Friday, March 27, 2015

1981 Harrison/Erickson Postcard Phillie Phanatic

Astros 7, Phillies 1
Spring Training Game 23 - Wednesday Afternoon, March 25th in Clearwater
Record - 11-11-1

One Sentence Summary:  Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez was hit hard in his start and the Phils eventually lost to the Astros, 7-1.

What It Means:  Gonzalez now owns a 7.53 ERA and he's not doing anything to help his chances of earning a spot in the team's starting pitching rotation.

What Happened:  Gonzalez allowed four runs on eight hits in his four innings of work.  The only Phillies run came courtesy of a Ryan Howard RBI double.

Featured Card:  On a happier Phillies related note, both my sons received mail from the Phillies yesterday with their 2015 Phanatic MVP Club membership card and coupons for the upcoming season.  They'll be getting a Phanatic bobblehead, Phanatic sunglasses and they're already enjoying their new Phanatic posters.  (See here for a post on this program from The Phillies Collector.)

This has led to a long discussion with my four-year-old son Ben about where the Phanatic lives and how does the Phanatic know that his birthday is coming up?  (One of the perks of club membership is that the Phanatic will send you a birthday card at some point during your birthday month.)  It's nice that the Phillies have this club for the younger fans, and at $13 for an annual membership I consider it money well spent.

As I learned while putting together the Phillies Team Issued Sets series of posts, early postcards featuring the Phanatic exist from as early as 1978 - the Phanatic's rookie season.  Fellow collector Steve F. was nice enough to point me in the direction of the eBay auction selling the card featured here.  To date, this is the oldest Phanatic card in my collection.

Camp Head Count:  44 - 2 = 42.  After the game, non-roster invitees Chase d'Arnaud and Darin Mastroianni were optioned to minor league camp.

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