Who Would You Root For?

2010 Phungo #32 Tim Lincecum

Like most Phils fans, I am trying to come to terms with the teams season which while somewhat successful can only be considered a disappointment at this time.

Looking beyond that for the short term, I remind myself that I am a baseball fan and I will attempt not to sulk to long - The 2010 World Series is upon us and I bring up an interesting question for Phillies fans and sports fans in general.

Do you cheer for or against the team that has just eliminated the squad you follow and cheer rabidly for all season.

It is an interesting question when I was younger I would of automatically rooted against the team that just kicked my teams butt. Things are different now - I have developed an allegiance to the NL over the AL for a variety of reason. I also see it as a badge of honor to be beaten by the champs.

There are a variety of other reasons I will support one team or another if I really don't have a stake (emotional or finaincial) in the result. In no particular order:

- NL over AL
- lowest payroll
- oldest stadium (those driving up tix prices be damned)
- former Phils I like over former Phils I detest
- players I like in general
- teams that have not been in the mix for a while
- rooting against players that annoy me and ex-mets.

This year I will be backing the Giants - congrats to the SF nine for their triumph over the Phils and their game 1 win v Texas. This is mainly due to NL over AL, plus for me Pat Burrell's several years of mixed service, but 1 World Championship trumps Cliff Lee's incredible half season of sheer dominance.

The Photo on the Phungo Card is a of course a picture of Tim Lincecum prior to a Giants-Phils game in 2009. Lincecum is a great study for amateur photographers like myself. His long dark hair makes him instantly recognizable even on the grainiest shadowy low-contrast photo.

The 2010 Phungo set did not go up to 55 so I gave Lincecum the card number of one time Phils Ace Steve Carlton. I also listed his position as ACE as the 2 time Cy Young award winner has definitely earned that distinction and now has a W in game one of the World Series to add to his already gaudy resume.

Swag from Play at the Plate - 2010 Topps Chrome - Including an Orange HOF

Play at the Plate ran one of my favorite kinds of contests - A random Winner Contest! Those happen to be the kind I am best at - and guess who won!

The Prize in the PATP contest was a 2010 Topps Chrome Value Pack. Seen a lot of these around the blogs and it was fun to open my own pack.

I was hoping for a cool Rangers card to send back PATPs way but unfortunately came up empty - The 3 packs plus Orange Pack also lacked Phils but were fun to open. Here are the Highlights:


Refractor - Orange

Mickey Mantle
Delmon Young
Carlos Quentin

As with other Topps Products the Mantle is card #7 in 2010 Chrome. Jury is out on the Orange - cool idea having basically an extra parallel pack of cards in with a 3 pack retail product. Kind of weird - I think of Chrome as a parallel set to begin with and they just keep adding parallels to it.

Inserts

Refractor Erick Aybar - I think these used to be X-Fractor's but the card sez Refractor
Refractor - Purple Mike McCoy (#d 237/599)

I think the Purples are 1:12 so those come at about 3/box in retail. Aybar is one of those steady Middle Infielders that none of us folks on the East Coast no anything about. Mike McCoy is a career minor league player who finally broke into the majors in 2009 at the age of 28.

Highlights


Jake Peavy
Chris Heisey
Shin-Soo Choo
Cliff Lee

Chris Heisey is an intriguing player to me - I went to school with a group of brothers named Heisey that were all very good athletes. From his Bio have determined that Chris Heisey went to college very close to my hometown. Have not tracked down weather he is related or not, but I am following the talented prospect.

And of course after Monday Night's performance what Phillies post featuring cards from a Rangers fan would not be complete without mentioning Mr Cliff Lee.

Thanks to Brian over at PATP and hope this gets the Rangers some Mojo 2nite as they face the Yanks.

Swag from the Phillies Room

I think Jim from the Phillies Room beat me to some of the tables at the Philly Show a few weeks back, but I don't mind because he was good enough to send me a couple of his Vintage Doubles!

1971 Topps #490 Deron Johnson
1971 Topps #414 Woodie Fryman
1960 Topps #103 Dick Farrell

The 1971 Set is one of my favorites and it is under consideration as the Set I will build once(if) I finish buidling the 1959 set. As far as the Phils portion of the set I now have 21 of 30 cards (70%). My 1960 Set is 70% complete (24 of 34) as well.

Thanks to Jim for helping me work on My Vintage Phils Collection.

My Want Lists for the various projects I am working on are located here.

Swag from Vintage Sportscards

The Vintage Sportscards Blog is consistently one of my favorite card blogs. Chris' column provides a unique historical perspective and I agree with many of his opinions regarding vintage cards and their facets such as condition and value.

Here are some of the Phillies beauties He sent my way in a trade.

1966 Topps #254 Ferguson Jenkins/Bill Sorrell RC

I always figured this would be one of the last cards I would get from the Phils 1966 team Set. A Rookie Card of a Hall of Famer. Unless you are a Jenkins fan or a HOF RC collector you may not know that Fergie came up with the Phils. In 1965 Jenkins got himself into 7 games as a reliever for the Phils. During the Off-Season he was traded to the Cubs for whom he had his best years including his 1971 Cy Young Campaign.

Billy Sorrell got himself into 85 games during the course of three different Major League campaigns. It's not much, but he did get to share a baseball card with a Hall of Famer. This card bring my 1966 Phils Topps Team Set to 20 cards out of 27.



1964 Topps #135 Johnny Callison
1955 Bowman #64 Curt Simmons

These are two other great cards among the many Vintage Phils Chris sent my way. The 1964 set keeps growing on me. It is on my list of sets from the 1960s that I am considering building.

I would also like to build a Bowman set at some point. Both 1954 and 1955 are under consideration.

Right now I am just concentrating on my Phils sets from those years - here are links to those want lists

1964 Topps
1955 Bowman


Thanks to Chris for the cards, and I have a package all set to go out your way. It would have hit the streets today, but I didn't realize it was a postal holiday.

Some Nights are Almost Perfect

2010 10 06 Line Score Reds @ Phillies after 7 innings

This is the best Line Score photo I have from late in the game.


Game Ticket

Roy Halladay v Brandon Phillips

If you click on this one, you can see the line score down by the foul pole and Phillips batting stats to the right.


Phillies Celebrate

It is only one game but it was a great one.

I will see if I can find some other game shots and try and post them later in the week. Too hoarse to talk now.