1990 Year of the No-Hitter: June 11th - Nolan Ryan Pt 4

Our 1991 Year of the No-Hitter coverage will always be a work in progress. I started the series focusing on the 1991 Score No-Hit Club subset, but it has become more interesting as I have found other cards related to that years no-hitters. 

1992 Pacific Nolan Ryan #170 Number Six

Pet peeve here as Nolan Ryan is clearly shown in a Home Rangers uni rather than a Road Texas jersey which he would have been wearing the night that he no-hit the Oakland A's. We have featured four other cards on Ryan's 6th no-hitter and all four card companies got the threads correct.

1992 Pacific Nolan Ryan is a continuation of the 1991 set that Pacific put out the previous year. Each of the two sets are similar in design and consist of 110 cards.

1992 Pacific Nolan Ryan #170 Number Six (b-side)

The flip contains the box score with a two sentence synopsis of Ryan's achievement.

Of the four previous cards we featured on Nolan Ryan's 1990 gem only one included the box score. The 1991 Score No-Hit Club Card.

1991 Score No-Hit Club #701 Nolan Ryan (b-side)

While formatted just a bit differently the two box scores cover the info at the same level of detail. The Date is given on the Pacific Card, while it is only on the front of the Score card.

Sources and Links
1991 0611 Nolan Ryan 6th No-Hitter Index
Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards (2006 ed) - Bob Lemke
sbnation

Swag from Nachos Grande

Couple of highlights from a recent Nachos Grande Box Break

2015 Topps Heritage #596 Freddy Galvis

We lead off our Swag posting with a rare Freddy Galvis card. Topps seems to snub Galvis for some reason. He is not exactly a star and really more of a reserve player, but he is right at the top of the list of Phillies that don't get Topps cards.

This card is from the Heritage High  Number set, likewise #596 was a high number in the original 1966T  but it did not correspond to a Phillies player. The original card was as Rookie Card issued to Nate Colbert with Houston. I was unaware that Colbert debuted with the Astros until I saw the RC. He eventually moved to the Padres as an expansion draft pickup. Colbert shares his dual RC with Greg Sims who had a grand total of 7 career MLB Plate Appearances.

2014 Topps Stadium Club Chase Utley Base & Black Parallel 

He's gone and may have to sign a minor league contract to hook up with a team in 2016 but that won't stop us from being fans. Nice to pick up this short print in the break. 

2011 Topps Wilson Valdez 

There are not a lot of cares of Phan Phavorite Wilson Valdez. 

2013 Topps Chrome Purple Refractor Ryan Howard Purple 

Picked up a couple Purple Refractor shorties, The more notable of the two is the above Ryan Howard...

2013 Topps Chrome Purple Refractor Jonathan Pettibone

Pettibone had Shoulder surgery during the summer of 2014 and was expected to return to the Phillies by spring of this year but never made it to the mound in an official game. He is not currently on the 40 man roster.

2015 Topps Ken Giles

One of the few bright spots for the Phillies the last few seasons has been reliever Ken Giles. With contenders looking for closers and the rebuilding Phillies not reall needing one there is a chance that Giles will be on the move this winter. 

2015 Topps Heritage Odubel Herrera 

The Phillies rule 5 pickup Odubel Herrera also provided a few highlights during the Phillies 2015 campaign.

2015 Topps Chrome Ryan Howard

Still good to see cards of one of the 2008 Phillies last remaining heroes.

Bobby Abreu 
Darren Daulton
Ricky Otero

Some other heroes from the past were part of the break

2008 Topps Home Run Derby Chase Utley

Closing with another Chase Card.

Sources and Links
Baseball Card Database
Baseball-reference
Phillies - Todd Zolecki
Philly.com - Jake Caplan 

2016 Hall of Fame Ballot

It isn't as exciting as the postseason or even the regular season but Awards Season is upon us. This will all culminate with the Hall of Fame Voting in January. 

There are 15 new names on this years Ballot, none bigger than Ken Griffey Jr.

1994 Topps #388 All-Star Outfielders Len Dykstra & Ken Griffey Jr

We will all likely see a lot of cards of Junior over the next couple of weeks. This is a fun one that also happens to feature the Phillies centerfielder of the era Len Dykstra. Something tells me that Griffey's HoF ballot count will be significantly better then Dykstra's sole appearance - the 2002 ballot. 

Lenny received a single HoF vote, which is more than he deserved. 

I did a few searches but was unable to find the BBWAA that voted for Dykstra. It is almost comical to think of he and Junior getting equal billing on a card. For the most part I think Griffey is one of the most well regarded professional athletes while Lenny is pretty much viewed as a cretin.

flip

1994 Topps #388 All-Star Outfielders Len Dykstra & Ken Griffey Jr (b-side)

Kind of a cool idea for an All-Star card with the pre- and post- break stats. Both Griffey and Dykstra had impressive OBP for the entirety of 1993, I am a little surprised the stat made it onto a 1994 card. Dykstra had a bit of a dropoff in the 2nd half, but his numbers remained impressive.

Dykstra finished 2nd to Barry Bonds in the 1993 NL MVP Voting, while Griffey came in 5th in the junior circuit - despite having the 2nd best WAR (8.7) which led AL position players. 

RookiesThe 15 new comers on this years ballot are listed below

Garret Anderson
Brad Ausmus
Luis Castillo
David Eckstein
Jim Edmonds
 
Troy Glaus
Ken Griffey Jr
Mark Grudzielanek 
Mike Hampton
Trevor Hoffman
 
Jason Kendall
Mike Lowell,
Mike Sweeney
Billy Wagner
Randy Winn

I am going to try and cover a couple of these players prior to the HoF announcement in January.  At a minimum I expect to put together columns on Billy Wagner, Hoffman, and Ballot Snub Chan Ho Park.

There are 17 holdovers from the 2015 ballot giving us a total of 32 candidates. Some of those folks got mentioned in our 2015 HoF Ballot coverage which is can be found here.


Sources and Links
2016 HoF Candidates Index
CNN/SI - Jay Jaffe
Baseball Hall of Fame
baseball-ref

2015 Topps Update MegaBox Break

I let myself get suckered into picking up one of those 5+2 megaboxes of Updated/Chrome Update. Between the 7 packs I came up empty for Phillies - and really no former Phillies either :(

There are some minor highlights - pix below

Dallas Keuchel

Starting out with a couple of the Update cards. Keuchel is  the man who became the ace of the Astros. I am much happier with the shot selection for the 2015 All-Star cards. A year ago I think Topps was restricted to Practice Day photos, and there didn't appear to be enough selection.

Yoenis Cespedes

Before we spent the entire postseason hearing about Daniel Murphy, we spent the duration of the stretch run hearing about Yoenis Cespedes. The Cuban outfielder is a Free Agent and this may be one of the few cards issued of Cespedes as a Met.

Stephen Vogt

Another All-Star card, this is an interesting shot of A's catcher Stephen Vogt with I assume his child. The two of them are holding a placard for MLBs Stand Up 2 Cancer campaign.

Chrome

Joey Gallo
Francisco Lindor
Jason Heyward

These are this years special Chrome Cards. One advantage of photographing over scanning for these is you can capture the sparkles at a variety of angles. Three Pictures of the same card could have quite different results.

Eduardo Rodriguez
Delino DeShields
Eddie Butler

The filled in "Future Stars" tag, shown here on the Eddie Butler Card, looks a bit better on the Chrome Cards than on flagship - You can actually read the tag on the Chrome Card.

Inserts/Notables

Joe Ross
Craig Biggio
Dwight Gooden
Josh Donaldson

The Ross card is a parallel out of one of the base packs. Whatever Works for Craig Biggio is his dirty helment.

No-Hitter

The Bob Feller card above will likely get covered in a future No-Hitters posting.

Joey Butler
Danny Valencia

Gold Cards from flagship - both numbered to 2015.

Rookies

Jason Garcia/Scott Copeland

Apparently Dual RCs are in Update. I don't recall seeing these in the first 2 series of 2015T.

Joc Pederson

This is one of the Gold Versions of Chrome Update - numbered to /250.

Rookie Sensations Jose Abreu

I believe Rookie Sensations is the common insert for Chrome Update.

I pick up a couple of packs of Update each year, adding these few packs from the MegaBox along with the 8 ChroUp cards will probably conclude my new pack purchases for the year.

Sources and Links
Cardboard Connection

Fan Authentics Card Show 2015 1030-1031 Oaks PA

I was in a crazy mood for this years Fan Authentics show. I picked up lots of stuff but wasn't looking for anything special. Most of my time was spent in Dime Boxes but I also dedicated a fair chunk of my trip to BuyBacks - which I think were mostly from 2015T Update.

Here are some highlights, If time permits I may come back at a later time and give some of these cards more analysis.

1958 Topps Pancho Herrera

Buybacks made up a big part of my day1 finds. I handn't picked up many Phillies Buy Backs and I believe this Pancho Herrera is my earliest. This card went for 50 cents or a Dollar.

Collecting goal may be to pick up a Phillies BuyBack from each year of Topps.

1974 Topps Steve Carlton BuyBack
1978 Topps World Series Highlight Reggie Jackson

Even found Buybacks of Hall of Famers. Each of the above 70s era cards went for $2.


1959 Topps Buybacks Walt Moryn, Morrie Martin, Murray Wall

Found 3 buybacks from one of my favorite early sets. 50 cents or a Dollar on each.

1975 Topps Jim Kaat

Found lots of 1975T buybacks. Most are destined for Night Owl territory, but Kaat is likely staying in the Phungo collection.

 

1975 Topps Buybacks

These are the 1975T BuyBacks, Twitchell will stay local, the rest are destined to travel.

1974 Topps Fred Kendall Buyback

I bypassed the Padres Kendall initially, until I saw the one with the Phillies flags. Will definitely return to this one at a future date. (.50 each)

Vintage

1958 Topps Kluszewski/Williams

Picked up the Ted's card for $9.

1967 Topps Checker w/ Jim Kaat

Focusing a bit on 1967T a bit getting ready for 2016 Heritage. Curious if the Checklists which have been left out of recent editions of Heritage will return in the upcoming release. The presents of a player on the card may factor in Topps decision.

1973 Topps Dick Allen

This is a Stamp Card as well, but it is of the 75th anniversary variety. ($1)


World Series

1973 Topps World Series Highlights Johnny Bench

And there were buybacks of WS HL cards that included Hall of Famers. ($1-$2)

1967 Topps WS HL Brooks Robinson

More 1967 Topps, This is the Vanilla no stamp variety.  ($1)

 

Special Collections

2010 Topps Ring of Honor Brad Lidge

Another more modern WS Highlight Card. This is one that reps a game that Team Phungo was very happy to have attended. (Dime Box)

Nolan Ryan No-Hitter Number Six

Added to my Nolan Ryan No-Hitter Collection with this one. Will probably be a future posting on this one at some point. (dimebox)

Len Dykstra, Ken Griffey Jr

As part of Our 2016 HoF Ballot feature we discuss this card (DimeBox)

Dom Brown RC Auto

I am not sure that I was supposed to get this but, they were handing out free autographed Dom Brown RCs when I entered the Show on Friday.



 

Player Collection: Chase Utley

This is an index of our Chase Utley Card related Postings.


2010 Allen & Ginter Highlight Sketches #AGHS1 Chase Utley

2007 Topps UH279 Classc Combo (w/ Ichiro)

2007 Topps Heritage #368 Charlie's Young Sluggers (w/ Manuel, Howard) 

2007 UD (St Patrick's Day) 

2008 Topps #UH241 Chase Utley (2014 All-Star appearance)
2008 Topps Heritage #408 (w/ Rollins, Keystone Combo/Reunited as Dodgers)
2008 UD Masterpieces #69 (5 Hit Game / 6 Hit Game with Dodgers)
2009 Topps A&G National Pride #NP24 (Independence Day)
2009 UD A Piece of History #CSC-UK Chase Utley and Ian Kinsler
2010 Allen & Ginter Highlight Sketches #AGHS1 Chase Utley (Phungo Game Collection)
2010 Topps Heritage #310 (Utley Ties Reggie, 10th Anniversary)
2011 Topps Heritage #72 (w/ Rollins, Phillies Men up the Middle/Reunited as Dodgers)
2011 Phungo #26
2012 Topps 1987 Topps Mini #TM-38 (Wallet Card intro)
2012 Bowman Draft #TP-UN Top Picks (with Tyler Naquin, #15 Picks)
2013 Topps #26 (Card Numbers = Player Numbers)
2014 Topps Chrome #174 (Blaster Break)
2014 Topps Chrome #174 Black Refractor (Phungo Game)
2014 Heritage (Phillies Team Checker)
2014 Bowman Chrome #123 (2015 WAR Projections)
2015 MLB Sticker
2016 ToppsNow #362 (Utley Returns to Philadelphia)

2016 08 16 Game Report (Chase Utley Returns to Philadelphia hits Grand Slam)

Player Collection Index

This is an Index of Player Collection related Postings


2010 Allen & Ginter Highlight Sketches #AGHS1 Chase Utley

Phillies 
Dick Allen
Roy Halladay
Ryan Howard
Cliff Lee
Garry Maddox
Jamie Moyer
Jimmy Rollins
Jim Thome
Chase Utley

Dillsburg
Cody Eppley
Anthony Lerew
Joe Tuschak

Local Connections
Matt Adams
Ben Davis
Emlen Tunnell (NFL HoF)

Baseball General
Johnny Damon
Bill Lee
Minnie Minoso
Mike Mussina 
Doug Rader
Luis Tiant

Still the Home Run Leader for November

This years World Series made it into November, by my count it is the fourth time this season has extended into the 11th month of the year. The previous years were 2001, 2009, 2010 and 2015.

Last week Curtis Granderson added his name to the list of players who have November Homers, a list that is headed by Chase Utley.

2010 Allen & Ginter Highlight Sketches #AGHS1 Chase Utley

During the 2009 World Series Utley hit five Homers, three of which occurred in 2 November games in Philadelphia.

Home Runs 4 and 5 were both hit in Game 5, the most recent World Series Game won by the Phillies and the most recent Series game hosted in Philadelphia. Team Phungo was happy to be at that game and you can read about that very enjoyable night here.
 

2010 Allen & Ginter Highlight Sketches #AGHS1 Chase Utley (b-side)

The flip side of the card goes into a some additional details including the Mention of Mr October, Reggie Jackson, who is the only other player to previously hit five homers in a Series.

Phungo Game Cards

This card is a member of one of my favorite collections: The Phungo Game Collection which is the narcissistic set of cards devoted to games that Team Phungo was fortunate enough to attend. Above is a snapshot of the e-ticket I picked up for the game. I miss hard tickets, but do realize that the time marches on. I do have a paper ticket to this game but it isn't the same as the ones issued by the teams/league.

The Index of Phungo Game Cards can be found here.

Chase Utley 
He is gone but not forgotten. I have a couple of player collection and this posting will act as an index to the Chase Utley related cards in the Phungo Collection

Sources and Links
Phungo Game Cards
Chase Utley Player Collection Index 
Baseball Cardpedia

Tommy Hanson 1986-2015

Earlier today I woke up to the sad news that Tommy Hanson Had died.

2012 Phungo #21 Tommy Hanson

This picture was taking during BP On July 7th 2010. The Braves defeated the Phillies 7-5, Hanson did not play in the game. My enthusiastic game report can be found here. If I recall correctly the retiring Tim Hudson was working closely with the young Hanson that night.

Tommy Hanson earned one other blog mention - As a notable Braves prospect he made it into the 15 card Rookie Performers insert set of 2009 Heritage High Numbers.

Card Memorials
Cardboard Icons (Bowmand Chrome Auto)

Sources and Links
ToppsHeritage.com

Congrats Ryan Madson and the Kansas City Royals

The KC Royals victory over the Mets in the World Series gave former Phillies pitcher Ryan Madson his 2nd World Series ring.

2007 Topps Heritage #116 Ryan Madson

Madson got into 3 World Series games with the Royals and was credited with the victory in game 4 on Saturday Night.

Reds and Angels fans may not be as happy with Madson who battled injuries with both clubs and didn't make a major league appearance between 2011 and 2015.

For us Phillies fans it was a rare bright light in a bleak year and a reminder of better times which don't seem that far in the past.

2007 Heritage

2007 Topps Heritage #116 Ryan Madson/1958 Topps #116 Dave Philley

In the original 1958T set the #116 spot was occupied by Pinch Hitting specialist Dave Philley. The franchise is pretty much the extent of the player similarities. The Heritage recreation is pretty faithful, The different shades of blue and the logo change are the easiest things to spot. Also in the original 1958 Topps there are at least 3 different variations of the club nickname: Phillies, Phils and "Phils." with a period at the end.


2007 Topps Heritage #116 Ryan Madson/1958 Topps #116 Dave Philley (b-side)

The flip of the cards confirms the residents of both players as Card #116 in their respective sets, Near as I can tell the only other thing the two men have in common is a weight of 195 lbs.


Sources and Links
Baseball-ref