Baseball Card Show Report - Valley Forge 3

Dutch and Doug

Doug and I attended the Philadelphia Sportscard & Memorabilia Show, affectionately known as The Philly Show, this past Saturday in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.  We prepared our check lists, discussed our plan of attack, and had a fantastic day!

The tide is definitely turning, as it should, since we spent more time looking for cards for Doug's collection than we spent looking for cards for my collection.  Doug gravitated towards the newer stuff, and he was drawn to the various bargain bins to be found scattered throughout the convention room floor.

1994 Phillies Team Issue #10

By far, the highlight of the day was getting to meet Phillies great Darren Daulton.  There were a number of current Phillies signing earlier in the day, but Doug's mid-morning soccer game meant that we didn't arrive until most of the current Phillies had already left.  We scanned the list of upcoming autograph signers, and decided we'd like to meet Daulton.

Dutch could not have been any nicer to us.  He took his time to talk to Doug and he graciously posed for several pictures.  As we were walking away, Daulton called Doug back over and said, "Now listen, here's the deal.  When you make the big leagues, you have to remember that you owe me an autograph."  Doug smiled from ear to ear, and shortly thereafter he announced that Daulton had joined the ranks of his favorite all-time players along with Chase Utley, Shane Victorino and Mike Trout.

I'd show off some of Doug's spoils, but he's already sorted them in with his growing collection.  Here's a summary of his purchases:

• Doug completed his 2014 Topps Opening Day set, and the last two cards he needed were Cole Hamels and Andrew McCutchen.
• He picked up the rest of the 2014 Topps Opening Day Mascots set, save for The Oriole Bird.
• He added cards of Trout, Mike Schmidt, Ken Giles and Maikel Franco.
• We also bought his first factory set, as one of the dealers had the 2012 Topps set on sale for $18.

One of the other cool things that happened is that all of the dealers we interacted with were more than willing to give him cards.  At one table, Doug had easily accumulated $20 worth of Trout and Phillies cards and the dealer charged us just $3.  The dealer's comment to me was, "It's not every day you get to make a kid's day."  Another dealer handed Doug a pack of random cards as we walked by.  Yet another saw that Doug was going through the quarter bin looking for Trout cards, and he produced two or three Trout cards from behind his table and handed them to Doug.

Less importantly, here are some of the highlights of my acquisitions:

1983 Tastykake Phillies

• For the sets I'm trying to finish off, I added several cards from the 1971 Topps set (mostly some high numbers) and the 2014 Topps Heritage set (again, all high numbers).
• I spent a lot of time with one dealer's vintage Topps binders, picking out Phillies I needed from the 1965, 1966 and 1967 Topps sets.
• I added vintage Phillies cards from 1940 Play Ball ("Hans" Lobert), 1952 Bowman (Connie Ryan) and 1952 Topps (Howie Fox), along with a few Exhibits cards of Jim Konstanty and Dick Sisler.
• I added several more 1983 Tasktykake Phillies to my collection, and now I only need four more cards to complete that set.
• My biggest thrill was finding a complete 1990 Phillies Team Issue set, which I had never seen before.  The dealer explained that this set was only available at the ballpark in packs of four or five cards per series in 1990.  It was never actually sold in complete set form.

Memory Lane
Valley Forge 1 - September 2010
Valley Forge 2 - October 2012

1979 Topps - Phillies Cards

1979 Topps #231, #253, #88 and #74

As the 2012 baseball season draws to a close, I'm getting closer to the end of my season-long appreciation of the 1979 Topps set.  Where possible, and when there's been a logical connection, I've featured the 1979 Topps cards of ex, current or future Phillies in my series preview posts.

There were several American League teams the Phillies didn't play against this year, so several worthy 1979 Topps Phillies-related cards didn’t have a chance to be properly featured. For posterity's sake, I decided to showcase some of those cards here and provide the full list of Phillies-related cards within the 1979 Topps set. (Please let me know if I’ve missed any.)

Of the 726 cards in the set, 111 have a Phillies connection, representing a little over 15% of the total set.  The list only includes people who actually played, coached or managed with the Phillies and it does not include those who passed through the Phillies minor league system.  So #243 Buck Martinez (drafted by the Phillies in 1967, but lost to the Royals via the Astros in the 1968 Rule 5 draft), #132 Rowland Office (played for the Phillies Triple-A affiliate in 1982), and several others aren’t included in the tally.

National League East (43 - 18 without Phillies)
Atlanta Braves (4) - #39 Dale Murphy, #85 Gary Matthews, #504 Larry McWilliams, #629 Gene Garber
Miami Marlins (0) - None (obviously)
New York Mets (5) - #305 Willie Montanez, #545 John Stearns, #566 Nino Espinosa, #621 Pat Zachry, #655 Jerry Koosman
Philadelphia Phillies (25)
Washington Nationals (9) (the team formerly known as the Montreal Expos) - #43 Wayne Twitchell, #124 Dan Schatzeder, #269 Woodie Fryman, #395 Dave Cash, #468 Stan Bahnsen, #495 Tony Perez, #581 Darold Knowles, #628 Del Unser, #673 Tom Hutton

National League Central (27)
Chicago Cubs (9) - #398 Ivan DeJesus, #412 Hack Wilson ATRH, #489 Larry Cox, #513 Dave Johnson, #579 Greg Gross, #592 Mike Krukow, #614 Willie Hernandez, #639 Manny Trillo, #693 Dave Rader
Cincinnati Reds (6) - #20 Joe Morgan, #126 Doug Bair, #204 Pete Rose RB, #259 Sparky Anderson MG, #301 Tom Hume, #650 Pete Rose
Houston Astros (1) - #49 Vern Ruhle
Milwaukee Brewers (4) - #180 Larry Hisle, #265 Don Money, #474 Dick Davis, #685 Sixto Lezcano
Pittsburgh Pirates (4) - #117 Grant Jackson, #223 Kent Tekulve, #264 Don Robinson, #637 Bill Robinson
St. Louis Cardinals (3) - #59 John Denny, #111 Roger Freed, #143 Tony Scott

National League West (6)
Arizona Diamondbacks (0)
Colorado Rockies (0)
Los Angeles Dodgers (2) - #104 Johnny Oates, #290 Dave Lopes
San Diego Padres (4) - #263 Oscar Gamble, #342 Dave Roberts, #616 Billy Almon, #679 Derrel Thomas
San Francisco Giants (0)

1979 Topps #199, #365, #61 and #544

American League East (8)
Baltimore Orioles (3) - #37 Joe Kerrigan, #102 Mike Anderson, #543 Kiko Garcia
Boston Red Sox (1) - #375 Bill Campbell
New York Yankees (3) - #365 Sparky Lyle, #558 Jay Johnstone, #626 Bob Lemon MG
Tampa Bay Rays (0)
Toronto Blue Jays (1) - #64 Tom Underwood

American League Central (17)
Chicago White Sox (6) - #88 Bob Molinaro, #134 Alan Bannister, #169 Bill Nahorodny, #514 Mike Proly, #527 Lerrin LaGrow, #686 Ron Schueler
Cleveland Indians (4) - #61 Bo Diaz, #253 Rick Wise, #459 Sid Monge, #573 Jim Kern
Detroit Tigers (3) - #231 Johnny Wockenfuss, #272 Tim Corcoran, #469 Lance Parrish
Kansas City Royals (2) - #585 Hal McRae, #664 Doug Bird
Minnesota Twins (2) - #41 Gene Mauch MG, #709 Sam Perlozzo

American League West (10)
Los Angeles Angels (2) - #424 Jim Fregosi MG, #557 Ken Brett
Oakland Athletics (2) - #458 Jim Essian, #711 Dwayne Murphy
Seattle Mariners (2) - #74 Shane Rawley, #199 Larry Milbourne
Texas Rangers (4) - #391 Al Oliver, #463 Steve Comer, #499 Pat Corrales MG, #544 Fergie Jenkins

1979 Topps #499, #709 and #424

1983 Fleer #167 Bob Molinaro

I'm an uncle!

Carol and Bill, my sister and brother-in-law, have just welcomed their first daughter, Molly Margaret, into the world.  It's been a rough year for our family, and Molly's arrival provides a much-needed dose of pure joy for all of us.

While I can't say for certain if anyone ever used the nickname "Molly" when referring to Bob Molinaro, he's the closest "Molly" I could come up to celebrate my new niece.  As she grows up, rest assured she'll be surrounded by very loving, very caring Phillies fans.

Congratulations to Carol, Bill and Molly!

The State of the 2011 Chachi Set Address

1983 Topps #664

My fellow bloggers, baseball card collectors, Phillies fans: 

Almost two year ago, I started this humble little blog with the goal of sharing and discussing Phillies baseball cards from my collection, sharing my custom-made baseball cards using baseball card designs of yore, and finding a creative way to goof off at night once the kids were in bed.  We now live in an era in which it is very satisfying to follow and root for the Phillies.  I am proud and honored to be possibly one of the top 1,000 baseball card/Phillies/custom card blogs on this entire fine planet we share.

As most of you may be aware, I have made the switch to an iMac recently, rendering my PC obsolete and putting me at square one in terms of learning and adapting to a new graphic design software package.

At the advice of a few senior advisers, and after careful consideration, I have decided to try my hand at Apple's Pixelmator.  The software package has received its share of favorable reviews, and I like its slogan of, "Image editing for the rest of us."  As soon as my schedule permits, I'm going to sign up for one of the hip and cool "Personal Projects" sessions at my local Apple store, in the hopes of producing something that closely approximates the baseball cards presented here.  [Pause for polite golf applause.]

1983 Topps #301

Yes, the 2011 Chachi set will eventually feature the popular design from Topps' 1983 baseball card set.  [Pause for applause.]  I attempted to make a prototype for this post using Pixelmator, but after several hours of redundant double clicking, stunted lasso dragging and, unfortunately, a few muffled curse words, I must admit defeat.  In short, I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing.  I want to learn and I plan to learn, but real life and my family's dependence on me for a paycheck dictates that I potentially postpone the release of the 2011 Chachi set until such a time that I can put forth a product deserving of the Chachi name.

A few of you have realized by now that the 2010 Chachi set stands incomplete at 58 cards.  The masses (all three of you) have cried, "Where's our Brian Bocock card?  Where are the 2010 Leaders cards?",  and finally, "When will get a highlight card celebrating Roy Halladay's Cy Young award?"

1983 Topps #252

I hear your cries, and your voices ring loud and true.  The 2010 Chachi set will rise again, and it will be completed.  I will finish what I started and I will not rest until Nate Robertson gets his 2010 Chachi card, even though it's completely undeserved and wholly unnecessary!  [Pause for vigorous applause.]  These are challenging times, when one has to know how to use different palettes and brushes and layers and swatches.  But I'm up to the challenge, and I will not be defeated or daunted just because I have no idea how to remove Luis Aguayo from a baseball card and replace him with Wilson Valdez!  [Pause for frenzied applause.]


I thank you for your readership, your insightful comments and your patience.  2011 is going to be an exciting year, and the 2011 Chachi set will appear at some point in our bright futures.  God bless you, God bless baseball cards and God bless Chachi.

[Point enthusiastically at random audience members, turn, moonwalk, throw in a little cabbage patch and exit.]