2024 Christmas Baseball Card Additions from Santa (and His Helpers)

We interrupt the daily 2024 Chachi card postings to bring a brief report on the annual Christmas baseball card additions to The Phillies Room.  It was another solid year in our household in the gift-giving department.

On Christmas morning, Santa delivered the previously seen 2024 Topps factory set and the Diamond Stars Jimmie Foxx card.  Also added to the mix was a 2024 Topps Holiday Mega Box, which was a lot of fun to open, and the very first card in the Diamond Stars set, Lefty Grove.  Truth be told, Grove was delivered to our house on December 1st, but I decided it was a big enough card that it should be under the tree with the Foxx card.  I had somewhat surprisingly won the Grove card in an eBay auction I had no intention of actually winning.  With the addition of Foxx and Grove, I'm down to needing just six more Diamond Stars cards for my version of a master set.  Progress on that set will likely slow until Christmas 2025.

We traditionally spend the day after Christmas at my Mom's house with my sister's family.  As is now tradition, there was a box of individually wrapped baseball cards waiting to be opened and cherished.  My Mom is going somewhat in order through my 1955 Bowman want list, since I'm not yet officially collecting the set.  She veered off the path of adding cards in order, opting to also track down the Whitey Ford and Roy Campanella cards, two names she recognized from my list and players she thought should enter my set build sooner rather than later.

I hope Santa (or his helpers) brought you plenty of new baseball cards this year too.  Happy New Year!

The Philly Show Report - 12 Years Gone in a Flash

Last Sunday, Doug and I made the hour-plus drive to Oaks, Pennsylvania for the latest installment of The Philly Show, now a major sports card and memorabilia event with eBay as its corporate sponsor.  Doug's first winter track meet of the 2024-25 season precluded us from going on Saturday and obtaining a So Taguchi autograph, but the word was Sunday's crowds were much smaller and more manageable.  Our oldest son is in his senior year of High School, so it shouldn't have caught me off guard when he commented on the way into the show, "This could be my last one of these for a while."

His first baseball card show was somehow already 12 years ago.  It's been a blur since then.

His interests have changed over the years of course, and in the past his disposable income would have gone to low-numbered autographed or relic cards of recent, fringe Phillies players.  And while he did find a few moderately priced cards of Bailey Falter, Weston Wilson and Hans Crouse that gave him a smile, he ultimately opted to hang on to his money for gas, food, dates and other stuff a typical 18-year-old would spend his money on.  Still, I was glad to have him with me and I enjoyed what could have definitely been our last baseball card show together for a little bit.

The Oaks show floor is massive, and it's expanded since our last visit, last December.  We were there for a little over two hours and I saw maybe 40% or so of the show's offerings.  But I had some goals in mind, and having attained those goals, and run out of money, I was fine with the abbreviated visit.

• 1969 Topps Commons:  I pulled up a folding chair one more time at Uncle Dick's Cards, picking up where I had left off a year ago, and pulling commons I needed between card #500 and the final card in the set, #664.  I crossed 98 more cards off my list, and bundled in the Rollie Fingers rookie card for good measure and at a good price, given the stack of commons I had already committed to buy.

• 1969 Topps Stars:  Along with the Fingers card, I found a dealer with good prices on the Ted Williams and Brooks Robinson All-Star cards.

• 1955 Bowman Wrapper:  My sole non-focused purchase was a fairly beat-up 1955 Bowman wrapper.  Once I finish up my 1956 Topps blog, likely at some point in 2025, I'll officially begin collecting the 1955 Bowman set.  This wrapper will look great in the front of that set's binder.

• 1935 Diamond Stars Jimmie Foxx:  My monster purchase was the Foxx card from the Diamond Stars set I'm collecting, and slowly getting close to completing.  Doug gets credit for finding the slabbed Foxx card in his journeys.  The card was priced at almost twice what I ended up paying for it, and it won't officially enter my collection until Santa presents it on Christmas morning as my major gift for the year.

• 1969 and 1959 Topps Semistars:  Nearing the end of our stay, I added 14 semistars to our 1969 Topps set and six commons to our not-yet-collecting 1959 Topps set.

• 2024 Topps Factory Set / 2024 Topps Heritage Hobby Box:  And finally, before we made our way to the exit, I purchased an obligatory 2024 Topps factory set for Santa to also deliver on Christmas morning and we decided it would be fun to open a box of 2024 Topps Heritage once we were home.  (And I can confirm, it was fun.)

So that's a wrap on the first and only baseball card show we attended in 2024.  I'm excited for the 2025 baseball card shows, but I'm honestly more excited for whatever comes next for Doug in the coming year.

 

Game 67 - 2010 Topps National Chicle #280 Jimmie Foxx

Brewers 13, Phillies 2
Game 67 - Friday Night, June 15th in Milwaukee
Record - 35-32, 3rd place, 4 games behind the Braves

One Sentence Summary:  Four Phillies errors, including two from Scott Kingery, led to an early exit for Jake Arrieta and a blow-out 13-2 win for the Brewers.

What It Means:  The Phillies haven't been playing well and their defense has been lousy.  Kingery's struggles at shortstop (not his natural position) continued, Rhys Hoskins dropped a fly ball in left field (not his natural position) and J.P. Crawford committed an error at third (not his natural position).

What Happened:  Arrieta lasted just 3 1/3 innings, allowing 8 runs (4 earned) on 7 hits.  Jesmuel Valentin had to come in to pitch the 8th inning.  Cesar Hernandez had a 3-hit night and Odubel Herrera showed signs of life, with a double and a solo home run (8).

Featured Card:  With Valentin making his pitching debut, he joins Pedro Florimon as position players pitching for the Phillies this season.  That last happened in 2013 when Casper Wells and John McDonald both pitched.  The last time three position players pitched was 1945 when Ben Chapman (3 games), Jimmie Foxx (9 games, 2 starts) and Rene Monteagudo (14 games) all pitched.  (Per Todd Zolecki's Tweet.)

The 37-year-old Foxx had a very respectable record of 1-0 with a 1.59 ERA over 22 2/3 innings for the 1945 Phillies.  The future Hall of Famer spent the last of his 20 seasons with an awful Phillies club that would finish the year with a record of 46-108.

2010 Topps National Chicle - Phillies Short-Prints

2010 Topps National Chicle #297 Ryne Sandberg

I'm on the record as being a fan of the new 2010 Topps National Chicle baseball card set, and I recently added the Phillie-related short-print cards from the set to my collection. I don't know what the collation of the packs is, but the short-printed cards are ceded into fewer packs and they're more difficult to find. The first short-print features short-timer Ryne Sandberg in a modern Phillies batting practice jersey and helmet. It's a decent card, but not one of my favorites. (The base non-short-print Ryne Sandberg card from the set is much better, in my humble opinion.)

The next two short-print cards are a little more interesting - one is a definite home run and the other just kind of bugs me.

2010 Topps National Chicle #280 Jimmie Foxx

The home run is the Jimmie Foxx baseball card featuring him wearing a current Phillies uniform. Foxx spent the majority of his career with the Philadelphia Athletics and Boston Red Sox, although he wrapped up his time in the big leagues with a few seasons with the Chicago Cubs and the Phillies. This is a great looking baseball card, and it definitely helps that Foxx actually played 89 games for the 1945 Phillies at the end of his Hall of Fame career. I don't know of any other Phillies cards out there featuring Double X, so this is a welcome addition to my collection. (Bonus points to anyone who leaves a comment as to why Jimmie Foxx could have been featured in a Blue Jays uniform, and this depiction would have been acceptable.)

2010 Topps National Chicle #304 Ryan Howard

The card that bugs me is the Ryan Howard short-print card featuring him wearing a Philadelphia Athletics' uniform. Anyone aware of the Philadelphia A's history knows this franchise relocated to Kansas City in 1955 and arrived in its current destination, Oakland, in 1968. The family trees of the Philadelphia A's and the Philadelphia Phillies never came close to intersecting. Topps thought it would be clever to feature modern players wearing uniforms of teams that used to play in the same city. For this reason, we have this Ryan Howard card, a card featuring Ichiro in a Seattle Pilots' uniform and a card featuring Senators' great Walter Johnson in a Washington Nationals uniform, among others. Those players and those franchises have absolutely nothing in common.

This bugs me. It's cute, but it's wrong and I hope collectors new to the hobby or unfamiliar with the history of the game realize these cards are nothing but inaccurate representations.

(But the Jimmie Foxx baseball card sure is cool.)