1999 Flair Showcase Row 2 #88 Bobby Abreu

Mets 4, Phillies 1
Game 51 - Thursday Night, May 29th in Philadelphia
Record - 23-28, 5th Place, 4 games behind the Braves

One Sentence Summary:  The Phillies struck out 15 times and had just four hits as the Mets took game one of the five game series, 4-1.

What It Means:  The loss dropped the Phils into sole possession of last place.

What Happened:  David Buchanan looked a little more pedestrian in his second start, scattering seven hits over his 6 2/3 innings of work.  Unfortunately, the offense just couldn't get anything going save for a solo home run from Marlon Byrd in the seventh.

Featured Card:  Bobby Abreu returned to Philadelphia for the first time since June 2012 (when he was with the Dodgers) and grounded out in his sole plate appearance as a pinch-hitter in the eighth.  Abreu is limited in what he can do on defense, but he's proven to be a steady bat off the bench for the Mets.  I doubt he would have been a difference-maker with the Phillies this year had he made the team out of spring training, but I know it would have been more fun to watch him hit than it is to watch the current crop of Phillies bench players.

I flipped through my rarely seen 1999 Phillies binder to find this card of Abreu from the very confusing Flair Showcase set.  The set was released in three different versions with three different designs, with Row 3 cards being the most prevalent and Row 1 cards (numbered to 3,000 or 6,000) being the most "rare."  This was right around the time I decided that trying to collect every single Phillies card was going to be futile.