Game 128 - 1980 TCMA Peninsula Pilots Color #25 Ray Borucki

Blue Jays 4, Phillies 2
Game 128 - Friday Night, August 24th in Toronto
Record - 69-59, 2nd place, 3 games behind the Braves

One Sentence Summary:  Missed chances and a pair of home runs allowed by Jake Arrieta led to this latest loss, 4-2 to the Blue Jays.

What It Means:  The Phillies are making me cranky.

What Happened:  The offense went 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position.  With the tying run on base in the 9th, Ken Giles struck out Cesar Hernandez swinging and Rhys Hoskins looking to end the game.  Scott Kingery hit his 7th home run in the 7th and his 2 for 3 night raised his average to .229.

Arrieta threw six innings, allowing all four runs on six hits.

Featured Cards:  Jays' starting pitcher Ryan Borucki pitched 6 1/3 innings and won his third game of the year.  Borucki's father Ray played five seasons in the minors for the Phillies between 1979 and 1983, giving me an excuse to pull his card from the 1980 TCMA Peninsula Pilots (Color) set for this post.  Ray Borucki made it up to Triple-A Oklahoma City in 1982, but he never advanced to the big leagues.

The Pilots were a Class A affiliate of the Phillies between 1976 and 1985.  The 1980 club had a big year with a record of 100-40 and eventually winning the Carolina League championship over the Durham Bulls.  Beckett's database notes that 2,500 color team sets were produced and there's also a rarer black and white team set of which only 1,100 sets were produced.  The color team set was sponsored by Burger King while Pepsi sponosored the black and white team set.

Within the 27-card color team set are four players who would eventually make it to the Majors:  Don Carman (1983-1992), Wil Culmer (1983), Julio Franco (1982-2007) and Roy Smith (1984-1991).  Culmer and Smith were traded to the Indians in September 1982 for John Denny, while Franco was one of five players swapped to Cleveland in December 1982 for Von Hayes.

One time Phillies coaches Bob Tiefenauer (1979) and Bill Dancy (2005-2006) are also in the set, as is the Pilots' general manager Bob Neal along with his fantastic, era-appropriate checkered sport coat.

1980 TCMA Peninsula Pilots Color #5

1980 TCMA Peninsula Pilots Color #9

1980 TCMA Peninsula Pilots Color #12

1980 TCMA Peninsula Pilots Color #17

1980 TCMA Peninsula Pilots Color #27

2016 Reading Fightin Phils 50 Greatest Players #30 Larry Bowa

Nationals 5, Phillies 1
Game 52 - Tuesday Night, May 31st in Philadelphia
Record - 26-26, 4th place, 5 1/2 games behind the Nationals

One Sentence Summary:  The offensive woes continued as the Phillies managed just four hits in this 5-1 loss to the Nationals.

What It Means:  The Phillies are in the midst of a season high five-game losing streak.  They're at .500 for the first time since April 26th when they were 10-10, and they're back in fourth place for the first time since May 6th.

What Happened:  Aaron Nola pitched well again with his only real mistakes coming on two home run balls allowed to Jayson Werth and Daniel Murphy.  He struck out six in his six innings of work. Colton Murray allowed three runs to score in the ninth including an inside the park home run to Stephen Drew.

Featured Card:  There are no better subjects to feature in this game summary post, so I might as well plug a relatively new item added to my 2016 Phillies Want List.  Throughout nine games in April and May, the Reading Fightin Phils released nine sheets of baseball cards to celebrate their 50th season as a Phillies affiliate.  Each sheet contains six cards, and the complete set of 54 cards is comprised of the 50 greatest players and the four greatest mascots.

I need three more sheets for a complete set - the sheets starting with Juan Samuel, Dallas Green and Robin Roberts.  I've been able to find the other six sheets on eBay, but any help anyone could provide with the remaining three sheets would be greatly appreciated.

It's safe to assume that the Phillies current bench coach didn't look this happy following Tuesday night's game.  The complete sheet containing the Bowa card is featured below.

2016 Reading Fightin Phils 50 Greatest Players Card Set #5

Recently added to The Phillies Room - 2016 Season Summary page with game results and links to game summary posts.

1988 Topps - Phillies Cards

1988 Topps #714, #348, #156 and #683

I spent all of 2014 looking back at the 1988 Topps set.  I used the 1988 Topps design for my 2014 Chachi set and I used 1988 Topps Phillies-related cards in my game preview posts.  I wasn't able to feature all the Phillies-related cards from the 1988 Topps set either because the Phillies didn't play every team in the American League or certain teams just had way too many cards featuring ex or future Phillies.

Similar to what I've done with the 1973 and 1979 Topps sets, here's a look at all 154 cards in the 1988 Topps set featuring players, coaches or managers with a Phillies connection.

National League East (52 - 17 without Phillies)
Atlanta Braves (6) - #90 Dale Murphy, #549 Dale Murphy TL, #627 Joe Boever, #732 Dave Palmer, #755 Ozzie Virgil, #39T Ron Gant
Miami Marlins (0)
New York Mets (7) - #8 Kevin Elster, #30 Sid Fernandez, #164 Dave Johnson MG, #333 Wally Backman, #355 Roger McDowell, #655 Len Dykstra, #787 Bill Almon
Philadelphia Phillies (35)
Washington Nationals (Montreal Expos) (4) - #93 Bob Sebra, #251 Tom Foley, #365 Floyd Youmans, #588 Jeff Parrett

National League Central (29)
Chicago Cubs (9) - #10 Ryne Sandberg, #36 Jamie Moyer, #171 Manny Trillo TL, #287 Manny Trillo, #416 Keith Moreland, #564 Frank Lucchesi MG, #642 Bob Dernier, #717 Jay Baller, #768 Dickie Noles
Cincinnati Reds (4) - #265 Bo Diaz, #475 Pete Rose MG, #686 Terry Francona, #55T Danny Jackson
Milwaukee Brewers (2) - #592 Dale Sveum, #670 Dan Plesac
Pittsburgh Pirates (3) - #168 Barry Jones, #349 Bob Walk, #539 Mike LaValliere
St. Louis Cardinals (11) - #59 Danny Cox, #133 Greg Mathews, #208 Steve Lake, #310 Tom Herr, #483 Rod Booker, #509 Bill Dawley, #536 John Morris, #562 Jim Lindeman, #612 Curt Ford, #34T Jose DeLeon, #70T Larry McWilliams

1988 Topps #171, #549 and #201

National League West (19)
Arizona Diamondbacks (0)
Colorado Rockies (0)
Los Angeles Dodgers (5) - #92 Len Matuszek, #149 Ken Howell, #481 Mariano Duncan, #489 Fernando Valenzuela TL, #780 Fernando Valenzuela
San Diego Padres (12) - #7 Benito Santiago RB, #148 Carmelo Martinez, #284 Larry Bowa MG, #404 Benny Santiago AS, #426 Randy Ready, #482 Mark Davis, #596 John Kruk, #693 Benny Santiago, #699 Benny Santiago TL, #72T Keith Moreland, #80T Mark Parent, #121T Dickie Thon
San Francisco Giants (2) - #52 Don Robinson, #445 Mike Krukow

American League East (6)
Baltimore Orioles (2) - #11 Mike Young, #142 Andy Van Slyke
Boston Red Sox (0)
New York Yankees (2) - #636 Charles Hudson, #741 Mike Easler
Tampa Bay Rays (0)
Toronto Blue Jays (2) - #438 Rob Ducey, #24T Sil Campusano

American League Central (20)
Chicago White Sox (5) - #334 Dave LaPoint, #613 Bobby Thigpen, #634 Jose DeLeon, #657 Gary Redus, #714 Jim Fregosi MG
Cleveland Indians (4) - #82 Darrel Akerfelds, #293 Doug Jones, #374 Doc Edwards, #683 Julio Franco
Detroit Tigers (3) - #14 Sparky Anderson MG, #713 Willie Hernandez, #751 Jim Morrison
Kansas City Royals (5) - #324 Danny Jackson, #348 Jim Eisenreich, #597 Gene Garber, #724 Danny Tartabull, #777 Lonnie Smith
Minnesota Twins (3) - #218 Dan Schatzeder, #317 Tom Nieto, #49T Tom Herr

1988 Topps #777, 1988 Topps Traded #72T, 1988 Topps #636 and #713

American League West (25)
Houston Astros (7) - #24 Jim Deshaies, #226 Dave Lopes, #291 Billy Hatcher TL, #306 Billy Hatcher, #342 Larry Andersen, #643 Rocky Childress, #684 Hal Lanier MG
Los Angeles Angels (5) - #243 Mark Ryal, #420 Wally Joyner, #498 Bob Boone, #774 Gene Mauch MG, #97T Cookie Rojas MG
Oakland Athletics (4) - #527 Steve Henderson, #272 Steve Ontiveros, #424 Dwayne Murphy, #476 Dave Stewart
Seattle Mariners (5) - #55 Phil Bradley, #156 Gary Matthews, #332 Jerry Reed, #519 Phil Bradley TL, #129T Glenn Wilson
Texas Rangers (4) - #26 Mitch Williams, #201 Pete Incaviglia TL, #280 Pete Incaviglia, #369 Greg Harris

Other
Team USA (3) - #30T Pat Combs, #71T Mickey Morandini, #88T Jim Poole

Memory Lane

1973 Topps - 107 cards with Phillies connections
1979 Topps - 111 cards with Phillies connections, plus one more

1982 Phillies - The Missing Links

1983 Donruss #525, 1982 TCMA Oklahoma City 89ers #9 and #7, and 1983 TCMA Portland Beavers #23

The 2012 game summary posts are done, the offseason is upon us and I'm dusting off a few draft posts to fill the Phillies void while other teams battle it out in the postseason.  My last Missing Links post was published way back in June, when I looked at the 1981 Phillies players with little to no cardboard appreciation.  This post examines the 1982 squad, of which all but 3 of the 37 total Phillies that year ended up on a Phillies baseball card.

1982 Fleer #486

3 Cards to More
32 Players

Willie Montanez didn't appear on any Phillies cards during his short 18-game swan song with the Phillies in 1982, but he appeared on plenty of Phillies cards during his initial stint with the club in the early '70s.

Dave Roberts and Bob Molinaro also barely make it onto the "3 Cards or More" list thanks to their inclusion in Phillies Tastykake sets.

1 Card
Julio Franco (16 games in 1982) - 1983 Donruss #525
**Jay Baller (4 games in 1982 and 8 games in 1992) - 1993 Donruss #356

Franco began his 25-year Major League odyssey with 16 games at short and third base for the 1982 Phillies.  In December 1982, he, along with Baller and three other players were shipped to Cleveland in the infamous 5-for-1 Von Hayes deal.  I first posted my attempt at a 1982 Topps cards for Franco back in the blog's infancy.

If I was doing this post back before 1993, which would have been pretty impressive given that only the government was using a version of the internet at the time and all, Baller would have appeared as a Missing Link.  However, Donruss somehow deemed his 8-game performance with the 1992 Phillies as worthy of a Phillies card, despite his 8.18 ERA in his 11 innings pitched.

0 Cards

1982 Topps #PR9

Alejandro Sanchez (15 games from 1982-1983)
Jerry Reed (11 games from 1981-1982)
Stan Bahnsen (8 games in 1982)

All three players had their share of cardboard with other teams - especially Bahnsen - but they've never been featured on a proper Phillies baseball card.  The awesome Cards That Never Were blog created a 1982 Topps Bahnsen card back in June, linked here.

I created a custom 1982 Topps card for Reed using his picture from the 1982 Phillies Yearbook.  Reed was traded to the Indians in September 1982 as part of the John Denny deal, and he'd go on to enjoy a 9-season career in the Majors.  My sole recollection of Reed's tenure with the Phillies was that it forced Ron Reed to add an "R." to the back of his jersey.

Past Missing Link Posts

1980 Phillies - Orlando Isales and Don McCormack

1981 Phillies - Jerry Reed

1990 Phillies - Louie Meadows

1991 Phillies - Dave LaPoint

1992 Phillies - Darrin Chapin and Mickey Weston

1993 Phillies - None

1994 Phillies - Tom Edens and Bob Wells

1995 Phillies - Jim Deshaies, Kevin Elster, Omar Olivares, Chuck Ricci and Dennis Springer

1996 Phillies - Glenn Dishman, Bronson Heflin, Manny Martinez and Rafael Quirico

1997 Phillies - Rob Butler and Mike Robertson

1998 Phillies - Robert Dodd and Matt Whiteside

1999 Phillies - Joel Bennett, Domingo Cedeno, Joe Grahe and Torey Lovullo

2000 Phillies - Clemente Alvarez, Kirk Bullinger, Mark Holzemer and Bryan Ward

**UPDATE (6/19/15) - I know now that Baller had an additional Phillies baseball card in the 1992 Medford Phillies ALS Phillies Phestival/Late Season set.

1982 Topps #P5 Julio Franco

Another original creation . . .

Julio Franco played in 16 games for the 1982 Phillies, and went on to play for 22 additional seasons in the Majors. Julio, along with Jay Baller, Manny Trillo, George Vukovich and Jerry Willard, was traded to the Cleveland Indians in December 1982 for Von Hayes, old 5-for-1.

Julio appeared in a Phillies uniform in the 1983 Donruss set, but he never had an official Topps Phillies card. I used Julio's picture from the 1982 Phillies Yearbook for this card.