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

1915 Phillies 100th Anniversary - Fred Luderus

2015 marks the 100th anniversary of the Phillies first pennant winner - The 1915 Philadelphia Phillies. 

To honor that team we are going to dedicate this years Featured Teams series to the club.  The first player that we are taking a look at is First Baseman Fred Luderus

2010 Phillies Baseball Heroes 3-Clubs Fred Luderus


Last week the Phillies announced the candidates for the teams 2015 Wall of Fame election. I knew most of the names but came across one I was not familiar with, Fred Luderus. 

Fred Luderus was the captain of the 1915 Phillies squad. That season was arguably the best campaign of Luderus' career, he finished 2nd in the NL in batting average, Slugging, OPS, and oWAR. He took his fine season into the World Series where he batted .438 and hit the first Home Run in Phillies Postseason history.

As a left handed power hitter, Luderus had 84 career Home Runs. That number may seem modest today, but he placed himself in the leagues top 10 for the category eight times. He also found himself on leader boards for RBIs, Total Bases, and Games a number of times. 

At one time Fred Luderus was the owner of the consecutive game streak record that would later be the property of Hall of Famers Lou Gehrig and Cal Ripken. Luderus played his 479th consecutive game on August 3rd, 1919 surpassing Eddie Collins record of 478. The streak extended for the remainder of the 1919 season ending at 533 games on September 28th. The record held until 1927 when it was broken by Glass Arm Eddie Brown. 

Following his Baseball career Luderus returned to his native Wisconsin and worked at the Milwaukee Yacht Club. He eventually started his own toy business that sold yarn dolls and animals nationwide. Fred Luderus died of a heart attack in 1961 at age 75.

1964 Phillies @ 50
Just wanted to let you know that I still have at least a half dozen posts left in the 1964 Phils series. I hope to get to them, but I didn't want that to hold up the new 1915 series. 
 
Sources n Links
1915 Phillies NL Champions  
SABR bio by Joe Dittmar
Phillies
Baseball-ref

1915 National League Champion Phillies

This is an index of posting related to the 1915 NL Champion Philadelphia Phillies. The Series originally ran in 2015, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the team.

1911 T206 George McQuillan

Grover Cleveland "Pete" Alexander
Dave Bancroft
Stan Baumgartner
Beals Becker
Gavvy Cravath
Fred Luderus
George McQuillan
Pat Moran
Eppa Rixey
Bud Weiser

Bill Killefer
Bert Niehoff
Bobby Byrne
Possum Whitted

Erskine Mayer
Al Demaree
George Chalmers
Ed Burns
-
Pat Moran

Sources n Links

T206 Museum 

Ernie Banks 1931-2015

Late Friday Night we got the news that Ernie Banks passed away a week shy of his 84th birthday.

2008 07 13 - Ernie Banks

I never got a chance to see Ernie Banks play, He retired when I was four, but I did get to see him at the 2008 Futures Game in New York.

It isn't the same as seeing the man play but there is something cool about seeing a legend take the field honored by an ovation and waving his cap. That is what Ernie Banks did that day, he was the honorary captain for the National League. This pix was taken before I really started using the zoom a lot and working on camera angles. That didn't stop me from putting Banks on a Phungo Card

1959 NL MVP

1975 Topps #197 1959 MVPs Fox & Banks

In 1959 Ernie Banks won his 2nd consecutive MVP award. The season was honored as part of the 1975 Topps MVP subset. The flip of the 1975T card snapshots sums up a few Banks accomplishments in the 1959 season. 

1975 Topps #197 (b-side edit)

Modern analytics agree with the MVP votes of 1959 voters. Banks had a 10.2 WAR in 1959, it was the highest of his career and led the National League.

The 1975T Selfie is of a card originally from 1959

1959 Topps #350 Ernie Banks

This is a nice base card of Banks, most of the 1959T cards are straight up head shots. I like seeing the glove in the shot and it appears that Mr Cub was captured at his playing home, Wrigley Field. Once again we flip the card and see that Banks 1959 card summarizes the accomplishments that earned hims the 1958 MVP.

1959 Topps #350 Ernie Banks (b-side)

Ernie Banks Tributes
 Dick Allen
Wrigley Wax (397 Banks Cards!)

Waiting til Next Year (tribute including Wrigley Field Sign)
The Phillies Room (2008 Topps Heritage Then Now w/ Ryan Howard)
Night Owl Cards (1971 Topps)
20th Century Topps (1971T,  1960T,  1955T)
The Five Tool Collector (1959 Topps 3 Cards - includes 1959T #350 above)
Drews Cards (Banks Personal Appearance)
Chronicles of Fuji (various autos)
The Lost Collector (Hillshire Farms Auto)
Card Buzz (1954T reprint TTM auto)
Cardboard Connection (several modern retro cards)
Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius (2009 Sighting)
Cardboard Icons (1954 Topps RC)
bdj610 (2011 Topps Variation)
Cardboard Connection (14 Cards showing Banks love of the game)
Rectangle Men (1998 Cubs Convention)
Mint Condition (1954T Reprint)
Life and Baseball Cards (Sketch Card Originals)
Cards that Never Were (Fleer custom)
Lifetime Topps Project (Topps Archives 1972T)
Starting Nine (various retros)
My life in the Sports Card Hobby (photos)


Other Voices - Cards from this post that are examined at other sites

1959 Topps one f/g card at a time
1975 Topps (Night Owl Cards)

Sources and Links
Phungo Ernie Banks Hall of Fame Index
Baseball-ref

WAR Stories Phillies 2015+ Ben Revere

Today we return to our 2015 Phillies WAR projections 

2013 Topps Chrome Refractor #90 Ben Revere

Ben Revere is good at one thing hitting singles. Even his plus speed doesn't seem to translate game changing stolen bases or stellar defense.


Revere's odd statistical career makes him hard to project. An example is the conundrum of his 2014 season, he led the NL in hits (184) but his .325 OBP ranked 40th among the NLs 65 qualified batters. He did have the best Offensive WAR year of his career +2.4 but his dWAR was -2.2,

They aren't really any contemporary comps for Revere. I looked back at some old Baseball America Prospect Handbooks which suggested a ceiling of Brett Gardner. At this point I would be happy with an Austin Jackson. A sobering thought is that Willy Taveras is closer than those two outfielders. Revere is entering his age 27 season - Taveras has been wallowing away in the minors since finishing his age 28 season in 2010. With Ben Revere having no peripheral skill beyond the one base hit, I seriously wonder if he will be in the majors beyond 2016.

2015 Phungo Verdict
Ben Revere is a replacement player 2015 projected WAR = 0. For our running track of the Phillies 2015 WAR projections click here


Refractor
I don't get as excited about refractors as other folks, but I was pretty happy to find this card in a dime box last September


Sources and Links
WAR Stories 2015+ Phillies
Baseball-ref

2015 Phungo #21 Jimmy Rollins with VARIATIONS

Today our look at 2015 Phungo checks in with Jimmy Rollins

2015 Phungo #21 Jimmy Rollins

This year I elected to continue a feature introduced last year - Hardware. That is how I refer to awards won by different players - For each award card the hardware title is placed above the player name and backlit in bright yellow or gold as I choose to think of it.

The Roberto Clemente award is presented to an MLB player who is noted for their sportsmanship and contributions both on and off the field. The process involves nominations from each team, fan voting, and a select MLB panel which includes Bud Selig, Rob Manfred, and Vera Clemente - Widow of Roberto. This year the vote resulted in a tie between Jimmy Rollins and Chicago White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko.

I have made an additional nod to Roberto Clemente here by placing Rollins on card #21 - The number worn by Clemente. I would like to see Topps honor card #21 and #42 (Jackie Robinson) in the same way. Rather than retiring the card number (#7 Mantle) why not give it each year to a deserving player. It would give collectors another discussion point in the hero number conversation.

Unfortunately there is an error on the card. The date on the card is August 19, 2014 - unfortunately this photo was taken on May 18 of 2013. This leads us to....

2015 Phungo #21 Jimmy Rollins (Dodgers Variation)


I originally had a totally different Phils card for Rollins. The Picture was from a game versus Seattle on 8/19/2014. But the photo featured Jimmy in a cap and wasn't really suitable for a traded type card. Once he was traded I found this non-cap pix and quickly made up the above Dodgers card.

I then took the pix and inserted it into the Phillies template, but I forgot to change the date. Beyond the border differences the cards are still slightly different in the way the photo is framed. Check Jimmy's left ear. It touches the frame on the Phillies card but does not on the Dodgers card.


Parallels

For some reason I am still a sucker for parallels. Target is my desired pickup point for retail largely because they have the red border parallels, which match up better for the Phils team colors than Walmart Blue.

However, creating cards for the Phungo Sets makes me realize how flooding a set with parallels is just plain lazy. It is pretty much as simple as taking the A card and point and clicking on the boarder - make less of the B card and call it a hit.

Regardless I am a sucker for parallel cards and trading cards and two weeks from now when 2015 S1 debuts I will come up with some excuse to go to Target and I will seek out the package with the extra Red parallel cards. sigh

Sources and Links
2015 Phungo Checker
Jimmy Rollins Player Collection Index 
MLB
Cardboard Connection

Checker 2014 Phungo

2014 Phungo #1 Cliff Lee

Card	Subject	Team
1	Cliff Lee	Phillies
2	Ben Revere	Phillies
3	Robinson Cano	Yankees
4	Michael Bourn	Indians
5	Freddie Freeman	Braves
6	Ryan Howard	Phillies
7	JJ Hardy	Orioles
8	Adam Jones	Orioles
9	Dominic Brown	Phillies
10	Darren Daulton	Phillies
11	Jimmy Rollins	Phillies
12	Sarah Ferguson/Salty Sands	HoF
13	Manny Machado	Orioles
14	David Price	Rays
15	Tim Hudson	Giants
16	Nate McLouth	Orioles
17	Elena Della Donne	Sky
18	Darin Ruf	Phillies
19	Chris Davis	Orioles
20	Ian Desmond	Nationals
21	Yadier Molina	Cardinals
22	Clayton Kershaw	Dodgers
23	David Freese	Cardinals
24	Miguel Cabrera	Tigers
25	Cody Asche	Phillies
26	Chase Utley	Phillies
27	Mike Trout	Angels
28	Curt Simmons	Phillies
29	Nik Wallenda
30	Chris Tillman	Orioles
31	Lance Lynn	Cardinals
32	Matt Wieters	Orioles
33	Bud Black	Padres
34	Kevin Millwood	Mariners
35	Cole Hamels	Phillies
36	Freddy Galvis	Phillies
37	Howie Bedell	Phillies
38	Paul Hagen	HoF
39	Devin Mesoraco	Reds
40	Pedro Alvarez	Pirates
41	Carlos Santana	Indians
42	Andrew McCutchen	Pirates
43	Ringo Starr
44	Jim Bunning	Phillies
45	Wil Myers	Rays
46	Dallas Green	Phillies
47	Gio Gonzalez	Nationals
48	Dan Uggla	Braves
49	Ethan Martin	Phillies
50	Jayson Werth	Nationals
51	Carlos Ruiz	Phillies
52	Alex Rodriguez	Yankees
53	Chrisitian Friedrich	Rockies
54	Tommy Medica	Padres
55	Michael Young	Phillies
56	Evan Gattis	Braves
57	Chuck Klosterman
58	Xander Bogaerts	Red Sox
59	Billy Hamilton	Reds
60	Prince Fielder	Rangers
61	Bronson Arroyo	Reds
62	Theodore Roosevelt	president
63	Jake Diekman	Phillies
64	Andrelton Simmons	Braves
65	Byron Buxton	Twins
66	Yasiel Puig	Dodgers