a sticker on its sleeve indicating a "GD" or "GD-VG" condition, but with the exception of a few minor dings, each of the cards looks relatively flawless to me. The Hamner card in particular looks as if it could have come straight from a pack. Its coloring is perfect and the card has four sharp corners. Honestly, if these cards are truly "GD" or "GD-VG," I can't imagine what "EX" cards would look like.

I love that the facsimile autograph for Willie Jones has the former Phillies third baseman signing his nickname of "Puddin' Head." And I'm thrilled to add the Curt Simmons card to my collection, despite his glowing head or the too-big "P" painted onto his cap. With the exception of Jones, the bios on the backs of the cards for each of the other players depicted here include mention of their time in the military.

Without gushing too much, I can't convey enough how gorgeous these cards are in person. And thanks to my Mom, I'm just 17 cards away from a 1952 Topps Phillies team set. (Yikes again . . . )

1971 Topps Set - 13 More Down, Just 213 To Go

2012-01-02T10:00:00.000-05:00

1971 Topps #618 and #100

I've long neglected my quest for a complete 1971 Topps set. After pledging to spend more time collecting this set in 2011, I had added exactly zero cards to my collection as of this past Christmas Eve. I didn't attend any baseball card shows this past year, which was the biggest reason for this oversight. It was a difficult year, and I'd probably have to go back to the early 1980's to find the last year I hadn't attended any shows at all.

Luckily for me, the 1971 Topps drought ended when my Mom added 13 cards to my set via the "Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Cards to Jim" haul this past Christmas. Included in the haul were the cards of future Phillie teammates Pete Rose and Tug McGraw. Joining Charlie Hustle and Tugger were 11 other cards of stars or semi-stars hand selected from my wantlist by my Mom. (She explained to me that she went after names she recognized.)

I really do need to pay more attention to this set in 2012, and one of my more frivolous New Year's resolutions (along with going to more movies) is to attend a baseball card show at some point in the new year.

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In a bit of blogger serendipity, Night Owl recently launched his new 1971 Topps blog. Check it out and tell him Jim sent you.

1989 Topps Phillies

2012-01-01T07:00:00.003-05:00

1989 Topps #385, #358, 1989 Topps Traded #49T and #63T

Happy new year! Here's to a wonderful 2012 for you and your friends and family.

The 1989 season was a hot mess for the Phillies. Mike Schmidt tearfully announced his retirement, fan favorites Chris James, Steve Bedrosian and Juan Samuel were all sent packing, and the team continued to underwhelm with another last place finish. Here and now, with the 2012 Phillies about to begin their journey in about 45 days, I'm reminded again just how much distance there is between today's team and the team I somehow managed to root for some two decades ago.

1989 Topps #154 (Back)

The Set

Number of cards in the set: For the eighth year in a row, Topps issued 792 cards in its base set and another 132 in its traded series.

My very brief thoughts on the set: I never really cared for this set although I recently enjoyed flipping through the set with my son Doug. For the record, and this is completely unofficial, there are three Doug's in the set - Dascenzo, Drabek and Jones. We may have missed a few since we were too pre-occupied with the discovery that there are two guys named Candy in the set. But I digress.

Was 1987 the last great Topps baseball card set (in my opinion, of course?) When I look through the Topps base set cards from 1988 through 2011, there isn't one complete set that really stands out. I like the 1993 set, but was it a great set? I'm fine with chalking this observation up to the fact that the sets I like the most are sets I first encountered during my childhood. But is there something more to it? Has Topps produced a great, universally adored baseball card base set since 1987? These are deep questions for a New Year's Day.

Notable competition: Upper Deck entered the fold in 1989 with it's ground-breaking set, holograms on the back and all. This next statement will make me sound crotchety, but baseball cards and baseball card collecting hasn't been the same since I opened that first foil-wrapped Upper Deck pack. Fleer, Donruss and Score were all afterthoughts to me in 1989. Topps resurrected the Bowman name in 1989 with an extra large, underwhelming set featuring the first Phillies cards of a lot of the players the team acquired prior to the start of the 1989 season.

1989 Topps #187, 1989 Topps Traded #119T, #27T and 1989 Topps #100

1989 Phillies

Record and finish: Have I already mentioned that 1989 was a hot mess for the Phils? The team started the year with what seemed like dozens of new faces and a bunch of more new faces would join the team before the season was over. They managed to win two more games than in the prior year, going 67-95 on their way to a second straight last place finish.

Key players: Von Hayes was the only consistent offensive threat in the line-up, putting up a respectable .259 average with 26 home runs and 78 RBIs. When your next two offensive power houses are Ricky Jordan (.285, 12 home runs, 75 RBIs) and Dickie Thon (.271, 15 home runs, 60 RBIs), you know it's going to be a long year. New second baseman Tommy Herr hit .287 and John Kruk hit .331 after being acquired from the Padres for James in June. Ken Howell and Jeff Parrett led the pitching staff with 12 wins a piece and Roger McDowell saved 19 games for the Phils after they had shipped former closer Bedrosian to the Giants. Rookie Pat Combs gave the team hope for the future when he won four games and pitched to a 2.09 ERA following his September call-up.

Key events: In late May, future Hall of Famer Schmidt called a press conference in San Diego to announce his retirement. Although he was hitting just .203 with 6 home runs at the time, his decision still came as a shock. Steve Jeltz lost his starting shortstop job to Thon, but he did manage to hit two home runs from both sides of the plate in the same game, making him the first Phillie in history to do so. As mentioned at the outset, GM Lee Thomas was extremely busy, trading away popular players and netting Kruk, Randy Ready, Lenny Dykstra, McDowell, Terry Mulholland, Dennis Cook and Charlie Hayes in three seperate trades. And my hero, Bob Dernier, hit a thrilling, game-winning, inside-the-park home run against the Giants on May 15th. The video is terrible, but it's hard not to get chills listening to the call from Harry Kalas:

1989 Phillies in 1989 Topps

Cards needed for a complete team set: There are 28 Phillies cards in the base set and Topps added another 11 Phillies cards to its traded set.

Who’s in:

Cards of the eight starting position players - 7 cards

#187 Darren Daulton (c), #358 Ricky Jordan (1b), #49T Tom Herr (2b), #119T Dickie Thon (ss), #63T John Kruk (lf), #27T Lenny Dykstra (cf), #385 Von Hayes (rf)

All three players (Mulholland, Cook and new third baseman Charlie Hayes) acquired from the Giants for Bedrosian were omitted from the traded set. However, the players acquired from the Mets for Samuel (Dykstra and McDowell) on the same day as the Bedrosian deal, made it into the traded set as Phillies. This baffles me. (For the record, all three appear in Fleer's update set.)

Cards of the starting pitching rotation - 3 cards

#54T Ken Howell, #518 Bruce Ruffin, #154 Don Carman

1989 Topps Traded #54T, 1989 Topps #518, #154 and 1989 Topps Traded #80T

Base cards of players who played with the Phillies in 1989 - 19 cards

#20 Steve Bedrosian, #39 Mike Maddux, #100 Mike Schmidt, #268 Keith Miller, #298 Chris James, #349 Ron Jones, #418 Bob Dernier, #542 Todd Frohwirth, #575 Juan Samuel, #627 Greg Harris, #634 Marvin Freeman, #653 Tom Barrett, #707 Steve Jeltz, #65T Steve Lake, #79T Roger McDowell, #80T Larry McWilliams, #90T Steve Ontiveros, #95T Jeff Parrett, #102T Randy Ready

Base cards of players who didn't play with the Phillies in 1989 - 8 cards (with new teams listed)

#67 Dave Palmer (Tigers), #128 Milt Thompson (Cardinals), #202 Brad Moore (Phillies minors), #215 Kevin Gross (Expos), #438 Greg Gross (Astros), #470 Lance Parrish (Angels), #494 Shane Rawley (Twins), #608 Phil Bradley (Orioles)

Phillies Leaders card - 1 card, #489 with Mike Schmidt
Manager card - 1 card, #74 Nick Leyva

1989 Topps Traded #79T, #95T, 1989 Topps #418 and #707

Who’s out: As mentioned previously, Charlie Hayes, Mulholland and Cook were all left out, despite their prominent roles with the team, for better or worse, during the second half of the season.

Phillies on other teams: Brace yourselves. There are 16 players in the base set who played with the Phils in 1989 but appear on other teams. First, here are the 11 who ended up as Phillies in the traded set - #93 Ken Howell (Dodgers), #176 Jeff Parrett (Expos), #235 John Kruk (Padres), #259 Larry McWilliams (Cardinals), #435 Lenny Dykstra (Mets), #463 Steve Lake (Cardinals), #551 Randy Ready (Padres), #692 Steve Ontiveros (Athletics), #709 Tom Herr (Twins), #726 Dickie Thon (Padres), #735 Roger McDowell (Mets). And here are the 5 who didn't - #41 Terry Mulholland (Giants), #91 Floyd Youmans (Expos), #132 Curt Ford (Cardinals), #338 Jim Adduci (Brewers), #667 Dwayne Murphy (Tigers).

1989 Topps #74

What’s he doing here: Parrish was traded to the Angels on October 3, 1988, the day after the 1988 season ended. Of course, this was back in the day when the sets were coming out shortly after Thanksgiving, so it might have been too late to airbrush anyone even for a trade that early in the offseason. But . . . the Phils hired new manager Leyva on October 3, 1988, and managed to airbrush him into a Phillies hat in time for his card to appear within the 1989 Topps set.

Cards that never were candidates: There are a whopping 19 players who appeared with the Phillies during the 1989 season, but did not appear as Phillies in the 1989 Topps set. I've narrowed the list down to seven players who should have had Phillies cards - Combs, Charlie Hayes, Mulholland, Cook, outfielder Dwayne Murphy (9 home runs in 98 games), outfielder Curt Ford (.218 average in 108 games) and reliever Randy O'Neal (appeared in 20 games with a 6.23 ERA). On second thought, maybe O'Neal doesn't necessarily need a Phillies card. Ford appears in the 1989 Bowman set as a Phillie.

Favorite Phillies card: I have to go with Dernier's card. It's his last major Topps baseball card and it's always been a favorite of mine.

Other Stuff

Recycled: Schmidt's card is reprinted in the 2001 Topps Archives set.

Blogs/Websites: For a very thorough overview of the 1989 Topps set, check out this post over at the Lifetime Topps Project.

Did You Know?: I was less than impressed the first time I ever saw an Upper Deck baseball card and my Dad ended up with a nasty bump on his head.

2011 Chachi #69 NLDS Game 5 - Roy Halladay & Ryan Howard

2011-12-31T10:00:00.000-05:00

Why is this still in my draft folder? Maybe if I make this public now, it will exorcise the demons of 2011 and cleanse the blog for 2012. I need to put the past behind me and look forward to the start of a new season in a few short months. And maybe if I sneak this one in on New Year's Eve, no one will notice.

Cardinals 1, Phillies 0
NLDS Game 5 - Friday Night, October 7th in Philadelphia

One Sentence Summary: Chris Carpenter outdueled Roy Halladay to stun the Phillies (and their fans) and send the Cardinals to the N.L.C.S.

What It Means: In short, it means the season was a bust. The 102 regular season wins were wonderful and enjoyable, but in the end the team fell short of its ultimate goal of winning a World Championship.

What Went Wrong: The offense couldn't touch Carpenter. Shane Victorino had a few hits and both Raul Ibanez and Chase Utley hit balls that died on the warning track. The game ended with Ryan Howard grounding out weakly to second as his Achilles' tendon ruptured. He had to be carried off the field as the Cardinals celebrated on the mound.

Halladay allowed a first inning run when Rafel Furcal tripled and Skip Schumaker doubled to start the game. The ace locked it in after that, but the offense couldn't rally.

Featured Card: What a drag it was to make this card. I actually toyed with the idea of not having a Game 5 summary in the 2011 Chachi set just to aid an air of intrigue and mystery to the set. At some point before Spring Training starts, I'll need to cap off the 2011 Chachi set with a checklist.

Continuing a Tradition

2011-12-27T14:12:00.000-05:00

1933 Goudey #21

I spent a lot of time over the holiday break discussing family traditions with my five-year-old son, Doug. He loves hearing about the Christmas traditions I shared with my parents and my sister while I was growing up, and we often talk about how our little family is starting its own Christmas traditions. After he fully understood the meaning of the word, he informed me that, "Traditions make me happy."

One of the Christmas traditions that always made me happy was the annual "Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim" tradition. As a younger lad, I'd attend baseball card shows throughout the year with my Dad and he would always manage to sneak off and make a few secret purchases that would wind up under the tree on Christmas morning. He'd also procure cards via mail order or, in more recent years, he'd scour eBay for cards for my collection. He and my Mom would spend all year squirreling away cards in order to make the annual "Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim" tradition possible.

My Dad had been sick over the past few Christmases, so this tradition quietly faded over the past few years. He passed away in October after a long, courageous battle.

1949 Bowman #30

My Mom, a reader of this here very blog, decided that some traditions should continue. So, without me knowing it, she familiarized herself with my wantlists and she started making a few calls. With the help of Kit Young, Dean's Cards and Dave's Vintage Cards, and with my vintage Phillies wantlists and 1971 Topps list in hand, she went to work.

You can imagine my shock and surprise this Christmas when I unwrapped a shoebox from my Mom and opened it to find a few dozen individually wrapped items with the exact dimensions of what must be baseball cards in top-loaders. I spent the next half hour unwrapping each treasure only to find several 1971 Topps cards that I needed for my set and a wonderful collection of vintage Phillies cards spanning from 1933 to 1955.

The two cards featured here were the oldest cards in the lot, and I'm going to feature the rest of the cards in posts spread throughout the next few weeks. My Mom told me she actually had fun tracking down these cards and I'm certainly extremely grateful for the continuation of the "Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim" tradition.

Dad would be proud of her. Traditions make me happy.

2000 Pacific Ornaments #14 Scott Rolen

2011-12-23T10:00:00.000-05:00

There's an excellent chance this could be my last post of 2011, as I plan to tune out and spend the next week or so immersed in quality family time. I have more than a few complete and total rest days planned.

Thank you for reading along this year and thank you for all your well wishes and comments. I'm very excited for the new year and I look forward to another year of Phillies baseball - both on the field and on cardboard.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Non-Roster Invitees - 5 More

2011-12-22T10:00:00.000-05:00

2008 Topps Update #UH93

Why do non-roster invitees fascinate me? I think it's my natural desire to root for the underdog that makes me appreciate these guys and their admirable perseverance. I highlighted the first eight non-roster Spring Training invitees in a post earlier this month and since then the Phillies have handed out five more invitations.

Player (position) - 2011 Organization - Last Major Cardboard Appearance
9. Dave Bush (rhp) - Rangers/Cubs/Phillies - 2010 Topps Update #US269 (Brewers)
10. Steven Lerud (c) - Orioles - 2004 Bowman #160 (Pirates)
11. Hector Luna (inf) - Red Sox - 2007 Upper Deck #97 (Indians)
12. Lou Montanez (of) - Cubs - 2010 Upper Deck #78 (Orioles)
13. David Purcey (lhp) - Blue Jays/A's/Tigers - 2011 Topps Update #US285 (Tigers)

Amazingly enough, Purcey is the first of the 13 players to have appeared in a 2011 baseball card offering.

I don't have Phillies-related baseball cards for any of these guys, which is why I decided to feature a card of my all-time favorite non-roster invitee - Chris Coste.

2002 Phillies - Ten Years Gone

2011-12-21T10:00:00.000-05:00

2002 Fleer Focus Jersey Edition #45, 2002 Topps #557,
2002 Topps Chrome #394 and 2002 Topps Ten #171

This time of year usually means there's a whirlwind of activity in my house. The halls have been decked, Christmas lists have been submitted to Santa and (most of) the shopping is done. Cookies have been baked, some have been sampled, and the Christmas ham is in the fridge ready to go. The stockings are hung, the kids are bouncing off the walls and I'm counting down the hours until I can officially check out of work for the year. And finally, as has now become a holiday tradition, the annual package of Phillies baseball card cast-offs has arrived from Section 36. What a joyous time of year!

Each year, Ron from Section 36 begins the process of making room for the new year's baseball cards poised to arrive at some point in the coming months. He keeps his unwanted baseball card doubles for exactly a decade and then they're shuffled off to fellow collectors willing to make room at the inn for them. I've been the recipient of past packages containing Ron's 2000 and 2001 Phillies cast-offs, and this year I was thrilled to receive a package of 2002 Phillies cards.

I'll admit that I've been looking forward to this year's package as Ron makes room for his 2012 baseball cards. 2002 was the darkest of the dark years for me, and I didn't spend much time collecting. What 2002 cards I have were acquired on a few eBay team set binges in the mid-2000's as I attempted to remedy the gaping hole in my Phillies collection from 2002 through 2005. The cards featured in this post were all cards recently deleted from my 2002 Phillies Wantlist, and I'm happy to add them to my 2002 Phillies binder.

Thanks again Ron! Only 365 more shopping days until the 2003 Phillies package arrives!

2007 Bowman Heritage #155 Jimmy Rollins

2011-12-20T10:00:00.001-05:00

Jimmy Rollins officially returned to the Phillies yesterday, finalizing his new three-year, $33 million contract with a vesting option for a fourth year. Rollins, who has been with the organization since he was drafted in 1996, will hopefully stay with the organization through the 2015 season.

I'm a big Jimmy Rollins fan, and I'm glad this deal got done. He's been the face of the franchise and the team's leader from the dark days of the early 2000's through the golden age of today. I couldn't imagine him wearing a Cardinals or a Brewers or a Red Sox uniform, and I'm selfishly happy that none of those teams were willing to give Rollins the five years he initially sought. Jimmy belongs in Philadelphia and I look forward to adding his 2012, 2013, 2014 and perhaps 2015 baseball cards to my collection.

Moving On

Dane Sardinha (10-11) 10/10/11 - Filed for free agency

Brandon Moss (11) 10/17/11 - Outrighted to Lehigh Valley and filed for free agency (Signed with the Oakland A's organization)

Brad Lidge (08-11) 10/24/11 - Team option declined

Roy Oswalt (10-11) 10/24/11 - Team option declined

Ross Gload (10-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency

Raul Ibanez (09-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency

Ryan Madson (03-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency

Juan Perez (11) 11/2/11 - Became a minor league free agent

Scott Mathieson (06, 10-11) 11/29/11 - Released

Ben Francisco (09-11) 12/12/11 - Traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for pitcher Frank Gailey

Coming Back

Pete Orr (11) 11/3/11 - Re-signed by the Phillies as a minor league free agent with an invitation to Spring Training

Brian Schneider (10- ) 11/17/11 - Re-signed by the Phillies to a one-year contract

Jimmy Rollins (00- ) 12/19/11 - Re-signed by the Phillies to a three-year contract with a vesting fourth year

New Additions

Jim Thome (03-05) 11/5/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Cleveland Indians

Jonathan Papelbon 11/14/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Boston Red Sox

Ty Wigginton 11/20/11 - Acquired with cash from the Colorado Rockies for a player to be named later or cash

Laynce Nix 12/8/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Washington Nationals

Dontrelle Willis 12/15/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Cincinnati Reds

1988 Topps Phillies - Missing Links (Part 2)

2011-12-19T10:00:00.000-05:00

While we await the official announcement of Jimmy Rollins' return . . . presenting Part 2 of the 1988 Topps Missing Links set.

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1988 Topps Phillies - Missing Links

2011-12-18T10:00:00.001-05:00

Today's post features the first half of the massive 1988 Topps Missing Link set. There were 20 players who suited up for the Phillies during the 1988 season who did not appear as Phillies in either the Topps regular or traded sets. Some of the omissions were justified and deserved (Salome Barojas), while other omissions angered me at the time (Bob Dernier).

When reflecting back on the 1988 season, The Phillies Encyclopedia puts it best:

The club performed atrociously throughout, mixing one unethusiastic performance after another with injuries, season-long slumps, and a rash of player moves that did little else but give a lot of people a chance to tell their grandchildren that they once wore a big league uniform.

A few other notes:
- I almost didn't share the Barojas card here but I figured I was among friends so the snickering at my graphic design skills would be held to a minimum. (The Al Pardo and Bill Scherrer cards, which will follow shortly, almost didn't get published either.)
- Most of the photos used are from the 1988 Phillies Yearbook or the 1989 Tastykake Phillies set.

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Look for the 1989 Topps Phillies post in 2012! (Or at some point in 2011, time permitting.)

1993 Conlon Collection #734 Boom-Boom

2011-12-17T10:00:00.001-05:00

It's time for another edition of Cool Stuff John Sent Me! Please enjoy this fine card of Boom-Boom Beck, presented with no commercial interruption.

Click to enlarge and enjoy the enlightening tale of Mr. Beck's wonderful nickname.

2012 Chachi Transactions #6 Dontrelle Willis

2011-12-16T10:00:00.004-05:00

There are certain iconic pitchers who, in their prime, I just couldn't imagine donning a Phillies uniform. This list includes Fernando Valenzuela, Sid Fernandez and Pedro Martinez. My reaction has always been the same the first time I saw one of those guys wearing red pinstripes - I never thought I'd see that guy in a Phillies uniform. Well, go ahead and add Dontrelle Willis' name to that list. I never thought I'd see that guy in a Phillies uniform.

(14,000 Phillies compiled a similar list a few days ago. Andy Van Slyke and Jeff Conine are good examples of position players I never thought I'd see in a Phillies uniform.)

The Phils signed Willis to a one-year deal yesterday, and he'll be used strictly as a left-handed specialist out of the bullpen. He and Antonio Bastardo will share lefty bullpen duties with Willis also possibly serving as a potential long-man or spot starter.

Moving On

Dane Sardinha (10-11) 10/10/11 - Filed for free agency

Brandon Moss (11) 10/17/11 - Outrighted to Lehigh Valley and filed for free agency (Signed with the Oakland A's organization)

Brad Lidge (08-11) 10/24/11 - Team option declined

Roy Oswalt (10-11) 10/24/11 - Team option declined

Ross Gload (10-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency

Raul Ibanez (09-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency

Ryan Madson (03-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency

Jimmy Rollins (00-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency

Juan Perez (11) 11/2/11 - Became a minor league free agent

Scott Mathieson (06, 10-11) 11/29/11 - Released

Ben Francisco (09-11) 12/12/11 - Traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for pitcher Frank Gailey

Coming Back

Pete Orr (11) 11/3/11 - Re-signed by the Phillies as a minor league free agent with an invitation to Spring Training

Brian Schneider (10-11) 11/17/11 - Re-signed by the Phillies to a one-year contract

New Additions

Jim Thome (03-05) 11/5/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Cleveland Indians

Jonathan Papelbon 11/14/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Boston Red Sox

Ty Wigginton 11/20/11 - Acquired with cash from the Colorado Rockies for a player to be named later or cash

Laynce Nix 12/8/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Washington Nationals

Dontrelle Willis 12/15/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Cincinnati Reds

2004 Bazooka 4 on 1 Stickers #4 Halladay/Martinez/Schilling/Myers

2011-12-15T10:00:00.000-05:00

I was flipping through my sparsely populated 2004 Phillies binder recently and this card caught my eye. I added the card to my collection back in '04 solely due to the fact that Brett Myers appears in the lower right quadrant. However, the 4-on-1 sticker card also includes former Phillie Curt Schilling and future Phillies Pedro Martinez and Roy Halladay.

I wonder if there are any other instances where through pure luck a card features a former, a current and at least one future Phillie?

1951 Bowman #293 Ken Johnson

2011-12-14T08:50:00.001-05:00

My Dad gave me this baseball card for Christmas last year.

His health wasn't that great a year ago, but he still managed to somehow purchase this card for me. Slowly but surely, over the past three or four years, Dad had scoured eBay or local baseball card shows for the 1951 Bowman Phillies cards I needed to complete my team set. And as I write this, I'm just three cards short of the 25-card Phillies team set.

This will be our first Christmas without Dad, and I'm bracing for the emotional wallop that will carry. He loved this time of year - "Boy I love this time of year," I can hear him say - and I'm going to do my best to make sure my boys experience the warmth and joy of the season that my Dad always conveyed to me.

2012 Chachi Transactions #5 Ben Francisco

2011-12-13T10:00:00.005-05:00

There has been a deal. The Phillies cleared some roster space and freed up a little cash by trading outfielder Ben Francisco to the Toronto Blue Jays yesterday for left-handed minor league pitcher Frank Gailey. The Phils opted to move Francisco rather than offer him arbitration before last night's deadline. Francisco came to the Phillies from the Indians as part of the July 2009 Cliff Lee deal. In his 2 1/2 seasons with the club, he hit .259 in 225 games with 17 home runs and 75 RBIs. His most memorable moment in red pinstripes came during Game 3 of last year's N.L.D.S. when his pinch-hit three-run home run gave the Phillies a 3-2 victory.

Moving On

Dane Sardinha (10-11) 10/10/11 - Filed for free agency

Brandon Moss (11) 10/17/11 - Outrighted to Lehigh Valley and filed for free agency (Signed with the Oakland A's organization)

Brad Lidge (08-11) 10/24/11 - Team option declined

Roy Oswalt (10-11) 10/24/11 - Team option declined

Ross Gload (10-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency

Raul Ibanez (09-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency

Ryan Madson (03-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency

Jimmy Rollins (00-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency

Juan Perez (11) 11/2/11 - Became a minor league free agent

Scott Mathieson (06, 10-11) 11/29/11 - Released

Ben Francisco (09-11) 12/12/11 - Traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for pitcher Frank Gailey

Coming Back

Pete Orr (11) 11/3/11 - Re-signed by the Phillies as a minor league free agent with an invitation to Spring Training

Brian Schneider (10-11) 11/17/11 - Re-signed by the Phillies to a one-year contract

New Additions

Jim Thome (03-05) 11/5/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Cleveland Indians

Jonathan Papelbon 11/14/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Boston Red Sox

Ty Wigginton 11/20/11 - Acquired with cash from the Colorado Rockies for a player to be named later or cash

Laynce Nix 12/8/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Washington Nationals

2007 Chachi #23 Antonio Alfonseca

2011-12-12T10:00:00.000-05:00

I recently posted the entire 2007 Chachi set to its own Picassa album, so it can now be viewed in all its star-spangled, 1976 glory. This was a more challenging set to create, as I needed eight different templates for each of the positions represented – first base, second base, third base, shortstop, outfield, catcher, right-handed pitcher and left-handed pitcher.

The set boasts probably the only Phillies cards (real or otherwise) for such short-timers as Russell Branyan, John Ennis, Kane Davis and Pete LaForest. Jenna and Doug make a cameo on Anderson Garcia’s card, which has got to be one of the few shots in existence of the former pitcher in a Phillies uniform. I’m also featured on a card in the set, marking my first (and perhaps last) appearance on a Chachi card. And maybe it's been done before, but I don't recall ever seeing a card of El Pulpo that clearly displays all 12 of his fingers.

The Phillies quick exit in the 2007 Postseason derailed my plans to use the 1976 Topps set’s N.L. and A.L. Championships card (card #461) for my N.L.C.S. game summary cards and the 1975 World Series card (card #462) to create cards for the 2007 World Series games between the Phillies and Red Sox.

2011 Topps Lineage Mini #56 Shane Victorino

2011-12-11T08:00:00.000-05:00

Here’s a cool Shane Victorino card in honor of my son Doug, who turned five today. The Flyin’ Hawaiian is Doug’s favorite player.

Doug recently approached me looking as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders. “Dad,” he said, “I have something to tell you and I hope it doesn’t make you mad.” I told him he could tell me anything and that he should go ahead and just tell me what he was thinking about.

“I don’t think I like baseball,” he said.

I was momentarily flustered, but I quickly recovered and I told him he didn’t need to like everything that I liked and I’d still love him even if he didn’t like baseball. He thought about this and then added, “No, I like baseball and I like the Phillies, but I don’t like watching baseball on TV.” (I was watching something on the MLB Network at the time.)

Admittedly relieved, I told him that when I was almost five I didn’t like watching baseball on TV either. In fact, I used to think baseball on TV was kind of boring. This cheered him up and he asked if it really would be OK if he didn’t like the same things I liked. I told him, “Absolutely!” and then we talked about how my Dad (his Pop-Pop) used to like watching football on TV all the time and I’ve never really liked football.

Before this tender father/son moment ended, I did have one request for Doug. While it would be perfectly OK if we liked different things, I told him that “absolutely, positively, under no circumstances are you to ever root for the Mets.” Doug smiled and said, “Yeah, the Mets stink.” Mission accomplished.

Happy birthday Doug!

1988 Topps Phillies

2011-12-10T07:00:00.093-05:00

1988 Topps #600, #572, #705 and #95

This is the 38th post I've written about the Phillies appearing within the Topps baseball card sets since way back in 1951. I've had a lot of fun researching and writing these posts and I'm looking forward to delving into the dark decade of the '90s. Given the approaching yuletide season, the next Topps Phillies post may not appear until 2012. You never know though . . . if there's some free time over the Christmas break and the boys are both happily playing with their new toys, I may just sneak away to rummage through my 1989 Topps binder. (Also, this post is running a day early so that I can celebrate my son's birthday with tomorrow's post.)

1988 Topps #572 (Back)

The Set

Number of cards in the set: Why mess with a good thing? For the seventh straight year, Topps gave us 792 cards in the base set and a 132-card traded series.

My very brief thoughts on the set: For the first time since 1980, Topps went back to the idea that the color purple was somehow associated with the Phillies. There still wasn't a position listed on the front of the cards, but I liked the floating team name at the top. It was only a few years ago that I realized that the team name is positioned just behind the top of each player's head or arm or bat. I spent countless hours looking at these cards back in the day and I just never noticed that.

Notable competition: The colorful Score set entered the fold in 1988, and I'll admit that some of my lawn mowing money went towards purchasing packs of the new kid on the block. With a cool new set and my loyalty towards Topps, I pretty much ignored Fleer and Donruss in 1988.

1988 Phillies

Record and finish: In their worst year since 1972, the Phillies finished with a record of 65-96, dead last in the East and 35 1/2 games behind the division-winning Mets. The Phillies wouldn't lose 96 games again until 2000.

Key players: Not one player finished with more than 20 home runs. Right fielder Chris James had perhaps the best offensive output, hitting a lowly .242 with 19 home runs and 66 RBIs. Mike Schmidt missed the last month and a half of the season, and his home run tally fell to 12. Juan Samuel (.243, 12 home runs, 67 RBIs) and Lance Parrish (.215, 15 home runs, 60 RBIs) muddled along as best they could. There were a few bright spots though as rookies Ricky Jordan (.308, 11 home runs) and Ron Jones (.290) made their debuts and Bob Dernier (.289) returned to the organization. (Hooray!) Kevin Gross led the pitching staff with 12 wins and Steve Bedrosian managed to save 28 games.

Key events: The entire season was a mess. Woody Woodward was brought in as the new GM during the offseason, but he was fired in June. Lee Thomas was hired and he immediately started cutting personnel and players. Manager Lee Elia and several of his coaches didn't make it through the season. Coach John Vukovich was brought in on an interim basis to finish off the season and he went 5-4.

1988 Topps #215, #126, 1988 Topps Traded #18T and 1988 Topps #298

1988 Phillies in 1988 Topps

Cards needed for a complete team set: There are 33 Phillies in the base Topps set and just another two Phillies cards in the traded set. There are a ridiculous 42 Team USA cards in the traded set, which always really annoyed me. Almost a third of the traded set were mostly guys I had never heard of before, while deserving Phillies such as Dernier, Jordan, Jones and reliever Greg Harris got shut out.

Who’s in:

Cards of the eight starting position players - 8 cards

#95 Lance Parrish (c), #215 Von Hayes (1b), #705 Juan Samuel (2b), #126 Steve Jeltz (ss), #600 Mike Schmidt (3b), #18T Phil Bradley (lf), #298 Milt Thompson (cf), #572 Chris James (rf)

Cards of the starting pitching rotation - 5 cards

#20 Kevin Gross, #415 Don Carman, #66 Shane Rawley, #79T David Palmer, #268 Bruce Ruffin

1988 Topps #20, #415, #66 and 1988 Topps Traded #79T

Base cards of players who played with the Phillies in 1988 - 10 cards

#38 Jeff Calhoun, #188 John Russell, #356 Luis Aguayo, #378 Todd Frohwirth, #440 Steve Bedrosian, #468 Darren Daulton, #494 Wally Ritchie, #518 Greg Gross, #543 Kent Tekulve, #756 Mike Maddux

Base cards of players who didn't play with the Phillies in 1988 - 7 cards (with new teams listed)

#154 Jeff Stone (Orioles), #203 Fred Toliver (Twins), #626 Glenn Wilson (Mariners), #651 Mike Jackson (Mariners), #731 Rick Schu (Orioles), #781 Keith Hughes (Orioles), #783 Ron Roenicke (Reds)

Phillies Leaders card - 1 card, #669

This card sums up the team's 1988 season perfectly. Catcher Parrish looks like he'd rather be anywhere else than swatting while wearing a Phillies uniform and getting ready to catch one of the team's suspect pitchers. Coach Mike Ryan looks on, appearing to be hot, tired and bored.

Phillies appearing on National League All Star Cards - 3 cards

#398 Juan Samuel, #406 Shane Rawley, #407 Steve Bedrosian

Manager card - 1 card, #254 Lee Elia

1988 Topps #440, #543, #268 and #642

Who’s out: See above for my little rant about the Team USA cards in the 1988 Topps Traded set.

Phillies on other teams: Bradley (#66 with the Mariners) and Palmer (#457 with the Braves) were the only two players to get Phillies cards in the traded series. There were five other players in the set who spent time with the Phils in 1988 - #179 Greg Harris (Rangers), #328 Bill Dawley (Cardinals), #337 Bob Sebra (Expos), #393 Mike Young (Orioles) and #451 Bob Dernier (Cubs).

What’s he doing here: Roenicke was released right after the 1987 season had ended, yet he's included as a Phillie in the 1988 Topps set. I have to remind myself sometimes that this was back when the next year's releases were already in stores the preceding December.

1988 Topps #669

Cards that never were candidates: Dernier, Jordan, Jones, Harris and probably Young - but only because he appeared in 75 games. I'd make a manager card for Vukovich to commemorate his 9-game stint as interim manager.

Favorite Phillies card: This is probably the toughest crop of Phillies cards from which to pick a favorite since the lackluster 1955 Topps set. By default, I'll go with Bedrock's card since he was coming off his Cy Young season. Schmidt's card may just be his worst Topps base card ever.

Other Stuff

Recycled: A reprint of Tekulve's card appears in the 2001 Topps Archives set.

Blogs/Websites: One of the original set blogs, 88 Topps Cards set the bar for all set blogs that have followed.

Did You Know?: Long before Topps began its shenanigans with the Abe Lincoln variation cards found within packs of its 2010 set, there was of course the James K. Polk variations found within certain packs of 1988 Topps. I'm still searching for the Frohwirth and Schu Polk variations. Send me an e-mail if you have either of those cards available for trade.

2012 Chachi Transactions #4 Laynce Nix

2011-12-09T10:00:00.006-05:00

The Phillies have officially signed outfielder Laynce Nix to a two-year deal, slightly baffling Phillies fans across the nation. As David Murphy points out in this High Cheese blog entry from earlier this week, last year's regular left fielder Raul Ibanez, who by all accounts had an off-year in 2011, still had a better year than Nix's average career numbers:

Ibanez in 2011: .245 batting average, .289 on base percentage, .419 slugging percentage, 106 strikeouts, 20 home runs.

Nix in his career: .244 batting average, .288 on base percentage, .430 slugging percentage, and an average of 120 strikeouts and 17 home runs per 162 games played.

Murphy does a great job at trying to figure out just where Nix fits with the 2012 Phillies. His conclusion - Look for Nix to supplement Ty Wigginton at first while Ryan Howard recovers from his ruptured Achilles' tendon. Nix will also serve as a second left-handed bat off the bench behind Jim Thome and he could occasionally spell John Mayberry, Jr. in left.

Moving On

Dane Sardinha (10-11) 10/10/11 - Filed for free agency

Brandon Moss (11) 10/17/11 - Outrighted to Lehigh Valley and filed for free agency (Signed with the Oakland A's organization)

Brad Lidge (08-11) 10/24/11 - Team option declined

Roy Oswalt (10-11) 10/24/11 - Team option declined

Ross Gload (10-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency

Raul Ibanez (09-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency

Ryan Madson (03-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency

Jimmy Rollins (00-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency

Juan Perez (11) 11/2/11 - Became a minor league free agent

Scott Mathieson (06, 10-11) 11/29/11 - Released

Coming Back

Pete Orr (11) 11/3/11 - Re-signed by the Phillies as a minor league free agent with an invitation to Spring Training

Brian Schneider (10-11) 11/17/11 - Re-signed by the Phillies to a one-year contract

New Additions

Jim Thome (03-05) 11/5/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Cleveland Indians

Jonathan Papelbon 11/14/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Boston Red Sox

Ty Wigginton 11/20/11 - Acquired with cash from the Colorado Rockies for a player to be named later or cash

Laynce Nix 12/8/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Washington Nationals

2006 Bowman Chrome Draft Future's Game Prospects #FG7 Gio Gonzalez

2011-12-08T10:00:00.002-05:00

I found it fascinating yesterday to sit at work* and hit the refresh button every five to ten minutes on the MLB Trade Rumors website. While most of the baseball world was waiting to find out where Albert Pujols was going to end up, I was more interested in the Phillies alleged pursuit of pitcher Gio Gonzalez.

Gonzalez was originally property of the Phillies following his acquisition from the White Sox as part of the Aaron Rowand/Jim Thome trade in November 2005. The Phillies then traded him and Gavin Floyd back to the White Sox in December 2006 for Freddy Garcia. Ouch.

The experts speculated that the 26-year-old Gonzalez would join the Phillies rotation and the team would then trade away Cole Hamels before Hamels reached free agency at the end of the 2012 season. Domonic Brown and either Kyle Kendrick or Joe Blanton would head to the A's for Gonzalez with the Phillies possibly ending up with reliever Craig Breslow as well. While I liked the idea of acquiring Gonzalez, I hated the idea of possibly parting with Hamels.

In any event, an update came through at 2:04pm yesterday that the "Phillies [Were] Out on Gio Gonzalez." So that's that.

Of course, it's only a matter of time before Ruben Amaro, Jr. pulls the trigger on some shocking out-of-the-blue move, just like he's done the last two winters.

*By "sit at work" I mean "focus on continually improving and enhancing myself while efficiently and diligently attending to my professional obligations."

2002 Topps 206 Autographs #TA-JR Jimmy Rollins

2011-12-07T10:00:00.003-05:00

Come home, Jimmy. Take the three years. Just sign on the dotted line.

So far this off-season, I've been composing my posts in advance and then setting them to publish at ten sharp the following morning. As I write this, on Tuesday evening, there are several developing situations in the Phillies camp as the rumors swirl around the winter meetings in Dallas:

- The Phils have signed outfielder Laynce Nix to a two-year deal pending a physical. His 2012 Chachi Transactions card is ready for press, only awaiting a date to put below the "Free Agent" line.

- Talks continue with free agent shortstop Jimmy Rollins. It appears as if his two remaining suitors are the Phils and the Brewers. Rollins wants five years, and the assumption is that neither of the teams involved are willing to go that long.

- There are rumblings that if the team can't reach a deal with Rollins, they will look to trade Placido Polanco and then sign third baseman Aramis Ramirez. Freddy Galvis could then be the team's 2012 shortstop.

- The Phils have also been linked to left-handed reliever George Sherill, who would fit nicely in the 'pen.

- And maybe, just maybe, former closer Ryan Madson will accept the arbitration offer extended to him, locking him into a one-year deal with the club to set up new closer Jonathan Papelbon in '12.

- I can't wait to root against the ~~Florida~~ Miami Marlins.

It's getting interesting.

1968 Topps #PR1 Roberto Pena

2011-12-06T10:00:00.005-05:00

Does anyone have any good recommendations for a colorization app for my iMac?

Don’t tell Jim from Downingtown this, but I’m finally ready to tackle his request for a 1968 Topps Roberto Pena Phillies card, and I was hoping to have this little project completed in time for Christmas. (Jim e-mailed his request to me way back in June after he had sent along a few 1968 Topps Game cards.) The big stumbling block however, is that the only image of Señor Pena in his Phillies uniform that I can find is this fine black and white specimen. If I had the time (and the patience) I’d love to learn how to do this like the professionals do (see here) and colorize Roberto in Photoshop. However, I have neither the time, the patience and most likely the skill to conquer Photoshop. So in lieu of that, I’m looking for a quick and easy fix. I have the 1968 Topps burlap template all ready to go.

Alternatively, if there are any kind souls out there with mad colorization skills, please feel free to have at it and add some color to Roberto's stern visage. I'll be sure to send you a copy of the finished product once it's ready to go.

(Seriously, don’t ruin the surprise for Jim from Downingtown.)