1996 UD All-Star Game Jumbo #275 Roberto Alomar

We had a lot of excitement around Phungo HQ over the weekend and I didn't get around to put together a column on an HOF celebrating a marquee birthday.

Yes on Monday February 5th the twelve time All-Star Roberto Alomar turned 50.

1996 UD All-Star Game Jumbo #275 Roberto Alomar

Roberto Alomar may already be used to having his birthday ignored. Despite being an Hall of Fame player he is only the 2nd best player born on February 5th, ranking behind the Great Henry Aaron. Alomar was admitted to the Hall as part of the 2011 class with Bert Blyleven.

During his 17 year career Alomar donned seven different uniforms. His stops that most affected me were probably with the Blue Jays (which I will avoid discussing), the Orioles and the Mets.

Alomar's HOF credentials include 2724 career hits, Two World Championships (1992 & 1993), an ALCS MVP (1992), and 10 Gold Gloves at the premium position of second base. His 2320 games at Second rank 3rd all-time.

1996 UD All-Star Game Jumbo
For our Robbie Alomar profile I picked out an oversized parallel of a 1996 Upper Deck base card. When Philadelphia hosted the 1996 All-Star Game UD put together a small limited release set of Jumbo cards for the event.

The cards are exactly the same as the base cards but twice the size. To illustrate the size difference of the cards size we have enlisted the help of the Phillies middle infield of the era, Mickey Morandini and Kevin Stocker.    

1996 Upper Deck Jumbo vs Base 

Notice that the Two Phillies Cards (2.5 x 3.5) are exactly half the size of the Alomar card (5 x 3.5).

We also see that the designs of Jumbo and base are identical, with the exception of the 1996 ASG flare. It is a bit hard to make out but in the bottom left of the Alomar card is the liberty bell shaped logo. For a better look at what the logo check out the Game Ticket featured in our Rickey Botallico posting.

Since this is a parallel of a base card likely released well before the season began, neither the photo nor any information on the back of the card have anything to do with the 1996 All-Star Game or season.

1996 ASG
Robbie Alomar was the started at second base for the 1996 AL All-Star team alongside his Orioles Double Play teammate Cal Ripken. All Three of Robbie's plate appearances came against future Hall of Famers: John Smoltz,  Tom Glavine and Pedro Martinez. Alomar's lone hit was a single off Pedro in the 7th. The Box Score to the 6-0 NL Victory can be found here.

Flip

1996 UD All-Star Game Jumbo #275 Roberto Alomar

As mentioned above the backs are duplicates of base cards. This include the card numbers which remain unchanged despite the Jumbo being only a 18 card set. The Stat lines vary from player to player. If they have Postseason or All-Star experience those numbers are included, otherwise the stats for the most recent seasons are listed. Robbie gets ASG, LCS and World Series - Those numbers include His Stat line form the 1993 Series vs the Phillies

 1996 UD All-Star Card Set

Here is the box set cover. The verbiage at the bottom notes the the ASG Stamp and the fact that the set consists of "Enlarged Trading Cards"

 Checker

The Checklist is on the Box Bottom

The 1996 ASG is a Future Series for Phungo and I anticipate this Box Set being a fun part of that series. For now this is the Index/Checklist for postings related to the Subset.

80 Jeff Bagwell
195 Barry Bonds
200 Ken Griffey Jr
271 John Smoltz
275 Roberto Alomar (50th Birthday)
280 Cal Ripken Jr
300 Frank Thomas
310 Barry Larkin
313 Sandy Alomar
315 Albert Belle
317 Charles Nagy
319 Kenny Lofton
320 Dante Bichette
345 Craig Biggio
360 Mike Piazza
410 Wade Boggs
450 Tony Gwynn
455 Matt Williams

Robbie Alomar HOF Index
1996 UD All-Star Jumbo #275 (this posting)

Sources and Links
1996 ASG Index
Baseball-Ref
Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards - Bob Lemke 

International, Olympic, & WBC Index

This is an Index of our postings related to the World Baseball Classic, Olympics and International Baseball.

(### This index is under construction ###)

1966 Topps #264 Ted Uhleaender (rc, Katie Uhleander related)
1969 Topps #194 Ted Uhlaender (Katie Uhleander)
2005 Topps #UH199 HR Derby Hee-Seop Choi (South Korea)
2009 Topps WBC #1 Yu Darvish (Japan)
2009 Topps Redemeption WBC #8 Yoennis(sic) Cespedes (Cuba)
2009 Topps Heritage #163 Johnny Damon (Thailand)
2009 Topps Heritage #309 Johnny Damon (Thailand)
2009 Allen & Ginter's National Pride #NP39 Shin-Soo Choo (South Korea)
2010 Phungo Bernie Williams David Ortiz Sidney Ponson (PR, Dominican, Nederlands)
2011 Bowman Platinum #BPP23 Josh Zeid (Israel)
2013 Topps #WBC-5 Hanley Ramirez (Dominican Republic)
2014 Topps Olympic Box Break Katie Uhlaender, LoLo Jones, Danelle Umstead, Lindsey Vonn, Eddy Alvarez, David Wise, Noelle Pikus-Pace, Sochi

Sources & Links

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

USA USA USA: 1988 Topps #71T Mickey Morandini

We continue our 4th of July celebration today by posting this great card of Fan Favorite Mickey Morandini

1988 Topps #71T Mickey Morandini

Morandini was a member of the 1988 Olympic team. He played one game for the USA squad which took first place (Baseball was a non-medal exhibition in 1988) in the tournament.

Today Mickey Morandini is still in the Phillies organization as Bench Coach for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. He has been with the Phils in some sort of coaching or instructional role since 2009. It does appear the Phils may be grooming Morandini to be the next Manager of the big club.

Sources
Lehigh Valley IronPigs

Mickey Morandini Unassisted Triple Play Anniversary and a Mystery Solved

Today during Andy's High Heat Stats This day in Baseball History feed he noted that today is the 20th Anniversary of Mickey Morandini's Unassisted Triple Play.  Despite the UATP the Phils took the loss 3-2 to the Pirates in extras.   

At the time it was only the second UATP in MLB history turned by a 2nd Baseman. - Bill Wambsganss turned the first during the 1920 World Series.  There have been three by second baseman since including one by Phils utility man Eric Bruntlett in 2009.

1993 Score #415 Mickey Morandini
1993 Topps #262 Mickey Morandini 

First off the pix on these cards feature a Double Play not the Triple Play mentioned above.

I had always assumed the Topps card featured the Phils ill-fated day game blue caps which were ejected after a few games because 1) the players didn't like them 2) they lost the few games when they wore them.

Mystery Solved

 
I assumed wrong.  The years didn't add up.  Turns out the cursed hats were from 1994 - The cards above are from 1993. After some Turn Back the Clock Game research I found that the Phillies wore there 1948 throwbacks for a game on June 21 1992.

Interesting thing you have above is two cards, different manufacturers, same play - possibly same photographer.

If you check the box link above, you can see in the 4th inning Andre Dawson singled followed by Mark Grace hitting into a 6-4-3 DP. I am pretty sure that is what we are seeing here.

Sources
Wikipedia.com
Baseball-Ref.com

Thorzul $5 Fiddy Group Break

1999 Stadium Club #39 Bob Abreu

Late last year Thorzul ran a $5.50 group break. Unfortunately there weren't a ton of Phils this time around, but this sharp looking "Bob" Abreu card was among them. I picked up roughly a dozen cards in the break most were the 1999 UD MVP set.

The 99 Stadium club Cards feature some great action shots. I tried to play Name the Game with the Abreu card but unfortunately found two possible games. June 13th and 14th 1998. Abreu and Mickey Morandini played in both games. Both Games were day games and Abreu was on 2nd base several times between the two games. I am betting it is the 6/13 game as Abreu did everything but make the post-game buffet during that game.

This one was a little slow but I still always love the Thorzul group breaks, unfortunately I was out of the country and missed out on his latest one, but plan on getting involved in future breaks.

Phillies 2009 Alumni Night

First off I want to let everyone know that there is still time to get involved in the

John Hughes Memorial Trading Card Trivia Contest!

It's looking like a crummy weather day here in the Northeast, I'm sure there are some 80s trivia buffs out there who could waste 20 minutes on the net finding the answers, and someone has to challenge Dayf.

Moving on to the present post:

Alumni Night was a bit of a bummer for several reasons. The Phils lost for the 2nd game in a row v the 2nd place Marlins. The Phils appeared to have a favorable pitching matchup (Cole Hamels v Sean West). The Alumni accessibility was not as good as expected. And finally we got caught up in a traffic jam on the way home.

Within the game itself the Marlins were terribly sloppy but the Phils let the Fish off the hook several times by going about 2 for 20 with runners on base. The Marlins won 6-4. Dingers were hit for the bad guys by Chris Coghlan (member of Phungo Fantasy Squad at least) and Cody Ross. Former Phil Brian Sanches got the W in relief, Cole Hamels was unimpressive in yet another loss and failed to go 6 innings. On a positive note Ryan Howard looked good without hitting a homer - a rare event. He has not been hitting well recently, hopefully his 4-4 night gets him out of his slump.

Despite the frustrating loss, I did have a good time and I am glad I went. I was able to pick up a couple of autos and got a couple of decent pictures.

Here are some of the hilights (all pix can be clicked to enlarge):

Harry Kalas was this years inductee to the Phillies Wall of Fame, this is his brand new plaque.


Phils New Addition:
Anybody notice anything odd about the above picture?



Mickey Morandini


Jim Eisenreich



National Anthem with Phillies Alumni and Current Phillies on the field

Close Up of Alums including all four Phils living HOFs

And I got some shots of the bad guys.



This is what Chris Coghlan looks like right before he hits a homer to center field

and Marlins Pitcher Sean West:


I met West's Aunt and Uncle at a local restaurant last year and have been following him a bit since then. He is young and has had mixed starts this year. Last night he was fair at best, he was able to get out of a few jams, but lasted less than 5 innings. The Marlins bullpen did a great job of holding the Phils in check and along with Chris Coghlan were the stars of the game.

Phungo Cards - Ryan Ludwick and Cards from Cards on Cards

Today on Phungo Cards we feature another player from a team other than the Phillies. This is for Cards on Cards who was good enough to send me a great bunch of minor league cards.

Ryan Ludwick played his first full major league season in 2008 and put together a fine campaign. The first time all-star hit .299 with 37 homers and 113 RBI, good enough to earn him a Silver Slugger award. It felt like he got about half those dingers vesus the Phillies.

2009 Phungo #47 Ryan Ludwick

Nothing new on this card. I used the same color template for the Cardinals and Phillies. As noted with the Pat Burrell card earliar this week, I denote the specific position for Ludwick as right field. As you can see Ludwick's card number (47) matches his uniform number.

This card is from July 8th when Joel Piniero shutout the Phils. Ludwick was responsible for one of the two runs the Cardinals scored as he hit one of his aforementioned homers.

This is not one of my favorite camera angles, however anytime I can capture an action shot with the baseball actually in the picture I consider the photo a success. I also think I read at some point someone mentioning that there wasn't a Ludwick card available in Series 1 and I wanted to create a card for him.

While I am not fond of the behind the batter shot, apparently it is good enough for Topps, Especially if the batter is Casey Blake.


2008 Topps Gold Foil #231 Casey Blake
2006 Topps #391 Casey Blake

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Here are a couple of the highlights from the minor league cards sent out by Cards on Cards. I had asked for Phillies minor leaguers and anything from my local minor league teams, such as Harrisburg Senators and Wilmington Blue Rocks. CoC sent me two team bags with lots of Phils. I particularly loved these two cards.


1991 ProCards #259 Matt Stairs
1989 Star #120 Mike Morandini

Mickey Morandini, Identified by his given name, Mike. And one of 2008 World Championship Phillies playoff hero Matt Stairs. Stair stole 23 bases for the 1991 Senators. Hard to imagine.