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

SuperBowl: Ricky Bottalico is Ready for Some Football

Apparently there is some football game on Sunday - Ricky Bottalico is Ready

1998 UD Collector's Choice #204 Ricky Bottalico

Ricky appears to be relaxing in the dugout or bullpen, This shot was likely taken during BP and Botallico won't need to take the field for several hours. I am sure staying loose with a couple of tosses of the old pigskin isn'a a bad idea.

Today Ricky is still in the Phillies family working the the pre- and postgame shows for Phillies broadcasts.


There in no shortage of baseball cards with football references. Among the recent ones is the 2014 Topps card of Mark DeRosa who was a QB at U Penn and also the Sean Doolittle card which features an Oakland Raiders sign.

There are even cards of Hall of Famers working on their football skills.

Sources and Links
Cardboard Icons 
Penn Archives
The Big Lead
Amazon

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.