1990 Topps Phillies

1990 Topps #515, #710, #542 and #469

The early '90s were an awkward time for me.  I was an awkward teenager with awkward hair and awkward acne collecting awkward baseball cards.  Flipping through my binder of 1990 Phillies cards recently, there was one overriding theme - these cards did not age well.  Cards from the '50s and '60s are classics, cards from the '70s are cool and cards from the '80s remind me of a happy childhood.  Cards from the '90s are . . . awkward.

1990 Topps #542 (Back)

The Set

Number of cards in the set:  No surprises here.  There were 792 cards in the base set and another 132 cards added to the traded series for the ninth year in a row.  (There would be two more years with this configuration before Topps mixed it up in 1993.)

My very brief thoughts on the set:  It amazes me that the creative people at Topps actually gave the green light to this set.  There are too many posed shots and there are too many orange and purple and green Phillies cards.  It's not an attractive set and it may actually be my least favorite Topps flagship set of all time.  If anyone cares to defend this set and show me the error of my ways, please leave a comment.  (I just re-read those last few sentences.  I honestly don't mean to come off as angry about the 1990 Topps set.  I still managed to hand collate the set back in the day, so I wasn't completely disgusted by it.) 

Notable competition:  If I was forced to pick a favorite set from 1990, I'd have to go with Score's set.  Donruss did this, Fleer had a completely uninspiring design, and Upper Deck basically just copied their 1989 design but rotated the base line to the top of the card.  The Leaf set was cool, but they didn't sell packs of Leaf at my Wawa and even if they did, the packs would have been too expensive for me.

1990 Topps #216, #297, #269 and #577

1990 Phillies

Record and finish:  The Phillies actually showed some signs of life in 1990, going 77-85.  They finished in a fourth-place tie, 18 games behind the Pirates.

Key players:  Lenny Dykstra flirted with the National League batting title all season, finishing the year with a .325 average.  Von Hayes (.261, 17 home runs, 73 RBIs) and Darren Daulton (.268, 12 home runs, 57 RBIs) also enjoyed decent years.  John Kruk hit .291 in his first full season with the Phils.  Pat Combs (10-10, 4.07 ERA) and Terry Mulholland (9-10, 3.34 ERA) gave the team two reliable starting pitchers for the first time in a few years.  Roger McDowell (22 saves), Darrel Akerfelds (3.77 ERA in 71 games) and Joe Boever (2.15 ERA, 6 saves) anchored the bullpen.

Key events:  On August 3rd, in a trade that blew my mind at the time, the Phillies acquired Dale Murphy from the Braves (with Tommy Greene) for Jeff Parrett, Jim Vatcher and Victor Rosario.  I was thrilled when this move was made, as it seemed (at the time) that Murphy was the final piece the Phillies were seeking to put them over the top.  Mulholland pitched the first no-hitter by a Phillies pitcher at Veterans Stadium on August 15th.

1990 Phillies in 1990 Topps

Cards needed for a complete team set:  There are 29 Phillies cards in the base set and another 3 Phillies cards in the traded set.

Who’s in:

• Cards of the eight starting position players - 8 cards

#542 Darren Daulton (c), #216 Ricky Jordan (1b), #297 Tom Herr (2b), #269 Dickie Thon (ss), #577 Charlie Hayes (3b), #469 John Kruk (lf), #515 Lenny Dykstra (cf), #710 Von Hayes (rf)

• Cards of the starting pitching rotation - 4 cards

#384 Pat Combs, #657 Terry Mulholland, #22 Bruce Ruffin, #756 Ken Howell

1990 Topps #384, #657, #22 and #756

• Base cards of players who played with the Phillies in 1990 - 14 cards

#39 Curt Ford, #69 Todd Frohwirth, #103 Marvin Freeman, #129 Ron Jones, #183 Steve Lake, #356 Randy Ready, #439 Jeff Parrett, #493 Jason Grimsley, #625 Roger McDowell, #633 Dennis Cook, #731 Don Carman, #1T Darrel Akerfelds, #41T Dave Hollins, #68T Carmelo Martinez

• Base cards of players who didn't play with the Phillies in 1990 - 3 cards (with new teams listed)

#154 Mike Maddux (Dodgers), #204 Bob Dernier (Retired), #607 Steve Jeltz (Royals)

• #1 Draft Pick card - 1 card, #74 Jeff Jackson
• Manager card - 1 card, #489 Nick Leyva
• Phillies appearing on Turn Back the Clock cards - 1 card, #662 Mike Schmidt

As much as I didn't care for the set, I was grateful that Topps gave us one last Schmidt card following the year he retired.  His 1980 Topps card is featured on the card looking back to ten years prior. 

1990 Topps #625, #633, 1990 Topps Traded #1T and 1990 Topps #750

Who’s out:  It would have been awesome if Murphy had been included in the traded set, but he was left out.  (Both Fleer and Score managed to work him into their update sets.)  Jose DeJesus, acquired in a March trade with the Royals, should have also made it into the traded set.  DeJesus went 7-8 in 22 starts for the Phils.  There are also quite a few bench guys, rookies and relievers deserving of cards, including Rod Booker (73 games), Sil Campusano (66 games), Mickey Morandini (made his debut in September), and Boever.

Phillies on other teams:  Martinez appears with the Pirates on card #686 and he made it into the traded series as a Phillie.  Four players only had cards with the former teams - #410 Joe Boever (Braves), #534 Louie Meadows (Astros), #595 Jose DeJesus (Royals), #750 Dale Murphy (Braves).

1990 Topps #662

What’s he doing here:  A few years back, the player's union came up with a bunch of baseball card related rules that prevented Topps (and Upper Deck at the time) from including players in "main" sets who were not on team's 40-man rosters.  It's a good rule.  I remember opening a pack of 1990 Topps cards and coming across the card of Phillies top draft pick Jeff Jackson and thinking "Why?"  I didn't want cards of draft picks.  I wanted cards of players whose names I was seeing in box scores - the utility guys, middle relievers and defensive replacements.  Jackson never made it to the majors as he kicked around the minors until hanging up his spikes in 1998.  I mean no disrespect to Jackson here, but I would have rather pulled a card of Chuck McElroy.  

Cards that never were candidates:  Murphy, Boever, DeJesus, Booker, Campusano and Morandini.  I'll also add Wes Chamberlain to the long list, as Chamberlain was acquired from the Pirates at the end of August and hit .283 in 18 games.

Favorite Phillies card:  I'll go with Kruk's card, by default.  Kruk is pictured with his pre-beard and mullet look.

Other Stuff

Recycled:  As far as I know, Topps hasn't gone back to this design for any Phillies cards.  And why would they?  I took a stab at creating a final tribute Schmidt card a few years ago.

Blogs/Websites:  I can't say I'm shocked there isn't a blog dedicated to this set.  However, I love that Shoebox Legends did a series of posts highlighting his favorite cards from his "guilty pleasure" set.  I'd also like to highly recommend The Greatest 21 Days, which is highlighting each and every card from the 1990 CMC minor league set.  

Did You Know?:  Other than a few oddball issues, Schmidt wouldn't be featured on another mainstream baseball card until 1994's Ted Williams set.  When these new Schmidt cards were released, it was big news for me at the time and I remember actively seeking out his cards from the main Ted Williams set and the special 9-card insert set which chronicled the slugger's career.  It seems strange now to go three to four years without a new baseball card of a Hall of Famer.  Over the past few years especially, it seems as if Schmidt is featured in just about every "legends" based insert set that Topps releases.

1955 Bowman and Topps Phillies - Not for Use with Bicycles

1955 Bowman #41, #110
#111 and #210

I've managed to stretch the bounty received from the "Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim" tradition into several posts and this is my sixth and final installment.  My Dad had been diligent in tracking down Phillies cards from the 1951 and 1955 Bowman sets over the past several years solely because those are the sets he remembered best from his childhood.  He told me on several occasions that he definitely had a complete 1955 Bowman set when he was younger, but it mysteriously disappeared after he left home for college.

My Mom also clearly remembers the "TV Set" as being the cards that made the loudest and coolest sounds when folded and inserted into the spokes of a bicycle.  While she was shopping around for cards featured on my Phillies wantlists, she decided to add a few TV Set cards to my growing vintage collection.

Thanks to her pure awesomeness as a Mom, I'm now four cards closer to a 1955 Bowman Phillies team set.

Also included in the magic Christmas shoebox were three cards from the 1955 Topps set.  This set was the older brother to what would become probably the best baseball card set of all-time - the 1956 Topps set.

1955 Topps #29, #33 and #114

2011 Topps Phillies #PHI17 Citizens Bank Park

2012 Topps Series One releases in 18 days.

Pitchers and catchers report in 35 days.

Opening day is 82 days away.

We can do this.

1989 Topps Phillies - Missing Links (Incomplete)

I've mentioned in a few posts already how I began the process a few years back of creating Topps Phillies cards for those unfortunate few players omitted from the Topps base or traded series for the year(s) they wore red/burgundy pinstripes.  To date, I have created a complete run of missing link players from 1980 through 1988.  I got to 1989 . . . and completely stalled out.

There were 19 players who appeared with the Phils in 1989 who did not merit a Topps baseball card that year.  I started creating the cards and then, to be perfectly honest, I completely lost interest in the project.  I guess Floyd Youmans and Gordan Dillard and Jim Adduci will do that to a guy.  (As a side note, it was very difficult for me to replicate the curvature of the player's name on the 1989 Topps cards.  I found I had to rotate and adjust each letter to get the right look.  This probably contributed to the abandonment of the project.)

In any event, here are the five cards I did manage to complete.  The remaining 14 will hopefully be completed at some point.  After all, how could we live in a world in which Steve Stanicek doesn't have a 1989 Topps Phillies card?

PR2

PR3

PR7

PR9

PR10

And in case you're wondering, here are the 14 players still missing 1989 Topps Phillies cards:  Jim Adduci, Dennis Cook, Gordon Dillard, Curt Ford, Charlie Hayes, Terry Mulholland, Dwayne Murphy, Tom Nieto, Randy O'Neal, Al Pardo, Mark Ryal, Bob Sebra, Steve Stanicek and Floyd Youmans.

1974 Topps #149 Mac Scarce

It's been a while since I've done one of these off-season player tracking posts, as things have been quiet on the Phillies transaction front since before Christmas.  Yesterday, we learned the team had released outfielder John Bowker to allow him to pursue an opportunity in Japan.  (He's been linked to the Yomiuri Giants, so he could be a teammate of Scott Mathieson again soon.)  I really liked David Hale's post over on his Philled In blog which informs us that Bowker's career offensive stats as a Phillie (0 for 13 with 7 strikeouts) puts him in dubious company.

In terms of Phillies position players, Bowker's 0-fer is second only to Fred Tauby who went 0 for 20 with the 1937 Phillies.  If you include pitchers, Bowker is sixth on the list, behind such notables as pitcher Mac Scarce (0 for 18 between 1972 and 1974) and pitcher Kent Bottenfield (0 for 17 in 2000).  For all these players, you could say that hits were . . . scarce.

Moving On

Dane Sardinha (10-11) 10/10/11 - Filed for free agency

Brandon Moss (11) 10/17/11 - Outrighted to Lehigh Valley and filed for free agency (Signed a minor league contract with the Oakland A's)

Brad Lidge (08-11) 10/24/11 - Team option declined

Roy Oswalt (10-11) 10/24/11 - Team option declined

Ross Gload (10-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency

Raul Ibanez (09-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency

Ryan Madson (03-11) 10/30/11 - Filed for free agency

Juan Perez (11) 11/2/11 - Became a minor league free agent (Signed a minor league contract with the Milwaukee Brewers)

Scott Mathieson (06, 10-11) 11/29/11 - Released (Signed with the Yomiuri Giants)

Ben Francisco (09-11) 12/12/11 - Traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for pitcher Frank Gailey
John Bowker (11) 1/10/12 - Released

Coming Back

Pete Orr (11) 11/3/11 - Re-signed by the Phillies as a minor league free agent with an invitation to Spring Training

Brian Schneider (10- ) 11/17/11 - Re-signed by the Phillies to a one-year contract

Jimmy Rollins (00- ) 12/19/11 - Re-signed by the Phillies to a three-year contract with a vesting fourth year

New Additions

Jim Thome (03-05) 11/5/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Cleveland Indians

Jonathan Papelbon 11/14/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Boston Red Sox

Ty Wigginton 11/20/11 - Acquired with cash from the Colorado Rockies for a player to be named later or cash

Laynce Nix 12/8/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Washington Nationals

Dontrelle Willis 12/15/11 - Signed as a free agent formerly with the Cincinnati Reds

1992 Pinnacle Rookie Idols #9 Kim Batiste/Barry Larkin

Congratulations to former Reds shortstop Barry Larkin, who was elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame yesterday.  Larkin appeared on 86.4% of the ballots cast by voters, easily surpassing the 75% required for election.  I'm sure former Phillies shortstop Kim Batiste will join me in congratulating his former idol.

Thanks to having my entire Phillies collection now organized on Zistle, I was able to find instances of most of this year's Hall of Fame hopefuls within my collection.  Here is where you can find a few of this year's Hall of Fame misses (and possible 2013 inductees) within my Phillies baseball card collection:

Player (% of Vote) - "Phillies" Card
Jack Morris (66.7%) - 1984 Topps #136 - Strikeout Leaders with Steve Carlton
Jeff Bagwell (56.0%) - 2001 Fleer Triple Crown Glamour Boys #3 - with Scott Rolen and Bernie Williams
Lee Smith (50.6%) - None
Tim Raines (48.7%) - 1987 Fleer #642 - Super Star Special with Juan Samuel
Alan Trammell (36.8%) - None
Edgar Martinez (36.5%) - None
Fred McGriff (23.9%) - None
Larry Walker (22.9%) - 1993 Fleer #715 - Super Star Special with Darren Daulton

Raines also appears on a few Topps Rub-Down/Tattoo cards (from 1984 and 1985) with Mike Schmidt and Walker is featured on the same League Leader card as Bobby Abreu in the 2000 Fleer Tradition set.

Former Phillie Dale Murphy, on the ballot for the 14th year, received only 14.5% of the vote and next year is his final year of eligibility.  After that, he'll presumably be passed along to the Golden Era Committee, who elected Cubs great Ron Santo last month.  Sadly, Terry Mulholland, on the ballot for the first year, received no votes.

1984 Topps #136 and 2001 Fleer Triple Crown Glamour Boys #3

Two More Non-Roster Invitees

2011 Multi-Ad Reading Phillies #15 and #22

The Phillies recently invited two more right-handed pitchers to Spring Training, bringing the non-roster tally to 15.  Barring any other additions, the Phils will send 55 players to Clearwater in mid-February in an attempt to whittle down to the best 25.  All that is left to do is to assign the non-roster guys uniform numbers in the 60's and 70's and then load up the equipment truck.

Both Austin Hyatt and B.J. Rosenberg, the 14th and 15th non-roster invitees respectively, spent their 2011 seasons with Double-A Reading.

Player (position) - 2011 Organization - Last Major Cardboard Appearance
14.  Austin Hyatt (rhp) - Phillies - 2011 Bowman Chrome Prospects #BCP63 (Phillies)
15.  B.J. Rosenberg (rhp) - Phillies - Only minor league cards so far

1980-1989 Phillies

1982 Fleer #637, 1985 Fleer #627, 1988 Fleer Award Winners #35 and 1989 Fleer Update #U-131

Next Sunday (or thereabouts) I'll feature the 1990 Topps Phillies cards in a post.  I knew when I started this series of posts that the '90s could be my downfall.  If this series were to ever stall out, it was going to come when I was trying to write about the 1994, 1995 or 1996 teams.  Hopefully, I'm able to maintain enough steam to push through the lean years to see this project through.

Before we get there though, I want to take a look back at the 1980's - the decade that started with so much promise for the Phillies only to end in a heap of festering poo.

Decade MVP
For the second decade in a row, Mike Schmidt was the team's most valuable player.  He won three National League MVP awards, six Gold Gloves and he was named to eight All-Star games.  He was voted to start at third base for the National League All-Stars in 1989, despite having announced his retirement several months before the game.

1981 Donruss #273, 1982 Donruss #1, 1983 Donruss #16 and 1984 Donruss #305

Leaders
Games - Schmidt (1320), Von Hayes (1002), Greg Gross (969), Juan Samuel (852), Steve Jeltz (653)
Average* - V. Hayes (.278), Schmidt (.277), G. Gross (.272), Garry Maddox (.268), Samuel (.263)
Home Runs - Schmidt (313), V. Hayes (107), Samuel (100), Glenn Wilson (49), Ozzie Virgil (46)
RBIs - Schmidt (929), V. Hayes (474), Samuel (413), Wilson (271), Maddox (249)
Stolen Bases - Samuel (249), V. Hayes (177), Bob Dernier (99), Milt Thompson (82), Jeff Stone (68)

Games - Kent Tekulve (291), Don Carman (253), Steve Bedrosian (218), Ron Reed (212), Kevin Gross (203)
Wins - Steve Carlton (93), K. Gross (60), Shane Rawley (59), Carman (47), Dick Ruthven (41)
ERA** - Tug McGraw (2.84), Carlton (3.12), K. Gross (3.87), Rawley (3.88), Carman (4.04)
Strikeouts - Carlton (1299), K. Gross (727), Carman (523), Rawley (447), Charles Hudson (399)
Saves - Bedrosian (103), Al Holland (55), Reed (39), McGraw (35), Tekulve (25)

*At least 6 seasons with the Phillies, completely subjective
**At least 5 seasons with the Phillies, again completely subjective

1980-1989 Topps
Total Phillies Players (1980-1989): 179, which is a big jump over the 142 players who suited up with the Phils during the '70s.
Total Phillies Players with Topps Phillies Cards: 113.  Topps managed to get 63% of all Phillies from the decade onto cardboard in its main or traded sets.  That's a small increase over the 59% success percentage from the '70s.
Managers with Cards:  Dallas Green (2 cards), Pat Corrales (1 card), Paul Owens (2 cards), John Felske (3 cards), Lee Elia (2 cards) and Nick Leyva (1 card).
Topps Phillies Cards of Non-Phillies: 1 card - Jim Wright (1981).

Card Statistics
Most Featured: Carlton (26 cards), Schmidt (26 cards), Pete Rose (17), G. Gross (10 cards), Samuel (9 cards), McGraw (9 cards), V. Hayes (8 cards) and Maddox (7 cards).
Most Games (Batter), No Phillies Topps Card:  Curt Ford (108 games in 1989), Dwayne Murphy (98 games in 1989), Charlie Hayes (84 games in 1989), Mike Young (75 games in 1988), John Vukovich (60 games in 1980-1981), Mike Easler (33 games in 1987), Jackie Gutierrez (33 games in 1988) and Francisco Melendez (30 games in 1984 and 1986).
Most Games (Pitcher), No Phillies Topps Card:  Dave Shipanoff (26 games in 1985), Lerrin LaGrow (25 games in 1980), Dennis Cook (21 games in 1989), Terry Mulholland (20 games in 1989), Randy O'Neal (20 games in 1989), Rocky Childress (18 games in 1985-1986), Don Larson (17 games in 1980-1981) and Danny Clay (17 games in 1988).

1985 Donruss #23, 1987 Donruss #12, 1988 Donruss #13 and 1989 Donruss #24

The Phillies Topps 60
Continuing my imaginery checklist of the top 60 Topps Phillies cards since 1951:

31 - 1980 Topps #270 Mike Schmidt
32 - 1981 Topps #404 Tug McGraw WS
33 - 1982 Topps Traded #28T Bob Dernier
34 - 1983 Topps Traded #40T Von Hayes
35 - 1984 Topps Traded #105T Juan Samuel
36 - 1985 Topps #454 Glenn Wilson
37 - 1986 Topps #200 Mike Schmidt
38 - 1987 Topps #209 Rick Schu
39 - 1988 Topps #440 Steve Bedrosian
40 - 1989 Topps Traded #27T Len Dykstra

1984 Fleer #35, 1987 Fleer Star Stickers #116, 1988 Score #386 and 1987 Donruss Opening Day #158

Cards That Never Were Series
This set is getting a little out of hand, as we're now up to 140 cards.  And I could probably count on one hand the number of people who would actually want to possess a baseball card set featuring Dave Wehrmeister, Joe Cowley and Mark Ryal.

93 - 1980 Topps Bob Walk
94 - 1980 Topps Marty Bystrom
95 - 1980 Topps George Vukovich
96 - 1980 Topps Bob Dernier
97 - 1981 Topps Luis Aguayo
98 - 1981 Topps Mark Davis
99 - 1981 Topps Future Stars - Len Matuszek/Bob Dernier/Ryne Sandberg
100 - 1982 Topps Julio Franco
101 - 1982 Topps Dave Roberts
102 - 1982 Topps Porfi Altamirano
103 - 1983 Topps Charles Hudson
104 - 1983 Topps Kevin Gross
105 - 1983 Topps Sixto Lezcano
106 - 1983 Topps Larry Andersen
107 - 1983 Topps Juan Samuel
108 - 1983 Topps Paul Owens MG
109 - 1984 Topps Tim Corcoran
110 - 1984 Topps Al Oliver
111 - 1984 Topps Shane Rawley
112 - 1984 Topps John Russell
113 - 1984 Topps Jeff Stone
114 - 1984 Topps Dave Wehrmeister
115 - 1985 Topps Darren Daulton
116 - 1985 Topps Dave Shipanoff
117 - 1985 Topps Tom Foley
118 - 1986 Topps Bruce Ruffin
119 - 1986 Topps Ron Roenicke
120 - 1986 Topps Ronn Reynolds
121 - 1986 Topps Mike Maddux
122 - 1986 Topps Dan Schatzeder
123 - 1986 Topps Greg Legg
124 - 1987 Topps Mike Easler
125 - 1987 Topps Joe Cowley
126 - 1987 Topps Keith Hughes
127 - 1987 Topps Michael Jackson
128 - 1988 Topps Bob Dernier
129 - 1988 Topps Ricky Jordan
130 - 1988 Topps Ron Jones
131 - 1988 Topps Greg Harris
132 - 1988 Topps Mike Young
133 - 1988 Topps John Vukovich MG
134 - 1989 Topps Pat Combs
135 - 1989 Topps Charlie Hayes
136 - 1989 Topps Dennis Cook
137 - 1989 Topps Terry Mulholland
138 - 1989 Topps Dwayne Murphy
139 - 1989 Topps Curt Ford
140 - 1989 Topps Mark Ryal

Links to the Past
1950-1959 Phillies

1960-1969 Phillies

1970-1979 Phillies

Curt Simmons - Two New Bowman Cards

1953 Bowman Color #64

If I had been a kid growing up in the early '50s, I'm not sure I would have been happy when Bowman disappeared following the 1955 season.  I'm starting to think that if you match up the Bowman baseball cards to their Topps counterparts, year-by-year, from 1951 through 1955, the Bowman cards are actually superior.*  I know some people may think that's crazy talk, but this 1953 Bowman Color Curt Simmons card is far more attractive than some of the cards included within the 1953 Topps set.  Prompted by the innovative nature of the 1952 Topps cards, the 1953 Bowman cards are much larger than their predecessors and they feature small bios on the backs along with a few lines of statistics.

My Mom added this card to my collection via the "Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim" magical Christmas shoebox.  Simmons joins the Del Ennis card as the only two cards to date that I have from this wonderful set.

1950 Bowman #68

A few days after Christmas, a package arrived from reader John with Simmons' 1950 Bowman card.  He had purchased the card inadvertently, not realizing it was already in his collection, and he e-mailed me to see if I would give it a good home.  "But of course!," I responded, and I'm very happy to have the card in my collection.

*Maybe with the exception of the two company's 1952 sets.

* * *

I featured Simmons' 1956 Topps card way back during the first month of this blog.  I had mistakenly thought I had met Simmons at a baseball card show back in the '80s.

1951 Bowman Phillies - 1 More to Go

1951 Bowman #185 and #292

A few weeks ago, I posted the Ken Johnson card my Dad gave to me last year for Christmas.  At the time, he thought it was the final card I needed to complete the 1951 Bowman Phillies team set.  I didn't have the heart to tell him that I still needed three more cards, so I agreed with him and we marveled at our latest joint collecting feat - a complete 1951 Bowman Phillies team set.

As part of the "Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim" haul, brought to me this Christmas by my Mom, I added two of the final three cards I actually needed to complete the team set.  Jimmy Bloodworth and Eddie Pallagrini have now taken their places among one of the nicest looking baseball card sets around.  (I like the set so much that the Dick Sisler card from the set is the centerpiece of this blog's banner.)

As of this writing, I just need card #255, Milo Candini, for the complete '51 Bowman Phillies team set.

My First Fairfield Repack

1982 Donruss #595, 1987 Topps #719, 1990 Fleer #102 and 1992 Upper Deck #769

One of my stocking stuffers this past Christmas (courtesy of Mrs. Claus herself, my wife Jenna) was a Fairfield Repack she found in the baseball card aisle in Target.  Knowing that I would have a blast opening it, she bought me one.  Those of you who have opened these things before know there's not much in the way of hidden treasure within these blister packs.  But one thing is for certain - the repack itself was a lot of fun to open.  And when it comes right down to it, shouldn't the act of opening baseball cards be fun?

There were only a few Phillies in the bunch, but there were a lot of ex-Phillies in the package.  The oldest card I received was a 1982 Donruss Randy Lerch card.  I also received multiple cards of Bob Boone and Mark Davis, which I think speaks to the pure volume of cards available for both those players.

There were quite a few 1987 and 1989 Topps cards in the package.  And as could be expected, the package was heavy with cards from 1987 through 1993 with a smattering of cards from the late '90s and early '00s. The most recent card included was a 2009 Upper Deck First Edition Josh Willingham card.  

So again, not much in the way of hidden treasure . . . but it sure was a lot of fun to open!

Drafting the 2012 Topps Checklist

2011 Topps Factory Set
All-Star Bonus #3

Mrs. Claus was kind enough to get me a 2011 Topps factory set for Christmas, as has become her habit over the past few years.  I spent a lovely evening over the break going through the set and sorting the cards into number order.  Included within the box were five bonus All-Star cards, including the Roy Halladay card featured here.  After much consideration, I've decided to remove this Halladay card from the factory set box and store it within my 2011 Phillies binder. 

As I was sorting the set, I started pondering what I'd change about the Topps flagship offering.  I even toyed with the idea of putting my ideas into an actual working checklist for a re-imagined 2012 Topps set.  Time permitting I may tackle this project, but for now, here are my thoughts on how the 2012 Topps set should look.  (Of course, we're way too late in the process for any of these ideas to take effect, but it was fun to think this all through.)

Set Logistics
- The complete set would consist of two regular series of 396 cards each and a third series of 264 cards.  That's a total of 1,032 cards, which some may think is about 300 too many, but stick with me here.
- First series would be released on February 1st, second series would be released on June 1st and the third series would come out on October 1st.
- I don't like how Topps sprinkles highlight cards and award winner cards and other such nonsense throughout the set.  These are subsets.  Back in my day, these cards would be grouped together consecutively, as nature intended.
- If you're a free agent or if you've been traded between the end of the season and December 15th, you're not included within the first series.  This would mean no Phillies cards for Ryan Madson, Roy Oswalt, Ben Francisco or Jimmy Rollins in the first series.

2011 Topps #214

Set Composition - Series 1
(Caution:  There be math ahead.)
- 7 highlight cards start the set.
- 15 N.L. team cards and 15 A.L. manager cards would be included and I'd permit these to be inserted randomly throughout the series - no need for grouping.
- Somewhere in the middle of the first series would be 8 league leader cards featuring the prior year leaders in the major statistical categories from each league and the cards would be numbered consecutively.
- 6 postseason cards, as follows - one for each of the divisional series and one each for the league championship series.  Again, these would be grouped consecutively.
- 3 checklist cards. 
- 12 cards for a to be determined fun subset (or two).  Boyhood photos?  Super Veteran cards?
- 330 player cards, 11 players per team.  To be clear - the players included would have all played with their featured teams in 2011 and there would be a 95% or greater chance they'd be coming back in 2012.  For example, the Phillies base card checklist for the first series would be as follows - Carlos Ruiz, Chase Utley, Placido Polanco, Shane Victorino, Hunter Pence, Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Wilson Valdez, John Mayberry Jr., Joe Blanton, Antonio Bastardo.

2011 Topps #460

Set Composition - Series 2
- 15 A.L. team cards and 15 N.L. manager cards.
- 8 World Series cards.  One for each game and a recap
- 10 cards for a to be determined fun subset.  I'm thinking about father/son cards or mascot cards or even classic combo cards, but only if the combo is in fact classic.
- 3 checklist cards.
- 345 player cards, either 11 or 12 players per team.  These cards would be for the guys who switched teams during the off-season or who were free agents.  Again, as an example, here's the Phillies base card checklist for the second series, giving the Phils 12 cards - Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, Cole Hamels, Vance Worley, Jonathan Papelbon, Jim Thome, Ty Wigginton, Laynce Nix, Dontrelle Willis, Michael Martinez, Kyle Kendrick, Michael Stutes.

Set Composition - Series 3
- 18 cards for the All-Star Game starters.
- 7 highligt/record breaker cards for first half achievements, including the obligatory home run derby champion card.  (I could cut down on the amount of highlight cards and replace with new manager cards, if needed.)
- 2 checklist cards.

2011 Topps Update #US92

- 237 player cards, either 7 or 8 players per team.  These cards would be for in-season acquisitions, rookie sensations or guys who just didn't fit into the first or second series.  For the Phillies team set - Jose Contreras, Justin De Fratus, Brian Schneider and five other players from a pool of new additions or guys like Joe Savery, David Herndon, Pete Orr, Michael Schwimer, Domonic Brown, John Bowker, Scott Podsednik or Pat Misch.

In summary, if Topps were to use my set composition guidelines, we'd have 1,032 cards in a set, subsets grouped together and anywhere from 29 to 31 players from each team.  I know if I had a spare half a day, I could come up with the complete checklist for the first series and probably half the checklist for the second series.  (Topps:  Let me know if you're interested and I'm sure we could negotiate an acceptable form of payment.)

And have I mentioned there would be either no or only one insert set included within the packs?  Maybe that's a topic for a future post . . .

1952 Topps Phillies - 5 Cards Added

1952 Topps #47, #74, #203 and #221

When my Mom decided a few months ago to try to track down some older Phillies cards from my wantlists, something I had included on my 1950-1954 Phillies Wantlist caught her eye.  Before listing out the Phillies cards from the 1952 Topps set I need, I've typed, "1952 Topps (Yikes - Intimidated just typing that.)"

Gathering from my declaration that these cards would be tough to collect, she thought she'd start there.  Because of her willingness to tackle the challenge of finding reasonably priced 1952 Topps cards to add to my collection, the five cards featured here were added to my collection through the "Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim" Christmas tradition.  These five join Nippy Jones as the only Phillies cards from the 1952 Topps set currently in my collection

1952 Topps #107

These cards all came from Kit Young and they're in remarkable shape.  Each had a sticker on its sleeve indicating a "GD" or "GD-VG" condition, but with the exception of a few minor dings, each of the cards looks relatively flawless to me.  The Hamner card in particular looks as if it could have come straight from a pack.  Its coloring is perfect and the card has four sharp corners.  Honestly, if these cards are truly "GD" or "GD-VG," I can't imagine what "EX" cards would look like.

I love that the facsimile autograph for Willie Jones has the former Phillies third baseman signing his nickname of "Puddin' Head."  And I'm thrilled to add the Curt Simmons card to my collection, despite his glowing head or the too-big "P" painted onto his cap.  With the exception of Jones, the bios on the backs of the cards for each of the other players depicted here include mention of their time in the military.

Without gushing too much, I can't convey enough how gorgeous these cards are in person.  And thanks to my Mom, I'm just 17 cards away from a 1952 Topps Phillies team set.  (Yikes again . . . )

1971 Topps Set - 13 More Down, Just 213 To Go

1971 Topps #618 and #100

I've long neglected my quest for a complete 1971 Topps set.  After pledging to spend more time collecting this set in 2011, I had added exactly zero cards to my collection as of this past Christmas Eve.  I didn't attend any baseball card shows this past year, which was the biggest reason for this oversight.  It was a difficult year, and I'd probably have to go back to the early 1980's to find the last year I hadn't attended any shows at all.

Luckily for me, the 1971 Topps drought ended when my Mom added 13 cards to my set via the "Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Cards to Jim" haul this past Christmas.  Included in the haul were the cards of future Phillie teammates Pete Rose and Tug McGraw.  Joining Charlie Hustle and Tugger were 11 other cards of stars or semi-stars hand selected from my wantlist by my Mom.  (She explained to me that she went after names she recognized.)

I really do need to pay more attention to this set in 2012, and one of my more frivolous New Year's resolutions (along with going to more movies) is to attend a baseball card show at some point in the new year.

* * *

In a bit of blogger serendipity, Night Owl recently launched his new 1971 Topps blog.  Check it out and tell him Jim sent you.

1989 Topps Phillies

1989 Topps #385, #358, 1989 Topps Traded #49T and #63T

Happy new year!  Here's to a wonderful 2012 for you and your friends and family.

The 1989 season was a hot mess for the Phillies.  Mike Schmidt tearfully announced his retirement, fan favorites Chris James, Steve Bedrosian and Juan Samuel were all sent packing, and the team continued to underwhelm with another last place finish.  Here and now, with the 2012 Phillies about to begin their journey in about 45 days, I'm reminded again just how much distance there is between today's team and the team I somehow managed to root for some two decades ago.

1989 Topps #154 (Back)

The Set

Number of cards in the set:  For the eighth year in a row, Topps issued 792 cards in its base set and another 132 in its traded series.

My very brief thoughts on the set:  I never really cared for this set although I recently enjoyed flipping through the set with my son Doug.  For the record, and this is completely unofficial, there are three Doug's in the set - Dascenzo, Drabek and Jones.  We may have missed a few since we were too pre-occupied with the discovery that there are two guys named Candy in the set.  But I digress.

Was 1987 the last great Topps baseball card set (in my opinion, of course?)  When I look through the Topps base set cards from 1988 through 2011, there isn't one complete set that really stands out.  I like the 1993 set, but was it a great set?  I'm fine with chalking this observation up to the fact that the sets I like the most are sets I first encountered during my childhood.  But is there something more to it?  Has Topps produced a great, universally adored baseball card base set since 1987?  These are deep questions for a New Year's Day.

Notable competition:  Upper Deck entered the fold in 1989 with it's ground-breaking set, holograms on the back and all.  This next statement will make me sound crotchety, but baseball cards and baseball card collecting hasn't been the same since I opened that first foil-wrapped Upper Deck pack.  Fleer, Donruss and Score were all afterthoughts to me in 1989.  Topps resurrected the Bowman name in 1989 with an extra large, underwhelming set featuring the first Phillies cards of a lot of the players the team acquired prior to the start of the 1989 season.

1989 Topps #187, 1989 Topps Traded #119T, #27T and 1989 Topps #100

1989 Phillies

Record and finish:  Have I already mentioned that 1989 was a hot mess for the Phils?  The team started the year with what seemed like dozens of new faces and a bunch of more new faces would join the team before the season was over.  They managed to win two more games than in the prior year, going 67-95 on their way to a second straight last place finish.

Key players:  Von Hayes was the only consistent offensive threat in the line-up, putting up a respectable .259 average with 26 home runs and 78 RBIs.  When your next two offensive power houses are Ricky Jordan (.285, 12 home runs, 75 RBIs) and Dickie Thon (.271, 15 home runs, 60 RBIs), you know it's going to be a long year.  New second baseman Tommy Herr hit .287 and John Kruk hit .331 after being acquired from the Padres for James in June.  Ken Howell and Jeff Parrett led the pitching staff with 12 wins a piece and Roger McDowell saved 19 games for the Phils after they had shipped former closer Bedrosian to the Giants.  Rookie Pat Combs gave the team hope for the future when he won four games and pitched to a 2.09 ERA following his September call-up.

Key events:  In late May, future Hall of Famer Schmidt called a press conference in San Diego to announce his retirement.  Although he was hitting just .203 with 6 home runs at the time, his decision still came as a shock.  Steve Jeltz lost his starting shortstop job to Thon, but he did manage to hit two home runs from both sides of the plate in the same game, making him the first Phillie in history to do so.  As mentioned at the outset, GM Lee Thomas was extremely busy, trading away popular players and netting Kruk, Randy Ready, Lenny Dykstra, McDowell, Terry Mulholland, Dennis Cook and Charlie Hayes in three seperate trades.  And my hero, Bob Dernier, hit a thrilling, game-winning, inside-the-park home run against the Giants on May 15th.  The video is terrible, but it's hard not to get chills listening to the call from Harry Kalas:

1989 Phillies in 1989 Topps

Cards needed for a complete team set:  There are 28 Phillies cards in the base set and Topps added another 11 Phillies cards to its traded set.  

Who’s in:

• Cards of the eight starting position players - 7 cards

#187 Darren Daulton (c), #358 Ricky Jordan (1b), #49T Tom Herr (2b), #119T Dickie Thon (ss), #63T John Kruk (lf), #27T Lenny Dykstra (cf), #385 Von Hayes (rf)

All three players (Mulholland, Cook and new third baseman Charlie Hayes) acquired from the Giants for Bedrosian were omitted from the traded set.  However, the players acquired from the Mets for Samuel (Dykstra and McDowell) on the same day as the Bedrosian deal, made it into the traded set as Phillies.  This baffles me.  (For the record, all three appear in Fleer's update set.)

• Cards of the starting pitching rotation - 3 cards

#54T Ken Howell, #518 Bruce Ruffin, #154 Don Carman

1989 Topps Traded #54T, 1989 Topps #518, #154 and 1989 Topps Traded #80T

• Base cards of players who played with the Phillies in 1989 - 19 cards

#20 Steve Bedrosian, #39 Mike Maddux, #100 Mike Schmidt, #268 Keith Miller, #298 Chris James, #349 Ron Jones, #418 Bob Dernier, #542 Todd Frohwirth, #575 Juan Samuel, #627 Greg Harris, #634 Marvin Freeman, #653 Tom Barrett, #707 Steve Jeltz, #65T Steve Lake, #79T Roger McDowell, #80T Larry McWilliams, #90T Steve Ontiveros, #95T Jeff Parrett, #102T Randy Ready

• Base cards of players who didn't play with the Phillies in 1989 - 8 cards (with new teams listed)

#67 Dave Palmer (Tigers), #128 Milt Thompson (Cardinals), #202 Brad Moore (Phillies minors), #215 Kevin Gross (Expos), #438 Greg Gross (Astros), #470 Lance Parrish (Angels), #494 Shane Rawley (Twins), #608 Phil Bradley (Orioles)

• Phillies Leaders card - 1 card, #489 with Mike Schmidt
• Manager card  - 1 card, #74 Nick Leyva

1989 Topps Traded #79T, #95T, 1989 Topps #418 and #707

Who’s out:  As mentioned previously, Charlie Hayes, Mulholland and Cook were all left out, despite their prominent roles with the team, for better or worse, during the second half of the season.

Phillies on other teams:  Brace yourselves.  There are 16 players in the base set who played with the Phils in 1989 but appear on other teams.  First, here are the 11 who ended up as Phillies in the traded set - #93 Ken Howell (Dodgers), #176 Jeff Parrett (Expos), #235 John Kruk (Padres), #259 Larry McWilliams (Cardinals), #435 Lenny Dykstra (Mets), #463 Steve Lake (Cardinals), #551 Randy Ready (Padres), #692 Steve Ontiveros (Athletics), #709 Tom Herr (Twins), #726 Dickie Thon (Padres), #735 Roger McDowell (Mets).  And here are the 5 who didn't - #41 Terry Mulholland (Giants), #91 Floyd Youmans (Expos), #132 Curt Ford (Cardinals), #338 Jim Adduci (Brewers), #667 Dwayne Murphy (Tigers).

1989 Topps #74

What’s he doing here:  Parrish was traded to the Angels on October 3, 1988, the day after the 1988 season ended.  Of course, this was back in the day when the sets were coming out shortly after Thanksgiving, so it might have been too late to airbrush anyone even for a trade that early in the offseason.  But . . . the Phils hired new manager Leyva on October 3, 1988, and managed to airbrush him into a Phillies hat in time for his card to appear within the 1989 Topps set.

Cards that never were candidates:  There are a whopping 19 players who appeared with the Phillies during the 1989 season, but did not appear as Phillies in the 1989 Topps set.  I've narrowed the list down to seven players who should have had Phillies cards - Combs, Charlie Hayes, Mulholland, Cook, outfielder Dwayne Murphy (9 home runs in 98 games), outfielder Curt Ford (.218 average in 108 games) and reliever Randy O'Neal (appeared in 20 games with a 6.23 ERA).  On second thought, maybe O'Neal doesn't necessarily need a Phillies card.  Ford appears in the 1989 Bowman set as a Phillie.

Favorite Phillies card:  I have to go with Dernier's card.  It's his last major Topps baseball card and it's always been a favorite of mine.

Other Stuff

Recycled:  Schmidt's card is reprinted in the 2001 Topps Archives set.

Blogs/Websites:  For a very thorough overview of the 1989 Topps set, check out this post over at the Lifetime Topps Project.  

Did You Know?:  I was less than impressed the first time I ever saw an Upper Deck baseball card and my Dad ended up with a nasty bump on his head.