1992 Topps #78 Ivan Rodriguez

In recognition of the Phillies Interleague matchup with the Texas Rangers this week we are going to take a look at 2017 Hall of Famer Ivan Rodriguez

1992 Topps #78 Ivan Rodriguez (rookie cup)

Twenty-Five Years ago Ivan Rodriguez made the 199 Topps All-Star Rookie Team. In 88 Games he batted .264 with three Home Runs. The numbers were good enough to rank 4th in the AL Rookie of the Year voting which was won by Chuck Knoblauch.  

Pudge spent the bulk of his 21 year career with the Texas and he will be the first player enshrined in the Hall of Fame with his primary team listed as the Rangers. He is also the Franchises first rep, as all the Senators inducted are from the DC->Minnesota squad.

Rodriguez was selected for the Hall in his first year of eligibility, although his 76% tally was just one point above the 75% Hall of Fame threshold. Regardless it puts Ivan Rodriguez in the inner circle of Hall of Famers. Of the 15 Catchers in the Hall, I think he and Johnny Bench are the only two to get in on the first ballot.  

 

Catchers are surprisingly under-represented in the Hall. The are 15 Backstops enshrined, which is the lowest of any Batting position other than 3rd Base. 

Flip

1992 Topps #78 Ivan Rodriguez (rookie cup)

I was to lazy to look up a Box for the FSL All-Star game referenced, perhaps I will add it to this posting in the future. I like the fronts of 1992 Topps, but I am not a fan of the wasted space on the back. Do we really need the same picture of the stadium for every player on the team? It is a pretty dumb concept when you think about it, I mean how do you capture a stadium in basically a landscaped thumbnail.

Ivan Rodriguez Index

2010 Phungo #7
2011 Phungo #21
2015 Topps Stadium Club (Blaster Break)

Sources and Links
1992 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Index
Baseball-Ref

1992 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Index (1991 Award 1992 Card)

This is an Index to our postings related to the 1991 Topps Rookie All-Star Team. The award is for the 1991 season with the cards issued in the 1992 set.

 1992 Topps #78 Ivan Rodriguez (Rookie Cup)

#	Pos	Player	Team
12	OF	Luis Gonzalez	Houston Astros
23	2B	Chuck Knoblauch	Minnesota Twins
78	C	Ivan Rodriguez	Texas Rangers
84	3B	Leo Gomez	Baltimore Orioles
288	SS	Andujar Cedeno	Houston Astros
292	OF	Ray Lankford	St. Louis Cardinals
520	1B	Jeff Bagwell	Houston Astros
522	OF	Milt Cuyler	Detroit Tigers
537	RHP	Mark Leiter	Detroit Tigers
614	LHP	Al Osuna	Houston Astros

  

Sources and Links

Topps All-Star Rookie Master Index

B-R Bullpen

Blaster Break 2015 Topps Stadium Club

Some highlights from a recent Blaster purchase of 2015T Stadium Club. I think I may have picked up a single loosey as well, can't remember.

The Sole Phillie in the 40 card bounty was or retired centerfielder - convicted criminal Lenny Dykstra.

As with most Stadium Club cards we have a nice shot - full bleed. The TSC design is minimal - showing of the photo more, but unremarkable. Dykstra is bundled up here, wonder if this is from a road opener somewhere. I am a fan of the Liberty Bell flair whenever it shows up on Phillies attire on a card - you can see it here on Dykstra's turtleneck.

Blaster All-Stars

I like to post Breaks in the form of an all-star team of the cards drawn. Sometimes it is the best players, but often it is the most interesting photo or card design/shot combo

Battery

David Cone
Tim Hudson
Hisashi Iwakuma
Ivan Rodriguez

I think we were pitching light which is how Iwakuma got the nod, but the rest of these shots are great.  I may return to the Cone card as part of our Year of the No-Hitter Series. The Pudge card needs to rank among the best in the set - I want this shot on a Carlos Ruiz card.


Infield

Chipper Jones
Orlado Cepeda
Hanley Ramirez
Bip Roberts

I like the Ramirez card as it is a nice nod to both his changing teams and changing positions. It is a card that pays off on the viewers baseball knowledge. Note I moved Hanley back to Shortstop for this posting as the position was left vacant by our 40 card blaster.

Including a handful of Black n White hots is a nice touch in the set. The entirety of Orlando Cepeda's career was probably in the color photography era, but it is nice to see the B/W shot here.



 Outfield

Bo Jackson
Joe DiMaggio
Deion Sanders
Dusty Baker

Lots of stuff going on here, The Bo Jackson card gives us an interesting candid shot -
Something that is hard to capture. I typically dislike any shot from behind the player but the Deion Sanders card is ok, there is action and it is with one of the premier basestealers of the era. Dusty Baker is getting a lead from 2nd or 3rd, which you don't see on many cards - also it is hard to pick up but this is a Gold insert.

The Joe DiMaggio B/W is apparently noting his reach 45 games in his hit streak. At the time this tied Wee Willie Keeler for the major league record - this is another card I would like to return to at some point.


The Bench (Inserts)

Ken Griffey/Ken Griffey Jr
Contact Sheet Miguel Cabrera
Luminous Trumvirate Starling Marte

The Griffeys card is a fun one, will probably see this one a lot in the next year especially come Father's day. Here I have presented the base and Gold for side/side comparison.

The two bottom cards are inserts that I don't understand.

Sources and Links
Baseball-ref
Baseball Almanac
Ken Griffey Jr HoF Index
Orlando Cepeda HoF Index
Joe DiMaggio HoF Index
Ivan Rodriguez HoF Index

2010 Phungo Cards - Ivan Rodriguez

Yesterday we published the 2011 Phungo card of Ivan Rodriguez.  Today we have his 2010 card. 

2010 Phungo #7 Ivan Rodriguez

This is more of an action shot which was taken in Baltimore.   This is not actually a live game action shot.  Had Pudge been tossing out a runner at 2nd, I am sure his catchers mask would be rotated around toward the near side of Rodriguez's head.  Here he is throwing down to 2nd following the pitchers warm up tosses preceding an inning.

Hall of Fame 

For me Ivan Rodriguez is a First Ballot Hall of Famer, Let's look at the Numbers. 

World Champion - 2003 Marlins (over the Yankees)
1999 AL MVP, 14 time All-Star, 13 Gold Gloves, and 7 Silver Sluggers.
311 Homers, 2844 Hits, .296 Career Average. 
2427 Games Caught (Most all-time)

Those are great numbers at any position, but at Catcher they are quite impressive. 

Phungo Games
By my count, I was able to catch I-Rod in 7 games including the 1996 All-Star game.  Rodriguez's teams  came out on the winning side on 3 of those 7 games.  Rodriguez Hit well in those games 9 for 27 with a pair of Home Runs.

Farewell and best of luck to Ivan Rodriguez - I am glad that I was able to see parts of his great career.

Sources and Links
2010 Phungo Cards Checklist
Ivan Rodriguez HOF Index 

2011 Phungo Cards - Ivan Rodriguez

Ivan Rodriguez officially announced his retirement Monday.  This marked the end of his 21 year playing career during which, I saw him play several times. 

2011 Phungo #21 Ivan Rodriguez

There are two Phungo cards of Pudge.  Multiple Phungo cards is pretty rare for a player that was never a member of the Phillies or Orioles.  This is the latter of the two cards and is from the 2011 set.

The Photo was take during BP of the Phillies 2010 home opener.  The card number is 21, which is a nod to Rodriguez's fellow coutnrymen Roberto Clemente.

Sources and Links
2011 Phungo Card Checklist
Ivan Rodriguez HOF Index