Friday Double Header 4:10, Saturday 4:10, Sunday 1:10 Citi Field - Flushing, NY
At the Ballpark: The Mets are giving away a few t-shirts with the first 12,000 fans on Friday receiving a Pride Night shirt and the first 12,000 fans on Saturday and Sunday receiving a Ya Gotta Believe shirt.
Phillies 34-37
3rd Place in the N.L. East, 5 games behind the Mets Phillies Probables
Aaron Nola (5-4, 2.36)
Matt Moore (0-1, 7.36)
Zach Eflin (2-6, 4.39)
Zack Wheeler (5-4, 2.36)
Phillies Leaders Average: Bryce Harper - .278 Runs: Rhys Hoskins - 39 Home Runs: Rhys Hoskins - 16 RBIs: Rhys Hoskins - 43 Stolen Bases: Jean Segura - 6
Mets 38-31
1st Place in the N.L. East, 3 1/2 games ahead of the Nationals Mets Probables Taijuan Walker (6-3, 2.42) David Peterson (2-5, 5.31) Jacob deGrom (7-2, 0.50) Jerad Eickhoff (0-0, 0.00)
Mets Leaders Average: Pete Alonso - .250 Runs: Francisco Lindor - 38 Home Runs: Pete Alonso - 11 RBIs: Pete Alonso - 35 Stolen Bases: Jonathan Villar - 8
Wins: Jacob deGrom - 7 ERA: Jacob deGrom - 0.50 Strikeouts: Jacob deGrom - 117 Saves: Edwin Diaz - 16
Marlins 10, Phillies 9 Game 135 - Saturday Night, September 2nd in Miami Record - 51-84, 5th place, 31 games behind the Nationals One Sentence Summary: An impressive Phillies comeback effort fell short as the Marlins won, 10-9.
What It Means: Pedro Florimon, who had been playing well the last few weeks, had to be carted off the field in the second when he suffered a gruesome ankle injury trying to reach first base.
What Happened: The decisive blow in this game turned out to be a three-run, pinch-hit home run from Derek Dietrich in the seventh off Ricardo Pinto. Giancarlo Stanton (52) and Marcell Ozuna (32) had homered earlier in the game for the Marlins. For the Phillies, Rhys Hoskins (12) and Tommy Joseph (20) homered while Nick Williams added a three-run triple in a five-run eighth inning.
2016 Topps #107
Transaction: For the second time in three days, the Phillies claimed a relief pitcher off waivers. This time it was Kevin Siegrist claimed from the Cardinals. Jerad Eickhoff was moved to the 60-day disabled list to clear room on the 40-man roster, ending his season.
Featured Card/Field Report: Meanwhile in Baltimore . . .
We missed this weekend of Phillies baseball as we took the boys to Baltimore for their first trip to Camden Yards. The Blue Jays easily handled the Orioles in a soggy 7-2 win with Kevin Pillar, Josh Donaldson and Darwin Barney all homering for the Jays. Marcus Stroman had to leave the game in the second after getting smoked with a Mark Trumbo line drive off his right elbow.
Earlier in the day, we toured Camden Yards where the boys met up with Oriole Bird. Doug was unsuccessful in his pre-game autograph hunt, other than an autograph from the ubiquitous Bird.
Both boys came away with baseballs! Doug was the lucky recipient of a ball thrown from the dugout from an anonymous Oriole and a ball thrown into the stands between innings from Chris Davis. Before the game began, from our seats in Section 22, Ben was called over to the Orioles dugout by coach (and former Phillies pitcher) Roger McDowell. McDowell rolled Ben a ball, and the kid's night was made.
Dykstra doesn't appear in the 1985 Topps set, but this is McDowell's rookie card (or his XRC if you're into that kind of thing) and Samuel's first flagship set appearance after receiving a rookie card in the 1984 Topps Traded set.
1988 Topps Appreciation: If you've been a Phillies or a Mets fan for the past 25 years or so, you should probably realize how these guys fit together. On June 18, 1989, the Phillies traded Juan Samuel to the Mets for Lenny Dykstra, Roger McDowell and a player to be named later (Tom Edens). Samuel, who is now the Phillies first base coach, lasted only half a season with the Mets before being traded to the Dodgers that December. Playing exclusively in center field for the Mets, Samuel hit just .228 in 86 games but still managed to steal 31 bases.
McDowell immediately settled into the closer's role for the Phillies, and he'd go on to save 44 games over 2 1/2 seasons with the club. He and Samuel would actually be teammates for two seasons with the Dodgers in 1991 and 1992.
Dykstra played the last eight seasons of his 12-year career with the Phillies, providing the spark the team needed in 1993 to reach the World Series. He was a two-time All-Star with the Phils, but a bad back shortened his career and he played in his last game in May 1996. Dude has had his share of troubles over the past decade or so, but he's recently resurfaced on local sports talkradio stations. No disrespect but . . . I won't be listening.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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.
As I had feared, I've grown incredibly bored with the retrospection posts chronicling the Phillies Topps cards over the past sixty years. I'm not getting nearly as many page views as I had hoped for, and I've had only a few new followers since I started the series. So I'm scrapping the entire idea. Besides, I've recently decided to package up all my vintage baseball cards and have them professionally graded.
Going forward, I'll be focusing on cards from mega-rare sets few collectors have ever seen, let alone dared to collect. I'm kicking off this new series with one of the most universally beloved baseball card sets of all time - 1990 Donruss.
The Set
Number of cards in the set: 716 glorious cards.
My very brief thoughts on the set: The reddish-orangeish borders, the reckless (but classy) paint-splattered sides, the cursive name at the top and the unmatched player selection - it's all here.
Notable competition: None.
1990 Donruss #21, #133, #643 and #168
1990 Phillies
Record and finish:Nick Leyva's squad finished 77-85 and in fourth place in the National League East.
Key events: 1990 Donruss was released. Everything else was secondary.
1990 Phillies in 1990 Donruss
Cards needed for a complete team set: There are 24 cards in the 1990 Donruss Phillies team set.
Who’s in: 24 very, very lucky Phillies players.
Who’s out:Bruce Ruffin does not appear in the set, although it's been rumored for years that a collector in Des Moines has a Ruffin proof card, which would have been number 717 in the set.
Phillies on other teams:Dale Murphy (#168), Joe Boever (#357) and Tommy Greene (#576) all appear with the Braves, while Carmelo Martinez (#482) appears with the Pirates.
What’s he doing here: Sadly, the Steve Jeltz era came to an end when the Phillies traded him to the Royals in March. He's featured on card #133 - easily one of the more sought after cards in the set.
Cards that never were candidates: The thought of Dale Murphy in a Phillies uniform on a 1990 Donruss card almost brings tears of joy.
Favorite Phillies card: Who doesn't remember the magical summer of '90, searching in vain for unopened packs of 1990 Donruss, trying to complete the elusive Combs Rainbow? Behold, for the first time ever, all three cards presented together -
Recycled: Unbelievably, not one baseball card company has re-used this majestic design for any retro-based sets.
Blogs/Websites: To date, there isn't one blog out there detailing each and every card from the 1990 Donruss set, until now. I've just launched a new blog that will display each and every one of these 716 cards and the stories that go with them.
Did You Know?: I probably have too much free time on my hands.
Roger McDowell came to the Phillies as part of the June 1989 trade that saw Juan Samuel shipped to the Mets. Lenny Dykstra, a key component of the 1993 N.L. Championship team, was the centerpiece of the deal for the Phillies. Roger had 44 saves for the Phillies from 1989 to 1991, and he was traded to the Dodgers in July 1991 for Mike Hartley and Braulio Castillo.
Roger joined the Braves' staff as their pitching coach in 2006 after the departure of long-time pitching coach Leo Mazzone.
