Philly Show returns to Valley Forge this weekend.

The Philly Show is back in Valley Forge this weekend. Busy times at HQ right now, Not sure if team Phungo will be able to make the trek.

1971 Topps #49 Don Money

I hope I get there as both of my favorite dealers are scheduled to be at the show. If anyone else is going let me know and I will keep an eye open for you.

There are always autograph guests at the Philly Show, this edition of the show is largely football based, but there is one baseball player scheduled to appear, Don Money.

1971 Topps #49 Don Money (b-side)

1971T finds Money at the peak of the five seasons he spent with Philadelphia. As can seen on his back stats he compiled 14 Homers along with a .295 average - In today's modern stats that would be a very healthy 123 OPS+ and a 3.5 WAR. 

Other Autographs
There are a number of football guests at the show including Hall of Famers Jack Lambert, Lenny Moore (age 83!), Gino Marchetti (89!), and Herb Adderley. Famous Notre Dame alum Rudy will be there as well.

The show runs December 2-4 and admission is $8. For more information on the show click here.

Sources and Links
PhillyShow
baseball-ref

2017 Hall of Fame Candidate: Vladimir Guerrero

Getting to the 2017 HoF Candidates a little late this year. There are at least a half dozen players I would like to profile including a couple of prominent players who spent time with the Phillies.

We open this series with a longtime member of the Phillies division rival Montreal Expos, Vladimir Guerrero.

1998 Topps #5 Vladimir Guerrero 

Vlad deserves HOF nod just for this card alone. One of my gripes about recent Topps is the plethora of action shots. While 1998T might not have the best design, at least there is some interesting variations in the photography.

1998 Topps #5 Vladimir Guerrero (b-side)

The text on the back discusses a play early in Vlad Guerrero's career where he scored from second on a sacrifice fly. The run gave the Expos a 2-1 lead versus the Braves and future Hall of Famer Greg Maddux. Unfortunately for Montreal Ugueth Urbina would later give up a 2 Run Homer to Keith Lockhart which would give Atlanta a 3-2 victory. 

Regardless the rare 2 base sacrifice score gave us a glimpse into the talent of the young Vlad Guerrero. The fly out came off the bat of Doug Strange who hit the ball to Right Fielder Michael Tucker.

The play was featured on a 1998 Stadium Club Card

 1998 Stadium Club #3 Vladimir Guerrero (image swiped from Play at the Plate)

A nice analysis of this card was done by the fine crew at Play at the Plate (who else).  I may need to add this card to the Phungo Collection just as a companion for the 1998 Base card.

Phungo Verditct

HOF


The scoring from 2nd on a Fly Out is the kind of hustle that makes one want to cast a Yes HoF vote.

Sources and Links
Vladimir Guerrero HOF Index
Play at the Plate
2017 HoF Candidates Index
Phungo Game Dated Index
Baseball-ref
Check Out My Cards 

2017 Hall of Fame Candidates Index

This is an index of our posts related to the 2017 Hall of Fame Candidates

 2009 UD A Piece of History Box Score Memories #BSM-PB Pat Burrell

New to the BBWAA HoF Ballot in 2017

-->

Aaron Rowand

Arthur Rhodes

Carlos Guillen

Danys Baez

Derrek Lee

Edgar Renteria

Freddy Sanchez

Ivan Rodriguez

J.D. Drew

Jason Varitek

Javier Vazquez

Jorge Posada

Julio Lugo

Magglio Ordonez

Manny Ramirez

Melvin Mora

Mike Cameron

Orlando Cabrera

Pat Burrell

Tim Wakefield

Vladimir Guerrero

Final BBWAA Ballot in 2017

Tim Raines

Lee Smith

Players from previous BBWAA Ballots 

-->

Barry Bonds

Billy Wagner

Curt Schilling

Edgar Martinez

Fred McGriff

Gary Sheffield

Jeff Bagwell

Jeff Kent

Larry Walker

Mike Mussina

Roger Clemens

Sammy Sosa

Trevor Hoffman

Sources and Links

Phungo HoF Index

Baseball-ref

Baseball Hall of Fame

2008 Topps Heritage News Flashbacks #NF3 Fidel Castro

I honestly did not think I had any Fidel Castro cards but came across the one when doing some weekend paging.

 2008 Topps Heritage News Flashbacks #NF3 Fidel Castro

The Card Title "Fidel Castro Becomes Prime Minister of Cuba" pretty much sums it up. The Back goes into a bit more detail and briefly alludes to Castro's baseball career. 

2008 Topps Heritage News Flashbacks #NF3 Fidel Castro (b-side)

One of the benefits of a SABR membership is access to the Paper of Record archives which includes back issues of "The Sporting News". The late 1950s articles on Cuban baseball are pretty interesting, The Havana Sugar Kings were a pretty successful team playing in a very uncertain environment.

As you can see on the card above Castro took power on February 16 1959. The issue of "The Sporting News" that hit the stands two days later included the following:

The Sporting News (1959 02 18)

The Sugar Kings President Bob Maduro appeared to truly believe that Havana would eventually get a Major league baseball team. According to future issues of the Sporting News Castro did hold up his commitment to throw out the first pitch at the Havana opener.

However any trust between Maduro and Castro quickly ended. In 1962 Maduro fled the country after the Castro Regime confiscated all of his assets.

Bobby Maduro immigrated to the United States and remained in Baseball. He held a variety of different positions with different minor league clubs and worked for Major League Baseball as a liaison with Latin American Leagues and ballplayers. 

Sources and Links
SABR Bobby Maduro Biography - Rory Costello
New York Times

Welcome to the HoF Eric Lindros!

Tonight Eric Lindros is being inducted into the Hall of Fame. This gives us another chance to post this fun card.

1990 Score Traded #100T Eric Lindros

I remember Lindros quite fondly. He is probably the number one reason I developed any interesting in Hockey. One of my favorite playoff games was a 1996 Conference Semi-Final contest versus the Panthers. The Flyers won the game 3-2, Lindros scored a goal and recorded a pair of assists. At the end of the game he basically kept the puck away from the Panthers for a good 10 seconds.  Greatest single player performance I ever saw live.

Sources and Links
Phungo Eric Lindros Index
Hockey HoF
Hockey-Ref

1991 Upper Deck Final #50F Dennis Martinez

Tonight Denny Martinez is scheduled to throw out the first pitch prior to game six of the World Series.

This gives an opportunity to present a fun card of Martinez from his Expos days.

1991 Upper Deck Final #50F Dennis Martinez Perfecto!

Hopefully I will return to this post at some future time, but for now I will just mention that the card was part of UDs 1991 Final Set and honored the Perfect game pitched by Martinez earlier that year - which as close as we got to Topps Now in 1991.

flip

1991 Upper Deck Final #50F Dennis Martinez Perfecto! (b-side / image swiped from COMC)

Nice summary on the back of the card including quotes from not just Dennis Martinez but also his catcher Ron Hassey. Your not going to get that kind of quality write up on any card much less a Topps Now issue today.

Ticket

The Baseball Hall of Fame has a ticket to the perfect game on display as part of their Viva Baseball exhibition.  It is one of 45,560 tickets that the Dodgers sold for the game.

Notice that the Viva Baseball exhibit is curated with the artifact descriptions presented in Spanish - and the Spanish is expressed first.  

Sources and Links
No-Hitter Index
Hall of Fame
VWellsArt 
Baseball Almanac
Cleveland.com
Check Out My Cards