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

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

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

2011 Topps Heritage #72 Philly's Men Up The Middle

The Phillies extended Chase Utley through the 2016 season and possibly beyond. While Utley's health has been questionable at best the last couple of season he has managed to stay on the field for most of the 2013 campaign.

Utley's Double Play mate at Shortstop, Jimmy Rollins, rarely gets injured and the two of them have spent a decade as the Phillies middle infield. 

2011 Topps Heritage #72 Philly's Men Up the Middle

If the pair stay healthy they will be covering the Phillies Keystone through 2015. This doesn't make them Alan Trammel and Lou Whitaker, who played 1,918 games together, but it will make them one of the longest running DP combos in the games history. 

Sources
Jayson Stark
Baseball-Ref.com 
Baseball-Prospectus

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   

2011 Topps Heritage NOT Hot Box

As usual, I am a little behind - everybody is checking out Gypsy Queen and I am busting Topps Heritage, but at least I am busting a box from the current year.

Backstory

I was initially on the fence about building 2011 Topps Heritage - A recent Posting by A Cardboard Problem speculated on the rumour that the Hot Boxes (containing green tint chrome cards) were packaged differently.  At the CSA show in Oaks PA a few weeks back I found one of these Potential Hot Boxes.  In the name of Trading Card Research I was compelled to break the box.

Unfortunately, The Box was not a Hot Box but remained a fun box to open and I am happy to be building 2011 Topps Heritage.  It is the first Topps Baseball Set I have elected to build since 2008 Heritage.  I am pretty sure that at some point I will look into 2009 Goodwin Champions, but right now that project is still in the thinking about stage.

Box Toppers

The Box had two toppers - A 50th anniversary of Don Clendennon and a David Price Baseball Fiver. 

Not sure how I feel about Topps QC on this one, The Clendennon card is in reasonable shape if I was picking it up at a show as a 50 cent common, but this card is in fair shape and horribly cut.

Don't get me wrong the Anniversary cards are my favorite box topper, I just think that at 1 in every other box Topps could do a little better on the buyback end.  I was also hoping for a baseball buck and Price is a nice one to get.

Base Set

Low Numbers 194/425 (45%)

Phillies 7/17 (41%) 0/2 Hi Number

Hi Numbers 8/75 (10%)

Babe Ruth 5/10

checklist 3/6

Hits

CCR-JJ - Josh Johnson Clubhouse Collection

#143b - Jackie Robinson Story SP

Chrome

C12 Batting Leaders (Refractor 212/562) 

C27 Omar Infante (1941/1962)

C35 Casey Blake (1690/1960)

I don't get including the leaders cards in Chrome.  It is only a 100/200 card set why bother with duping a couple of floating heads on a single card.
 

Baseball Flashbacks

BF-4 Robin Roberts - would of liked him more in a Phils Uni for this one. 

BF-5 Yaz

New Age Performers

NAP-2 Jim Thome

NAP-7 Joey Votto

I love Thome, but I don't think of him as a New Age Performer at this point in his career.  Votto might be my favorite non-Phil young player of the moment.

News Flashbacks

NF-4 JFK/Cuban Embargo

NF-9 Jamaican Indepence

gotta love any card that celebrate Ganga and Reggae Music

 

Then and Now

TN-5 Mantle & Prince (this is a dupe of a retail I already pulled)

TN-7 Killebrew & Bautista 

every year this is my least favorite insert in heritage - although they are the easiest to make fun of. for example I refer to the Mantle/Fielder card as a celebration of Drunk Vegetarians - which reminds me of every "art student" I knew in college.

 
Phungo Says

 
Yes I was disappointed this was not a Hot Box, but I am happy with my decision to build 2011 Heritage.  I remain a fan of heritage,  and have always enjoyed the 1962 Topps set.  For the most part the inserts are interesting and the 50 or so Heritage cards I already picked up had enough unique cards to get me over the half way point in the set.         

 

Is this a Hot Box?

I was on the fence about building 2011 Topps Heritage and while reviewing posts on the production, I cam across some interesting information over at A Cardboard Problem. 

While at a card show last weekend - (note: good CSA show at Oaks PA - maybe review eventually) - I noticed a case of Heritage Boxes being sold by a dealer.

And I had to check.  

The upside down Topps Logo can see at the Bottom Right Side of the Red oval.  This would be a rumored "Hot Box" - I checked in a stack of perhaps a dozen boxes of Heritage it was the only one box wrapped in the upside down cellophane.    

So I have Two Questions 1) Do you think this is a Hot Box and 2) Should I feel dirty for checking the stack to find this box? 


I figure I can say that I bought the box in the name of the all important research related to card collecting.

2011 Topps Heritage on the loose.

I haven;t seen them personally but 2011 Topps Heritage (Retail) is live and in stores as reported by the Phillies Room.

The -Bay also has dozens of cards on sale - appears to be several short print variations, including Shane Victorino green variation.