2015 ASG Franchise Four Johnny Bench

Tonight MLB concluded their Franchise Four promotion. It ended with a ceremonial first pitch that was thrown by Don Sutton and caught by the Reds own Johnny Bench.

1978 Topps #700 Johnny Bench

I wouldn't immediately think of Bench at one of the four greatest living players.

Further research has revealed he has the highest career WAR of all catchers in History and he won two World Championships including 1976 when he was Series MVP.

During his 17 year career the first ballot Hall of Famer represented the Reds on 14 All-Star teams at one of the games most grueling positions. 

1978 Topps 
Johnny Bench's 1978T #700 was his second of six hero number cards. Judging by the era and condition of this card I believe it is from the v1.0 Phungo Collection.

Johnny Bench HoF Index 
2011 Topps #198 Legends Variation
2014 Topps Heritage Draft Pick Cards

Sources and Links
2015 ASG Coverage
baseball-ref
baseball card database

ASG in Cincinnati 1953 style: NL Starting Pitcher Robin Roberts

Last Night we covered the first All-Star Game hosted by the Reds in 1938. Tonight we wind the clock forward to 1953.

2010 Topps #MCP-12 Robin Roberts Manufactured Commemorative Patch

The Senior Circuit took this game 5-1. The Phillies Richie Ashburn broke up the scoreless tie with a 2-run pinch single in the fifth inning. Pee Wee Reese was the other NL standout on offense with a 2 hits including a double and a pair of RBIs.

The Above ManuPatch card notes the NL Starting Pitcher, Hall of Famer Robin Roberts who was one of four Phillies selected for the Squad. The others were Ashburn, Curt Simmons and Granny Hamner.

Robin Roberts shutout the AL squad for the 3 innings he pitched. The sole hit was a Single by Gus Zernial who repped the crosstown Philadelphia A's in his only All-Star Appearance. The Hall of Famers that Roberts retired included Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra.

2010 Topps #MCP-12 Robin Roberts Manufactured Commemorative Patch  (b-side)

There is virtually no informatino on the back of the card regarding the game. In fact neither side mentions the Host City, Cincinnati at all - it is just mentioned in the classic Reds logo.

And it is a good thing, the Reds Logo is the coolest thing about the card. Much nicer than the 2008 ManuPatches.

Sources and Links
Robin Roberts HoF Index 
2015 ASG Coverage
baseball-ref

Your 2015 Phillies All-Star Jonathan Papelbon 2013 Topps Heritage #104

Tonight we open our 2015 All-Star Game Coverage

Last night Major League Baseball announced the All-Star Reserves. This is about as exciting as the 2015 Phillies get. Rightfully the team did not have any starters elected to the squad.

And despite the fact that the Phillies have the worst record in baseball, the rules, customs and decorum of the mid-summer classic dictate that the Phillies to get a minimum of one roster spot on the All-Star Team.

2013 Topps Heritage #104 Jonathan Papelbon

Closer Jonathan Papelbon was selected to represent the Phillies in Cincinnati. This is Papelbon's sixth all-star selection and second as a Phil.

 2013 Topps Heritage #104 Jonathan Papelbon (b-side)

Presenting the flip here for a couple of reasons, First off I like the trivia question. Secondly Papelbon's partner for card #104 in the original 1964T release was Art Mahaffey and I want to take a closer look at these two cards in the future.

As far as the Trivia Question, I thought it was due to 2 runners scoring on a single sacrifice, however the answer has to do with an error being committed on a dropped fly. The Runner scores/advances on the error, and the batter is ALSO awarded a sacrifice. Baseball Reference has a posting on four occurrences of triple sacrifice innings. 

2015 All-Star Coverage
Bobby Abreu
Johnny Bench
Rickey Henderson
Art Mahaffey
Robin Roberts
Pete Rose
2014 All-Star Coverage

Sources and Links
baseball-ref

Domonic Brown ON the Ballot but OFF the Roster

There are a couple of these every year, Players on the All-Star Ballot but not on a Major League Roster. This year one of them represents the Philadelphia Phillies

2013 Topps Update #US309 Domonic Brown All-Star

And there is your proof that despite wretched numbers a player like Domonic Brown can indeed be an All-Star and earn an All-Star card. 

For a variety of reasons Dom Brown finds himself back at AAA for the start of the 2015 Season. The demotion is a pretty big statement when you consider how poor the Phillies Offense has been this year.

Dom's big month in May of 2013 earned him both a trip to the All-Star and the burden of high expectations. He hasn't come anywhere near that sort of success since. Part of Brown's issues is that he has no mentionable skill beyond hitting, He is a mediocre fielder at best and a poor runner. Therefore he has to hit to contribute, unfortunately I am not sure if that will ever happen.

E-Ballot
From what I understand this year they will not have paper ballots at games, which is probably the right thing to do, but it brings me a little sadness. I always enjoyed mindlessly punching holes in the ballots during the middle innings.

The use of e-ballots makes one wonder if it would have  been possible to include some player other than Brown on the ballot. Granted the ballots have to be done in advance, but now it is a week rather than months in advance as it was during the paper ballot era.

Of course in the Phils case the options are not very exciting, Jeff Francoeur and Grady Sizemore aren't any much more ballot-worthy than Domonic Brown. 

Sources and Links
MLB
baseball-ref

1969 Topps #507 Cookie Rojas - 1965 All-Star

The first All-Star Game hosted by the Twins was in 1965. The game was held at Metropolitan Stadium. The Phillies Cookie Rojas made the first of his Five All-star appearances in that game.

1969 Topps #507 Cookie Rojas Sources

The NL won the game 6-5, 3 future Hall of Famers Homered for the senior circuit, Willie Stargell, Willie Mays and Joe Torre. The AL got a home run from hometown hero Harmon Killiebrew.

Rojas flew out to centerfield in his only plate appearance.  The NL Squad included two other Phillies, Dick Allen who started and batted cleanup and Johnny Callison who did not play. The team was  piloted by Phillies manager Gene Mauch.

1964 Phillies  
I am adding this post to our 1964 Phillies series. Click on the team link to find some more profiles on the club include the aforementioned Dick Allen and Johnny Callison. 

2014  Phungo All-Star Coverage
Ozzie Virgil
Glenn Wilson
Johnny Callison
Chase Utley

More Cookie 
1969 Topps Blog has a nice career summary on Rojas

Sources
Baseball-ref

1986 Topps #95 Ozzie Virgil - 1985 All-Star

This is our second Installment featuring Phillies that have played in All-Star games hosted by the Minnesota Twins.

1986 Topps #95 Ozzie Virgil 

Ozzie Virgil's trip to the Metrodome was more successful than teammate Glenn Wilson's. Virgil entered the game in the 4th inning as a defensive replacement for starting catcher Terry Kennedy. His lone at-bat came an inning later versus future Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven, Ozzie batted a pair of runners to give the NL a 4-1 Lead in the game which was eventually won 6-1. According to the Baseball-ref the AB was the highest WPA (win probability added) At Bat of the game - The hit increased the NLs victory chances from 64% to 80%

1985 was the first to two all-star games in which Ozzie Virgil played. As a representative of the Braves Virgil made the 1987 squad.

2014 Team Phungo ASG Coverage
Glenn Wilson
Chase Utley

Sources
Baseball-ref

1987 Topps #97 Glenn Wilson - 1985 All-Star

This year for our All-Star Game coverage we are going to look at Phillies who have played in the other 2 midsummer classics held by this years host, the Minnesota Twins.

In 1985 ASG was held at the Metrodome. The Phillies sent two players to the game, one of which was outfielder Glenn Wilson.

1987 Topps #97 Glenn Wilson

Just prior to the start of the 1984 season Glenn Wilson was acquired by the Phillies in a traded that sent pitcher Willie Hernandez to Detroit.

A year later Wilson found himself facing Hernandez with the bases loaded and 2 outs in the 9th inning of the 1985 All-Star game. Fortunately for the NL the senior circuit was up 6-1 at the time as Hernandez won the battle striking out Wilson. The NL sent in Hall of Fame closer Goose Gossage who came in to shut down the AL in the bottom of the 9th.

For the season in 1985 Wilson battted .275 with 14 Home Runs and a career high 102 RBIs. He remained with the Phillies through the 1987 season. He was sent to Seattle in a trade that returned Phil Bradley

Wilson spent 10 years in the Majors, His four seasons in Philadelphia were the most with any one club. He finished his career with 98 Home Runs, 1098 HIts, and a career .265 average. 

2014
Today Glenn Wilson is an Ordained Minister in his native Texas and along with author Darrel Halk has written his Autobiography "Headed Home


Sources 
Baseball-ref
Norkbook

Has Chase Utley Played in Last All-Star Game: 2008 Topps #UH241

The All-Star Voting tallies will be in soon and Chase Utley likely will win the honors for second base in the NL. Utley has earned the position on merit and deserves the nod.

2008 Topps #UH241 Chase Utley

I have to wonder if Utley will make it to Minnesota for this years festivities.  After a scorching start Utley has cooled significantly, His Batting Average, OBP, and Slugging Percentage have dropped each month this season. In June he batted .240 with 4 extra base hits, compare that with his March/April output of 355 BA and 14 XBH.

Yes Chase Utley was an All-Star in April - There were even mentions of him returning to Hall of Fame form. Unfortunately the injury prone veteran's fall off forces one to think about Utley's health issue  and specifically his chronic keee problems.

Utley started four consecutive All-Star Games between 2006 and 2009 and was a member of the 2010 squad but did not play in the game. I would love to see him return to the mid-summer classic, but I wouldn't be surprised if the 35 year old second baseman give his weary knees the week off.

Sources
Chase Utley Player Collection Index
Baseball-ref

Johnny Damon Number Retirement by Wilmington Blue Rocks and Class A All-Star Game

On Tuesday Night as Part of the California vs Carolina League All-Star game the Wilmington Blue Rocks retired the jersey #18 of Johnny Damon

Johnny Damon

I have been a Damon fan for a variety of reasons. He was an exciting palyer who racked up a lot of hits, ran well and had some pop. He made it to the playoffs with the A's Red Sox and Yankees winning the World Series with the latter two squads. One of the other reasons I like Damon is we share an ethnicity. He and I both have a Thai Mother and American father. it is a unique combination that was precipitated by each of our fathers being stationed in Thailand during the Viet Nam War.

Jonny Damon has honored his heritage by returning to Thailand to promote baseball and represented the country as a player during the 2013 World Baseball Calssic.

In a nice touch to the retirement ceremony, Damon and the Blue Rocks brought back Damon's House Mother from his Wilmington tenure. She is shown in the background of the above photo along with another popular Blue Rocks alum Mike Sweeney.

All-Star Game

There was also a game played last night - The Carolina League All-Stars hosted their Califormia League counterparts. Both Leagues are at a level that is referred to as High Class A. It was a good opportunity for us East Coasters to see some prospects that play for Western Division organizations.

Tha Cal League won the game 3-2 with two Cincinnati Reds prospects leading the way.

Kyle Waldrop

All Three of California's Runs were plated by Kyle Waldrop who hit a Long 2 Run HR to center in addtion to an RBI single.

Ben Lively

The Reds #9 Prospect Ben Lively stuck out 2 of the first 3 batters he faced while pitching a pair of perfect innings for the victors. I would think that Lively has greatly icreased his Prospect status this season posting a 10-1 record and 2.28 ERA including a solid 95-16 K/BB ratio. Both Lively and Waldrop were promoted to AA Pensacola following the game.

Line Ups

A couple of noteables in there. Courtney Hawkins is the White Sox prospect that did a backflip on the podium at the 2012 Draft. Last year Team Phungo ran down to Wilmington to give Hawkins the Eye Test. He failed miserably, I am happy to report Hawkins is having a much better 2014 and appears to be a lot more patient at the plate. Kyle Wren is the son of Braves GM Frank Wren. Corey Seager is making some noise in the Dodgers Org, batting .340 with 12 Homers this season. Gabriel Guerrero is the nephew of Vlad and appears to have a similar build and batting stance. He his playing well for Seattles Hi Desert squad.

Carlos Correa

2013 1st overall pick Carlos Correa didn't get to start but did sub into the game. He went 0-2 with a K in his first AB. Still 19 Correa has displayed good hitting ability at the Hi-A level well represented by his .329/.421/.502 slash line. He was as big as any player on the field for the game and it will be interesting to see if he remains at shortstop or moves to another position as he continues to fill out.

Sources
Johnny Damon Index
Baseball America

Seattle and the Phillies: 2007 Topps #UH279 Utley & Ichiro

To honor the Seahawks dominant victory over the Broncos we present a card that features both Seattle and the Phillies. 

2007 Topps UH279 Classc Combo Chase Utley & Ichiro  

Sprinkled throughout 2007 Topps was a subset billed Classic Combos. Many of these two player cards sometimes featured teammates while others contained opponents. Even with interleague play teams like the Mariners and Phillies do not face each other very often so the Utley Ichrio combo is somewhat notable. I am not sure Classic is really the right term, perhaps interesting would have been better. 

Many of these Classic Combo cards within the Updates/Highlights are pix from the All-Star game as is this one. Checking into the box score I believe this pix was taken in the first inning. Ichiro led off the game with a single but was then eliminated on a DP groundout off the bat of Derek Jeter.  It was a good game for Ichiro - The 2007 game in San Francisco featured Ichiro's All-Star Inside the Park HR. For the game he was 3-3 with the HR and a pair of RBIs and he was named the games MVP. The game didn't go as well for Utley who had a fly out and a ground out. The AL won the game 5-4 getting Home Runs from Ichiro, Victor Martinez and Carl Crawford. Alfonso Soriano went deep for the Senior Circuit. 

Sources
Chase Utley Player Collection Index
Phungo Game Dated Cards Index 
Baseball-ref 

Reading the Competition: 1970 Topps Scratch-off Tom Seaver

The Phillies are in New York to visit the Mets and that gives us one last opportunity for an All-Star Game related post. It was great to see the Mets bring out Tom Seaver on Tuesday night. Despite being a Phillies fan I was always in awe of Seaver as a kid. His driving delivery and all those Ks really grabbed hold of my 10 year old imagination.  

1970 Topps Scratch Off Tom Seaver

Seaver's Hall of Fame career really doesn't need redocumented by me - but I will quick-hit some highlights, 3 Cy Young Awards, 1969 World Champion, 1967 Rookie of the Year, 12 time All-Star, 311 Wins (100+ games over .500), 3,640 career Ks, 5 time strikeout champ. His Career pitching WAR of 106.3 is 7th all-time and still the all-time leader among folks that pitched during my lifetime in the non-steroid division - which means he is behind Roger Clemens.

Seaver was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1992, receiving close to 99% of the BBWAA vote, Which remains the record. He got the thumbs up on 425 of 430 ballots.

Scratch Off
In 1969 and 70 Topps released a subset of scratch off cards. The set was limited in size (24 cards?) so it is all pretty much superstars. At a show I will pick up any HoF or name player scratch off card that is a buck or less.

1970 Topps Scratch Off Tom Seaver (inside)


The scratch offs can be used to be pay a baseball game, fortunately this one is untouched.  I have flirted with the idea of using one of these for an online game, but have never been that ambitious.     

Rookie Card
Seaver's RC is 1967 Topps #581 has a low recent auction of $156 in good but certainly not mint condition.  Ungraded cards appear to be running just over $200 with a half dozen auctions ending between $200 and $210.

On the high end the card went for between $839 and $1,034 for PSA8 NM-MT.
 
Sources
Old Cardboard - HoF Rookie Cards
baseball-ref.com
ebay.com
wikipedia.com

All-Star Game Debriefing - Does Home Field Advantage Matter?

Prior to this week, the last time the All-Star Game was held in New York the NL took the loss 4-3 in a 15 inning epic that ended on a sac fly by Michael Young off of Phillies closer Brad Lidge.

2008 Topps #UH304 Brad Lidge (stolen from Trading Card Database)


Since 2003 the All-Star game has decided home field advantage in the World Series. Lidge couldn't know it at the time, but the NLs loss would cost the Phillies Home Field in the 2008 World Series. Fortunately for him the Phils and their fans like myself, The Phils took one game in Tampa and all 3 of their home games and didn't need HFA to win the 08 series.

Fox was throwing around some stat about how often the World Series was won by the home team. I wanted to look deeper into this and find out if the Home Team won or perhaps it worked out that the Home Team was the better team.  Here is what we found.

Year	Away	G>.500	Home	G>.500	Len	Home W Diff	Home Team Wins	Best Rec Wins	Home + Best Rec	Away + Best Rec	Home Worse Rec	Away +worse Rec
2012	Tigers	14	Giants	26	4	12	1	1	1	0	0	0
2011	Rangers	30	Cardinals	18	7	-12	1		0	0	1	0
2010	Rangers	18	Giants	22	5	4	1	1	1	0	0	0
2009	Phillies	24	Yankees	44	6	20	1	1	1	0	0	0
2008	Phillies	22	Rays	32	6	10	0		0	0	0	1
2007	Rockies	17	Red Sox	30	4	13	1	1	1	0	0	0
2006	Cardinals	5	Tigers	28	5	23	0		0	0	0	1
2005	Astros (NL)	16	White Sox	36	4	20	1	1	1	0	0	0
2004	Cardinals	48	Red Sox	34	4	-14	1		0	0	1	0
2003	Marlins	20	Yankees	40	6	20	0		0	0	0	1
2002	Giants	29	Angels	36	7	7	1	1	1	0	0	0
2001	Yankees	30	Diamond Backs	22	7	-8	1		0	0	1	0
2000	Mets	26	Yankees	23	5	-3	1	1	1	0	0	0
1999	Yankees	34	Braves	44	4	10	1		0	0	1	0
1998	Padres	34	Yankees	56	4	22	1	1	1	0	0	0
1997	Indians	11	Marlins	22	7	11	1	1	1	0	0	0
1996	Braves	30	Yankees	22	6	-8	1		0	0	1	0
1995	Indians	56	Braves	46	6	-10	1		0	0	1	0
1994
1993	Phillies	32	Blue Jays	28	6	-4	1		0	0	1	0
1992	Blue Jays	30	Braves	34	6	4	0		0	0	0	1
1991	Braves	26	Twins	28	7	2	1	1	1	0	0	0
1990	Athletics	44	Reds	20	4	-24	1		0	0	1	0
1989	Giants	22	Athletics	36	4	14	1	1	1	0	0	0
1988	Athletics	46	Dodgers	27	5	-19	1		0	0	1	0
1987	Cardinals	28	Twins	8	7	-20	1		0	0	1	0
1986	Red Sox	29	Mets	54	7	25	1	1	1	0	0	0
1985	Cardinals	40	Royals	20	7	-20	1		0	0	1	0
1984	Tigers	46	Padres	22	5	-24	0	1	0	1	0	0
1983	Phillies	18	Orioles	34	5	16	1	1	1	0	0	0
1982	Brewers (AL)	28	Cardinals	22	7	-6	1		0	0	1	0
1981	Dodgers	16	Yankees	11	6	-5	0	1	0	1	0	0
1980	Royals	22	Phillies	20	6	-2	1		0	0	1	0
1979	Pirates	34	Orioles	45	7	11	0		0	0	0	1
							26	15	13	2	13	5
	Away	G>.500	Home	G>.500		Home Diff	Home	Rec	Home+Rec	Away+Rec	Home-Rec	Away-Rec

The Chart goes back 33 World Series and list the team that ended up being Away and Home for the Series - the team in Green won the series. 7 Game series are noted in yellow.

The G>.500 is the number of games each squad finished above .500.  The Len column is the length of the series. Home Diff is the number of games the Home squad was ahead or behind the away team.  

To the right of the chart a A '1' in a column indicates a win in a certain category. Those catgories and composite records are as follows

Home Team 26-7 
Better Record 15-18

Better Record + Home 13-5
Better Record + Away 2-13
Worse Record + Home  13-2  
Worse Record + Away 5-13 

There are 2 things worth noting here, 33 series is not a huge sample size, but it isn't small.  The second is that the best team doesn't always have the best record.  And indeed it does seem to be the hotter team has been winning Series recently.

I will admit those two issues with the study here, but there are some astounding numbers. 
1) The 2-13 record of teams w/ better records w/ Road Status. Thats abysmal. In fact it is worse than being the Away Squad and having the worse record in the contest (5-13)
2) I went back to 1979 just so I could find a game 7 that was won by the road squad.  There have been 9 Game 7s since then, every single one of them won by the Home team. Assuming both teams are near equal the odds of 9 home consecutive home wins is over 500-1.      

Source
Baseball-ref.com