1964T Phil Linz Phungo Variation

Thursday August 20th is an important Anniversary of one of the most significant events in the Storied History of the New York Yankees.

It is the 56th Anniversary of the Harmonica Incident. 

If you are not familiar with the Harmonica Incident click the link above for a more detailed account, for our purposes the important facts are that Yankees Infielder Phil Linz was playing Harmonica on the team bus following a loss. This upset manager Yogi Berra, yelled "Shove that harmonica up your..." towards the back of the bus. Here is where it gets interesting...

Linz did not hear Yogi and asked Mickey Mantle what he said and Mickey said:

"PLAY IT LOUDER"

Which Phil Linz proceeded to do. This let to a confrontation between Berra and Linz including the harmonica being used as a projectile.

I original heard the story years ago when I first read "Ball Four" and was reminded of it reading Mitch Nathanson's outstanding biography "Bouton: The Life of a Baseball Original" 

This got the crew at Phungo HQ thinking, this story needs a baseball card.

 Phungo Variation

1964T Phil Linz Phungo Variation

I went with 1964T as the canvas as that was the year the incident occurred. To capture the humor of the event I went with the comic approach. The comic is not really original - I stole it from the back of Ed Sadowski's 1960 Topps Card

1960 Topps #403 Ed Sadowski (b-side)

Pretty happy with the reproduction of the -toon on my part. I love to envision Phil Linz being in as care free a mood as this comic right before being yelled at by Yogi Berra. 

I sort of kept the colors and lettering from the original 1960 comic. I went with an orange interior border to reflect the creamsicle backs of 1964 Topps.  To match the original Phil Linz card the comic extends out of frame into the team name area which matches the Red/Orange color from 1964T. I did change the player position from INF-OF to SS-3B to better reflect Phil Linz 1964 playing time.

Ed Sadowski was a backup catcher who spent the bulk of his 5 year career with the LA Angels. I did some minor digging and was unable to find more info on Sadowski's musical talents. Regardless his cartoon was good enough for me. 

In a sad note Ed Sadowski's bio revealed that he died in 1993 from Lou Gehrig's Disease. 

Sources and Links

Phungo Original Index

Bob Nightengale USA TODAY

Mitch Nathanson - Bouton: The Life of a Baseball Original

Topps Baseball Card DB

Baseball-Reference

Ed Sadowski SABR Bio -  Clayton Trutor

Card Show Granite Run Mall Media PA - This Weekend April 4/27 - 4/28 - Steve Rogers and PHIL LINZ Lots of Eagles Watters Garner Byars Bryce Brown

There are a lot of bigger names at this weekend Poppel Show at the Granite Run Mall, but none of those guys are Phillies Alums.

1966 Topps #522 Phil Linz

Phil Linz played two unremarkable seasons for the Phillies in the middle 60s. His Phillies tenure like much of his career was spent primarily as a utility infielder and pinch hitter and runner.

As a Yankee Linz did have a brief shining moment. He batted leadoff for the Yankees in game 7 of the 1964 World Series and with 2 outs in the 9th inning hit a Home Run off of Bob Gibson.  Unfortunately for the Yankes and Linz, they were down 3 runs at the time.  Gibson went on to record the final out, the Yankees would not return to the post season for over a decade.\

Phil Linz Wiki Bio does contain some reference to both "Ball Four" and "The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book" 

1966 Topps Mid Series (447-552)

The 1966 Topps Phil Linz card is the final card of a somewhat scarcer middle series in the set.  For commons in this series I look for a pricepoint of around $1.50  

Poppel Show at Granite Run Mall 

I enjoy the Poppel Shows.  There are probably less than a dozen dealers but they have a strong enough variety to enjoy a couple of hours. The bulk of this weekends signers are Football Related, Ricky Watters, Charlie Garner, Keith Byars, Blair Thomas, Current Eagles RB Bryce Brown.  The big Baseball name is Expos Ace Steve Rogers. The others are Tito Landrum, Jack Fisher, and Linz

More information on the show can be found at Poppel.com.