1993 Phillies @ 25: Mickey Morandini

Each year I attempt to do an anniversary series on a theme, Previous subjects have included the 1964 Phillies and the 1976 All-Star Game.

This year we will be taking a look at the 1993 Phillies on the 25th Anniversary of their crazy fun National League Championship season.

I figure this may be one of the last times this teams is remembered. They happen to share their 5yr Anniversaries with the 2008 Phillies and the World Champions will always trump the NL Champs.

I have put together an index to link all the post and it can be found here with some of the players I hope to cover.

Today our first article in the series covers Fan Favorite Mickey Morandini

1992 Studio #77 Mickey Morandini

Mickey Morandini spent most of his career with the Phillies and returned to the team to coach after his playing days were over. The past two seasons Mickey has served as the clubs first base coach but is not expected return to the team in an on-field capacity this year. It appears that Morandini will remain with the club as a team ambassador. Morandini is 51 which seems a bit young to ease into a PR role, I think he will eventually end up taking a coaching position with a different organization.

As a fan I have many fond memories of Mickey Morandini the player. He played flawless defense and seemed to come up with a lot of big hits including one we will talk about below.

1992 Studio
I like the look of 1992 Studio a bit better then it's predecessor, The profile pix on a action shot background works better for me then the School Photo backdrop of 1991.

The classic minimalist front is not the reason I picked this card.

1992 Studio #77 Mickey Morandini (b-side)

The Studio cards have a lot of fun info in the Up Close section for each player. I would love to see somebody do an entire series on this set. Some of the answers are timeless, On a different card Morandini listed his favorite players as Roberto Clemente. Others are planted firmly in the early 1990s - Arsenio Hall gets mentioned on a bunch of cards.

Morandini also mentions John Feinstein's fine book "A Season on the Brink" which followed Bobby Knight through a season at Indiana. Mickey played his college baseball for the Hoosiers and it is interesting to see his local interest. It is also notable that he majored in Elementary Education rather than kinesiology.

All that stuff is fun, but what really drew me to this card was one line:

LOVES TO FACE: Greg Maddux, .417 10 for 24

This transitions us to October 13 1993, Game 6 of the NLCS. The Phillies hosted the Braves and their Ace Greg Maddux. Mickey Morandini batted #2 in the lineup and would have 2 very big ABs versus the future Hall of Famer. In the first inning Morandini lined a ball up the middle that lined off of Maddux' calf. Ultimately the Braves got the out, but I am inclined to believe that the contact hurt Maddux enough to affect his performance. You can see the AB at the 11:30 mark here. 

The second big AB between the two occurs at 1:44:20 in the video. This is the sixth inning and the Phillies lead 4-1. Maddux walked Dykstra intentionally to get to Morandini.

Mickey Morandini followed with a hard fought At Bat that ended with a Triple down the Right Field line. The hit would chase Maddux and the Phillies took the contest 6-3 which advanced them to the World Series.

So yes Apparently Mickey Morandini did love to Face Greg Maddux. Good think for Mickey as he faced Maddux more than any other pitcher. His Master of the Braves star continued throughout his career. Over the course of 111 Plate Appearances Morandini batted .337 with a slugging number of .490. Only three batters collected more hits off of Maddux than Morandini: Craig Biggio, Tony Gwynn, and Luis Gonzalez. Among players that faced Maddux 100+ times the only player with a better average is Gwynn (.415 , .337)

Conversely Morandini never figured out Denny Martinez. He finished 1 of 22 versus El Presidente.

Mickey Morandini Index

1988 Topps Traded #71T - Team USA/4th of July
1993 Score / 1993 Topps - Unassisted Triple Play / Cardboard Mystery
1999 Stadium Club #39 - Guest on a Bobby Abreu Card
1989 Star #120 - Minor League card as Mike Morandini

2009 Phillies Alumni Night

Sources and Links
1993 Phillies @ 25 Index
1993 NLCS Game 6 Index
The Phillies Room
That's Ball's Outta here
youtube (1993 NLCS Game 6)
John Feinsein
Basebal-Ref

2014 Hall of Fame Candidates Index

This is the Index for the 2014 Hall of Fame Candidates that were profiled by team Phungo. This series was largely done between November of 2013 and February 2014. Three of the HoF candidates became inductees Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and Frank Thomas.

1988 Topps #361 Greg Maddux

2014 HoF Candidate Postings  

Craig Biggio (Phungo Vote = HoF)      
Tom Glavine HoF
Todd Jones  
Greg Maddux HoF     
Mike Mussina   HoF      
Rafael Palmeiro HoF    
Mike Piazza (2013 Profile)     
Curt Schilling (2013 Profile)      
Mike Timlin      
Larry Walker 
 
2013 HoF Rejects (no longer on ballot)

Jeff Conine

Kenny Lofton

Jose Mesa

Phungo HoF Index
 

WeekLinks 2014-01-11

Saturday - The Eagles season comes to an end, as they lose in the final seconds to the Saints 26-24.
Monday - Florida State wins the NCAA football Championship. Alum Buster Posey is happy.
Tuesday - Record Cold hits the east coast.

 2009 Phungo #36 Greg Maddux

Wednesday - Hall of Fame Inducts Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Frank Thomas. Jack Morris and Rafael Palmeiro are both banished from the BBWAA ballot. 

Thursday - Disgraced Philadelphia writer Bill Conlin Dies
- Comcast and The Phillies announce Chris Wheeler and Gary "Sarge" Matthews will not be returning to the broadcast booth.

Prior WeekLinks
2013-12-22

2014 Hall of Fame Candidate: Greg Maddux 1988 Topps #361

Big League Stew has run a story noting that Greg Maddux has received 100% of the first 101 HoF votes that had been made public. This is of significance as no player has previously received 100% of the vote. 

1988 Topps #361 Greg Maddux

I got to see a lot of Maddux and he was excellent. His numbers back it up 350 Wins, 4 Cy Youngs, and a World Championship. The man is first ballot. 

Everyone has an opinion on the Hall of Fame, the Process, the Sportswriters etc. This causes quite a bit of HoF voting fatigue. Not for me, I find a lot of humor in the discussions and arguments. This years funniest/most subversive story is that Deadspin has bought ballot.

If Maddux 100% vote holds up and he is left off of the Deadspin ballot - that would rock.  There would be sportsblog hysteria.   

For the current status of the voting check in at Baseball Think Factory

2014 HoF Candidates  
Craig Biggio HoF 

Todd Jones
Mike Mussina   HoF  
Rafael Palmeiro HoF
Mike Piazza (2013 Profile) 
Curt Schilling (2013 Profile)  
Mike Timlin  
Larry Walker (phungo vote = HoF)
 .
2013 HoF Rejects (no longer on ballot)

Jeff Conine

Kenny Lofton

Jose Mesa

Sources
Baseball-ref.com
Deadspin
Baseball Think Factory

2010 Pull N Junk Playoffs: Best Pull - 2nd Quarter

The Best Pull Tourney Turns the page to the best pull of the 2nd Quarter of 2010.  Here are the candidates.

April
Two Topps Heritage Inserts make the cut for April 2010.   

2010 Topps Heritage Chrome #C90 Troy Tulowitzki (#d 288/1961)

2010 Topps Heritage Then & Now #TN10 Shutout Leaders Whitey Ford & Roy Halladay

click Here to find out more about these cards. 

May
May features a trio of entries that came out of UD bargain packs I picked up this past spring.  


2008 UD X Xponential 2 #X2-JT

2008 UD Baseball Heroes Copper #10 Brian McCann (#d100/149)
 
2009 UD 20th Anniversary #638 Steve Carlton

A couple of favorite players and a serially numbered McCann Card. 

For More Info on the May Cards click here.

June

1988 Donruss #539 Greg Maddux

Even Junk Wax can yield a Pull of the Month.  This is a Pre-Cy Young Greg Maddux.  At the time of issue Greg Maddux had a career W-L record of 8-18, He would go on to win 347 more games.

More info here. 

Vote

Please Vote for your favorite Phungo Pull of the 2nd Quarter in the comments:

1) Troy Tulowitzki
2) Roy Halladay/ Whitey Ford
3) Jim Thome
4) Brian McCann
5) Lefty
6) Greg Maddux

Pull of the Month - June 2010

I don't care if it is from the late 80s junk wax era. An early Greg Maddux card is a keeper.


1988 Donruss #539 Greg Maddux

A few months back a picked up a buffet of mixed packs at a 6/$5. one of those packs was the 88 Donruss - which may have been the last pack I went for. The Maddux made the 15 card pack worth it, other semi-stars in there included Rick Sutcliffe, Garry Templeton, and Dave Stewart.

and of course if you have a Pull of the Month, one must have...

Junk of the Month

2009 UD Piece of History - Historical Moments #177 Microwave Oven Invented

Are they serious. And this is my insert for the pack. A stinkin Microwave Oven...And I am pretty sure this is not the one that was invented either, this one looks like the one down the hall in Upper Deck's Coffee Room. Piece of History my butt more like Piece of Snot.

B-sides

Click to enlarge these guys. Just wanted to point out Maddux's Rookie and Sophomore years. A collected 5.58 ERA and an 8-18 record. After that point, he was 138 games over .500 amassing s total of 355 wins. There are not many cards for which you can say after it was minted the guy won 347 games, this is one of them.

On the flip of the PoH Wave card we finally find out that Percy Spencer invented the Microwave. Still no picture of the guy but at least they mentioned him.

Past Pulls of the Month

2010 May
2010 April
2010 March

2010 February

2010 January

Phungo Readers Salute - Night Owl Cards

Today's readers appreciation is for Night Owl Cards.

Sometimes when I am not quite ready start working in the mornings I sneak over to check out what is going on in blogworld. Night Owl Cards is great for this because there is likely to be a posting composed while manning the graveyard shift, thus I have something new to read each morning.

Night Owl covers the primarily the Dodgers teamwise and he can also cast some great riffs on the vintage cards - lots o good early 70s stuff. But best of all Night Owl Cards has an interesting niche posting on Night Cards - Brilliant Concept - Night Cards Posted Over Night.


2002 UD Vintage Night Gamers NG5 Greg Maddux
2002 UD Vintage Night Gamers NG9 Troy Glaus

First off please notice I tried to get the two cards to not point off page (thats a note for Night Owl because he would likely notice)

In 2002 when UD Vintage ripped off the iconic 1971 Topps cards they produced a couple of interesting inserts sets called "Day at the Park" and "Night Gamers". I love 71 Topps, and also enjoy the UD Vintage version. One of the cool things about the two insert sets is they give you informationn on the players performance in Day or Night games depending on the set.

2002 UD Vintage Night Gamers (reverse) NG9 Troy Glaus

Oh and I should also point out that Night Owl Cards is in contention to be added to the Heavenly Seven.

Night Owl Cards, Team Phungo Salutes and Thanks you - keep up the good work and we look forward to a new post tomorrow morning!

Greg Maddux Penultimate Game

At the time we didn't really know. An astute observer may have suspected.

Yes, when Greg Maddux came into game one of the NLCS on October 9th, he was making one of his final appearances. He would be called upon only one more time, in Game 5 of the series, for a long relief stint.

The Picture above is of Maddux warming up to pitch in game 1. It was the last appearance Maddux would ever make on the road. Penultimate is defined as "next to last", thus October 9th 2008 was Greg Maddux's penultimate performance.

I feel lucky to have been there.

2008 11 02 - Card Show @ Concord Mall, Wilmington DE

To celebrate the Phillies World Series victory I hit the card show at the Concorde Mall outside of Wilmington Delaware last weekend. I perused several dime boxes, here are some of the Highlights.

2008 Topps UH Gold #UH220 Geoff Jenkins #0033/2008
1983 O-Pee-Chee #350 Robin Yount

I picked up bunches of Phillies and some cards of Hall Of Fames like Robin Yount. The Jenkins card was a particular surprise as it was out of the recently released Updates and Highlights.

I also got some some good looking star inserts of players like Vlad, and Griffey.

2000 UD Ultimate Victory #86 Ken Griffey
2002 Topps Gallery Heritage #GH10 Vladimir Guerrero

The Griffey Foil doesn't look good on the scan but is a sharp card. I really like the Gallery Heritage cards and will keep my eyes open for more of these.

I picked up a half dozen cards from last years Wal-Mart Trading Card History. This is a set I keep looking for on ebay and was happy to find a couple at the show. As usual I picked up some Heritage cards of various Stars like Bernie Williams from several different sets Bowman, Topps and UD Vintage.

2007 Topps Wal-Mart #WM6 Greg Maddux
2002 Bowman Heritage #278 Bernie Williams

The best for me was finding thirty 08 Topps inserts in a dime bin including 20+ All-Star Rookie Inserts like the Strawman. I also picked up a couple of Fleer Flair from different years - Always a favorite of mine.

1993 Flee Flair #154 Mike Mussina
2008 Topps All-Star Rookie #AR1 Darryl Strawberry

Obviously I was pleased with all my nickel and dime box finds. Filling out the 08 inserts was pretty awesome. I have also been working on the 1959 Topps base set and was able to find 5 commons pretty cheap.

There were maybe 20 or 25 tables with a wide array of items. The dealers had apparently had a good weekend, business likely bumped by the recent Phillies triumph, and certainly did not complain as much as they do at a typical show.

Damages:

$3 - Nickel Box several Hall of Famers, Oddballs, Sporting News All-Stars, Football, AI
$2 - five 1959 Topps Commons
$5 – 31 Phillies commons, 13 Phils Heritage/Retro , plus 02 Donruss Originals Jimmy Rollins, Geoff Jenkins Topps Gold
$10 – Dime Box 08 Topps Inserts, Walmart 07 TCH, Chrome, Allen Ginter, various Vikings, 2004 Team USA
$5 - Top Loaders

$25 for a fun day at the card show, very worthwhile!

Phillies @ Dodgers Game 4 and 1993 NLCS clincher 15th Anniversary!

Today marks the 15th anniversary of the greatest game I ever saw - October 13th 1993 - NLCS game 6 Atlanta Braves @ Philadelphia Phillies. The Phils had taken a 3-2 series lead by winning two very tight games in Atlanta. They were returning home for game 6, which was one of the games I drew as a season ticket holder.


The Phils took a 4-1 lead in the 5th on a Dave Hollins Homer, Mickey Morandini tripled the following inning to stretch the lead to 6-1. Tommy Greene, who was at the end of his best season of his brief career, gave the Phils seven strong innings and left with a 6-3 lead.

1994 Fleer Flair #412 Tommy Greene
Mitch Williams pitched an improbable 1-2-3 Ninth for the save clinching the 1993 National League crown for the Phils.

Amazingly the pitcher that Tommy Greene out-dueled that night is now, 15 years later, a member of the team the Phils are facing in the 2008 NLCS - Greg Maddux.


1994 Fleer Ultra #446 Greg Maddux

The only proper way to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the greatest game I ever saw would be with another playoff victory. Hopefully the baseball fates agree with me.

Note 1 - You can't tell in the scan, but the price of the Phils NLCS ticket in 1993 was $30 - that was for a ticket in the last row of the old Vet. I am not sure what upper level tickets are going for this year but the lowers carry a face value of $120.

Note 2 - The Tommy Greene card is from 1994 Fleer Flair, one of my favorite sets. The dual photos on the front of these cards are usually very good and there is even a 3rd photo on the back. I particularly like the in action pitching shots like this one. The card stock is also very strong - it really gives you the feeling your holding a premium card.

Go Phils!