Junk of the Month - February 2012

Easy JotM - ok if your a Cardinals Fan, I am sure this card is fine. 

But if your a Phils Fan, the above Chris Carpenter NLDS game 5 is definitely Junk of the Month.

Honorable Mention 

Hate these - and check out the backs.    

 Half of these guys aren't even in the AL anymore. 

JOHAN SANTANA HASN'T PITCHED IN THE AL SINCE 2007!!!!


Pull of the Month

Any of the above cards featuring Phillies is a good pick for Pull of the Month.

Not a big fan of the 87 minis, but I suppose I would have to go with the Victorino as the favorite of this months picks.

Looking Back

Junk of the Month - January 2012

2012 Topps Hanger Pack - The Phillies

Warning - Team Phungo will be piling on the 2012 Topps this week.

Apparently these are referred to as Hanger Packs, not Kindle Packs, or Nook Packs as I wanted to call them.  Just for the record at my local big box the packs were not on Hangers.  They were instead in a box on the bottom shelf in the card aisle.

Today we will look at the 3+ Phillies cards that I got in the pack.

2012 Topps
NL League Leaders HR - Kemp, Prince, Ryan Howard
1987 mini Shane Victorino
Red Target parallel Antonio Bastardo 
Base Vance Worley

Good mix of cards here.  Getting two inserts of Phils more than makes up for getting only one base card.  One reason to pick up at Target rather than Walmart is that the retail specifc red insert works better for the Phils then the blue from Wal Mart.

I am with Night Owl regarding League Leaders cards.  The format doesn't work and now they have added the rather odd AL and NL active leaders cards to the mix.  And hey Topps lets put the LL cards back together rather than scattering them throughout the set. 

There was one other noteworthy sort of Phillies card in the Hanger, that was the Jim Thome Checklist card which commemorates his 600th Home Run.  Thome is pictured as a Twin on the card, as that was the uni he was wearing the day of the Milestone homer. 

2012 Topps Live in the 19355

Sort of - explain at the bottom of the post.  Here are a couple of teaser images.  Try and get up some more observations in the next 48 hrs or so.

First Card of 2012 

The first card of the year is a stinking Yankee, but at least it is a future HoF. 

First Phil

Left Handed SetUp Guy Antonio Bastardo.  One advantage to Photgraphing these cards is that in some scans I have seen the last name is unreadable on a scan - the black background hurts them.  The Red Parallells are a Target Exclusive I think and are related to...

The Box

I have no idea what this configuration is called - I have seen them for a while, but never bought one.  I assumed they had packs in them.  But it is just a single brick of cards. 

Until I hear differently I will refer to these as KindlePacks - although I am sure this is much bigger then an iPad Nook or Kindle.  Apparently 2012 Topps Series 1 Blasters do not carry relics or Autos. According to the KindlePack odds there is a 1 in million chance of getting one in these boxes. 

The Target I went to in Malvern PA only had 2 configurations of Cards, these Kindle Packs and Blasters.  No Lose packs.   

For me or anyone colecting base cards the KindlePack seems to be better then blaster.  The KindlePack has 72 cards vs 81 in the blaster - 80 + 1 Manupatch card.  No gauranteeed Patch Card in the KindlePack, but it costs only half as much for almost as many cards. 

If you look at the top right of the KindlePack you see a price of $9.99, but when the shrinkwrap is removed a price of $10.49 is displayed.  not sure how Topps screwed that up, but I am glad to see somebody had the good sense to figure out that $9.99 sure looks a lot cheaper then $10.49. 

Ok I wanted to get a couple of quick images up.  enjoy.  will try and post a more comprehensive review later.

Game Report 2009 06 13: Red Sox 11 @ Phillies 6

Jonathan Papelbon v Chase Utley (click to enlarge)

Ok Phils got clobbered, it rained and game after midnight. A year ago I would have been completely bonkers upset. The Phils winning a World Series has changed all that. I had a great time on Saturday Night. Got a couple of good pictures, enjoyed an otherwise miserable game and was really happy to make it back to the ballpark for only the 2nd time this year.

The above shot is really nice. It is not very often that I take pictures of closers, largely because game situations are often too tight and I would rather watch the game then snap a picture at that point. Saturday the Bosox were up 5 runs so the situation was less dramatic. This shot is of Papelbon pitching to Chase Utley. It is always great to get a picture that features two Superstars in a single shot. You can also tell this is mid pitch and if you enlarge the shot you may make out a white blurr that is the ball - it's just below first base.

I got one other shot of Papelbon. The 2009 Phungo Set didn't have any Red Sox cards included and at least one blogger noticed. I am not giving away any secrets on who might be on the 2010 checklist, but I am thinking the photo below may be good enough to make the cut.

Jonathan Papelbon


Antonio Bastardo

Antonio Bastardo only pitched (or attempted to pitch) one inning, but I was able to get a picture of him, for what might be one of his few appearances at home all year.

Good Guy: Ryan Madson

Good Guy Awards: Ryan Madson was leading the Good Guy parade on Saturday Night. Jack Taschner and Clay Condrey were also signing autos. When the Bosox are in town they are among the few away teams that fill up the autograph area more than the Phillies Fans. The only person I saw signing for the Red Sox was Brad Penny. There was one other Boston player signing close to game time but I never identify the player.


And For The Card Collectors:

Phillies Starting Lineup Cards Presented by Topps

The Phils have giant baseball cards viewable from the Center Field entrance which display the nights lineup for fans. The cards had not been updated since 2006. This year they are new!!


Topps Giant Phillies Starting Lineup Card Jayson Werth

I think at least some of the cards have different Photos. There is one other minor difference, if you look in the bottom left, prior to the players position the players number is listed followed by a star and then the players position. The Topps cards only list the players position. For outfielders these Phillies cards have the specific field while the regular Topps issue has the generic OF only.

Scoops - Brad Lidge was out long tossing prior to the game. Photo is a little grainy but the knee looked ok to me. Also John Smoltz was at the game and in uniform (#29) but I wasn't quick enough to get a picture.

Brad Lidge Long Tossing

Couple of other curiosities. Mitchell and Ness (and maybe Topps) were running some promotion that bordered on gambling. They were selling baseball cards and then based upon the numbers of the cards you received you could win a prize. For example they would pick a card numbered say 421 and if you had a card bearing that number in your pack you would win that rounds prize. Which amounted to some pretty nice stuff - signed jerseys, tickets, and various giveaway items. The area was marked with a couple of Topps Attax posters, but I never figured out if Topps was tied in with the promotion or not.

The other one was, I am sure you have seen this before the "Between Innings Marriage Proposal". Well what made this one a little different is the girl being proposed to was holding and infant. Maybe it is just me thinking this but it appeared to me that the Phils cut away from the shot a lot quicker then they would normally. Of course there is no guarantee that the child belongs to the bride to be, but I have been to an awful lot of ballgames, and it definitely was something I hadn't witnessed before.

While the game was in Rain Delay the Phils broadcast the Braves @ Orioles game. Props to the Braves broadcast for noting the way that "progress" had eliminated one of the great views in baseball when new constrution was erected to obscure the Baltimore's Emerson Bromo-Seltzer tower .

Overlay of Emerson Bromo-Seltzer tower on present day Camden Yards skyline