1970-1979 Phillies

1977 Kellogg's #37 and #57, 1976 Kellogg's #16, 1978 Kellogg's #3 and #33

Before starting my posts on Topps Phillies cards from the 1980's, I wanted to look back one last time at the groovy decade of the 1970's.

Decade MVPs
The offensive MVP is clearly Mike Schmidt.  Right?  Take a look at these two decade summaries:

• 1084 games, .255 average, 235 home runs, 666 RBIs, .885 OPS, 958 strikeouts, 4 All-Star Game selections, 4 Gold Gloves
• 1183 games, .285 average, 204 home runs, 755 RBIs, .858 OPS, 998 strikeouts, 4 All-Star Game selctions

Now the Gold Gloves are a dead giveaway that the top line belongs to Schmidt, but the second, very similar line belongs to Greg Luzinski.  It's not as close as I thought.  So what do you think?  Who was the team's offensive MVP during the decade?

The top Phillies pitcher from the decade was clearly Steve Carlton.  Lefty dominated the top statistical categories, leading the team in games pitched, victories, strikeouts, complete games, shutouts and ERA (for a starting pitcher).  No one else was even close.  He won the Cy Young in 1972 and 1977 and he was selected to four All-Star Games.

2001 Upper Deck Decade 1970's Game-Used Bat
Top - #B-GL and #B-GM, Bottom - #B-TiM and #B-WM

Leaders
Games - Larry Bowa (1489), Luzinski (1183), Schmidt (1084), Bob Boone (908), Garry Maddox (687)
Average* - Jay Johnstone (.303), Maddox (.296), Luzinski (.285), Tony Taylor (.284), Tim McCarver (.272)
Home Runs - Schmidt (235), Luzinski (204), Deron Johnson (71), Willie Montanez (63), Boone (52)
RBIs - Luzinski (755), Schmidt (666), Boone (377), Bowa (351), Montanez (326)
Stolen Bases - Bowa (251), Maddox (134), Schmidt (117), Bake McBride (80), Dave Cash (43)

Games - Carlton (297), Tug McGraw (279), Gene Garber (250), Ron Reed (246), Jim Lonborg (188), Wayne Twitchell (188)
Wins - Carlton (148), Lonborg (75), Larry Christenson (63), Dick Ruthven (37), McGraw (35)
ERA** - Joe Hoerner (2.30), Garber (2.69), Reed (2.86), Carlton (3.07), McGraw (3.27)
Strikeouts - Carlton (1732), Twitchell (573), Lonborg (548), Christenson (473), Ruthven (410)
Saves - McGraw (59), Reed (51), Garber (51), Dick Selma (26), Mac Scarce (21), Hoerner (21)

*At least 5 seasons with the Phillies, completely subjective
**At least 4 season with the Phillies, again completely subjective

1978 SSPC 270 #30 (Reed)

1970-1979 Topps
Total Phillies Players (1970-1979): 142
Total Phillies Players with Topps Phillies Cards: 84.  Only 59% of the players earned Topps cards during the decade as 58 players were left out in the cold.
Managers with Cards:  Frank Lucchesi (3 cards) and Danny Ozark (7 cards).
Topps Phillies Cards of Non-Phillies:  6 cards - Curt Flood (1970), Wayne Redmond (1971), Tom Haller (1973), Ken Sanders (1973), Aurelio Monteagudo (1974), Jim Wright (1979)

Card Statistics
Most Featured: Carlton (13 Cards), Luzinski (11 Cards), Bowa (10 Cards), Schmidt (10 Cards), Team Card (10 Cards), Terry Harmon (9 Cards), Boone (8 Cards), Tom Hutton (7 Cards), McCarver (7 Cards), Lonborg (7 Cards), Ozark (7 Cards)
Most Games (Batter), No Phillies Topps Card: Pete Rose (163 games in 1979), Manny Trillo (118 games in 1979), Greg Gross (111 games in 1979), John Vukovich (93 games in 1970-1971, 1976-1977 and 1979), John Bateman (82 games in 1972), Jim Hutto (57 games in 1970), Alan Bannister (50 games in 1974 and 1975), Bobby Pfeil (44 games in 1971)
Most Games (Pitcher), No Phillies Topps Card: Nino Espinosa (33 games in 1979), Doug Bird (32 games in 1979), Kevin Saucier (30 games in 1978 and 1979), Jesus Hernaiz (27 games in 1974), Frank Linzy (22 games in 1974), Pete Richert (21 games in 1974)

1976 SSPC #464, #471, #457 and #463 (Bowa, Boone, McGraw and Johnstone)

Rose, Trillo, Gross, Espinosa and Bird are featured in the 1979 Burger King Phillies set, so I expanded the lists for a few extra players.

The Phillies Topps 60
If and when Topps decides to release a set of the sixty best Phillies cards from the past sixty years, I'm doing my part to help them out with the checklist:

21 - 1970 Topps #539 Denny Doyle and Larry Bowa
22 - 1971 Topps #23 Oscar Gamble
23 - 1972 Topps #112 Steve Carlton TR
24 - 1973 Topps #615 Rookie Third Basemen - Ron Cey, John Hilton and Mike Schmidt
25 - 1974 Topps #255 Larry Bowa
26 - 1975 Topps #185 Steve Carlton
27 - 1976 Topps #610 Greg Luzinski
28 - 1977 Topps #140 Mike Schmidt
29 - 1978 Topps #381 Team Card
30 - 1979 Topps #210 Larry Bowa

1978 SSPC 270 #38, #41, #53 and #47 (Garber, Taylor, McBride and Christenson)

Cards That Never Were Series
There were 20 cards from the 1950s and 32 cards from the 1960s and I'm adding another 40 cards from the 1970s.  If this pattern holds, expect at least 40 cards from the 1980s.  Who am I missing?

53 - 1970 Topps Greg Luzinski
54 - 1970 Topps Willie Montanez
55 - 1970 Topps Barry Lersch
56 - 1970 Topps Jim Hutto
57 - 1971 Topps John Vukovich
58 - 1971 Topps Roger Freed
59 - 1971 Topps Mike Schmidt (Draft Pick)
60 - 1972 Topps Bill Robinson
61 - 1972 Topps Mac Scarce
62 - 1972 Topps Paul Owens MG
63 - 1972 Topps Rookie Stars - Mike Schmidt and Bob Boone
64 - 1972 Topps John Bateman
65 - 1973 Topps Mike Schmidt
66 - 1973 Topps Del Unser
67 - 1973 Topps Dick Ruthven
68 - 1973 Topps Larry Christenson
69 - 1974 Topps Jay Johnstone
70 - 1974 Topps Tony Taylor
71 - 1974 Topps Jesus Hernaiz
72 - 1975 Topps Dick Allen
73 - 1975 Topps Garry Maddox
74 - 1975 Topps Tug McGraw
75 - 1975 Topps Tom Underwood
76 - 1975 Topps Alan Bannister
77 - 1976 Topps Jerry Martin
78 - 1976 Topps Traded Bobby Tolan
79 - 1977 Topps Davey Johnson
80 - 1977 Topps Warren Brusstar
81 - 1977 Topps Bake McBride
82 - 1977 Topps Ted Sizemore
83 - 1978 Topps Dick Ruthven
84 - 1978 Topps Rawley Eastwick
85 - 1978 Topps Bud Harrelson
86 - 1978 Topps Rookies - Jim Morrison, Lonnie Smith, Keith Moreland and Todd Cruz
87 - 1978 Topps Tony Taylor CO
88 - 1979 Topps Del Unser
89 - 1979 Topps Mike Anderson
90 - 1979 Topps Dickie Noles
91 - 1979 Topps Kevin Saucier
92 - 1979 Topps Dallas Green MG

Links to the Past
1950-1959 Phillies
1960-1969 Phillies

I'll start going through the Topps sets from the '80s next.  It promises to be radical and a little gnarly.