Topps Coverboys

For years we have talked about the Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx and the Madden Curse. What the heck should be the name for Topps' uncanny ability to pick the next steroid popper?

2008 Topps Series 1 Wrapper Manny Ramirez
2009 Topps Series 1 Wrapper Alex Rodriquez

They have nailed it each of the last two years. In 2007 there was Updates and Highlights and prior to that there was 2006 Series 1 and all the other Topps-Bonds products.

This phenomenon was previously reported a few years back by Stale Gum I think. I did a little searching but was unable to find the post. With the recent revelations about Manny and A-Rod, I felt the subject was worth revisiting.

I see Ryan Howard is on the cover of the upcoming 2009Topps Series 2. Hopefully he is not next to be found cheating. I am now just waiting for J C Romero to get his cover shot.

Phungo Cards - Manny Ramirez

On Monday, amazingly Night Owl Cards and I got through the Phungo 5 interview without mentioning Manny Ramirez. In Fact on Sunday and Monday Phungo featured back to back posts on the Dodgers without menitioning Manny. I am quite proud of that, but all good things must come to an end.

2009 Phungo #10 Manny Ramirez

This is actually one of my favorite Phungo cards. I have seen Manny play many times, and I am sure that he has been quite a hassle for Phils and Orioles pitching in many of those games. But I have always enjoy watching him play. I have seen him homer in big spots and smash dingers as hard as anyone including Ryan Howard. He is likely the only non-Phil I have ever seen homer for 3 different teams. I have seen him hit a playoff homer, He is in the Phungo grand slam club, and on a Friday night back in 2001, I distinctly remember a Randy Wolf offering that he absolutely smashed the cover off. It appeared to me that the ball was still rising when it cleared the Monster. Simply amazing.

And to be honest, I don't really feel cheated.

I don't feel cheated by Bonds, Manny, McGwire or Clemens or lesser lights like Ryan Franklin and David Bell. The moments were great the memories are good and really the steroid news both expected and unexpected doesn't really shake me.

As an adult I have never been a competitive athlete in any organized sport above a club level, so I really cannot speak from that angle. I have friends and acquaintences who have engaged in sports at a collegiate level and those are the people that I believe are qualified to have the biggest complaint. They don't know, and doubtful they will ever know, if the people and teams they competed against were ever playing fairly. One can follow that line of logic to asking if they could have played at a higher level had the playing field been even. That can be a huge unanswered question for someone who has devoted a lifetime of effort in pursuit of athletic excellence.

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Moving on, the Manny card is #10 in the Phungo series, which I assigned as a hero number. His Dodger number is 99, which is well above the series high card (#64). I have the specific position of LF for Left Field and the Photo was taken on August 23rd of 2008, Game 2 of a 4 game sweep of the Dodgers by the Phillies.

I cropped the photo to fit the card better, for a larger (also cropped) shot and an early Phungo write up on this game click here.

2009 UD Series 1 First Pack and STS Profile - Gorman Thomas

Congrats to Laurens of Card Buzz who knocked out the first Homer of the Spot the Sig! season for identifying Gorman Thomas as this weeks Autograph - more on Gorman below.

For the Bonus the first pack of 2008 UD Series One yielded the following:

42 Ellsbury

75 Rich Hill
91 Contreras
56 Wakefield
187 Joe Saunders

112 Fausto Carmona
145 Josh Willingham
110 Johnny Peralta
444 A's Team Leaders
R9 Rivals Angels v Dodgers Vlad v ManRam

4925 UD Documentry BOS-ALCS Gm 5 Red Sox 8 Rays 7
UD Coupon
481 Reds Checklist - Brandon Phillips
417 George Kottaras
208 Blake DeWitt

259 Pudge
242 Jose Reyes
225 Denard Span
312 Peavy
363 Carlos Pena

346 Adam Kennedy

42 Ellsbury was the low card (closest Night Owl 35) and 481 Brandon Phillips Reds Checklist was the High (closest Nachos Grande 476)

I found the Rivals card amusing. Yes, the Dodgers and Angels may be considered rivals, but I am not sure that Manny Ramirez has ever faced the Angels while wearing a Dodgers uni. Probably should have saved this for Sloppy Topps - er I mean Upper Dreck.

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Gorman Thomas was the first draft pick by the Seattle Pilots in 1969, The Pilots would move to Milwaukee where Thomas became a fan favorite and a heck of a power threat. Of course his power numbers were not without problems. Stormin' Gorman struck out at a prolific rate. Even in a career year like 1979 when he hit 45 homers and 123 RBI he struck out 175 times and batted only .244. It is no surprise to a Phillies fan that the active player that (according to Baseball-Reference) Thomas compares most closely to is Pat Burrell. As a kid I always thought of him as the American Leagues Dave Kingman. I remember reading on the back of a baseball card one year that his BA was .198 for the season and thinking how can this guy stay in the league.

The Home Runs were not the only reason Thomas was popular in Milwaukee. In a town famous for manufacturing fine adult beverages, he was known as an avid partier who would join a tailgate after (and before) games. I couldn't find any mention on the Brewer's website but apparently Gorman Thomas is the namesake for Gorman's Grill at Miller Park and can sometimes be spotted there for Home Games.

I gave this Auto a Home Run - Gorman Thomas is not an active player, not a hall of famer, and while he did lead the league in Homers a couple of times, I am sure not many people think of him outside of Milwaukee. The signature isn't awful sloppy, but certainly not easy to make out. The card is from the rather nice looking 2004 Fleer Greats of the Games Series which features autos of many great players from the past. The autos are on stickers but they are clear which helps to give the appearance of on card autos. In the scan, I left in a part of the border as a hint to the set this card came from. I am curious if this is how Card Buzz IDd the sig or if he recognized the auto.

Here are the STS! standings after 7 innings.

PTBNL - repsresentin those Fightin Phillies - 9 Runs - bases empty

Night Owl - Dodgers - 3 Runs in man on 2nd

Cardboard Junkie - Braves - 3 Runs in - bases empty

Card Buzz - Angels - 2 runs in on Vlad Guerrero Home Run! Bases empty.

Stats on the Back - Mets - 1 Run in - Man on 3rd
Nachos Grande - Reds - 1 Run in. Man on First

Cardboard Addiction - Bosox - Man on First

A Cardboard Problem - Yankees - man on first.

Covered in Wrappers - Cardinals - On Deck

For further information regarding the Phungo Spot the Sig! contest click here and join the party - you just may find yourself with a stack of cards come spring training!

Sources and Links
Vladimir Guerrero HOF Index

2008 04 07 Dodgers 2 @ Phillies 9 - Offense finally comes up big for Hamels

In a mid-August showdown of potential playoff teams the Phils beat the Dodgers 9-2 on Saturday. Cole Hamels gave the Phils 7 quality innings, giving up only two runs which occurred in the third when Hamels gave up a double to James Loney followed by a Home Run by Russell Martin on back to back pitches. Pat Burrell paced the offense with a 5 RBI day including a 3 run homer off Dodgers rookie prospect Clayton Kershaw. It appeared that Kershaw was having trouble locating his off-speed pitches most of the game and the Phils were able to capitalize when he had to throw fastballs for strikes.

Plus – Phils offense pounds out double digit hits for second consecutive day. Perfect weather! Fairly quick game ended in 2:41. There was a pre-game Barbecue hosted by Garry Maddox for his Youth Golf & Academics Program, a charitable organization set up support children in troubled city neighborhoods. Chowing down on some great BBQ for $10 towards a charitable cause was much better than the customary ballpark prices.

The Phils pitchers managed to hold Manny Ramirez to only a single in the game. This is a photo of Manny batting in the 9th inning.
Minus – None

Meh - $27 ticket, Beers and Parking covered by Friends, $8 Parking. $35 total

Around the League – Mets Lose. Phils pull to within 1.5 games of first place.

Useless Info – So Taguchi, uniform #99, flew out versus Joe Beimel, uniform #97 in the 7^th inning. This has to be one of the highest uniformed number hitter-pitcher combinations to ever face each other (196)

On Deck – The Phungo travel team is hopefully headed back to Baltimore this week to catch Jim Thome and those Chicago White Sox.

Tim McCarver @ Barnes & Noble - Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia PA

Tim McCarver is currently in Philadelphia to cover the Dodgers Phillies Saturday game for Fox. While in town he took some time to pitch his latest book "Diamond Gems" at the center city Barnes & Noble Location. The audience consisted of about 30 baseball fans mostly middle aged perhaps slightly older. It was obvious that there were supporters of not just the Phillies but also the Mets, Bosox, Cardinals, and Yankees.

“Diamond Gems” is book culled from interviews of more than 70 current and former major leaguers on “The Tim McCarver Show”. The subjects are grouped by position and include such greats as Larry Doby, Cal Ripken Jr, Willie Mays, Mike Schmidt, Jim Palmer, Lou Piniella, Yogi Berra, Sandy Koufax and many others.

McCarver chose not to read any passages from his book co-authored by Jim Moskovitz and Danny Peary. Instead he read from a forward written by George Will. According to McCarver, Will returned the forward a mere three hours after the request was made. Immediately following this brief reading McCarver monitored about an hour of Q&A. By my estimate 7 of 10 questions were more like statements that the audience wanted McCarver to validate. Regardess of question or statement McCarver attempted to address the subject with some illuminating information. The topics covered included McCarver’s playing days with both the Cardinals and the Phillies, The Cardinals World Series Teams of the 70’s, Free Agency and Curt Flood, Steroid Use, the current Phillies team, Bob Gibson and Steve Carlton, The 2004 ALCS (Bosox comeback v Yanks), The Yankees and Hank Steinbrenner, and issues regarding the state of the game today.

Among the opinions that McCarver was most vociferous about were that Manny Ramirez, also in Philadelphia for the Dodgers series this weekend, has committed the equivalent of “baseball extortion” by not playing to his potential to orchestrate a trade out of Boston. McCarver stated that there is a dearth of good catching in the league and that many Latin players are moved to catcher in order to rush them to the major leagues. He also believes that pitchers do not pitch enough and that team practice needs to be emphasized more, specifically outfield practice. He backed up the later statistically by stating that outfield assists are at their lowest level in decades. He also defended Alex Rodriquez, noting that in a critical situation he would prefer A-Rod to bat over Derek Jeter.

One of the best questions asked of McCarver was regarding a previous book “The Perfect Season: Why 1998 was Baseball’s Greatest Year”. The 1998 season was the year that McGwire broke Roger Maris single season Home-Run Record along with Sammy Sosa. Obviously one would not consider that season perfect anymore. McCarver said that he and the rest of the baseball media are at least partially culpable for ignoring the signs that players were using steroids. He also went on to mention that there are great stories from that season other than steroid inflated Home Run numbers. That was the season the Yankees won a then record 114 games en route to what would be their first of three consecutive World Series championships.

Following the Q&A McCarver signed books and was also gracious enough to autograph memorabilia and have his picture taken with fans. He took the time to talk with each fan personally and made it a point to remember each person and refer to them by name.

It was a fun and entertaining night and if Fox’s “A” team is in your town covering a game I would encourage you to check to see if an area bookseller is hosting a McCarver signing.

Here are the cards that Mr. McCarver was good enough to sign for me.