Spring Training Game 13 - Wednesday Afternoon, March 14th
Record - 5-7-1
One Sentence Summary: Roy Halladay's spring troubles continued as the Phils lost to the Twins, 6-4.
What It Means: Halladay didn't make it out of the third inning. He allowed five runs on seven hits (including two home runs) and a walk. His spring ERA is now 10.57. Yikes.
What Went Wrong: Let's just move on. Nothing to see here. Everything is fine.
Featured Card: Today's featured card has absolutely nothing to do with yesterday's game. I've got the 1963 Topps set on my mind as 2012 Topps Heritage is now live. Topps has been releasing its Heritage sets since 2001, chronologically featuring each of the company's baseball card designs since its first major release in 1952. Jenna and I went crazy the first few years Heritage was released, buying boxes of the stuff at a time, but we've since become a little more fiscally responsible. Having two small boys and a mortgage will do that to a married couple. That being said, I know I'll at least buy a blaster of Heritage the next time I just happen to find myself in the baseball card aisle at Target.
One of the cards that intrigues me from this year's Heritage set is a reprint of the card featured here, autographed by Earl Averill himself. (There may be other Phillies featured in the Real One Autographs insert set, but Averill's is the only card I've stumbled upon on eBay so far.) I love that Topps has tracked down players who appeared in the original 1963 set and has had them autograph a bunch of cards. Who would have thought that a 2012 baseball card autographed by a Phillies bench guy from 1963 would be my first "must have" of the 2012 baseball card season?
Camp Headcount: 48
In the first cuts of the spring, nine players were reassigned to minor league camp or optioned out. Infielder Harold Garcia was outrighted off the 40-man roster. As a result of his knee surgery last week, he's expected to miss significant time this season. Also reassigned or optioned were pitchers Dave Bush, Austin Hyatt, Pat Misch, J.C. Ramirez and B.J. Rosenberg, infielder Cesar Hernandez, outfielder Tyson Gillies and catcher Sebastian Valle.
Once again, I'm disappointed by the names Topps hasn't approached for autographs on the Heritage sets: Dallas Green, Art Mahaffey, Ruben Amaro, Sr. & Cookie Rojas (just to name a few) are all still out there. Yet, none of them have had an autographed Heritage issue yet. What gives, Topps?
ReplyDeleteLooks as if it's just Averill and Frank Torre in the checklkist?
ReplyDeleteI'm with you though, I don't know about Mahaffey, Amaro and Rojas, but Dallas Green can be found any day of the week at Citizens Bank Park. Unless he's told Topps "no," it doesn't make sense why he wouldn't have signed any cards by now.
I wrote to Averill to get precisely that card autographed about 10-15 years ago, and I asked him some questions. Not only did he send it back signed and respond to my questions, but he gave me his email address in case I had more questions. It was one of those early email addresses, something along the lines of fx817562h7fs65@aol.com, and by the time I did write to him about a year or two later, alas, he had changed it.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, in picking up a pack to open, don't buy the double-sized pack at Toys-R-Us--it was $6.99. Aren't those usually $4.99 at Target and Wal-Mart? I was already at the register, so I paid it but was annoyed.