Phillies at Cubs: June 27th to June 29th

2023 Chachi 1965 Topps Missing Links #8

1965 Topps #420

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 8:05
Wrigley Field - Chicago, IL

At the Ballpark:  The Cubs return to London to face the Phillies back in Chicago.  Thursday night is Nascar Night at Wrigley Field, with themed ticket holders receiving a Clark (the Cubs mascot) Nascar bobblehead.

Phillies 40-37
3rd Place in the N.L. East, 10 games behind the Braves

Phillies Probables
Ranger Suarez (1-2, 3.50)
Aaron Nola (6-5, 4.38)
Taijuan Walker (8-3, 4.10)

Phillies Leaders
Average:  Nick Castellanos - .313
Runs:  Nick Castellanos - 45
Home Runs:  Kyle Schwarber - 20
RBIs:  Alec Bohm - 47
Stolen Bases:  Trea Turner - 15

Wins:  Taijuan Walker - 8
ERA:  Zack Wheeler - 3.76

Strikeouts:  Zack Wheeler - 106
Saves:  Craig Kimbrel - 11

Cubs 37-39
3rd Place in the N.L. Central, 3 games behind the Reds

Cubs Probables
Taillon
Smyly
Hendricks

Cubs Leaders
Average:  Nico Hoerner - .282
Runs:  Nico Hoerner - 44
Home Runs:  Patrick Wisdom - 14
RBIs:  Nico Hoerner - 39
Stolen Bases:  Nico Hoerner - 17

Wins:  Marcus Stroman - 9
ERA:  Marcus Stroman - 2.47

Strikeouts:  Marcus Stroman - 85
Saves:  Adbert Alzolay - 4

2023 Virtual Phillies Wall / 2023 Season Summary Index / 2023 Chachi Set Checklist

1956 Topps - 2nd Series Phillies Alumni

Over on my 1956 Topps blog, I recently wrapped up posts on the 80 cards featured in that set's second series.  Presented below is a gallery of former Phillies players or coaches to appear in the 1956 Topps second series run, and clicking on the number below each card will take you to that card's blog post.

#114

#119

#120

#127

#147

#148

#153

#155

#158

#168

#172

#173

#174

#180

1952-69 Philadelphia Phillies Photo Cards

Number of Cards:  79
Card Size:  3 1/4" x 5 1/2"
Description:  These photo cards feature black and white portraits of prominent Phillies players (and managers) to have suited up for the team between 1950 and 1969.  Most of the photo cards contain black facsimile autographs on the fronts, and all the backs are blank.

How Distributed:  The cards were produced throughout the '50s and '60s by the Phillies as needed and as new players joined the club.  There's no way to tell which year any particular card is from, other than each player's card would have been issued during his tenure with the Phillies.  For example, the Johnny Callison card featured above could have been issued at any point, and over several different years from several different printings, between 1960 and 1969, the years Callison played for the Phillies.

Vintage-wise, Dick Sisler is the earliest Phillie represented, having left the club following the 1951 season.  Deron Johnson is the newest Phillie on the checklist, having joined the club in 1969.  The list presented below could grow, although I suspect that any new photo card discoveries from this era would have been made by now.  With the advent of the internet age, the mysteries surrounding these types of issuances are slowly dissipating. 

Complete Standard Checklist (Unnumbered, presented here alphabetically, with variations): 

1. Rich Allen - Glasses 2. Rich Allen - No glasses, Phillies visible 3. Rich Allen - No glasses, cropped              4. Harry Anderson 5. Richie Ashburn 6. Jack Baldschun 7. Dennis Bennett 8. Ed Bouchee 9. Johnny Briggs 10. Jim Bunning       11. Smoky Burgess 12. John Buzhardt 13. Johnny Callison 14. Doug Clemens 15. Jim Coker 16. Gene Conley 17. Wes Covington 18. Ray Culp 19. Tony Curry 20. Clay Dalrymple - With glove 21. Clay Dalrymple - Portrait 22. Clay Dalrymple - Portrait, cropped 23. Jacke Davis 24. Don Demeter 25. Dick Ellsworth 26. Del Ennis 27. Dick Farrell - '50s version

28. Dick Farrell - '60s version 29. Chico Fernandez 30. Woodie Fryman 31. Tony Gonzalez - Phillies visible         32. Tony Gonzalez - Phillies partial 33. Dallas Green 34. Dick Groat 35. Granny Hamner 36. John Herrnstein  37. Larry Hisle 38. Grant Jackson 39. Larry Jackson - Phillie visible 40. Larry Jackson - Cropped 41. Deron Johnson 42. Jerry Johnson 43. Willie Jones 44. Jim Konstanty (Not team issued) 45. Stan Lopata 46. Art Mahaffey 47. Gene Mauch MG 48. Jack Meyer (Not team issued) 49. Don Money 50. Bobby Morgan 51. Wally Post 52. Robin Roberts 53. Cookie Rojas

54. Mike Ryan 55. Ted Savage 56. Eddie Sawyer MG - Facsimile auto 57. Eddie Sawyer MG - No auto 58. Andy Seminick 59. Ray Semproch 60. Chris Short - Phillies visible 61. Chris Short - Phillies partial 62. Roy Sievers 63. Curt Simmons 64. Dick Sisler 65. Bob Skinner MG - Stands behind 66. Bob Skinner MG - No stands 67. Bobby Gene Smith 68. Charley Smith 69. Frank Sullivan 70. Gary Sutherland (Not team issued) 71. Tony Taylor - Facsimile auto 72. Tony Taylor - No auto (Not team issued) 73. Earl Torgeson 74. Gary Wagner 75. Bill White - Portrait 76. Bill White - With bat (Not team issued) 77. Bobby Wine - Phillies visible         78. Bobby Wine - Phillies partial 79. Rick Wise

One and Only Phillies Baseball Card (1):  Going through my collection and double checking the Beckett database, I believe these photo cards mark the only Phillies baseball card appearance of Charley Smith (112 games in 1961).

First Appearance in Phillies Team Issued Set (62):  There are 63 known players to have appeared in these postcard sets.  C. Smith and 62 other players who appeared elsewhere on Phillies baseball cards throughout the years.

Managers (3):  Sawyer, Mauch, Skinner

Omissions:  The players with the most games with the Phillies in the 1950s without a team issued photo card are - Eddie Waitkus (559 games), Ted Kazanski (417 games) and Johnny Wyrostek (315 games).  From the 1960s, the top three players by games played but not appearing on a Phillies photo card are - Ruben Amaro (668 games), Pancho Herrera (271 games) and Don Lock (215 games).

Variations/Rarities:  I've listed in the checklist above the variations to be found for Allen, Dalrymple, Farrell, Gonzalez, L. Jackson, Sawyer, Short, Skinner, Taylor, Wine and White.  I'm not sure which of the versions of their cards are more prevalent than the others, so I've listed them all above as part of the main checklist.

Special Note:  Fellow collector Rick pointed out to me via text that some of the cards included above are not in fact true team issues.  These are either smaller in size, feature action poses or in some cases are printed on a thicker stock of cardboard.  Rick notes the cards listed above that are almost certainly not team-issued are as follows:  Jim Konstanty, Jack Meyer, Gary Sutherland, Tony Taylor (no auto) and Bill White (with bat).  Collectors should also be aware there are photo cards of similar size and paper stock featuring action shots of Jim Bunning, Chris Short and Rick Wise.  Finally, there's a Mike Ryan card available that is slightly smaller in size than the team-issued version.

Resources:  Fellow Phillies collector Rick (@rickphils) provided the checklists I used to compile the list above, and Rick notes these checklists were originally compiled by collector Dan E., and please refer to my Special Note directly above.                                                                  

Checklist by Decade:  Similar to how I store my multi-year Phillies Alumni photo cards, I've broken out these cards by decade, depending on the years in which the player appeared the most.

1950s (22) - Anderson, Ashburn, Bouchee, Burgess, Ennis, Farrell, Fernandez, Hamner, Jones, Konstanty, Lopata, Meyer, Morgan, Post, Roberts, Sawyer (2), Seminick, Semproch, Simmons, Sisler, Torgeson

1960s (57) - Allen (3), Baldschun, Bennett, Briggs, Bunning, Buzhardt, Callison, Clemens, Coker, Conley, Covington, Culp, Curry, Dalrymple (3), Davis, Demeter, Ellsworth, Farrell, Fryman, Gonzalez (2), Green, Groat, Herrnstein, Hisle, G. Jackson, L. Jackson (2), D. Johnson, J. Johnson, Mahaffey, Mauch, Money, Rojas, Ryan, Savage, Short (2), Sievers, Skinner (2), B. Smith, C. Smith, Sullivan, Sutherland, Taylor (2), Wagner, White (2), Wine (2), Wise  

This set was originally featured in a post back in October 2014, and I'm going to slowly go through some of these team issued set posts and update them with new information gleaned (if any) over the past nearly six years.

1970 Phillies Team-Issued Photo Cards

1950-1969 Phillies Team-Issued Photo Cards Want List / Phillies Team Issued Sets Index Page

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! (Social Distancing Version)

Tax day has been pushed back to at least July 15th this year due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.  However, that didn't stop my best client, my Mom, from paying for her tax services in advance and in full.  As has been the tradition in recent years, she took it upon herself to wipe out my Ten Most Wanted list from my sidebar as payment for preparing her tax returns.  The payment received does not come close to matching the value of the services rendered, but she insists on overpaying and I'm certainly not complaining.

These Most Wanted lists are getting more difficult to populate as I've slowly accumulated most of the Phillies cards from the Bowman and Topps sets of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.  The cards remaining on my want lists from those sets are mostly high priced cards I'll eventually track down one at a time.  Here's a look at the cards from my Mom and an update on where I stand with completing some landmark Phillies team sets.

1952 Topps #187 Bob Miller and #281 Tommy Brown - This might be it for a little while in terms of progress on my 1952 Topps Phillies team set.  The remaining cards I need are all from the high number series, meaning they're all somewhat pricey.  As of this writing, I need four more cards for a complete 1952 Topps Phillies team set.

1953 Topps #22 Howie Fox - This card completes the 9-card 1953 Topps Phillies team set for me.  I still have Johnny Lindell (#230) on my want list, as Lindell appears in the set with the Pirates but he played in 1953 with the Phillies.


1956 Topps #7 Ron Negray and #60 Mayo Smith - I always feel a little selfish adding second versions of these cards to my collection.  My Dad and I collected the entire 1956 Topps set together, and now I'm adding second copies of the Phillies cards from the set to my 1950s Phillies binder.  I'm four cards away from completing a Phillies team set (for the second time).  I'm pretty sure these Negray and Smith cards are in better shape than the cards in our actual 1956 Topps set.

1957 Topps #332 Bob Bowman - This completes my 27-card Phillies team set from the 1957 Topps set.  I've never been a big fan of the 1957 Topps set, but these cards look incredible together.

1966 Topps #595 Larry Jackson - With the addition of this card, I'm one card away from completing this Phillies team set as well.  I'm down to needing only the Roger Craig card (#543) which is one of the pricier Phillies cards from the 1966 Topps set.  (I tracked down the elusive Grant Jackson Rookie Stars card a few years ago.)

1967 Topps #244 N.L. Home Run Leaders - This might be my favorite card out of this lot.  Featuring two Hall of Famers with Hank Aaron and Willie Mays, and someone who should be in the Hall of Fame - Dick Allen.  I still need to track down the high-number Rookie Stars card of Gary Sutherland to complete my 1967 Topps Phillies team set.

1970 Topps #539 Doyle/Bowa and #654 Oscar Gamble - These two cards close out my 1970 Topps Phillies team set.  Larry Bowa looks so young here.


Finally, I've scheduled this post to publish on my Mom's birthday.  I'm eternally grateful for her health, her humor, her good spirits and her constant encouragement.  I can't wait to celebrate properly when everything gets back to normal.  Happy birthday Mom!

1968 Topps Phillies

1968 Topps #225, #139, #122 and #415

With no fanfare, let's jump right into an analysis of Phillies baseball cards in the 1968 Topps set, affectionately known as the "burlap" set.

1968 Topps #139 (Back)

The Set

Number of cards in the set:  Topps went back to 598 cards in 1968 after jumping up to 609 cards in 1967.

My very brief thoughts on the set:  At this point, I'm anxious to get into the '70s, since I just don't know that much about these sets from the late '60s.  I didn't own any '68 Topps cards as I was growing up, so I have no emotional connection to these cards.

Notable competition:  It's still just a few oddball sets providing scant competition for Topps.  There are Phillies cards in the Bazooka, Coca-Cola, Arco and Nabisco sets from 1968.

1968 Phillies

Record and finish:  The team dipped down below .500 for the first time since 1961, finishing with a record of 76-86.  They tied for 7th place in the National League, 21 games behind the dominant Cardinals.

Key players:  Despite his troubles (see below), Dick Allen led the offense with his .263 average, 33 home runs and 90 RBIs.  Johnny Callison, with 14 home runs, was the only other Phillie to hit more than 10.  On the pitching side, Chris Short had another fine year, going 19-13 with a 2.94 ERA.

Key events:  Here's the first sentence of the 1968 season summary per The Phillies Encyclopedia - "The Dick Allen-Gene Mauch fight went from simmer to boil, cost Mauch his job, and turned the fans against Allen worse than ever."  The entry then goes on to summarize the various conflicts between player and manager beginning in spring training and culminating with Mauch's dismissal on June 14th.  Coach George Myatt served as interim manager for two games before Bob Skinner was brought in on a permanent basis.  And I love that Jim from Downingtown currently sponsors the 1968 Phillies page over at Baseball Reference with the cavaet, "Hey, SOMEONE needs to like this team!"

1968 Topps #190, #327, #245 and #284

1968 Phillies in 1968 Topps

Cards needed for a complete team set:  There are 30 cards needed for a complete 1968 Topps Phillies team set.  That's 270 total Phillies Topps cards from the '60s and 443 Phillies Topps cards overall.

Who’s in:  First, please refer to this post from Jim from Downington's 1968 Topps Baseball blog with regards to team distribution and then come on back here for the Phillies break-down -

• Cards of the eight starting position players - 7 cards

#306 Mike Ryan (c), #190 Bill White (1b), #39 Cookie Rojas (2b), #327 Tony Taylor (3b), #225 Dick Allen (lf), #245 Tony Gonzalez (cf), #415 Johnny Callison (rf)

• Cards of the starting pitching rotation - 4 cards

#139 Chris Short, #81 Larry Jackson, #112 Woodie Fryman, #262 Rick Wise

1968 Topps #81, #112, #262 and #217

• Base cards of other players who played with the Phillies in 1968 - 11 cards

#17 Dick Hall, #59 Don Lock, #98 Gary Sutherland, #173 John Boozer, #217 Turk Farrell, #284 John Briggs, #396 Bobby Wine, #434 Rick Joseph, #448 Gary Wagner, #512 Grant Jackson, #567 Clay Dalrymple

• 1968 Rookie Stars cards - 2 cards

#348 Larry Colton/Dick Thoenen and #579 Larry Hisle with the Braves' Mike Lum

1968 Topps #7

• League Leader cards - 4 cards

#1 Batting Leaders with Gonzalez, #7 ERA Leaders with Jim Bunning and Short, #9 Pitching (Victory) Leaders with Bunning and #11 Strikeout Leaders with Bunning

• Manager card - 1 card for Gene Mauch, #122
• Team card - 1 card, #477

Who’s out:  The team's regular shortstop, Roberto Pena, appeared in 138 games but did not get a Topps baseball card in 1968.  Pitcher Jerry Johnson started 11 games and had a record of 4-4 with a 3.24 ERA. Johnson would get a Phillies card in the 1969 Topps set, but Pena (to date) has never had a Phillies baseball card.  He was selected by San Diego in the October 1968 expansion draft and appeared in the 1969 Topps set with the Padres.

Phillies on other teams:  Surprisingly, none.

What’s he doing here:  Dick Thoenen shares a Rookie Stars card with Larry Colton, despite pitching in just 1 inning with the team in 1967.  It would be his first and last appearance in the Majors.

Cards that never were candidates:  Pena, Johnson and rookie Don Money, acquired in December 1967 from the Pirates along with Woodie Fryman for Bunning.  Money made his Major League debut in April and appeared in four games.  Interim manager Myatt could be a candidate for a 1968 Topps "update" card as well.  Skinner would appear as the team's skipper in the 1969 Topps set.

Favorite Phillies card: I'll go with Short's card edging out Mauch's final manager card.

1968 Topps #306, #396, #59 and #567

Other Stuff

Recycled:  Baseball Cards Magazine used the '68 Topps design for their Repli-Cards in 1993.  Look for the design in the upcoming 2017 Topps Heritage set.

Blogs/Websites:  As mentioned previously, head on over to the 1968 Topps Baseball blog once you've finished up with this post.

Did You Know?:  Series 1 of the '68 Topps set, the first 109 cards, feature a "wider" burlap design than the rest of the cards in the set, which featured a finer burlap design.  I'd love to hear the behind the scenes story that led to Topps changing the burlap pattern following the first series of the set.