Philadelphia Phillies at Texas Rangers - Messin' With Texas

2025 Chachi 2005 Topps Missing Links #4

2005 Topps #41

Friday, August 8th - 8:05
Saturday, August 9th - 7:15
Sunday, August 10th - 2:35

Globe Life Field - Arlington, TX
Kids can run the bases following Sunday afternoon's game.

Philadelphia Phillies 65-49
1st Place in the N.L. East, 2 1/2 games ahead of the Mets

Phillies Probables
Cristopher Sanchez (10-3, 2.40)
Jesus Luzardo (10-5, 4.32)
Zack Wheeler (9-5, 2.64)

Phillies Leaders
Average:  Trea Turner - .284
Runs:  Kyle Schwarber - 79
Home Runs:  Kyle Schwarber - 40
RBIs:  Kyle Schwarber - 94
Stolen Bases:  Trea Turner - 25

Wins:  Jesus Luzardo and Cristopher Sanchez - 10
ERA:  Cristopher Sanchez - 2.40
Strikeouts:  Zack Wheeler - 182
Saves:  Jordan Romano - 8

Texas Rangers 60-56
3rd Place in the A.L. West, 4 1/2 games behind the Astros

Rangers Probables
Merrill Kelly (0-0, 3.18)
Jacob deGrom (10-4, 2.80)
Patrick Corbin (6-7, 3.91)

Rangers Leaders
Average:  Josh Smith - .266
Runs:  Josh Smith - 57
Home Runs:  Adolis Garcia and Corey Seager - 16
RBIs:  Adolis Garcia - 63
Stolen Bases:  Wyatt Langford - 15

Wins:  Nathan Eovaldi and Jacob deGrom - 10
ERA:  Jacob deGrom - 2.80

Strikeouts:  Jacob deGrom - 135
Saves:  Robert Garcia and Luke Jackson - 9

2025 Virtual Phillies Wall / 2025 Season Summary Index / 2025 Chachi Set Checklist

2006 Upper Deck #737 Aaron Fultz

Mets 7, Phillies 2
Game 4 - Friday Afternoon, April 8th in Flushing
Record - 0-4, 5th Place, 2 1/2 games behind the Mets and Nationals

One Sentence Summary:  The bullpen struggles continued and the offense couldn't solve Jacob deGrom as the Mets won, 7-2.

What It Means:  This is the first time the Phillies have opened the season with four straight losses since 2006.  The Phils haven't lost five in a row to start a season since 1934 when they dropped their first seven.

What Happened:  Jared Eickhoff had a decent first start of the season, allowing three runs (two earned) in his five innings of work.  James Russell took the brunt of the damage out of the bullpen (again) allowing four runs on three hits and a pair of walks in 1/3 of an inning.

Eickhoff had the sole extra base hit for the Phillies - a double off deGrom in the sixth.

Featured Card:  To tie this 2015 season back to the 2006 season, I wanted to find a good representative baseball card from the 2006 club's bullpen and Aaron Fultz gets the honors.  Fultz turned out to be one of the more reliable relievers for the team that season, appearing in 66 games and pitching to a 4.54 ERA.  He was hit hard in the season opener however, allowing three runs (one earned) on four hits, including a two-run home run to Albert Pujols.

3rd Annual Lakewood @BlueClaws Outing (Thanks Herlis Rodriguez!)

2015 Chachi Almost #8

2015 Chachi Almost #9

2015 Chachi Special Edition #6

We made the hour-long trek to Lakewood last night for our third ever Lakewood BlueClaws game.  The BlueClaws play in the South Atlantic League, and they're the Low A affiliate of the Phillies.  Similar to the last two trips, we had an absolute blast and we're already talking about our next trip.

Our sons Doug and Ben both wanted team sets so that they could track down autographs of some of the BlueClaws players prior to the game.  Our biggest challenge was telling who was who on the BlueClaws roster since the team was wearing throw-back Piedmont Boll Weevils jerseys without names on the backs and several of the players were wearing different numbers than the uniform numbers on the 2015 team set or even in the game program.

2015 Choice Lakewood BlueClaws #18

2015 Choice Lakewood BlueClaws #11

2015 Choice Lakewood BlueClaws #35

2015 Choice Lakewood BlueClaws #31

Current year draft pick Kyle Martin (now wearing #27) politely handed back the Jason Zgardowski card the boys handed him to sign, since Zgardowski had worn #27 earlier in the season.  Ranfi Casimiro (who autographed a card for Doug last year) was wearing #55 last night, so we had him sign the team set header card not realizing that he normally wears #52 and he did in fact have a card in the team set.

The boys also got autographs from pitching coach Aaron Fultz (again) and local product Matt Hockenberry, as well as from Alexis Rivero.  And they were both handed baseballs by coach Nelson Prada in between innings.

2015 Choice Lakewood BlueClaws #3

2015 Choice Lakewood BlueClaws #19

2015 Choice Lakewood BlueClaws #30

But the highlight of the night was interacting with outfield prospect Herlis Rodriguez.  At the end of the top of every inning, Ben waited faithfully for Rodriguez to jog in from right field so that he could give his new favorite BlueClaws player a high five.  Rodriguez obliged each and every time and even reached in to give Ben a high five as the later innings drained Ben's energy and he slumped down into his seat.  Rodriguez is listed as #33 on the team's roster and his card in the team set has him wearing #33, but he was wearing #20 last night.  Ben has started to refer to Rodriguez as "my #20" and his new favorite player.

We were especially thrilled when Rodriguez had a walk-off, RBI infield hit in the bottom of the 10th to give the BlueClaws a 4-3 win.  (The complete game story can be found here.)  The boys have already started asking if we can go back again this summer, and I would say that's a definite possibility.  Thanks again to the BlueClaws and Herlis Rodriguez for a fun, memorable night!

Memory Lane
2013 BlueClaws Game
2014 BlueClaws Game

Goodbye Young, Hello BlueClaws

2013 Bowman Platinum #38

Cubs 4, Phillies 3
Game 136 - Saturday Afternoon, August 31st in Chicago
Record - 62-74, 4th Place, 21 1/2 games behind the Braves

One Sentence Summary:  The Cubs came from behind twice to down the Phils, 4-3.

What It Means:  The Phillies will try for the series win this afternoon and then head home for a series with the Nationals.

What Went Wrong:  Cliff Lee struggled through his five innings of work, allowing three runs (two earned) on nine hits while walking three.  Zach Miner allowed the Cubs to take the lead for good on the second pitch he threw in the sixth when Starlin Castro homered to center.

Michael Young had three hits and a costly error, which serves as a perfect microcosm of his Phillies career.

Featured Card:  When I woke up on Sunday morning, I learned that Young had been traded away to the Dodgers.  Last night, we learned of John McDonald's departure (to the Red Sox) from Vin Scully while listening to the Dodgers game driving home from the Lakewood BlueClaws game.  I'll have more on the BlueClaws game below.

Young hit .272 in 125 games for the Phillies this season and to say his defense at third was shaky would be extremely favorable.  Still, his presence on the team did gain him a few fans - most notably my wife and my six-year-old son, Doug.  Both were sad when I informed them this morning that Young, with McDonald, were now ex-Phillies.

With the exception of Topps Archives, Young had Phillies cards in all the major Topps releases this year.  This is perhaps his final Phillies card, from the Bowman Platinum set.

2013 Brandt Lakwood BlueClaws #5, #9, #17 and #31

Doug and Art Charles

Field Report:  We packed up the boys and made the 90-minute trek to Lakewood, NJ on Saturday night to take in a Single-A Lakewood BlueClaws game.  An inning into the game, I was telling my wife that we definitely need to go to more minor league games.

Our seats were awesome, the food was good, the tickets were cheap, the players were nice and the boys had fun.  On top of that, we got to see some good baseball and get more familiar with players who could be appearing in Chachi sets by 2015 or 2016.  In particular, this year's first round pick, J.P. Crawford, looked fantastic on a few plays at short.

I bought Doug a BlueClaws team set and he had fun before the game tracking down autographs of several BlueClaws players and former Phillie (now coach) Aaron Fultz.  Art Charles, Larry Greene, Jr., and Chace Numata were very accommodating with their autographs and they helped to make my son's night.

We'll be going back to a game next season as the 90-minute drive was definitely well worth it.

2005 Chachi #20 Aaron Fultz

A very cool thing happened to me on Sunday, related to this blog and the custom baseball cards I've been creating since 2005.

I don't get control of the TV much these days, as our boys tend to dictate our viewing habits.  Our TV is usually tuned to Disney Junior or there's a Winnie the Pooh DVD running on a continuous loop.  On Sunday, as both boys were otherwise occupied, I found the remote and tuned into The Charlie Manuel Show on the local WPHL station, channel 17.

The Charlie Manuel Show is the weekly pre-pre-game show that features cutesy segments with the Phillies manager talking baseball, or hanging out around town, or spending time with his family.  It airs on Sunday before the actual pre-game show – Behind the Pinstripes.  Having switched over to the show, I noticed they were doing a segment on former Phillies relief pitcher Aaron Fultz.  Fultz is now in his second season as a pitching coach for a Phillies minor league team, this year serving on Mickey Morandini's staff for the Lakewood Blueclaws.  The segment was talking about Fultz's time with the Phillies when they flashed up some pictures and a baseball card showing Fultz during his playing days.

And it was a Chachi card.  It was one of my Chachi cards.

"That's my card!" I shouted at the TV.  My oldest son Doug was immediately concerned because he thought the TV people had somehow broken into our house and stolen my card.  I quickly explained that I had made the card that was now up on our TV screen, and the TV people must have found it on the internet.  His concern lifted, Doug shrugged and went back to playing Legos.

The official television debut of the 2005 Chachi set

But how cool is that?  My guess is that one of the people working on the show was tasked with finding an Aaron Fultz baseball card to use as a graphic during the segment.  As there aren't an abundance of Fultz Phillies cards in the world, a quick Google search promptly turned up my card.  This is the first time I've published the actual card on The Phillies Room, so they must have stumbled across the card in the Picassa photo album which contains the entire 2005 Chachi set.

So if you were one of the dozens of people in the Delaware Valley who noticed the cool 1975 Topps-style Aaron Fultz card on last week's Charlie Manuel show – That's my card!