1962 Topps #35 Don Schwall vs WILT CHAMBERLAIN ?!?!!

Today our journey through the Rookie Cups takes us to the 1961 AL Rookie of the Year and 1962 Topps RHP Rookie Cup representative Don Schwall

1962 Topps #35 Don Schwall (RC)

A fine card with the familiar 1962T wood panel design that I have always liked and the old school Rookie Cup tophat. I have place Schwall on a page from Robby Incmikoski and Kyle Fager coffee table book "Sacred Grounds". The time has a bunch of large full page photos of stadia that should make for good card backdrops. 

But things get real interesting on the back...

flip

1962 Topps #35 Don Schwall (b-side)

First off I want to briefly cover that we have Don's Rookie of the Year Award mentioned in the comic.

Schwall earned the award by posting a 15-7 record with a fine 3.22 ERA (129 ERA+!!). The righthander's 15 Ws led all rookies while his W-L Pct and ERA both ranked 2nd. The most marginal number was Don's 92 strikeouts (5th). Perhaps Ken McBride has a complaint about Schwall's selection but that will need to be left to another column.  

Hoop

Now, lets move onto the juicy first line of the text:

"A former basketball star in college where he once OUTSCORED WILT CHAMBERLAIN" 

Yes, prior to signing a MLB contract with the Boston Red Sox Don Schwall was a lauded collegiate basketball player.

As a forward for the 1956-57 Oklahoma Sooners Schwall led the team in free throws while finishing 2nd in scoring overall. During Schwall's only full season with Oklahoma they faced the Kansas Jayhawks, who were led by future NBA HOF legend Wilt Chamberlain, three times.   

1961 Fleer #47 Wilt Chamberlain (IA/rc - image stolen from psa)

Wilt and the Jayhawks (24-3, AP #2 Overall) won all three contests, but the Sooners held their own. Specifically Don Schwall did quite well vs Kansas and outplayed Wilt in the season series: 

Above we have comparisons between the three meetings with the totals in the final column. at the Bottom right of Schwall's data we have enlarged Don Schwall's point total for the 3 games 73 which eclipsed Wilt by 4 points. By coincidence the two players had the exact same Foul Shooting numbers. 

Boxes

Thanks to the Des Moines Register  we have Columns & Box Scores from the three games:

Newspaper clippings from Des Mones Register (1957 Feb 19 via Proquest)

These first two clippings are from the February 18 1957 game where Don Schwall scored 30 points, Wilt Chamberlain fouled out with 11. It's blurry Oklahoma is the away team listed first, Schwall the fourth name "Schw'l". His line stands out with the 11 field goals as the only one in double digits. On the Kansas side we see Wilt listed 5th with the 5 fouls in the final column. 

 

 Newspaper clippings from Des Mones Register (1956 Dec 29 & 1957 Feb 19 via Proquest)

These are clippings also from the Des Moines Register for the other two games. Fortunately both of these boxes are clearer. 

1957+

Schwall returned to Oklahoma in the fall of 1957 but only played 3 basketball games before...

Newspaper photo and caption from New York Daily News (1957 Dec 12 via Proquest)

On December 10th Don Schwall withdrew from Oklahoma after signing a professional contract with the Boston Red Sox. The 50k listed in the above caption is $595000+ in 2026 dollars.  

Within four years Don Schwall would be pitching for the Red Sox. The following spring he appeared on his first baseball card - a Rookie Cup Card!

Sources & Links
1962 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Index
Wilt Chamberlain HOF Index

ProQuest: Des Moines Register 

ProQuest: New York Daily News

SABR Bio - Curt Smith

BallNine

baseball-reference

Sacred Grounds - Incmikoski & Fager

psa

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Inflation Calculator

1962 Topps #218 Joe Torre

At age 86 Joe Torre is among our eldest Hall of Famers. He was the catcher for the 1962 Topps Rookie Cup Team, which also featured fellow HOF Billy Williams - who celebrated birthday 88 this summer.

 

1962 Topps #218 Joe Torre (image swiped from PSA)

Williams and Torre also ranked 1-2 in the NL ROY Voting:

While Torre led the two in WAR, Billy Williams clearly wins the traditional power numbers and that was good enough to earn him NL Rookie of the Year honors.  

Among position players Torre's 3.4 WAR led all 1961 rookies, although looking at those offensive numbers we must also note that a large chunk of that WAR is from defense. The ROY vote is interesting, in 1961 voters only got the opportunity to vote for a single player and close to a third of the ballots recognized the importance of the catching position. 

1961 Rookie Catchers

There were basically only two catchers in the running for the position on the 1961 All-Star Rookie Club, Torre & Red Sox backstop Joe Pagliaroni. 

Lots of catchers had over 100 plate appearances but Torre & Pagliaroni have 150 more than #3 Dick Bartell. Pagliano took two of the triple crown categories and had modern analytics been popular at the time it needs to be noted he also had a higher OBP than Torre. However Joe Torre had more extra base hits and although voters would not have known it at the time he also led in OPS+.  Based on those numbers I could see either player being chosen, my guess is that the 36 point batting average difference tipped the scales in favor of Torre.  

It is interesting that Torre finished 2nd in the NL RoY vote while Joe Pagliano did not get any votes on the AL side. This is likely due to Pagliano's battery mate Don Schwall winning the award and another teammate Chuck Schilling finishing 3rd in the voting.

Flip

1962 Topps #218 Joe Torre (image swiped from eBay) 

I am not of fan of the realistic style of the 1962T comic but do appreciated that this one is devoted to Torre's Rookie Cup win and love that fine rendition of the trophy. Nice mention of Frank Torre in the back text.  

Hall of Fame

Joe Torre was inducted into the Hall of Fame by the Veterans committee in 2014. This was largely an acknowledgement of his 4 World Championships as Manager of the New York Yankees. However, I don't want this distinction to overshadow his accomplishments as a Player:

In addition to earning a 1961 Rookie Cup, Torre was the 1971 NL MVP and a NINE time all-star (at 3 different positions C/1B/3B). Joe Torre played with some good teams but never made the postseason. 

HOF Index 

This column will do double duty as an index to our Joe Torre columns

1965 Topps #200 (Braves v Cardinals SNB)

Source & Links

1962 Rookie Cup Index

Hall of Fame Index

Baseball-reference

PSA

ebay

1962 Topps #288 Billy Williams

Today's All-Star Rookie Cup posting brings us to Hall of Famer Billy Williams who is the oldest living Hall of Famer to have also won a Rookie Cup. 

The recent passing of Willie Mays has pushed the 86 year old Williams into 8th place among the eldest surviving Hall of Famers - and 6th among players. 

1962 Topps #288 Billy Williams (image lifted from tcdb)

1962 Topps is one of my favorite designs - the novelty of the wood grain only used here and in 1987 keeps the idea fresh. I also like how the rolled up photo illusion slides our eyes into the full size Rookie Cup trophy.

Williams is captured here in follow through of his "Sweet Swinging" form - the rollup flows with the swing here as well. All this adds up to a really great early card of a Future Hall of Famer. 

Rookie of the Year

Billy Williams earned NL Rookie of the Year honors by leading the 1961 freshman class with 25 Home Run 86 RBI and 256 Total Bases.  However...

Even in the pre-analytics days Voters recognized the importance of the catching position with just under of a third of the ballots favoring future HOF Joe Torre. Saving deeper analysis for a future aWARds column, but for today's discussion it's enough to say that Billy Williams led NL rookies in 2 of the 3 Triple Crown categories and it is really hard to argue against those criteria in the Rookie of the Year voting. 

1962 Topps #288 Billy Williams (flip)

 

Little hard to make out but here we see the rest of Billy Williams numbers for his ROY campaign. The 146 games is noteworthy as that his a high number for a rookie by today's standards and the phrase "played everyday" definitely applied to Williams. For a decade from 1962-1971 averaged 161 games and was just below superlative threshold numbers (29 HR /98 RBI/.298 AVG)

 

I also want to point out in the demographics section that specifies Williams' Home as "Whislter, Ala." Which is of course the tail end of his nickname "Sweet Swingin' Billy from Whistler"

Always a fan of cards with comics. The presentation on 1962T is a bit different - it is more of an illustration than a comic. A lot of the rookie cup cards in the early era of the subset have comics focused on the cup. This one is ok - cup is a bit distant and I cannot tell which character is giving or receiving the award. 

Note that the card makes no mention of Williams Rookie of the Year award.

 

More Rookie Iconogaphy

 

1962 Topps is not the only time that a Billy Williams card features rookie related iconography 

 

1961 Topps #141 Billy Williams

 

In just 1961 and 1962 Topps added a Star Icon to a few of the rookies in the set. Other notables from 1961 were Carl Yastrzemski and Phillies Catcher Clarence Coleman. Hall of Famer Juan Marichal's rookie card is in 1961T but did not get a Rookie Star Icon.

Sources and Links

1962 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Subset Index

Billy Williams HOF Index

Baseball-Ref

NBC Bay Area

1961 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Team (1962 Topps Set)

This is an index to postings related to the 1961 Topps All-Star Rookie Team which was honored with cards in the 1962 Topps set. The Set includes Hall of Famers Billy Williams and Joe Torre. No Phillies on the roster but there is Lee Thomas, architect of the 1993 Phillies NL Championship squad. 

1962 Topps #154 Lee Thomas

91	J.C. MARTIN	White Sox	1B
427	JAKE WOOD	Tigers	2B
283	CHARLEY (CHARLIE) SMITH	White Sox / Phillies / Dodgers	3B
13	Dick Howser no cup	A's	SS
154	LEE THOMAS	Angels	OF
288	BILLY WILLIAMS HOF	Cubs	OF
454	FLOYD ROBINSON	White Sox	OF
218	JOE TORRE RC	Braves	C
372	JACK CURTIS	Cubs	LHP
35	DON SCHWALL	Red Sox	RHP

Sources and Links

All-Star Rookie Index

Baseball-Ref

Bucket or Chuck-It; 2016 Topps Throw Back Thursday Set

Ahh time to return to a feature that we haven't had in a while Bucket or Chuck-It. Bucket is good as in add it to your bucket list. Chuck-It is bad as in Toss it out like a pair of worn sneakers.

2016 Topps TBT #37 Mike Piazza '96 ASG MVP

All seaon Jim from the Phillies Room has been picking up Phillies related Topps Now cards in bulk and passing along cards to other Phils collectors. I find the cards unique and as a fan of game dated cards the concept appeals to me, especially when someone like Jim is dedicated to do all the work of submitting the requests to Topps. There have been at least 6 Phillies Topps Now cards and I would like to get to those and a More dedicated thank you to Jim in a future post.

I myself  hadn't picked up anything directly from Topps until recently when I saw in celebration of the Hall of Fame weekend they issued a "bundle" related to this year's inductees Ken Griffey Jr and Mike Piazza.

The six card set is inspired by the 1962T Babe Ruth Subset with 3 cards dedicated to each of the new Hallers.  The second card of the set features a photo of Mike Piazza receiving an the 1996 All-Star Game award.

This card was appealing to me as a Piazza fan and it is a nice add to my local players collection, but the real draw is that the 1996 ASG is a Phungo Game and This is a card I can add to the Phungo Games collection.

Despite the fact that the image on the card makes Piazza appear as if he had a few to many at the family picnic, I do like the front of this card.

However.....

2016 Topps TBT (b-sides)

Topps mailed it in on the b-sides for the text. The backs of all six cards have identical text. The only thing that differentiates each card is the number and the player name.

 It's a shame, if these are such big events in each players career how about paying a writer and a copy editor (or even an intern) for a couple of days work to come up with a paragraph. This is a $20 set of six cards, that can be produced months in advanced - it's not like they woke up on Wednesday and said "Hey we need to put out a Throw Back Thursday set tomorrow" or maybe they did.

Compare

2016 Topps TBT #37 Mike Piazza '96 ASG MVP (b-side)
1962 Topps #138 Babe Ruth Special (b-side)

Check out this example of an original 1962 Babe Ruth Special. We have a pretty detailed summary of Ruth's rough 1925 season. On the New Piazza card all you get "Hey look at us, we have been making cards for 50 years and Mike shares this documentation with Ken Griffey Jr"


Flip

2016 Topps TBT Ken Griffey Jr 1995 ALDS
1962 Topps #138 Babe Ruth Special

Just for comparison we present the front of one of the other TBT specials with Babe's original.  I think Topps did a decent job on the fronts, just wish they would have carried through to the back.

Verdict
Very disappointed, Great Concept, I think Topps picked a great subset to use for these cards, but the execution of the backs is insulting, especially for a set that runs $20.

Sources and Links
1996 All-Star Game Index
Phungo Mike Piazza HoF Index
Phungo Ken Griffey Jr HoF Index
Phungo Babe Ruth HoF Index
Topps TBT
Baseball-Ref

Babe Ruth HoF Index

This is an index of our Postings related to Babe Ruth and Babe Ruth cards.

 1962 Topps #138 Babe Ruth Special The Famous Slugger

1972 Topps #626 Babe Ruth Award
1973 Topps #1 (#1 Club - All Time HR Leaders)
Post Cereal 500 HR Club (2008 September - The House that Ruth Built closes)
2010 Topps Legendary Lineage #LL-3 w/ Alex Rodriguez
2011 Gypsy Queen the Great Ones #GO2 (100th Anniversary of MLB Debut)

Babe Ruth Mosaic (ESPN Zone NYC)

Sunday Night Baseball

Cubs and Dodgers on Sunday Night Baseball Gives us a chance to toss out another Rollins Utley Card.

2011 Topps Heritage #72 Philly's Men Up the Middle Jimmy Rollins n Chase Utley

Every time I come across cards of departed members of the 2008 Phillies I get a tinge of sadness. However it is good to think of those players getting a chance at another ring and it is also nice to see the current Phillies move on and start looking towards the future.

Hopefully Rollins and Utley will get to play on the National Stage tonight. Neither player is having a standout year, but both are professionals and I would like to think they still have a few big hits in them.

2011 Topps Heritage #72 Philly's Men Up the Middle Jimmy Rollins n Chase Utley (b-side)

The back of the Heritage cards mentions the better times when the Phillies middle infield was capable of getting a hit every night and mashing a combined 50 homers. 

For a look back at our previous Rollins Utley card click here.

Sources and Links
2015 Playoff Contenders Index (includes links to both Cubs and Dodgers cards)
Jimmy Rollins Player Collection Index
Chase Utley Player Collection Index

RTC Braves Howie Bedell 1962 Topps

The Phillies are currently hosting their alumni weekend bring back many of the teams legends from the Past such as Schmidt, Carlton, Dick Allen, John Kruk, Dallas Green, Charlie Manuel and Latest Wall of Fame inductee Pat Burrell.

The Club also brings back some lesser known players such as Howie Bedell

 

1962 Topps #76 Howie Bedell (rookie flair but not a RC)

Howie Bedell only played 9 games with the Phillies and I don't think he ever represented the local team on card. The remainder of his career was 58 games with the Braves - The Team that is town to face the Phillies during the Alumni festivities.

On Opening day of the 1962 Season Bedell made his Major league debut as the leadoff hitters for the then Milwaukee Braves versus the San Francisco Giants and their Hall of Fame starter Juan Marichal. Bedell played Left Field along side Center Fielder Hank Aaron, They backed up Warren Spahn and another Hall of Famer Eddie Matthews started at 3rd Base.

Unfortunately for Bedell and the Braves lost 6-0 that day, but Bedell got his first career hit, a 3rd inning single off Marichal

Chester County Baseball
Bedell is more a representative of the Phillies and the Philadelphia region for his post playing career baseball activities. He did some coaching with the Phillies and more recently has been part of a group trying to bring a minor league team to Chester County.

I haven't heard much about the project recently but at one time there were proposals for West Chester, Where Howie Bedell went to College, and Phoenixville which has made a strong resurgences over the last decade. According to the 2010 Phoenix article cited above Bedell has been involved in the building of close to a dozen stadiums.

I am disappointed that the one that Bedell hasn't gotten done is in ChesCo, but understand there are a lot of factors that aren't positives for a community - including the high monetary cost. Regardless I hope that Howie Bedell, now a few weeks short of his 80th birthday gets a chance to see a local stadium.

Sources and Links
The Phoenix
baseball-ref
Topps Baseball Card Database

Domingo Santana: Former Phils Farmhand gets first MLB hit

After a miserable debut a year ago Domingo Santana picked up his first major league hit today.

2011 Topps Heritage Minors #158 Domingo Santana

The surprising Astros acquired Santana as part of the Hunter Pence trade in 2011.The lean years and deals for future prospects appear to be paying off for Houston.

At the time of the trade Santana was such a low level prospect that it was hard to project if he was a major league talent. This season he was listed as the #71 prospect by MLB.com. This may only be a short callup, but hopefully Doming Santana will soon be in the majors to stay.

Sources and Link
Baseball-ref
Houston Astros
cardboard connection

2010 05 29 Roy Halladay Throws Perfect Game vs Marlins

Yes In a year where I am devoting an entire series to No-Hitters, I almost missed the Anniversary of Roy Halladay's Perfect Game.

 
2011 Topps Heritage #312 Roy Halladay Shows Perfect Form (Image swiped from the Phillies Room)

The Perfecto that Halladay pitched in Miami five years ago was the third shutout of the young season for the Phillies Ace. In what is likely a Hall of Fame Career, 2010 may have been Halladay's career peak. He led the NL in WAR for all players, it was one of four times that Halladay Led his league in Pitching WAR.

That was good enough for Halladay to pick up his 2nd Cy Young Award however The MVP award that season went to Joey Votto. Votto was a member of the Cincinnati Reds Team Halladay No-Hit in game one of the NLDS.

Sources and Links
the Phillies Room
1990: Year of the No-Hitter Index
baseball-ref

1964 Phillies @ 50 (now 51) Dallas Green

We are struggling to get over the finish line on our 1964 Phillies Feature. Today we take a look at pitcher Dallas Green. 

1962 Topps #111 Dallas Green

I had originally planned on featuring the three Manager related cards Gene Mauch, Pat Corrales, and Dallas Green all in the same week or time frame, but that fell apart. And I got scolded by Jim From Downingtown who correctly noted that the Corrales card was not a manager card. And neither is this 1962T card of Dallas Green.

Phillies fans know that Dallas Green was the manager of the 1980 World Championship team, A team with core players that reached the playoffs several times but was unable to get to the World Series. However two things folks may not know are that 1) he is a local born and raised in Delaware and 2 he was part of the only Phillies team between the Whiz Kids and the Late 70s playoff teams to get near the Postseason.

Dallas Green spent parts of six seasons with the Phillies including 42 relief innings with the 1964 squad. The then 29 year old Green was the longest tenured member of the 64 Phillies, unfortunately he had an extremely tough campaign which resulted in a mid-season demotion to Triple-A. Green did return to the club in September, just in time to be part of the infamous collapse.

Late in the 1979 season Dallas Green's managerial career began when he took the reins of a 5th place Phillies on an interim basis. The teams 19-11 finish earned Dallas the full time position, and he led the club to their first World Championship.

Dallas Green 2015
As many know the Green family experienced a tragedy in 2011 when Christina Taylor Green, Granddaughter of Dallas, was one of six people fatally shot by a gunman who targeted congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords at a Meet and Greet event. 

MLB.com columnist Hal Bodley who was University of Delaware classmate of Dallas Green asked the former Phllies manager if it is difficult to continue in an unimportant activity like baseball when dealing with a tragedy of such magnitude. Green responded:

“[Baseball] has helped me, because you sink yourself into the work,”

And Dallas Green does remains active with the Phillies. He largely fills an ambassador role and makes it out for several fan related events every year.

2014 10 18 Dallas Green at the Fan Authentics show in Oaks PA 

I saw Dallas Green at an autograph appearance last fall. At age 80 he still appears active and healthy. Looked a lot better than Pete Rose (74) who was at the same show. 



Phungo Dallas Green Index
1961 Topps #359 (b-side only/ 2010 Heritage preview)
2014 Phungo #46 (Memorial Posting)

Dallas Green Autograph Ball (General Autograph Discussion)
2015 Topps F40-7 Andre Dawson (Props for Green on the back)


Sources and Links
MLB - Hal Bodley
1964 Phillies @ 50 Index
Baseball Ref
Year of the Blue Snow SABR Bio -  Gregory H Wolf

Sunday Night Baseball: Red Sox @ Yankees - 1962 Topps #475 Whitey Ford

Bosox and Yankees return to Sunday Night Baseball tonight. To mark this years matchup of the two rivalries we take a look at a Yankee that I believe to be under-covered by the hobby, Whitey Ford. 

1962 Topps #475 Whitey Ford All-Star

The Hall of Fame resume for Whitey Ford is built firmly on three of the stronger legs of the HoF qualfiers. Solid, if not exceptional Career Numbers, Hardware for the positions premier single season award - Cy Young, and an Incredible Postseason run including 6 World Championships. Ford has 10 World Series Game Wins, with 146 WS Innings across which he posted an impressive 2.71 ERA.

Whitey Ford lost two seasons to military service. Those two seasons early in his career most likely would have helped his already healthy career totals. 

Cy WAR
In 1962 Whitey Ford was coming off his only Cy Young Award. In a bit of an oddity Ford won the award despite not finishing top 10 in WAR that season. He did go 25-4 and led the league in innings. The oddity is further complicated when one considers Ford finished top 10 in pWAR eight times and
only received Cy Young votes one other season (1956). His best WAR finish was 2nd in 1964 when he received no votes (there was only one award for both leagues at the time). Dean Chance (9.3 WAR) rightfully won the award that season.

Whitey Ford HoF Index
1964 Topps Jumbo #7 
2012 Cooperstown Collection With Honors #8 

Sources and Links
baseball-ref

Swag from Night Owl Cards

Tonight we have another Swag post featuring a couple of highlights from a recent batch of cards that arrived from Night Owl Cards

1988 Fleer Superstars #33 of 44 Mike Schmidt

Mike Schmidt standing in the batter's box wearing the Phillies powder blue road uni evokes his 1987 Base Card. The pix are not from the same session, the above Fleer card appears to be at Wrigley field in Chicago, while the 1987T card appears to be at Montreal.

The 1988 Fleer Superstars was a 44 card set distributed a McCrory's a department store chain (based in York PA) that went out of business in 2001.

2013 Topps #309 Domonic Brown (Green Parallel)

I refer to the Green Topps Instagrams A Christmas cards, especially for the Red teams like the Phillies Reds and Cardinals.

1981 Donruss #284 Sparky Lyle

Sparky Lyle was one of the original hipsters.

At one time Lyle was the manager of the Somerset Patriots of the Atlantic League, he is still involved with the team but in a a more ceremonial role.

1962 Topps #303 Frank Torre

Ok it has some flaws but it is a 1962 Topps of Joe Torre's brother.

There were plenty of other goodies, I just wanted to hit a cross section of the cards sent over by NOC. Not only one of my favorite card writers but a great trader as well.

Sources & Links
Mike Schmidt HoF Index
Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards (Bob Lemke)
Somerset Patriots
Open checklist
Dayton Business Journal

1962 Topps Derek Jeter Phillies

Three winters ago Chris Olds produced a bunch of these for Beckett, At the time I thought it was lame, today I find it funny.

Faux 1962 Topps Derek Jeter Phillies

Reading the Competition: 2011 Topps Heritage #76 Freddie Freeman (RC)

The Braves currently carry the best record in baseball and this week the Phillies are in Atlanta to face the NL East division leaders.  

As the best team in the league the Braves have a couple of guys that are being discussed as MVP candidates.  One of those players is First Baseman Freddie Freeman. 

Freeman is among the top ten in several offensive categories on the NL Leaderboards. He is third in the league in RBI (79) and 5th in OBP (.390).  In 2011 Freeman was runner up to teammate Craig Kimbrel for Rookie of the Year. This season Freddie made his first All-Star team. 

Freddie Freeman is in his 3rd full season and he won't turn 24 for another month, as you can tell his career is off to a pretty good start. So good that the #1 age relavant comp for Freeman is Hall of Famer Eddie Murray.   

2011 Topps Heritage #76 Freddie Freeman (RC)

Warning shot for 2014 Topps Heritage.  I am a pretty big fan of the original 1962 Topps design. With 2011 Heritage, Topps proved to me that it isn't all about design. There were way to many headshots and hatless pix in 2011 Heritage - when paging thru a binder the set looks pretty bland.

That being said the Freddie Freeman pops a little since it isn't a head shot. I do have a question.  One question, What the heck is with the lighting.  There is a pink square of light on the side of Freddie's cap and face - kind of an oddity on a baseball card.  must be the sun going down at Disney.  


Flip

2011 Topps Heritage #76 Freddie Freeman (RC) b-side


If you can read the -toon here you find that Freeman was the Braves 2010 minor league player of the year.  The Phils 2010 player of the year went to outfielder Domonic Brown, who is in the middle of his own breakout season.

1962 Topps #76
The #76 card from the original 1962 Topps set belonged to then Milwaukee Brave Howie Bedell who went on to play with the Phillies.  With any luck we will be featuring Bedells 62T card later this week.

Sources
Baseball-ref.com
Baseball Card Database
Phillies.com   

Sunday Night Baseball: 1962 Topps #96 Eli Grba

Tonight the LA/Cal/Anaheim Angels host the AL East leading Boston Red Sox. When the Angels franchise began in 1961 they built their roster (along with the Washington Senators v2) via an expansion draft. The first player the took in that draft was Eli Grba

1962 Topps #96 Eli Grba


Grba's playing career consisted of 5 seasons with the Angels and Yankees. He was pretty much a .500 pitcher throughout, He did get involved in the 1960 World Series as a member of the Yankees, oddly enough he played as a Pinch Runner and never got to pitch in the series.  

Following the Series the hard throwing righty moved from the Yankees to the Angels as the first player taken in the expansion draft. He would go on to win 20 games over the next three seasons for the Angels.

Unfortunately.... 

Eli Grba also had a SEVERE drinking problem - He drank himself out of the game in 1963 at the age 28.  After baseball his issues continued, he racked up 5 DUIs before hitting the bottom of the bottle. In 1981 he (at age 46) finally quit drinking - a 1989 LA times article chronicles this more in depth. I couldn't find any confirmation that Grba remained sober, but I am hoping that he has. Today he is still alive at age 78 and I can't imagine a person who drank the way Grba did would still kicking if he wasn't clean.

In 2011 Grba helped the Angels mark their 50th anniversary by tossing out the first pitch at thier Home Opener and he is currently serving on the advirory board of the Serbian Baseball Development Association. 

1962 Topps Angels
The first Topps set to feature Angels cards was 1961, but since they were an expansion squad most if not all of the Angels cards from that set are hatless. This means that the 1962 set is one of the first to feature the LA Angels Caps and Unis.

Rewind - Previous Sunday Night Baseball Postings
Orioles - Brooks Robinson 
Braves - Phil Niekro
Rangers/Phillies - Johnny Oates
Chicago White Sox / Kansas City A's - Ken "Hawk" #TWTW Harrelson
Detroit Tigers - Bill Freehan


References 
LA Times
Halos Haven
Serbian Baseball Development Association
Baseball-ref.com
wikipedia
baseball card database