Thursday, April 7, 2016

2016 Topps #133 Aaron Nola (rc)

Aaron Nola didn't earn the Opening Day start for the rebuilding 2016 Philadelphia Phillies. That honor rightfully went to veteran Jeremy Hellickson.

Nola did earn the #2 spot in the rotation.

2016 Topps #133 Aaron Nola

The nice thing about getting the b-slot is that if the weather cooperates Nola will get the opportunity start the Phillies Home Opener on Monday.

The #133 card is Nola's first flagship card, and will likely be considered his rookie card - Note the mandatory RC flair in the bottom right. This likely will end up being the image my memory will permanently attach to 2016 Topps.

Flip
2016 Topps #133 Aaron Nola (b-side)

Nice blurb on the back of the card, the Text mentions that the Phillies sold 8,500 tix in the days leading up to Aaron Nola's debut - One of those tickets went to Team Phungo. The Phillies may have lost the game 1-0 but it still felt like a W, a symbolic turning of the page to a new generation of players.

Getty the Game
Now we get to the reason I love this card. The text on the back ties to the image on the front. I quickly perused the pictures on Getty Images and found this photo which was taken July 21 2015 during Nola's debut. The Getty Details are even good enough to mention that the picture was taken during the first inning, There were four batters in that inning the most prominent of which was Evan Longoria.

The Photo is credited to Miles Kennedy who has a few sports related images in the Getty library and appears to be a staff photographer with the Phillies.

Finally since this card features both a Photo on the front and text on the back that refers to a game team Phungo attended the card gets added to our favorite subset, the Phungo Games Collection.



2016 WAR
Hoping for a good sophomore year from Aaron Nola, +2.1. 

Sources and Links
Phungo Game Cards Index
2016 Topps Index
2016 Topps Phillies
Getty Images

1 comment:

The Junior Junkie said...

Going to see his brother play for the New Orleans Zephyrs next week. Hoping for big things from both of them!

a thousand words

a thousand words
2008 World Champions