Game 41 - Phils Fall Short on Mother's Day

1934-36 Batter-Up (R318) #38

Marlins 7, Phillies 6 (10 Innings)
Game 41 - Sunday Afternoon, May 12th in Miami
Record - 28-13, 1st Place, 2 games ahead of the Braves

One Sentence Summary:  Swinging pink bats in honor of Mother's Day, the Phillies battled back late to tie the game, but couldn't capitalize on a 10th inning opportunity as the Marlins walked it off against Gregory Soto, 7-6.

What It Means:  The team should have been celebrating another series sweep, but instead they'll settle for another series win.  Four games against the Mets are coming up next.

What Happened:  Zack Wheeler was off, and he labored through four innings, giving up six hits and six runs while walking three.  The bullpen kept the Phillies in the game, with the Marlins scoring the winning run in the 10th on a fluke ground ball off Soto that bounced into the outfield, allowing the zombie runner to score.

Nick Castellanos stayed hot with a three-run home run in the first inning.  The Phillies tied it up in the sixth on a two-run triple from Edmundo Sosa followed by a sacrifice fly from Brandon Marsh.  They loaded the bases in the top of the 10th, but pinch-hitter Kody Clemens popped up to end the threat.

Featured Card:  I admittedly spent way too much time looking for a recent Phillies baseball card in my collection showing a player decked out in pink or swinging a pink bat.  I'm almost positive I have such a card (or a few such cards) in my collection, but I came up empty.  Searching "pink" in my Phillies Collection spreadsheet, this card came up - a 1934-36 Batter-Up card for Jimmie Wilson, a pink tinted variety.

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1934 and 1935 Diamond Matchbooks

At the recent Valley Forge baseball card show, I added nine different matchbooks to my collection, not exactly knowing what I was adding.  The matchbooks seemed extremely reasonably priced, and I hadn't seen anything like this before, so I was intrigued.  I went through the dealer's box labeled "1930s Matchbooks" and pulled out every Phillie I could find.  (As an aside, it was during my search that I finally met fellow collector Steve F. and his son Sam.)


It turns out the matchbooks I bought come from two different sets - a 200-matchbook set called the 1934 Diamond Matchbook - Silver Border set and a smaller 24-matchbook set called the 1935 Diamond Matchbook - Black Border set.  I found this listing in the Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards, and I thought I'd list the description of the set verbatim here:

During much of the Great Depression, the hobby of matchbook collecting swept the country.  Generally selling at two for a penny, the matchbooks began to feature photos and artwork to attract buyers.  In the late 1930s, several series of sports subjects were issued by Diamond Match Co. of New York City.  The first issue was a set of 200 baseball players known to collectors as "silver border" for the color of the photo frame on the approximately 1 1/2" x 4 1/8" (open) matchbooks. 

Player portrait or posed photos are printed in sepia on front, and can be found bordered in either red, green, blue or orange (although it is unclear whether all players can actually be found in the red version), theoretically creating an 800-piece color variation set.  The player's name and team are printed on the "saddle" and there is a career summary on back, along with a design of glove, ball and bats.  Matchbooks are commonly collected with the matches removed and the striker at the back-bottom intact.  Pieces without the striker are valued at 50 percent of these listed prices.

Given that last part, my matchbooks would be valued less than those with the striker intact, but I'm still happy to have them in my collection.  It looks as if there are 11 Phillies matchbooks in the set, so I'm missing four of them for a complete team set.

From the 1935 Diamond Matchbooks set, I added the two shown here and I need two more to complete the team set.  Chuck Klein is shown wearing a Cubs uniform, and the online databases I checked list this as a Cubs card.  However, I'm classifying it as a Phillies card given that's the team listed.

1934-1936 Batter-Up #38 Jimmie Wilson

Nationals 4, Phillies 1
Game 46 - Sunday Afternoon, May 24th in Washington
Record - 19-27, 4th Place, 8 games behind the Nationals

One Sentence Summary:  The Phillies hung in until the seventh when the bullpen combo of Justin De Fratus and Jake Diekman allowed the Nationals to take a 4-1 lead.

What It Means:  The Phillies will open a three-game series in New York against the Mets starting tomorrow afternoon.

What Happened:  The offense was 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position.  Jeff Francoeur knocked in the Phillies only run of the game with a single in the fourth.  Aaron Harang turned in another quality start, allowing two runs in his six innings of work.

Featured Card:  There wasn't really anything memorable from this game from a Phillies perspective, so let's turn the clock back to 80 years ago tonight.  On May 24, 1935, the Reds hosted the Phillies at Crosley Field in the first ever Major League baseball night game.  The Reds defeated the Phillies by a score of 2-1 in a game that lasted just one hour and 35 minutes.

Jimmie Wilson was the Phillies player-manager for the historic event and he inserted himself into the game at some point to pinch-hit for Phillies starting pitcher Joe Bowman.  This is Wilson's card from the 1934-1936 Batter-Up set, which was released in National Chicle candy and gum products over a three year period.

According to the Standard Catalog, the 192 cards in the Batter Up set can be found in either black and white or a variety of color tints.  The cards were perforated to allow collectors to fold the tops of the cards back to allow them to stand on their own.  At some point over the last 80 years, one of this card's previous owners separated the top part of the card from the pink-tinted bottom.