2014 Playoffs: Royals Tom Gordon Rated Rookie 1989 Donruss #45

The World Series starts Tonight in Kansas City. During the series we have scheduled a couple of team related postings for the Royals and Giants. Tonight we open with a great Royals card from the past -  Tom "Flash" Gordon

1989 Donruss #45 Tom Gordon Rated Rookie

How great of card is this. The Royals Blue, the great big smile on young Tom Gordon, The Rated Rookie Logo. For me the icing is Gordon's uniform number '36' on the cap.

Tom Gordon spent the first eight years of his career as a Royal, the bulk of that was as a swing man.  He did have 16 starts and an impressive 17 wins (combined starts and relief). It was good enough to place Gordon 2nd in the 1989 Rookie of the year voting behind Gregg Olson (27 Saves, 1.69 ERA)

He didn't become a closer until age 30 (in 1998) when he took over the role for the first time as a member of the Red Sox. He led the league with 46 saves and made his first of 3 all-star teams.

Phillies fans remember Gordon for his three seasons he spent with the club near the end of his career. In 2006 he closed out 34 games for the Phils and made his final all-star team. Gordon was a member of the 2008 World Champion Phillies, but did not pitch after July 5th and was not involved in the postseason. He was part of the 2007 NLDS squad and did get involved in two games versus the Rockies.

1989 Donruss Rated Rookies
Rated Rookies is a 20 card subset of 1989 Donruss that runs from #28-47. Thirteen of the 20 cards are considered Rookie Cards including Tom Gordon above. The most significant RCs of the Rated Rookies are Ken Griffey Jr (#33), Randy Johnson(#42), and Gary Sheffield(#31). Ron Jones (#40) is the Phillies rep in the Rated Rookie 20, The subset also includes 1993 team member David West and Free Agent bust Greg Jeffries.  

2015 Hall of Fame Candidate
Yes Flash is on the 2015 HoF Ballot and as part of our candidates series I will check my Tom Gordon vote as a YES. Some folks may question this vote as Gordon was a good player with a long career, but they haven't factored in my affection for the Steven King Novella "The Girl Who Love Tom Gordon". For his tenure with the Phillies and for being named in a Steven King title Tom Gordon gets one HoF vote from Team Phungo 

#WS2014
Royals in 7. I don't feel either team is great, but I am hoping for a great series.

Sources & Links
2014 Playoff Cards 

2014 HoF Candidates

Baseball Cardpedia
baseball-ref

2014 Playoff Cards Orioles Jim Palmer 1973 Topps #160

It is time to dial up some Oriole Magic.

The O's are facing elimination versus the Royals today and we are calling on some divine intervention from the Hall of Fame.

1973 Topps #160 Jim Palmer

Jim Palmer turns 69 today, and for me there would be no better way for him to celebrate then to see his bubble gum card on Phungo - well that and and an Orioles Victory. 

Palmer was a member of three different Orioles World Championship squads in 3 different decades, 1966, 1970, and 1983 (versus the Phillies). He also took home 3 Cy Young Awards (1973, 1975, and 1976). In 1973 his performance was good enough to place him 2nd in the MVP award voting behind only Reggie Jackson. Note: in 1975 Palmer's teammate Bobby Grich, Bert Blyleven, John Hiller and Gaylord Perry all had higher WAR numbers then Reggie Among Pitchers Palmer finished 5th.

Palmer, a six time all-star, played his entire 19 year career with the Orioles collecting 268 (36th in MLB hitory) victories and 2212 strikeouts (53rd). 

Among HoF pitchers Palmer ranks 35th in career WAR (69.4) just a tick below the average of  the 59 pitchers in the Hall. Among contemporary pitchers Palmer's WAR  compares closely to John Smoltz (69.5).

The Cartoon on the back of this card mentions that Palmer won a sports car in a golf tournament. In today's era of multimillion dollar contracts for the mediocre players that seems truly passe, yet I am pretty sure a new car remains the award for the World Series MVP

1973 Topps Jim Palmer 
The late Chris Stufflestreet dedicated a posting to the above Jim Palmer card as part of his 1973 Topps Series. Definteily check it out, anything written by Chris is worth reading - He mentions how the 1973T card displays Palmer's distinctive high leg kick and also goes into some greated detail on Palmer's career highlights.

Sources & Links
2014 Playoff Cards
Phungo HoF Index
Baseball-ref

2014 Playoff Cards: Orioles Adam Jones 2013 Topps Chase It Down #CD5 and Sloppy Topps?

Tonight the ALCS makes the move to Kansas City for Geme 3. To mark the occasion we will discuss a favorite card of Adam Jones from the 2013 Topps Chase it Down Insert set

2013 Topps Chase It Down #CD5 Adam Jones

Chase it Down is a 15 card insert set in 2013 Topps Series 2 that is dedicated to fielding excellence  or noteworthy fielding plays. The above card notes a play that Adam Jones Made versus the Rays on September 13 2012. The details are given on the b-side of the card. 

2013 Topps Chase It Down #CD5 Adam Jones (b-side)

The above text has a nice description of Jones' play, the trouble is the information doesn't correlate  with the related box score which is here.

Not sure what happened here. According to Baseball-ref Jeff Keppinger didn't bat in the first inning of the game referenced. Keppinger did record two F8 ABs. the first was in the 4th and appears to match the description on the card from B-R

"Lineout: CF/Sacrifice Fly (Short CF-RF); Zobrist Scores" 

I could see the card copy not bothering to mention the SF portion of the play, as it didn't fit the desired narrative. At the time the run gave the Rays a 1-0 lead, but the catch helped prevent a big inning.

Keppinger also had an F8 in the 9th but it is listed as Deep Center.

He did have an F8 in the first inning of the previous game, but once again it was listed a deep fly out. His only other first inning AB in the series resulted in a ground out.

Who is the Image on the B-Side?

I don't think that the photo on the flip side of the card is of Adam Jones.  The image is on all 15 of the Chase it Down cards. It is hard to tell, but it appears that the player is possibly wearing a Twins cap. That leads me to think it may be Denard Span from his Twins days. Any ideas out there?   

Narcissus

Part of the reason I went into so much detail about the card is pure narcissism. The game referenced is one that team Phungo attended.

Game Ticket 2013 09 13 Rays @ Orioles 

Yep Team Phungo was there for this one so the above Chasing it Down card is part of the very special Phungo in Attendance Binder. I am adding an Index for these cards and plan on trying to get to some of these during the off-season. 

Sources & Links
2014 Playoff Cards
Narcissus - Team Phungo Was There
Baseball-ref
Baseball Cardpedia