Game 106 - Gibson Pitches Gem as Alumni Return

Phillies 7, Nationals 2
Game 106 - Friday Night, August 5th in Philadelphia
Record - 58-48, 3rd Place, 9 games behind the Mets

One Sentence Summary:  Kyle Gibson was perfect through six and masterful through eight, and the offense contributed five home runs in this 7-2 win over the Nationals.

What It Means:  There was a game?

What Happened:  Gibson had a perfect game going through six innings before he hit Victor Robles with a pitch to open the seventh.  Luis Garcia singled two pitches later and the no-hitter as gone too.  Overall, Gibson allowed a pair of hits, one run and struck out four on the way to his seventh win.  The Phillies line-up continued to mash the ball, with Rhys Hoskins, Nick Castellanos, Darick Hall, J.T. Realmuto and Kyle Schwarber all connecting for home runs.

Featured Cards/Field Report:  All four of us were on-hand to watch the pre-game ceremony honoring public address announcer Dan Baker and his 50 years with the Phillies.  But while Jenna and Ben settled into their seats, Doug and I prepared to stand for the duration of the game in the Hall of Fame Club in the hopes of Doug adding a few autographs to his collection.  We didn't see many alumni, but those we did see all stopped to sign for the gathered collectors.  He was thrilled to get signatures on his Wall of Fame prints from John Kruk, Manny Trillo and Charlie Manuel.  At one point, Gary "Sarge" Mathews wheeled out a cart of milkshakes and handed them out to the assembled fans.  Also signing were Tommy Greene, Del Unser, Marty Bystrom, Pat Gillick and newest Wall of Fame inductee Ron Reed.  As an added bonus, it was great chatting with the proprietor of the Relief Room throughout the night, as we shared our appreciation of Barry Jones, Steve Fireovid and Scott Eyre.

For the first time since 2019, I'm happy to present a small set of custom cards to memorialize the Phillies alumni who signed for Doug, along with a few photos taken by Jenna of the fantastic pre-game ceremony.  I particularly liked the picture she captured of Larry Bowa and Cesar Hernandez having a lengthy discussion during the National Anthem.

Transaction:  Yairo Munoz (inf) was optioned to Lehigh Valley and Nick Maton (inf) was recalled.

2022 Virtual Phillies Wall / 2022 Season Summary Index / 2022 Chachi Set Checklist

1991 Medford Philadelphia Phillies Photo Cards

Number of Cards:  46
Card Size:  4 1/8" x 6"
Description:  For the third year in a row, the card fronts feature an action photo with the player's, coach's or manager's name in a red band with white text.  The card backs feature biographical information along with complete career statistics.  Medford Food Company took over sponsorship of the set in 1991, and they'd sponsor the set for the next two years.

How Distributed:  The original 35-card base set was available for sale at Veterans Stadium throughout the 1991 season.  Details vary as to how the 11-card update series was originally distributed.  The 2001 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards describes two updates being issued.  The first update being the three card highlight set featuring white bordered cards for Tommy Greene, Terry Mulholland and Dale Murphy.  Mulholland's card celebrates his no-hitter from August 15, 1990, while Greene's celebrates his no-hitter from May 23, 1991.  Murphy's card commemorates his 2,000th hit on May 29, 1991.

The second update, according to the Catalog, contained eight cards and featured new manager Jim Fregosi, the Phillie Phanatic and six new Phillies players.  I have no recollection of purchasing two separate update sets at the Vet during the 1991 season, but my memory is admittedly starting to get a bit foggy.  The second update would not have been released before July 15th, the day Steve Searcy was acquired from the Tigers, and not after July 31st, the day Mike Hartley was acquired from the Dodgers.  Searcy is in the set while Hartley is not. 

Complete Standard Checklist (Unnumbered, presented here alphabetically with uniform number from the front of cards): 

1. Darrel Akerfelds (#35) 2. Andy Ashby (#40) 3. Wally Backman (#6)         4. Joe Boever (#30) 5. Rod Booker (#37) 6. Larry Bowa CO (#2) 7. Sil Campusano (#11) 8. Wes Chamberlain (#31)           9. Pat Combs (#38) 10. Danny Cox (#34)      11. Darren Daulton (#10) 12. Jose DeJesus (#54)

13. Lenny Dykstra (#4)    14. Darrin Fletcher (#24) 15. Tommy Greene (#49) 16. Jason Grimsley (#48) 17. Charlie Hayes (#8) 18. Von Hayes (#9) 19. Dave Hollins (#15) 20. Ken Howell (#43) 21. Ricky Jordan (#17) 22. John Kruk (#29) 23. Steve Lake (#25) 24. Hal Lanier CO (#22)

25. Tim Mauser (#52) 26. Roger McDowell (#13) 27. Denis Menke CO (#14) 28. Mickey Morandini (#12) 29. John Morris (#33) 30. Terry Mulholland (#45) 31. Dale Murphy (#3) 32. Johnny Podres CO (#46) 33. Randy Ready (#23) 34. Dickie Thon (#21) 35. John Vukovich CO (#18)

Complete Update Checklist, 2nd Version: 

1. Jim Fregosi MG (#11)           2. Ron Jones (#26) 3. Jim Lindeman (#55) 4. Wally Ritchie (#39)

5. Bruce Ruffin (#47) 6. Steve Searcy (#50) 7. Mitch Williams (#28) 8. Tommy Greene - No-Hitter

9. Terry Mulholland - No-Hitter 10. Dale Murphy - 2,000th Hit 11. Phillie Phanatic

One and Only Phillies Baseball Card (0)

First Appearance in Phillies Team Issued Set (9):  Backman, Chamberlain, Cox, Fletcher, Lindeman, Mauser, Morris, Searcy, Williams
Returning Players in Phillies Team Issued Set (27):  Akerfelds, Ashby, Boever, Booker, Campusano, Combs, Daulton, DeJesus, Dykstra, Greene, Grimsley, C. Hayes, V. Hayes, Hollins, Howell, Jones, Jordan, Kruk, Lake, McDowell, Morandini, Mulholland, Murphy, Ready, Ritchie, Ruffin, Thon

Jim Lindeman's uniform number is listed as #55, which is the number he wore during spring training.  He switched to #19 before the season started, taking the number most recently occupied before him by John Kruk.  Sil Campusano attended spring training wearing #11 and started the season on the disabled list.  When Fregosi was hired and took #11, Campusano switched to #16, the former number of departed manager Nick Leyva.

Manager (1):  Fregosi
Coaches (5):  Bowa, Lanier, Menke, Podres, Vukovich

Phillie Phanatic (1):  The Phanatic is shown posing while sitting on his ATV.
Broadcasters (0):  If a broadcaster card had been issued at the start of the season, it would have featured future manager Fregosi as he had recently joined the broadcast team.
Commemorative Cards (3):  Greene, Mulholland, Murphy

Surprises:  I find it strange all the coaches received cards in the first set, but the manager at the beginning of the season (Leyva) was omitted.  Leyva was fired on April 23rd, so my guess is the original 35-card set wasn't finalized until after his departure.  Or the first series originally contained 36 cards and the Leyva card was pulled after his firing.

Omissions:  Every Phillies player from opening day through July 31st has a card in this set except for Dave LaPoint, Rick Schu and Amalio Carreno.  LaPoint made the opening day roster but was released on April 23rd, the same day Leyva was dismissed.  Schu had a brief reunion with his original club, and he was on the active roster between May 28th and June 19th.  He was brought back up on August 28th and stayed with the team the rest of the season.  Carreno was recalled on July 2nd and sent back down on July 15th.  Ken Howell and Steve Ontiveros both spent the entire season on the disabled list and while Howell received a card in the set, Ontiveros did not.

Variations/Rarities:  As fellow collector Rick pointed out in a comment to the original post for this set, six additional cards were issued for former Phillies who were guests at the annual ALS Phillies Phestival.  These cards have only a red Phillies logo and a 1991 copyright on the backs, with no Medford logo. 

ALS Autograph Party      1. Harry Anderson           2. Gene Garber

3. Maje McDonnell CO           4. Ron Reed

5. Eddie Sawyer MG 6. Curt Simmons

Also See:  Scrapbook Sunday - August 12, 1991. Resources:  Phillies collector Rick (@rickphils). This set was originally featured in a post back in November 2014, and I'm going to slowly go through some of these team issued set posts and update them with new information learned (if any) over the past six years. 1990 Phillies Photo Cards / 1992 Medford Phillies Photo Cards 1980-1999 Phillies Team-Issued Photo Cards Want List / Phillies Team Issued Sets Index Page

Game 110 - Doug's Big Night of Autographs, The Sequel

Phillies 8, Marlins 3
Game 110 - Saturday Night, August 4th in Philadelphia
Record - 62-48, 1st place, 1 1/2 games ahead of the Braves

Another Post-Vacation Catch-Up, Part 1 of 7

One Sentence Summary:  Four home runs backed another impressive outing from Zach Eflin as the Phils downed the Fish, 8-3.

What It Means:  The win extended the Phillies' lead in the division to a game and a half over the Braves.

What Happened:  Nick Williams (15), Asdrubal Cabrera (19 overall, 1 with the Phillies), Carlos Santana (17) and Cesar Hernandez (9) all homered.  Eflin went eight strong innings, allowing 3 runs on 4 hits.

Featured Cards/Field Report:  We were fortunate enough to be able to take two separate vacations this summer and before leaving for vacation #2, Doug and I decided to attend the Phillies Wall of Fame ceremony for the late Roy Halladay and former General Manager Pat Gillick.  We really wanted to witness the ceremony (which was fantastic, as expected) but Doug also wanted to try to get some alumni autographs in the Hall of Fame Club.

It seemed much more crowded than last year (see link below) and Doug wasn't able to wiggle his way to the front of the roped off area outside the suite where the alumni were gathering . . . or so we thought they were gathering.  He just missed getting a Pat Gillick signature and managed autographs from Dickie Noles and Pete Mackanin before frustration and some boredom set in.

That's when I noticed that the players were leaving the suite by another door, mostly unnoticed, and heading down to a different suite.  With most autograph hunters positioned by the first door, the casual fans walking through the Hall of Fame Club didn't notice the alumni leaving by the second door.  But I did.

We stationed ourselves there and Doug was able to top his record from last year by gathering 20 autographs.  Players such as Clay Condrey, Scott Eyre, Pedro Feliz and Eric Bruntlett stood casually in the open while Doug asked them politely for an autograph.  Once other fans saw someone signing something, a slightly bigger crowd gathered.  Some of the returning players and coaches were happy to sign for Doug as long as he walked quickly with them to the second suite down the hall.  Brett Myers, Geoff Jenkins and Jamie Moyer were too quick for me to get pictures, but I managed to get a photo of Moyer from the back, featuring his glorious ponytail.

When the evening was through, Doug had collected autographs from most of the returning alumni, and I've included a legend above of his signed Wall of Fame print for our future reference.  (We're in the process of getting this framed.)  Some of the players/coaches lingered around long enough that he was able to get a second autograph to be included in my collection.  Eyre, Feliz, Rich Dubee and Milt Thompson signed photo cards for Doug along with his Wall of Fame print.  The prize of his collection was Pat Burrell.  Burrell personalized his Wall of Fame print from 2015 and he actually chatted a little with Doug before disappearing.  I don't know if Burrell signed for anyone else.

It was another memorable night, and we'll be back for more next year!  Of course I needed to make a very limited edition insert set to mark the occasion, and those cards are featured here.


Memory Lane - Past Induction Ceremonies/Alumni Weekends

2009 - Harry Kalas

2010 - Darren Daulton

2011 - John Kruk

2012 - Mike Lieberthal

2013 - Curt Schilling

2014 - Charlie Manuel
2015 - Pat Burrell
2016 - Jim Thome
2017 - Tribute to Jim Bunning, Dallas Green and Darren Daulton
2018 - Roy Halladay and Pat Gillick

Highlights from the 2018 Phillies Phestival (Part 1) #StrikeOutALS

2018 Chachi Phillies Phestival #1

2018 Chachi Phillies Phestival #2

2018 Chachi Phillies Phestival #3

I still can't believe we had never attended this event until last year.  On Thursday afternoon, Jenna and our two sons attended the annual Phillies Phestival benefiting the ALS Association.  For those of you not familiar with this event, it's the Phillies' signature charity event featuring an afternoon of player autograph stations, a silent auction, mystery grab bags for sale featuring signed memorabilia and everything else Citizens Bank Park has to offer.  The Phillies raised over $725,000 during the afternoon, passing the $18 million mark in terms of money raised for the charity since 1984.

We have a close family friend currently battling ALS, and I've recently become more involved with the Association.  My employer was a table sponsor at the event, giving us the opportunity to arrive early and have our pictures taken with Cesar Hernandez and coach Jose David Flores.  As I did last year, I've made a set of special edition cards to commemorate our day, and I'll break the set into two separate posts.

Here are my best memories from the event:

• We hustled.  We learned from last year that you go as quickly as you can to each autograph station, saving the other fun stuff for last after the players stop signing.  There were 20 total autograph stations and we hit 14, breaking into groups of two about 45 minutes into the event.  Had we broken up earlier, we probably could have hit more but it was fun to stick together for the beginning.  For the record, we missed the tables of Nick Williams/Andrew Knapp, Scott Kingery/Dylan Cozens, Rhys Hoskins, Charlie Manuel, Gabe Kapler/coach Rob Thomson and Tommy Hunter/coach Rick Kranitz.  No offense to the last table mentioned, but my autograph-seeking son flat out opted to pass on their table.

•  As was the case last year, everyone was exceedingly pleasant.  I stood in line by myself for the 1993 Alumni table, adding autographs of Kevin Stocker, Tommy Greene, Larry Andersen, John Kruk, Larry Bowa and Mickey Morandini.  Somewhat predictably, that bunch spent the time I was in line cracking jokes and discussing their plans for the evening.

• Thanks to fellow collectors Steve F. and Rick for the texts with table updates and leads on potential new photo cards.  The only new photo cards seemingly available from the event is a new card of J.P. Crawford in the style of the 2017 team-issued update set and a new Phillies Alumni photo card for former manager Charlie Manuel.  I've updated the 2017 Phillies Team Issue Update post here, and I'll have a comprehensive post on the Alumni Cards out soon.

2018 Chachi Phillies Phestival #4

2018 Chachi Phillies Phestival #5

2018 Chachi Phillies Phestival #6

2018 Chachi Phillies Phestival #7

2018 Chachi Phillies Phestival #8

• Relatively new additions Austin Davis, Mitch Walding and Dylan Cozens had nothing available to sign.  My hope was that the Phillies would produce special photo cards for the trio but they were sitting at their stations with nothing but Sharpies in front of them.

• Our oldest son Doug was on a mission to get as many autographs as possible in the two-hour signing period and by his count, he came away with 35 different autographed cards!  Credit needs to go to our youngest son Ben who helped his older brother with his mission, at one point telling Victor Arano that his name was Doug so that Arano would personalize the autograph for his brother.  Ben does not show the same zeal for autograph collecting as his brother, but I was beyond proud of him for being helpful.

• Doug and I were the last two people in line to get Jake Arrieta's autograph.  He was actually unbuttoning his jersey as we walked in, getting ready to leave the room.  He saw Doug round the corner, put his jersey back on and posed for a picture with Doug.  Great memory.

• Our luck with the mystery grab bags wasn't great, but I'm fine with that as everything went towards a great cause.  We came away with autographed baseballs from Luis Garcia (x 2) and Adam Morgan and an autographed hat from Hector Neris, as well as 3 Mike Schmidt bobble heads and a mini Harry Kalas statue.

Phillies Phestival Memory Lane

2017 Part 1 and Part 2

2018 Part 1 and Part 2