Ichiro 3000: 2016 Topps OD Striking Distance #SD-1

One of the inserts in 2016 Topps Opening Day is Striking Distance which salutes a bunch of upcoming milestones.

2016 Topps OD Striking Distance #SD-1

The Subber is anchored by Future Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki, typically referred to as simply Ichiro.

Topps took a chance on this one, at the beginning of the season Ichiro was 65 hits short of 3,000. That number isn't a gimme for a 42 year old who collected just 91 hits in 2015.

Topps also gambled on the success of the Miami Marlins. Had the club performed poorly they may have ended up trading Ichiro before he reached the milestone.

Sloppy Topps

2016 Topps OD Striking Distance #SD-1 (b-side)

Notice anything wrong with the text on the Ichiro's Striking Distance Card.

In 2013 Topps elected to erase Pete Rose when mentioning the All-Time Hit record on their 2013.

On the above card they have not just erased Rose's name, Topps has elected to completely ignore his accomplishments. Maybe my math is off but I would think Pete Rose's 4256 Major League Hits would qualify him for the World 4,000 hit club.

In the final sentence Topps also missed one other player that Ichiro needed to pass on the way to 3000, Stan Ross at 2997 :)

Sources and Links
Night Owl Cards
Ichiro HoF Index
Baseball-ref

TRENDY: Ichiroll

The Phillies are in Miami to play the Marlins and Ichiro is in the lineup for the Home Team. The Future Hall of Famer entered the game with 2996 Hits - FOUR short of 3000

Tonight we have a related card sort of....

2013 Phungo BFI - Ichiroll

Team Phungo made the Trek out to Seattle in 2012. Safeco is known for it's many food and drink options - one of which is the Ichiroll, an item on their Sushi Menu. I don't really recall what was in the roll, but I think it was pretty tasty.

Ichiro was traded to the Yankees later in 2012 and I am not sure if the Mariners still sell the Ichiroll, but it would be a nice gesture to continue the honor.  

When I first conceived of Phungo Cards I wanted to have some fun ones in each set, this one certainly qualifies.

Sources and Links
Ichiro HoF Link
Vittles

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 

2013 Phungo Cards: Ichiro

It came up recently over at Twitter that Topps hasn't put out a 2013 Ichiro Card.  Well they are just slackers!

2013 Topps #70 Ichiro

Last year we took a baseball excursion out to Seattle and I took about 2 dozen pix of Ichiro.  Of course he gets traded before I got a chance to put him on a Mariners card.  Fortunately the Yankees come to Baltimore 10 times a year so I was able to catch the likely HoF there.

Good Shot - little bit washed out on a sunny day when the Bronx Bombers scored about 20 runs.  I would have liked to get the ball in the pix, but if I would have framed it that way Ichiro would have been pretty tiny.

Get with it Topps - Phungo has a 2013 Ichiro card - why not you?

 
 

Snapshots 2012 09 09 Yankees 13 @ Orioles 3 (ugh)

Good News - Team Phungo is in the middle of a 3 game week.

Bad News - It got off to a rough start with the Orioles taking it on the chin 13-3 to the division rival New York Yankees.

The Yankees batted around in 2 different innings, I am not going to bother verifying it, but I think every position in their order may have batted w/ the bases loaded at least once.  Curtis Granderson did not enter the game until the 6th innning and still managed come withing a triple of a cycle - recording 5 RBIs in the process. For the day Granderson's Baseball-Ref.com battting game score was only outdone by BJ Upton who had 3 homers.

The Orioles pitching staff combine for 190 pitches.  Zach Britton had a rough outing walking 5 batters while only recording 10 outs. 

Snapshots (click to enlarge)
 

The new Cal Ripken statue was a popular attraction.   

Must be tough to have a future Hall of Famer batting 9th in your lineup.

Joba Chamberlain vultured a Win and got his 2012 ERA below 8.00.   

Mark Reynolds has en fuego recently, especially v the Yankees.  Sunday, not so much, 0-2 with a pair of Ks.   

Links
Phungo Cal Ripken HoF Index

2012 Topps Archives First Look

My first impressions on Topps Archives is a thumbs up.  The price tag on this rack for a single 14 card retail rack pack was $5.34 at my local big box store. 
Highlights

 2012 Topps Archives #88 Mike Schmidt

2012 Topps Archives #108 Cliff Lee
2012 Topps Archives #188 Vance Worley

2012 Topps Archives Sticker #67S-I Ichiro
2012 Topps Archives #138 Joe DiMaggio
2012 Topps Archives #32 Adam Jones

That's right the 14 card pack included 3 Phillies!!! which is probably a record for a small pack for myself.

I like this set better then what Topps did with Lineage last year.  The base cards in Lineage was just to drab for me.   It doesn't hurt that the four years that were chosen for Topps Archives 1954, 1971, 1980 and 1984 are among the better designs in the Topps arsenal.  

My 2 initial complaints are 1) The cards are on the newer posterboard rather then the classic cardboard upon which the original sets were produced. 2) The 5.30/pack retail price comes out to over 40 cents/card - kind of heavy for retail.

Regardless, my first impression is a good one.  I haven't looked at the cards much in detail, but I am thinking that a Hobby Box may be in my future. The 200 card set size appeals to me, there appears to be a fun array of inserts - although they may be a bit confusing.

There is one other thing I like about Archives - judging from my limited 13 card sample, I like the photography - the shots are cropped as tightly to the subjects.  I am a fan of trying to figure out what game in which the photos were taken.  The last few years Topps has delivered some great digital close ups, but they are often too close for my liking.

Game Report 2012 05 08 Tigers 6 @ Mariners 4

The Team Phungo trip to SafeCo field in Seattle went pretty well.  Seattle is a little out of the way from our Philadelphia base, but we had the opportunity to include the game in a trip to the Pacific Northwest and were happy to make the extra stop.

The hometoown Mariners lost the game 6-4 to a Detroit Tigers squad which sent out their ace Justin Verlander.  Former Phil Kevin Millwood took the mound for Seattle. The Tigers got to Millwood early getting 5 runs in the first 2 innings.  Verlander wasn't overpowering - but pitched well despite having issues with the plate umpire - Jim Leyland's disagreements with the umpiring crew got him ejected from the contest early in the game.  Verlander only went 6 innings, he was over 100 pitches and still hit 97 on the gun.


Snapshots

Justin Verlander

Miguel Cabrera (fore), Ichiro

The Mariners don't make it to our area often, and this may be the last time I see Mr Suzuki play live.  Ichiro was able to get one of the 7 hits that Verlander allowed to the Mariners.   

 PCL/Seattle and Baseball Card History Display

The Mariners have struggled the last few years was evidenced by their modest draw on a chilly Tuesday night, but even if the team isn't doing well, they have a lot of nice things for fans to check out like this Display of Seattle related baseball cards. 

There is a Mariners Hall of Fame, and several other cool features at the stadium.  Insane food selections are featured at the park as well as a pre-game happy hour.  Another nicety at Safeco is that they have free re-entry as long as you scan your ticket when you leave. 
.

Shawn Kelley

Another nice feature of SafeCo is how close you can get to the field, especially in the bullpen areas.  This is how Mr Kelley appears when warming up prior to giving up a mamoth Home Run to Prince Fielder.