50th Anniversary: Sandy Koufax = Perfect

Most of the season we have been looking back 25 years to the Year of the No-Hitter.  Today we turn the clock back an additional quarter century and find ourselves on the day that Sandy Koufax became the first man to pitch four no-hitters.

That fourth No-Hitter was also a Perfect Game.

2007 UD Masterpieces #17 Sandy Koufax

Love the Image on the card. Four Baseball symbolizing the Four No-Hitters and The 29 year old Sandy Koufax with a reluctant smile that he can't hold back. Hard to believe 13 months later his career would be over.

Flip

2007 UD Masterpieces #17 Sandy Koufax (b-side)

The text on the back of the card tells the story of the Perfect Game in which the Dodgers beat the Cubs by the narrowest of margins 1-0. The hard luck loser was journeyman pitcher Bob Hendley who pitched a 1-Hitter giving up only an unearned run.

The Cubs lineup that day featured three future Hall of Famers, Ernie Banks (3 Strikeouts), Billy Williams (2 Ks), and Ron Santo (1 K). Of course on the other side of the ledger there were two Cubbies making their Major League Debut Don Young and future Phillie Bryon Browne.

Notable Dodgers in the Lineup were Maury Williams, Willie Davis, Catcher Jeff Torborg (see below), and Lou Johnson who scored the Dodgers lone Run and got the games only hit.    

I re-read the chapter on Koufax's Game in James Buckley Jr's "Perfect". Couple of interesting things in the article.

1) The Cubs were in LA for one game only, Apparently this was part of the regular schedule NOT a rain out make-up.
2) The final out was a strikeout of Harvey Kuenn who was also the the last out in Koufax's 2nd No-Hitter.
3) The Cubs Bob Hendley pitched to two over the minimum for an 8-inning start, meaning only 53 batters came to the plate combined. The Lowest possible Combined PAs is 52, which has never been done.  
4) The Perfect Game was the 2nd of three called by Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully: Don Larsen, Koufax, and Denny Martinez. Both the Larsen and Martinez Perfectos were versus the Dodgers.

Scully's call of the final 3 outs of the Perfect Game can be heard at Archive.org. If you stay with the recording to the end Vin Scully can be heard in an interview, he notes that he specified the time of day during this broadcast in an effort to add something special to the No-hitter since Sandy Koufax already had 3 recordings of the 9th innings of his no-hitters.

Much of Buckley's essay was derived from an interview with Catcher Jeff Torborg who caught no-hitters in Both Leagues. In addition to the Koufax Perfecto Torborg while with the Angels caught Nolan Ryan's first No-Hitter. He is one of 3 men to have caught No-Hitters in both leagues  - all 3 have caught Perfect Games as well (Gus Triandos - Jim Bunning (NL - Phillies vs Mets) & Hoyt Wilhelm (AL) , and Ron Hassey Len Barker (AL) & Denny Martinez (NL))

Sources and Links
Phungo Sandy Koufax HoF Index
Phungo No-Hitter Card Index 
archive.org 
Perfect - James Buckley Jr 
SABR Baseball Games Project - Mike Huber
Sandy Koufax Time Capsule
baseball-ref
Baseball Almanac

1966 Topps #100 the Final Sandy Koufax Card

Going to put up this quick posting to use as our Sandy Koufax HoF Index.  Hopefully fill in some details later in the season.

1966 Topps #100 Sandy Koufax

Picked up this trimmed beauty for $5 at a card show last winter

Sandy Koufax HoF Index
2007 UD Masterpieces #17 (Perfect Game Anniversary/4 No-Hitter)

2015 Heritage First Look - I am obsessed with PATCHES

Successfully avoided Target for a week after Heritage's release this year, but finally gave in earlier this week. Overall I was happy with look and feel of the cards. Here are the highlights from 3 purchases - 1 Blaster, 1 Rack, 1 Loose Pack.

please excuse the meh photo quality, these are Quick and Dirty shots under low light, Hopefully will revisit Heritage a little more in the upcoming weeks.

First Pack

2015 Heritage Glen Perkins

2015H First card is a nice one of Twins Pitcher Glen Perkins. I like the ASG patch on his cap. Late we will see this repeated on the card of Perkins Teammate Kyle Gibson/

Alicides Escobar
Brian McCann
Curtis Granderson (b-side)
Kelvin Herrera

Pack 1 was a Royals hot pack. Have been a fan of Herrera since seeing him pitch at Wilmington DE a few years back.

Kendrys Morales
Derek Holland
Mark Buehrle
Rookie Stars (John Holdkon RJ Alvarez)

There are far too many of the rookie stars representing two ball clubs. I appreciate Topps trying to carry the banner motif to both sides of the card, but it looks lame. On the other hand, I do like the Mark Buehrle card. Good shot of a deserving veteran.

Highlights from other packs
No Phils or hits in the first pack, but did find a few in the remaining pickups.

First Phillies card

Ryne Sandberg

It's a Phil, but not a player - although he was a Hall of Fame player prior to being a manager. As the Phillies Rooom pointed out, it is a little sad that Topps neglected matching the capitalization on the original 1966T cards.

Flair

Freddie Freeman
Steve Pearce
Nick Castellanos
Kyle Gibson

I really like all the special patches that are on MLB unis these days. Here we have Freddie Freeman with Hank Aaron 715 HR anniversary swag. Steve Pearce has a patch honoring the memory of Orioles minority owner and author Tom Clancy. Kyle Gibson has the ASG patch mentioned at the top of this post.

No patch for Nick Casteallanos but I wanted to post a Rookie Cup card, which reminds me - Are there any RC logos in 2015 Heritage. I didn't recall seeing any in the lot I picked up. 

SPs and New Age

Jacob DeGrom
Alex Gordon
#NAP 15 - Javier Baez
Chris Carter

Three Hi numbers and an NAP. There are 75 Hi SPs in Heritage, kind of curious if there is a disproportionate number of stars in the range. Future post possibility.

Flashbacks

#NF-5 Jimi Hendrix
#BF-6 Al Kaline

The top card notes the date the Experience was formed by Jimi Hendrix, Noel Redding, and Mitch Mitchell , October 12 1966.

The Al Kaline card refers to a game a few weeks earlier on September 28th. Kaline hit a pair of Homers including a 10th inning shot which was the difference. The card does not mention that Kaline also had a stolen base and outfield assist in the game. 

Then and Now

#TN-9 Sandy Koufax and David Price

Not a fan of this card, also saving that up for a future post.

Target Only

2015 Topps Heritage #NR-4 Nolan Ryan A Legend Begins

This card is dedicated to Ryan's second no-hitter, July 15 1973. There are 15 cards in the Target Only set, this is the first where Ryan reps the Angels. 

MMMM Serial

2015 Topps Heritage Chrome #THC-441 Dee Gordon (#d 383/999)


I think the Topps Heritage Chrome inserts come 1 in 23 packs.

Relic

2015 Heritage Clubhouse Collection #CCR-MS Max Scherzer

So yeah the hit of the box and the Chrome card are both cards of players that have changed teams. bleck.

By the Numbers
1 Blaster (71 Cards)
1 rack pack (20 Cards)
1 standard pack (9 cards)

forgive me but I forgot to track pricing but my guess is $29 for the bounty ($20-Blaster,  $6-Rack, $3-single)

100 cards
2 Duplicates

3 Phillies
3 Hi Numbers
5 Inserts
1 Chrome
1 Relic

25 Teams represented (Snubs for Brewers, Rockies, Rays, White Sox, and Mariners) 

Phungo Verdict
As I mentioned above, I am happy with this years set. This may be due to low expectations. 1966 is one of the blander Topps releases. But I think Topps has done a good job of mixing in some semi-action shots and featuring more than the standard headshots of the original sets. Solid photography has caught some players in interesting moments and as I have noted, I like seeing several cards with interesting patches and uniform flair.

Sources & Links
1966 Topps/2015 Heritage Index
the Phillies Room
Cardboard Connection
baseball-ref

Koufax Kershaw Connection and Heritage Card #100

First 00 hero number of 2014 Topps belongs to Clayton Kershaw at #100.

2015 Topps #100 Clayton Kershaw
1966 Topps #100 Sandy Kourax

While doing research for the upcoming Heritage release I noticed that Card #100 in the original 1966T set belongs to the Dodgers Ace of that era, Sandy Koufax.

2015 Topps #100 Clayton Kershaw (b-side)

1966 Topps #100 Sandy Kourax (b-side)


The last four years Koufax and Kershaw have shared the Heritage/Original card numbers (5, 210, 200, 300 From 1962-65/2011-2014). I think it is likely this trend will continue this year.

If this happens Kershaw will occupy #100 in both flagship and Heritage. Curious how often that has happened.

The Koufax Kershaw connection is likely one of the strongest in the Heritage pantheon. For comparison I took a look at the Jeter pairings during his 14 year tenure in the retro set, There is no consistent matching for the Captain. He is paired with Tony Kubek three times, but one of those is an In Action Subbber. Phil Rizzutto is in the list twice and Surprsingly Mickey Mantle only once.

Sources and Links
2015 Heritage Index

Baseball Cardpedia
Trading Card Databse
Topps Heritage Cards
Baseball Almanac
 Baseball-ref 

Swag from Play at the Plate: 2014 Topps Blue Blaster

At the end of last year Brian over at Play at the Plate ran a contest to win a blaster of 2014 Topps. It was my kind of contest too, All I had to do was comment on a post. And Team Phungo Won!

2014 Topps Blue #312 Jimmy Rollins

There was only one Phillies player in the blaster, but it was a colorful Walmart parallel. Other than that it was a pretty nice box. I had already hoarded 100+ cards via Hangers and Looseys, and it was a pleasant surprise to find out that the blaster didn't duplicate many of the cards that I had already collected. I have developed a taste for hangers so it has been a while since I have opened a blaster. The number of inserts is mindblowing. Since each 8 card pack contains 2 blue parallels plus an insert, technically 37.5% of the cards are not base. To me parallels count as base, but for the completists out there, well I sympathize for their plight.

Highlights - Base

2014 Topps Leonys Martin 
2014 Topps Brian McCann

Check it out a Ranger and a Play at the Plate card. These should put a smile on faces at PATP HQ.

Inserts

Manupatch of 2008 Kershaw RC

These are a bit odd. the "Border" from the original 2008 design is raised, while the pix is inset.

89T Die Cut Sandy Koufax

The blaster was a bit of Dodger Hot Box. Never been a big fan of Die Cuts. Just harder to take care of. That being said the 89T design is a good one to give the Die Cut treatment.

2014 Topps Power Player Wilmer Flores

Just noting the difference from the PP cards and base here. The RCe logo is gone and the Topps moved from right to left. There is good news here if your hate the chrome print, it appears a bit lighter on the Power Play cards.

2014 Topps Blue Mariano Rivera

This was a bit of an oddity, All of the Blue Parallels in the box were of cards with Landscrape Photos, notice these two of the retiring Rivera and the one of Jimmy above. This is a coalation thing I have noticed from Topps previously. In 2008 I got a Hobby Box of S1 where all the Gold Foil stamped cards were Horizontal.

Bleeders

Night Owl referred this years new Red parallels as bleeding walls or something similar. At some point I hope to have some additional thoughts on these, but will note that all 3 of these like the blue instagrams above are landscapes.

etc   

The reamaining inserts. I like the UpperClass cards but find the Future is Now cards meh. For whatever reason I liked the UC cards of Retired players more than these new cards of current players.

All in all a fun break. Lots of new blue cards for the Phungo collection, a couple of cool inserts including a Rollins Parallel. Thanks to the Brian over at Play at the Plate for running a contest that even Team Phungo can win.

More 2014 Topps Review
2014 Topps First Pack

2013 Topps Hanger Pack Match Race - Target Red v Vanilla

Earlier this week we took a look at a regular Hanger pack of 2013 Topps Update. Today we are looking at the Target Red version. 

2013 Topps Update #US58 Kevin Fandsen

Kevin Frandsen is the lone Phillies player in the pack. Countwise thats a push between the two packs, but Kevin Frandsen was a higher contributor as a bench player than Mike Adams was as a dinged up reliever. ADVANTAGE: Target.

The Vanilla

Andrew McCutchen and the Pirates were in the playoffs, nice to see him get some national recognition. This years Postseason Hero David Ortiz on a checker card. Got a bunch of Rookie Cards in this pack including Anthony Rendon and Jose Fernandez.

Among the Vanilla cards in the regular Hanger Pack was a Mariano Rivera SP - ADVANTAGE: Vanilla

Inserts

Target came up with a pair of Hall of Famers in Koufax and Reggie plus the 71 Topps Mariano Rivera mini. The Vanilla pack had Jim Palmer.  ADVANTAGE: Target
 
Between the two packs I had a bunch of Twins inserts. This pack was Dodgers heavy - so this Hanger Pack Match race turned out to be a celebration of the 1965 World Series. 

The Red

I like the Red Cards, Henry Urrutia is another quality RC.  Unless your set building the colored parallels are always a bonus to me ADVANTAGE: Target.

Hey Wait that is only 4 Red Parallels

Shelby Miller RC was also amongst the Red Cards. The Target pack also contained a couple noteworthy Rookie Debut Cards Jurickson Profar and Hyun-Jin Ryu.


Rookie Card Bonanza - ADVANTAGE: Target

Analysis
It is so easy when you break it down by the numbers Target wins 4-1. Although one could easily argue the magnitude of the Mariano SP offsets anything that was in the Target pack.

The five Red Cards turned out to be the only real difference in the packs. 


Check My Math - the two packs by the numbers:

2013 Topps - Looking Back

2013 Topps S1 First Pack (Retail)

2013 Topps S2 Hobby Packs

2013 Topps Update Hanger Pack 

2013 Topps S1 & S2 Phillies Checkers

2013 Topps Chrome Value Pack

2013 Topps Opening Day 1/2 Price

2012 Topps Hanger Pack

Sources

Baseball-ref.com

Phungo 5 with Cardboard Junkie

Today we have the always enjoyable DayF of Cardboard Junkie at the plate to discuss all things Braves and beyond.

DayF, Comissioner of the 2010 Heritage Blaster Fantasy League, has once again provided us with a variety of insights and reminds us of why he is one of the more informative and funny card bloggers out there.

1) Jason Heyward, 21 Homers - Over or Under?
Twenty-one sounds about right, actually. He can get three and a half a month I think. I don't even care if he doesn't break twenty, he can do what he's doing right now and I'll be happy. I'll I'm really looking for from J-Hey this season is to be patient, draw walks, get on base and to get through the inevitable rookie slumps he's going to hit once pitchers start adjusting. He already had one with his streak of strikeouts including a Golden Sombrero against the Giants. He bounced back, made adjustments, started being more patient and now he's a legend again. The dude isn't old enough to legally drink, he's not going devastate the league quite yet. He's a hell of a lot better than the slabs of rotting meat that the Braves threw out there last April,that's for damn sure.One reason why I have absolutely no doubts that Heyward is the next big star in the league is because I got to see Jason play first hand in a Triple-A game at Gwinnett last year. Jason had played maybe one or two games in Triple-A after his call up and he already owned the place. He had a booming hit, made a great catch and throw in right field, was patient at the plate, stole a base and generally looked like he needed to be called up to the Show right then and there. The most ridiculous thing I saw was when he scored from second on a ground ball out! I know pretty much the entire country is completely sick of J-Hey-Hype but trust me when I say that Jason is the best prospect to come up since Pujols. I'm wishing I hoarded every Heyward card I could find instead of just being happy with finding one of each now.I never answered the question, did I? I'll be optimistic. He'll hit 22. I take the over.



2) Should Sandy Koufax cards be more expensive then the cards of Warren Spahn?
Should James Dean movies be more expensive than Humphrey Bogart movies? They're both leading men, they both have a sexy, dangerous edge to them, the main difference is that James burned brightly for a short period of time while Humphrey was rock solid for decades.They're both good, they're both legends and if people want to buy up all the copies of Rebel Without a Cause for $50 a pop and leave The Maltese Falcon in the $10 bin for me, I don't really mind all that much.The fact is there are a a lot more Dodger collectors out there than Braves collectors, and Koufax also has the true star quality going for him. Spahn is the best Lefty ever, but he was more workman about it. I certainly don't mind picking up vintage Spahnnies for under 10 bucks.

3) Topps has now released 10 years of Heritage - looking back are there any inserts/subsets they have dropped you would like to see return and are there any inserts that you believe need replaced.
Topps has remained very consistent with their Heritage insert sets.The Chrome Parallels, Then and Now, New Age Performers, Real One Autographs and Clubhouse Performers inserts have been in every single set if I'm not mistaken. They had an insert called Classic Renditions with modern players in classic unis in 2001 and 2002, but in 2003 they're placed it with Flashbacks which is still in the 2010 set. There have been some weird stuff like a Mantle Home Run countdown in 2008 and2010's Ruth Chase and the somewhat useless News Flashbacks, but other than that the set is the same as it's always been.Something I'd like to see return are the variation cards that fall at the same rate as the short prints. I hate the super short prints with a passion mainly because I used to be able to get a Rafael Furcal card with a night background or a Johan Santana card with a Washington hat variation as easily as anything else. That has sort of come back this year with the 1:72 Dice Back variation. They are tough, but I've already pulled two and it's a real cool concept. Something that can go away is the news flashbacks. there's maybe one good one a year (space monkey!) and they are mostly a bummer to pull. One thing I'd like to see in 2011 Heritage is a one per pack "Baseball Bucks" insert set. Topps inserted paper play money with players' pictures on them in 1962and it would be nice to have that set be easy to collect unlike the cool but scarce Stamps from this year.

4) who is your Favorite Jones not named Chipper

MY FIVE FAVORITE JONESESES AFTER CHIPPAH(and no, Andruw ain't one of 'em)

#5 Cyrano Jones - Tribbles! Old School Trek, baybee!

#4 Spike Jones - Beautiful music, just like momma used to make.

#3 John Paul Jones - I got the Led Zep box set back when it first came out.

#2 Carolyn Jones - Tish! You spoke French!!

AND THE GREATEEST JONES OTHER THAN CHIPPAH IS:

#1 Terry Jones - Terry might actually beat Larry to be honest.

Lenny's Diner Clearwater FL 2002ish?

5) As Commissioner of the 2010 Heritage Blaster Baseball League, I ask you to Defend Grits.
Defend grits? As in the southern type breakfast mush that you get with your eggs, bacon and scattered covered and smothered at the Waffle House? Those kind of grits? Well, I don't see them as being any weirder than any other sort of odd regional delicacy like lutefisk in Minnesota, or fried brain sandwiches in Indiana, or poutine up in the Frozen north or *ahem* scrapple... It's just redneck polenta, nothing more, nothing less.It's a porridge like oatmeal or cream of wheat, really, just made out of corn. While oatmeal is hearty, and cream of wheat is smooth, grits are just sort of gritty, hence the name. They're good though and while oatmeal and cream of wheat are good with sweet stuff like syrup and cinnamon and fruit and cream, grits are good with more savory flavors.I love mine with any combination of butter, cheese, bacon bits or black pepper. If you're ever on the South Carolina coast find a place that has real low country shrimp and grits with fresh local shrimp,slow cooked grits and a spicy tomato sauce... pure heaven.If you're talking about gritz76, the guy who runs Project '62, well, I can't. There's no way I can defend a Cubs fan.


Phungo 5 Box Score

Cardboard Junkie Goes 4 for 4 with the J-Hey Question remaining open. And despite what Heyward did to the Phils last night we will toss in an extra point for going the extra mile and hooking us up with the Morticia video. Cardboard Junkie 5 points with one pending.

Looking Back

To check out a previous Phungo 5 with Brian from 30-Year old Cardboard click here