Phillies at Reds: April 15th to April 17th

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 7:10
Great American Ball Park - Cincinnati, OH

Phillies 6-6, 4th Place in the N.L. East, 5 games behind the Braves
Reds 5-7, 3rd Place in the N.L. Central, 2 games behind the Cardinals

Phillies Probables:  Cliff Lee (2-0, 1.08), Kyle Kendrick (1-1, 5.40), John Lannan (0-0, 2.77)
Reds Probables:  Bronson Arroyo (1-1, 5.25), Homer Bailey (1-1, 5.73), Mike Leake (0-0, 6.75)

At the Ballpark:  All players will once again wear #42 in today's games to celebrate the life and legacy of Jackie Robinson.  On a much lesser note, tomorrow night is the first Bark in the Park night at Great American Ball Park.  Ticket holders will be allowed to bring their dogs to the game.  Woof.

Phillies Leaders

Average:  Michael Young - .357

Runs:  Chase Utley - 8

Home Runs:  Domonic Brown, Laynce Nix and Chase Utley - 2

RBIs:  Chase Utley - 10

Stolen Bases:  Ben Revere - 5

Wins:  Cliff Lee - 2

ERA:  Cliff Lee - 1.08

Strikeouts:  Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee - 14

Saves:  Jonathan Papelbon - 3

1973 Topps #130, #230 and #275

1973 Topps Flashback:  For today's flashback, here are three cards of members of the Big Red Machine of the '70s.  Pete Rose, Joe Morgan and Tony Perez would help lead the Reds to consecutive World Series titles in 1975 and 1976.  They would reunite in 1983 to try to win their third title together, this time as members of the Phillies.  That group of aging veterans assembled by the Phillies were affectionately known as the Wheeze Kids and unfortunately their title hopes were dashed in five games by the Baltimore Orioles.

Morgan and Perez each appeared on a number of 1983 and 1984 baseball cards, marking their one year with the Phils.  Rose appeared on a ton of Phillies cards between 1979 and 1984, and based on my Zistle database, I have 84 Rose cards in my collection.

This past Saturday marked the 50th anniversary of Rose's first Major League hit, on April 13, 1963 against the Pirates' Al McBean.  Yesterday, Rose celebrated his 72nd birthday.  To mark both occasions, Mike Schmidt wrote a brief article to celebrate Rose's career and to once again lobby for the removal of Rose's lifetime ban from baseball.