ANNIVERSARY: 10 Years Ago Today the Phillies Win the World Series

Just wanted to post a couple of pictures to remember a great night from a decade ago.

Game Ticket 2008 World Series Game 5. 2008 OCT 27 & 29

 Pat Burrell prior to the last game he would ever play with the Phillies

Harry Kalas on about to perform his final World Series Broadcast.

 Ryan Howard

Jamie Moyer carrying the rubber from the CBP pitchers Mound

 Jimmy Rollins

Don Zimmer

One of my more common avatars

Links and Sources

2008 World Series Game 5 index

2008 World Champion Phillies Player Indices

Purple

Inspired by Night Owl Cards Prince Memorial last week we have a few Phillies Purple Cards.

1975 Topps # 574 Tony Taylor

In deference to NOC we open with a 1975T card that has a Purple top. The Phillies had purple cards in Flagship even in years when it was not one of the base colors.

Several times over the years Purple has served as a secondary color for Phillies cards. The 1990T Bob Dernier is a favorite - Green and Purple are particularly good complimentary colors.

Purple Chrome

Purple Parallels have shown up the last couple of years commonly found in Toys R Us sets, but I think the 2013 Heritage may have been regular retail.

Fleer stole the 1954T design for this set. Lots of Purple on the Ron Gant card.

Continuing with Fleer with a minimalist retro inspired design from 2006. Kind of like the look of this set.

The Purple continues through to the b-side.

 HoF Mike Schmidt go the Purple Honors on his 1988 Score card.

Once again the Purple continues through to the back, although more subtle then on the Rollins 06 Fleer Tradition Card.

Finally from 1982T, in addition to the titles the signature hockey sticks are also in Princely Purple.

Finally we close with Prince Himself

Purple Rain 45 RPM on Purple Vinyl

And the packaging...

I supposed colored vinyl is the Parallel of Records.

Sources and Links
Prince Memorial / Prince R&R HoF Index

Player Collection Index: Jimmy Rollins

This is an index of our postings related to Jimmy Rollins and J-Roll cards.

2008 Topps #233 Jimmy Rollins MVP


1998 Bowman #181 (rc)
2003 Topps T205 #69 (Year of the Horse 1978/2014)  
2006 Topps Bazooka #21

2008 Topps #233 Jimmy Rollins MVP (2015 WAR Projection)
2008 Heritage #350 
2008 Heritage #408 Keyston Combo (w/ Chase Utley, 1959 Topps Rhyme)
2010 Phungo #11
2011 Allen & Ginter #31 (blaster break)

2011 Heritage #72 (w/ Chase Utley)
2011 Phungo #27 (w/ Polanco and Charlie Manuel)
2013 Phungo #11
2014 Topps Blue #312
2015 Phungo #21 (Variations)

Name the Game: 2014 Chrome #174 Chase Utley

If you want to Name the Game DON'T SCROLL BEYOND THE CARD!

Otherwise stay with us and I will discuss this card below.

2014 Topps #174 Chase Utley (Black Parallel #61/100)

The Photo features Phungo favorite Chase Utley, it appears he is recording a putout on the front end of a possible double play with Cleveland Indians catcher Carlos Santana sliding into second base.

Chase is wearing the Phillies alternative cream jerseys which are reserved for day games. Those two facts point pretty quickly to a single game, a sad 10-4 loss on the 15th of May in 2013. If we look a little deeper we find the only time Santana reached base was in the 7th inning.  He was erased a pitch later on a 6-4-3 double play induced by Phillies pitcher Phillippe Aumont versus the Indian Ryan Raburn

Getty Got It
Once we established the date as a cross check we scanned the Getty Archive and found the image. Hovering the cursor over the photo yield the date and location information which confirms the 2013 05 15 date mentioned above. It also credits Hunter Martin as the Photographer.

Phungo Games

Ticket 2015 05 15 Indians @ Phillies

One of the reasons this card caught my eye is that it is from a Phungo Game - A game attended by Team Phungo. For our dismal game report on that disaster click here. 

Flip

2014 Topps #174 Chase Utley (b-side Black Parallel #61/100)

This is a parallel from the 2014 Chrome set. The black border refractor is a nice look for Phillies Cards - Nice contrast with the Red and having an Indians uni in the frame doesn't hurt. These parallels have a limited print run of 100 copies which can be seen in the top right corner.

To see the vanilla Utley Chrome card you can click here to see our blaster break from 2014.

Variations
In addition to all the parallels the Image also shows up on the mini variation of the 2014 Gypsy Queen Chase Utley card. An example can be seen in the Cardboard Connection Variation Guide - scroll down to card #255.
 
Sources and Links
Phungo Games Index
Chase Utley Player Collection
Baseball-ref
Getty Images
Hunter Martin Photography
Cardboard Connection 

Updates
2016 0121: Game Ticket Added

Christmas Greetings from Play at the Plate

For me one of the great things about having a hobby is the folks I meet that have a common interest.

And those relationships often go beyond the hobby - we make friends, banter about other topics family successes, failures, good times and bad.

Recently Brian from the Texas Rangers related blog mentioned that he was sending out Holiday Cards. Just another great way of keeping in touch - in an old school sort of way, that really has nothing to do with the Hobby, except when you include MLB Stickers

Thanks to Brian and every at PATP I hope and his family had as good a Christmas as all the folks hear at Phungo HQ. 

2015 MLB Stickers
Nice Selection of mostly recently departed Phillies except Chooch. The Lot also includes a Player PATP fans are familiar with, former Ranger Cliff Lee.

Fortunately for Phillies Team Collectors the 2015 MLB Stickers checker includes the Phanatic - He will always bea Phillie. 

Links
Chase Utley Player Collection Index

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

I guess I am rooting for the Dodgers this year (sigh)

Gonna miss these guys

2008 Topps Heritage #408 Keystone Combo Utley-Rollins

My least favorite team as a Kid was the Dodgers, this year I am pretty sure I will be pulling for them though.

This is the first card I thought of when it became evident that the 2008 Middle Infield would be reunited on the West Coast. 

2008 Topps Heritage #408 Keystone Combo Utley-Rollins (b-side)

I like the card because it lives in the spot that was originally inhabited by a White Sox card that featured Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio. Both of those middle infielders went on to the Hall of Fame. A Dodgers 2015 World Series triumph would certainly help both Utley and Rollins HoF resumes.

 I plan on visiting the original Fox-Aparicio card in the future until then you can check this out:

2008 Topps Heritage #408 Keystone Combo Utley-Rollins 
1959 Topps #408 Keystone Combo Fox-Aparicio

Sources and Links
2015 Playoff Contenders Index
Chase Utley Player Collection Index
Jimmy Rollins Player Collection Index 
2011 Topps Heritage #72 Rollins Utley

Game Report 2015 0625 Dodgers 4 at Cubs 0

Throwing up a sort of quick posting with some pictures from a game Team Phungo attended as part of SABR 45 in Chicago. The Dodgers shutout the Cubs 4-0 in a game that had some odd events.

Howie Kendrick had a 2 RBI double in the first for LA which was all that the Dodgers needed. Cubs starter Jon Lester struggled to find the plate for most of his outing and was lifted after 4 innings. Carlos Frias started for the Dodgers and navigated his way through five innings. The Bullpen completed the shutout by pitching to one over the minimum over the final four innings.

Snapshots

Edwin Jackson vs Alex Guerrero 

The Cubs have honored Ernie Banks with his #14 behind Home Plate. You may also notice that the classic scoreboard is no longer the outfield feature. The two new scoreboards are not for everyone, but I found them to be well done and informative.

Anthony Rizzo

Anthony Rizzo was the Cubs lone bright spot for the day, going 3-4 with a pair of doubles.

Jimmy Rollins

Getting to see the Dodgers gave us a chance to see our old friend Jimmy Rollins. He had a bunt single which was something I don't recall him doing very often with the Phillies, he was also caught stealing - making the 3rd out at 3rd base. I probably saw Jimmy do that while he was in Philly.

Matt Sczczur

I was looking forward to seeing Kris Bryant while I was in Chicago. Unfortunately he left the game after one inning (flu like symptons). That did open the door for Matt Sczczur to get into the game. Sczczur played his collegiate baseball (and football) at Villanova which is located just down the road from Phungo HQ.

"Sweet Swinging" Billy Williams

There are a couple of statues outside of the entrances of Wrigley. This one of Billy Williams who we featured a few Sunday's ago is outside gate D.

Paddington and Clark

There were three first pitches for the game - none more fun then the one from Paddington the Bear. The throw was terribly off the mark. The Cubs new mascot, Clark, was the catcher for the pitch and ran over a cameraman in an effort to catch Paddington's errant throw.

In the photo above Clark is shown giving Paddington a gift, which was the ball to be used on the first pitch.

Sources and Links
SABR 45 Index
Chicago Travelblog
Baseball-ref

2015 Phungo #21 Jimmy Rollins with VARIATIONS

Today our look at 2015 Phungo checks in with Jimmy Rollins

2015 Phungo #21 Jimmy Rollins

This year I elected to continue a feature introduced last year - Hardware. That is how I refer to awards won by different players - For each award card the hardware title is placed above the player name and backlit in bright yellow or gold as I choose to think of it.

The Roberto Clemente award is presented to an MLB player who is noted for their sportsmanship and contributions both on and off the field. The process involves nominations from each team, fan voting, and a select MLB panel which includes Bud Selig, Rob Manfred, and Vera Clemente - Widow of Roberto. This year the vote resulted in a tie between Jimmy Rollins and Chicago White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko.

I have made an additional nod to Roberto Clemente here by placing Rollins on card #21 - The number worn by Clemente. I would like to see Topps honor card #21 and #42 (Jackie Robinson) in the same way. Rather than retiring the card number (#7 Mantle) why not give it each year to a deserving player. It would give collectors another discussion point in the hero number conversation.

Unfortunately there is an error on the card. The date on the card is August 19, 2014 - unfortunately this photo was taken on May 18 of 2013. This leads us to....

2015 Phungo #21 Jimmy Rollins (Dodgers Variation)


I originally had a totally different Phils card for Rollins. The Picture was from a game versus Seattle on 8/19/2014. But the photo featured Jimmy in a cap and wasn't really suitable for a traded type card. Once he was traded I found this non-cap pix and quickly made up the above Dodgers card.

I then took the pix and inserted it into the Phillies template, but I forgot to change the date. Beyond the border differences the cards are still slightly different in the way the photo is framed. Check Jimmy's left ear. It touches the frame on the Phillies card but does not on the Dodgers card.


Parallels

For some reason I am still a sucker for parallels. Target is my desired pickup point for retail largely because they have the red border parallels, which match up better for the Phils team colors than Walmart Blue.

However, creating cards for the Phungo Sets makes me realize how flooding a set with parallels is just plain lazy. It is pretty much as simple as taking the A card and point and clicking on the boarder - make less of the B card and call it a hit.

Regardless I am a sucker for parallel cards and trading cards and two weeks from now when 2015 S1 debuts I will come up with some excuse to go to Target and I will seek out the package with the extra Red parallel cards. sigh

Sources and Links
2015 Phungo Checker
Jimmy Rollins Player Collection Index 
MLB
Cardboard Connection

WAR Stories: Phillies 2015+ Jimmy Rollins 2007 NL MVP

Congrats to this years MVP Winners Mike Trout & Clayton Kershaw. Today as part of our Phillies 2015+ Project we turn back the clock 7 years to the 2007 NL MVP Winner, Jimmy Rollins.

2008 Topps #233 Jimmy Rollins MVP

Well we are not really turning back the clock - Phils fans would definitely love to have the 07 version of J-Roll. Unfortunately time marches on and a 36 year old Jimmy Rollins is expected to start for the Phillies in 2015.

2014 was a decent year for Rollins. His batting average down, but OBP was right around his career average. His slugging number down, largely because of a dip in doubles - His 17 Home Runs were right at his 162 game average. Speaking of games Rollins played 138 games in 2014 - His 609 Plate Appearances was the 2nd lowest of his 14 full seasons.

Comps  
All 10 of Jimmy Rollins age 35 Comps played beyond age 35,It is an impressive group of players topped by Joe Morgan and Derek Jeter with Craig Biggio, Ryne Sandberg, Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammel and Robby Alomar all in the list. Five of those players still had 4.0+ WAR left in them - Joe Morgan was tops with +15.5 WAR.  According to Baseball-ref projections Jimmy Rollins should expect to accumulate 3.5 WAR for the rest of his career.

The projections have Jimmy finishing with 2574 career hits.  426 shy of  the arbitrary 3000  that has made any non-PED player an automatic for HoF voters. Jimmy is currently at 2306 hits, which means B-R thinks he had 268 hits remaining - slightly more than double his 2014 production - or another way of looking at it about 2 years worth of hits.

Verdict
The projections sounds about right to me. I see Jimmy playing through the 2016 season and getting slightly less than his 2014 production.  I give him +2.0 WAR for 2015. In our Phillies 2015 running WAR total we are through 3 players and have arrived at 55 Wins. 


2008 Topps

The photography on 08 Topps is worthless. Fortunately They got a decent pix of Jimmy on the MVP Card, The base card photo is HORRIBLE.  

2008 Topps #233 Jimmy Rollins MVP (b-side)


The B-side of the card shows a grab bag of Rollins MVP Qualifications. Curious picks - the BA with RISP (.272) is 24 points lower the BA Overal (.296). The 43 Game Winning RBI cannot be right - that isn't even an official stat anymore - but when it was the league leaders were in the teems if I recall correctly. The Most important stats are at the bottom - Rollins 15 RBI and .346 BA versus the Mets who the Phillies overtook on the last day of the season to win the NL East. This of course was their last win of the year as they were swept by the Colorado Rockies in the NLDS.



Sources & Links
WAR Stories Phillies 2015+ Index
Jimmy Rollins Player Collection Index
Baseball-ref

Year of the Horse 1978: Jimmy Rollins 2003 Topps T205 #69

Today's Year of the Horse posting is an All Phillies edition, birth year 1978. Which means all of these fine folks have either recently turned 36 or will in the next year. This sort of explains the Phillies issue keeping players on the field.

2003 Topps T205 mini #69 Jimmy Rollins

T206 is talked about a lot more, but I have a preference for T205. Overall, I think the originals had a better look. They are more colorful and the gold borders help the cards pop. This really helps the retro cards like the ones Topps put out in 2003.  I am not sure how prevalent minis were in 2003, but I think it was before they were included in every stinkin set.

2003 Topps T205 mini #69 Jimmy Rollins (b-side)

Flipped this one over for a couple of reasons. T205 contain a paragraph of player info plus a short stat line. Just another reason to prefer them over T206 which only had an advertisements. The other reason I showed off the reverse of the above J-Roll card is that it is a Polar Bear back, Team Phungo is always looking for Polar Bear backs.

As mentioned above the 1978 Year of the Horse posting is an All Phils edition. The Phils '78 Horses include:
-Mike Adams
-Cliff Lee
-Chase Utley

Hopefully since the Chinese Zodiac rolling around to these players birth signs will be a good omen for the Phillies 

Year of the Horse Index
1966 Curt Schilling
1990 Yasiel Puig

Links
Jimmy Rollins Player Collection Index

Swag from Play at the Plate: 2014 Topps Blue Blaster

At the end of last year Brian over at Play at the Plate ran a contest to win a blaster of 2014 Topps. It was my kind of contest too, All I had to do was comment on a post. And Team Phungo Won!

2014 Topps Blue #312 Jimmy Rollins

There was only one Phillies player in the blaster, but it was a colorful Walmart parallel. Other than that it was a pretty nice box. I had already hoarded 100+ cards via Hangers and Looseys, and it was a pleasant surprise to find out that the blaster didn't duplicate many of the cards that I had already collected. I have developed a taste for hangers so it has been a while since I have opened a blaster. The number of inserts is mindblowing. Since each 8 card pack contains 2 blue parallels plus an insert, technically 37.5% of the cards are not base. To me parallels count as base, but for the completists out there, well I sympathize for their plight.

Highlights - Base

2014 Topps Leonys Martin 
2014 Topps Brian McCann

Check it out a Ranger and a Play at the Plate card. These should put a smile on faces at PATP HQ.

Inserts

Manupatch of 2008 Kershaw RC

These are a bit odd. the "Border" from the original 2008 design is raised, while the pix is inset.

89T Die Cut Sandy Koufax

The blaster was a bit of Dodger Hot Box. Never been a big fan of Die Cuts. Just harder to take care of. That being said the 89T design is a good one to give the Die Cut treatment.

2014 Topps Power Player Wilmer Flores

Just noting the difference from the PP cards and base here. The RCe logo is gone and the Topps moved from right to left. There is good news here if your hate the chrome print, it appears a bit lighter on the Power Play cards.

2014 Topps Blue Mariano Rivera

This was a bit of an oddity, All of the Blue Parallels in the box were of cards with Landscrape Photos, notice these two of the retiring Rivera and the one of Jimmy above. This is a coalation thing I have noticed from Topps previously. In 2008 I got a Hobby Box of S1 where all the Gold Foil stamped cards were Horizontal.

Bleeders

Night Owl referred this years new Red parallels as bleeding walls or something similar. At some point I hope to have some additional thoughts on these, but will note that all 3 of these like the blue instagrams above are landscapes.

etc   

The reamaining inserts. I like the UpperClass cards but find the Future is Now cards meh. For whatever reason I liked the UC cards of Retired players more than these new cards of current players.

All in all a fun break. Lots of new blue cards for the Phungo collection, a couple of cool inserts including a Rollins Parallel. Thanks to the Brian over at Play at the Plate for running a contest that even Team Phungo can win.

More 2014 Topps Review
2014 Topps First Pack