1996 All-Star Game 25th Anniversary: John Smoltz 2002 Topps #145

Our 2021 year long series is dedicated to the 1996 All-Star Game which occurred at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia 25 years ago. 

My goal is to get 20 or so postings on the subject. Almost anything will be better than the half dozen columns on last years subject, the 1980 World Champion Phillies.

Tonight our first posting is dedicated to Braves Hall of Famer John Smoltz who was bestowed the honor of staring for the National League by his manager Bobby Cox.  

2002 Topps #145 John Smoltz (stolen from amazon)

Smoltz was the first of 9 pitchers involved in the The NLs 6-0 shutout the Junior circuit. Among the hurlers Smoltz was the only pitcher to record more than an inning pitched. He faced 8 batters giving up a pair of hits. Smoltz only strike out was Albert Belle, among the other five batters he retired were four future Hall of Famers: Wade Boggs, Robby Alomar, Cal Ripken, and Pudge Rodriguez. For you advanced stats folks among the 14 pitcher who saw action in the game Smoltz was the WPA Leader with +0.102.

2002 Topps

This is definitely one of my least favorites Topps flagship issues. Don't like the brown/orange border color. It's a shame because I do like the pennant design - and this is the one year where I think Chrome looks better than flagship. 

Chose this one because it ties together two Braves Hall of Famers. The other is Eddie Mathews who passed away in 2001. To Honor Mathews the Braves wore a memorial patch which you can see on Smoltz upper sleeve. It is Eddie Mathews #41 which the Braves retired on July 26 1969. 

Sources and Links

1996 All-Star Game 25th Anniversary

John Smoltz HOF Index

Eddie Mathews HOF Index

Baseball-Ref 

mlb

1996 All-Star Game 25th Anniversary

 This is an Index of our postings related to the 1996 All-Star game.

1996 ASG Index

Box Score AL 0 NL 6

John Smoltz

Sources Links

Baseball-Ref

1996 UD All-Star Game Jumbo #275 Roberto Alomar

We had a lot of excitement around Phungo HQ over the weekend and I didn't get around to put together a column on an HOF celebrating a marquee birthday.

Yes on Monday February 5th the twelve time All-Star Roberto Alomar turned 50.

1996 UD All-Star Game Jumbo #275 Roberto Alomar

Roberto Alomar may already be used to having his birthday ignored. Despite being an Hall of Fame player he is only the 2nd best player born on February 5th, ranking behind the Great Henry Aaron. Alomar was admitted to the Hall as part of the 2011 class with Bert Blyleven.

During his 17 year career Alomar donned seven different uniforms. His stops that most affected me were probably with the Blue Jays (which I will avoid discussing), the Orioles and the Mets.

Alomar's HOF credentials include 2724 career hits, Two World Championships (1992 & 1993), an ALCS MVP (1992), and 10 Gold Gloves at the premium position of second base. His 2320 games at Second rank 3rd all-time.

1996 UD All-Star Game Jumbo
For our Robbie Alomar profile I picked out an oversized parallel of a 1996 Upper Deck base card. When Philadelphia hosted the 1996 All-Star Game UD put together a small limited release set of Jumbo cards for the event.

The cards are exactly the same as the base cards but twice the size. To illustrate the size difference of the cards size we have enlisted the help of the Phillies middle infield of the era, Mickey Morandini and Kevin Stocker.    

1996 Upper Deck Jumbo vs Base 

Notice that the Two Phillies Cards (2.5 x 3.5) are exactly half the size of the Alomar card (5 x 3.5).

We also see that the designs of Jumbo and base are identical, with the exception of the 1996 ASG flare. It is a bit hard to make out but in the bottom left of the Alomar card is the liberty bell shaped logo. For a better look at what the logo check out the Game Ticket featured in our Rickey Botallico posting.

Since this is a parallel of a base card likely released well before the season began, neither the photo nor any information on the back of the card have anything to do with the 1996 All-Star Game or season.

1996 ASG
Robbie Alomar was the started at second base for the 1996 AL All-Star team alongside his Orioles Double Play teammate Cal Ripken. All Three of Robbie's plate appearances came against future Hall of Famers: John Smoltz,  Tom Glavine and Pedro Martinez. Alomar's lone hit was a single off Pedro in the 7th. The Box Score to the 6-0 NL Victory can be found here.

Flip

1996 UD All-Star Game Jumbo #275 Roberto Alomar

As mentioned above the backs are duplicates of base cards. This include the card numbers which remain unchanged despite the Jumbo being only a 18 card set. The Stat lines vary from player to player. If they have Postseason or All-Star experience those numbers are included, otherwise the stats for the most recent seasons are listed. Robbie gets ASG, LCS and World Series - Those numbers include His Stat line form the 1993 Series vs the Phillies

 1996 UD All-Star Card Set

Here is the box set cover. The verbiage at the bottom notes the the ASG Stamp and the fact that the set consists of "Enlarged Trading Cards"

 Checker

The Checklist is on the Box Bottom

The 1996 ASG is a Future Series for Phungo and I anticipate this Box Set being a fun part of that series. For now this is the Index/Checklist for postings related to the Subset.

80 Jeff Bagwell
195 Barry Bonds
200 Ken Griffey Jr
271 John Smoltz
275 Roberto Alomar (50th Birthday)
280 Cal Ripken Jr
300 Frank Thomas
310 Barry Larkin
313 Sandy Alomar
315 Albert Belle
317 Charles Nagy
319 Kenny Lofton
320 Dante Bichette
345 Craig Biggio
360 Mike Piazza
410 Wade Boggs
450 Tony Gwynn
455 Matt Williams

Robbie Alomar HOF Index
1996 UD All-Star Jumbo #275 (this posting)

Sources and Links
1996 ASG Index
Baseball-Ref
Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards - Bob Lemke 

1996 All-Star Game Index

This is an Index of our postings related to the 1996 All-Star Game which was held in Philadelphia on July 9th 1996.

1996 Jul 9 - All-Star Game Ticket

Ricky Botallico: Game Ticket
Mike Piazza: 1997 Topps #104
Mike Piazza: 2016 Topps TBT #37

1996 UD All-Star Jumbo Checklist (Ripken, Griffey, Smoltz, Gwynn, Piazza, Boggs)

Sources and Links
Game Dated Cards Index

20th Anniversary: Phillies Host 1996 All-Star Game

Twenty Years Ago Team Phungo was at the 1996 All-Star Game.

1996 All-Star Game Ticket 1996 07 09

The NL won the game 6-0, As noted previously Phoenixville Alum and Dodgers Catcher Mike Piazza earned MVP honors as he went 2 for 3 including a Titanic Home Run.

The signature across the front of the card is the autograph of Ricky Botallico the only member of the Philies to receive an All-Star invite in '96.

A few years after the 96 ASG Botallico visited my workplace to sign autographs. This was during the extremely lean late 90s when the Phillies were trying to get attention any way possible. I felt bad for Botallico, he was placed in a nice outdoor area atop a hill, but the day ended up being colder than expected and windy than expected. Only a few dozen people even came out for the autographs. It was pretty sad.

In his only All-Star Performance Ricky Botallico had a fine outing in front of the home fans. Entering in the fifth inning he retired three of the four batters he faced, the only batter to reach was Brady Anderson via a Ken Caminiti error. Botallico's victims included Future Hall of Famers Cal Ripken and Ivan Rodriguez (strikeout!).

Primestar

 

One of the 1996 ASG sponsors was a local Satellite TV business named "Primestar". Each fan was given the above frame for the over-sized All-Star Ticket.

It isn't real simple to do but the when placed in the holder the ticket looks kinda nice, except for the Primestar Logo right at the top...

1996 All-Star Game postings

This posting will serve as an index to our 1996 ASG coverage

1997 Topps #104 HL Mike Piazza ASG MVP
2016 Topps TBT #37 Mike Piazza

1997 UD SP #136 Ricky Bottalico (Reading Phillies HoF night - 2009)

1996 UD All-Star Game Jumbo #275 Roberto Alomar

2002 Topps #145 John Smoltz

20th Anniversary

Additional Sources and Links
Game Dated Card Index
Baseball-ref

20th Anniversary: 1996 07 09 Philadelphia hosts All-Star Game

Saturday will mark the 20th Anniversary of the 1996 All-Star Game which was hosted by the Philadelphia Phillies.

In the contest which the NL took 6-0 the Philllies were only represented by one player Ricky Botallico, however there was a Hometown Hero involved in the Game.

Mike Piazza from nearby Phoenixville went 2 for 3 with a Homer and a pair of RBI. The performance earned the Dodgers Catcher Game MVP Honors.

1997 Topps #104 Season Hightlights Mike Piazza

Topps noted Piazza's accomplishments with a card in the Highlights Subset of the 1997 Flagship Set.

I will not sloppy Topps this one as Piazza is wearing a Home jersey, which he would have donned for the All-Star game, but I am thinking this shot is from LA during a glorious day game at Chavez Ravine not at Philadelphia creaky old Veterans Stadium.

The front of the card isn't specific the event, however...

1997 Topps #104 Season Hightlights Mike Piazza (b-side)

Nice  blurb on the back including dateline Philadelphia. The Home Run Piazza hit is detailed nicely, in the 70 or so games I saw at the Vet I can only recall a handful of balls that were hit as far as that one.

Finally the card also mentions Piazza Tenure at Phoenixville High - Makes for a nice add to the Phungo Locals collection.

Mike Piazza HoF Index
In a Couple of weeks Piazza will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. This posting will serves as our index of Piazza related postings.

1994 Topps #1 Philly Sports Hall of Fame
2006 Fleer Ultra #HRK15 - Junk of the Month (Padres WTF?)

Phungo Games Collection
I was lucky enough to attend the 1996 All-Star Game and I am very happy to have this Piazza card in the Phungo Games Collection which is indexed here.

As far as I know Topps did not issue All-Star cards in 1996 Update/Traded or 1997 Cards with ASG flairs. This is kind of a bummer as I would love to have more cards to represent that game. 1997 UD did add have a nice ASG logo on their 1997 Series 1 cards, I hope to take a look at those in a future posting or series.

Sources and Links
Phungo Games Index 
1996 ASG Index
Baseball-Ref

Ricky Bottalico Honored by the Reading Phillies

1997 UD SP #136 Ricky Bottalico (B-Side)

Tonight Ricky Botallico is being honored by the Reading Phillies by being inducted into their Hall of Fame. Botallico was the Phils closer during the 1996 and 97 season, for his career he logged 72 saves as a Phil (116 overall between 6 teams including the Phils). His tenure with the Reading Phillies (AA Eastern Lg) consisted of parts of two very good seasons in which he logged a combined 42 saves.

Ricky was the sole Phillies member to represented the team at the 1996 All-Star Game which was held in Philadelphia. Bottalico did well contributing to the NLs Shutout of the AL that night. He shutout the junior circuit during the 5th inning, the only blemish an error by Ken Caminiti on a Brady Anderson grounder. Botallico struck out Pudge Rodriguez and then Got Future Hall of Famer Cal Ripken to fly Out. With two outs Anderson reached on the error, which was followed by a Jay Buhner line out.

That was over 13 years ago and remains the most recent NL All-Star game victory.

I hope Rickey enjoys his night - He currently does a lot of pre- and post- game work for the Phils. His analysis is often excellent, and almost always entertaining. He was present at the Phils alumni night and was good enough to sign autographs for the fans.

That is part of the reason I chose to post the b-Side of the abve 97 SP card. It shows Bottalico signing some cards for the fans. I would have to think those are the minor league issue cards as there could not have been to many cards of Ricky at the time.