Happy 70th Birthday Greg Luzinski 1978 OPC #

Today we are noting a milestone birthday for Phillies Slugger Greg Luzinski born on November 22 1950. 

Luzinski remains active with the Phillies in an baseball ambassador role and as namesake for one of the teams signature restaurants "Bull's BBQ"

To mark the Birthday we are going to feature his 1978 OPC card

1978 #42 OPC Greg Luzkinski

I always the All-Star subset. 1978 has its own icon never used before or since - Topps/OPC gave the cards a dash of Red White and Blue on a shield that kind of looks like an Interstate Route Number sign. 

In 1978 Luzinski played in the final of his four consecutive All-Star games. He went 1-2 with an RBI on a Bases Loaded Walk off of Hall of Fame Pitcher Jim Palmer. Of course the 1978 card represents the previous years ASG in which the Bull Homered, also off of Palmer. 

OPC

1978 OPC #42 Greg Luzinski

Typically I would use an OPC card for a column with a Canadian or French Connection. Today my reason is for the card number 42. 

While the Bull is remember for wearing #19 for almost the entirety of his career, when he came up in 1970 he wore the now league-wide retired #42 which happens also to be his OPC card. Six other Phillies wore the number after Luzinski, the most significant of which was Ron Reed. The last player to wear the number as a Phillies Player was Toby Borland. 

Luzinkski 1978T Card number is 420 - significant to some folks for a totally non-baseball reason. 

Phungo Original

1978T Greg Luzinski

I tackled the 1978T card by going pretty vanilla. I elected to not give the sketch a background and had Luzinski's powerful Rawlings Bat busing out of frame. I also added the discrete position of LF to the All-Star Shield. 

Greg Luzinski Index

1971T #439 (rc) 2013 Philadelphia Sports HOF Induction

1977 Topps #30: 1976 ASG +40 

2003 Fleer Ultra All-Vet Stadium #7 Spot the Sig

1971T #439 Card Show Swag

1974 Kellogs 3D Swag from the Phillies Room

1975T Mini Card Show Swag

1978T #420 Year of the Tiger

Sources and Links

1980 Phillies World Champs

Baseball-Ref

MLB

ANNIVERSARY: Phillies First World Championship - 1981 Topps #404

Another year has passed and once again I have pretty much failed in my goal of putting together my annual single subject series.

This year my target was the 1980 Phillies world championship team.

looks like I managed to add a grand total of four postings related to the 1980 Phillies – all in the middle of the field: Manny Trillo, Larry Bowa, Garry Maddox, and Dick Ruthven.

Today marks the 40^th anniversary of the Phillies cinching their 1980 championship.

 

1981 Topps #404 Phillies Win First World Series

Topps honored the Phillies Victory on card #404 of their 1981 set. The featured player is Tug McGraw.

Today the demise of starting pitching is frequently discussed, However even 40 years ago McGraw registered the 3^rd most outs of any Phillies pitcher for the series. His 7 1/3 innings ranking behind only Steve Carlton and Ruthven.

Even more importantly were the outs that Tug McGraw registered. Baseball-Ref has a new to me stat cWPA – Championship Win Probability Added. Basically the concept is how much each plate appearance affects the probability of winning a championship.

Tug McGraw led all pitchers in the Series with a cWPA of 18.05% (100% represents a single Win). For comparison Steve Carlton who Won 2 games in the series had a cWPA of 2.67%.

Among Phillies batters only Mike Schmidt (19.48) and..... Del Unser! (26.11) who had a couple of big pinch hits off Dan Quisenberry outpaced McGraw.

Perhaps I will dig deeper on this series in the future but for now we are likely on pause with the 1980 Phillies.

Sources & Links

1980 Phillies World Champs Index

Tug McGraw Index

Baseball-ref

1974 Topps #47 Dick Ruthven

Dick Ruthven was drafted three times: 1969 (20th round Orioles) 1972 (Twins 1st rd / 8th pick) and finally by the Phillies (1973 Winter #1 overall)

1974 Topps #47 Dick Ruthven

As a highly touted prospect Dick Ruthven made his pro debut at the Major League level. This means no multiplayer RC - Ruthven's first card is the above 1974T and it's a solo. 

It was not a straight line for Ruthven and the Phillies to the World Series. There were a series of trades involving Ruthven which are worthy of their own discussion but the important result was that Ruthven ended up in the rotation for the 1980 Phillies. 

1980 Phillies 
Yes Dick Ruthven was an important member of the 1980 Phillies pitching staff - he was 2nd on the staff (behind Steve Carlton of course) in Wins, Starts, Complete Games, and Innings, however..... I will always remember him for a relief appearance.

Game 5 of the 1980 NLCS

The deciding game of the series saw Phillies closer Tug McGraw blow a save. Dallas Green had already gone through four other pitchers. The staff was shot when Dick Ruthven was called into the 9th inning of the Winner Take All game.  And what does Ruthven do in his only relief appearance of 1980?

Six up Six Down, Phillies Win 8-7.

Ruthven did that on 18 pitches - 2 innings on 18 pitches, including a six pitch inning.

Phungo Original

Phungo Original :1974T Dick Ruthven

I chose this card for our 1980 WSC Phillies sketch for two reasons. 1) it is significant to Dick Ruthven as it is his RC 2) We are clearly focuses on his NLCS Game 5 relief appearance and this shot clearly shows the bullpen in the background. 

 

To further illustrate Ruthven's 1980 NLCS contributions we have made a few minor modifications. The first is adding "RELIEF" to Ruthven's "PITCHER" position. The other change is a fun one, we have added a Bullpen Cart to the image.  The cart is also a nod to a different 1974T card - of a very prominent Phillies Player, Mike Schmidt. 

Dick Ruthven Index

1975 Topps (2008 Game 5 prep)

1975 Topps Mini (2010 Philly Show Swag: mini w/ 1959T Robin Roberts)

Sources and links
1980 Phillies
baseball-ref

Phungo Originals

1980 World Champions: Manny Trillo 1983 Topps #5 Record Breaker

One of the casualties of Fan-less Baseball Games is the Phillies Alumni weekend.  I have been to several of these events over the years and they are always enjoyable.

Typically Alumni weekend occurs in early August and have a theme including the honoring of a player on the clubs Wall of Fame. This year the Phillies were scheduled to honor the 1980 Phillies with Manny Trillo getting added to the Wall.

1983 Topps #5 Record Breaker Manny Trillo

It is a shame that the Phillies are unable to honor Trillo this year. I have been to a several Alumni weekends, and don't recall Trillo participating and was looking forward to his 2020 induction.

1983 Topps RB
To rep Trillo in our 1980 Phillies Series I have chosen his 1983 Topps Record Breaker. The card honors Manny setting the record for consecutive chances fielded for a second baseman. Trillo's achievement occured during a 98 game stretch in 1982.  The streak began on April 9th during a Phillies 2-0 victory vs the Expos. It ended during another 2-0 victory, this time versus the Cubs. The beneficiary of the Trillo miscue was Bill Buckner - Who would make his own error a few years later.

Flip

1983 Topps #5 Record Breaker Manny Trillo

The blurb is written as a newspaper byline from the day the streak ended. It also goes on to mention the previous record holder Jerry Adair. As expected Adair was also a very good in the field. It isn't as specific date wise but Adair's 1967T card has a 2 panel cartoon that notes the streak.

1967 Topps #484 Jerry Adair (detail/comic)

In that 2nd shot I guess he is carrying a basket full of error free games

Phungo Original Jesus Trillo
For my Manny Trillo Phungo sketch I took the 1983 RB card and turned it to landscape format.

 1980T RB Jesus Manny Trillo

I noticed that the borders for the 1983 Record Breaker Card are Blue Red and Yellow. Those match the colors of the flag of Manny Trillo's native of Venezuela. This was the genesis of the idea to go with a flag motif for the card. In the bottom left I modified the 1982 Record Breaker logo to reflect this years Phungo series 1980 World Champs. The various scorebook tags listed on the card are the 33 fielding plays that Trillo made during that series.

Now I direct you to the bottom of the card - Jesus Manny Trillo. This isn't Trillo's given name - but it is closer than just Manny. His first name really is Jesus but through typical Phillies ignorance the organization messed up both his first and last names. Read more about it in his SABR Bio here.

Finally I direct you to the 4 stars that arc through the card/flag. The Venezuelan Flag has 8 stars representing the countries 8 provinces. Here I have chosen to feature four stars as a nod to the 4 times that Manny Trillo made the All-Star team.

Peanut Gallery
For a bit more on this card and a progressive record of the Error-less streak check out the 1983 Topps Blog.

Manny Trillo Links
1983 Fleer #631 Pride of Valenzuela
1983 Topps Blog

Sources & Links
1980 Phillies
Phillies Wall of Fame
Baseball-Ref
SABR - Leonte Landino
Encyclopedia Britannica

ANNIVESARY: 1980 Topps #270 Mike Schmidt - Hall of Fame Induction

25 years ago today (July 30 1995) Five baseball legends were inducted into the Hall of Fame. Among them were Richie Ashburn, Leon Day, Vic Willis and 19th century Executive William Hulbert.

The fifth inductee is the one we will discuss tonight. The only one to have played his entire career with the Philadelphia Phillies.

1980 Topps #270 Mike Schmidt

This is the first Mike Schmidt card tagged with an All-Star flair, honoring his first ever start for the NL squad in the mid-summer classic.

If your curious as to how well Mike fared in that game all you need to do is flip over the card.

1980 Topps #270 Mike Schmidt (b-side)

The Triple was in the first inning off of another Haller Nolan Ryan.  The hit plated Steve Garvey for the NLs first run in a 7-6 victory.

Schmidt made 12 All-Star teams and was named a starter 7 times.

1980 World Champions 
It is obvious I am not going to dedicate as much ink to the 1980 Phillies as I would like, but I am still trying to highlight as many players as possible.  For more of these postings see the link below.

Sources and Links
1980 World Series Champions Index 
Mike Schmidt Index
Baseball Card Database
Baseball-Ref
Baseball Hall of Fame

1980 World Champions: Larry Bowa 1971T #233

We have turned over into a new year (and decade) so we can officially celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 1980 Phillies.

1971 Topps #233 Larry Bowa (b-side)

This is not Larry Bowa's rookie card, he shared 1970T #539 with fellow middle infielder Denny Doyle.

However this is Bowa's first solo card and it is a fine card. To start with we have one of the most iconic designs in the Topps canon, 1971. Secondly the photo captures Bowa in a defensive posture, which was his most dominant skill during a long career. Finally this card is part of one of Team Phungo's favorite collections: All-Star Rookie Cards.

The cup was awarded to Larry Bowa for his 1970 campaign that saw him finish 3rd in the Rookie Of the Year voting (Carl Morton, Bernie Carbo).

I would also like to give a shout out to Paterson New Jersey's Johnny Briggs who appears in the background of this shot. Briggs spent the second half of the 1960s on the Phillies roster but was only teammates with Larry Bowa for one year as he was traded early in 1971 season.

1971 Topps #233 Larry Bowa (b-side)

Lots of fodder on the back of Larry Bowa's 1971T card. TOPPS goes all selfie and mentions the award they have given to Bowa. The most noteworthy portion of the text is Topps use of the term '"On-Base" average' which I imagine is one of the earliest on card uses of the term.

Unfortunately Topps use of the word "fine" to describe Bowa's OBA is questionable. At .277 he ranked 53rd among the 56 NL players who qualified. The League Average was .329, Bowa's 21 walks ranked 110th.

The final sentence in the bio refers to Paul Bowa, his baseball-ref page can be found here. 

Not sure where the front image was taken, could be spring training or possibly Shea stadium, but this back photo sure looks like the Vet - Even in b&w.

1970 RoY voting
As mentioned above Bowa finished 3rd in the NL Rookie of the Year voting:

Carl Morton or Bernie Carbo deserved to be 1-2 by both 1970 standards and modern analytics. To be honest I am surprised the BBWAA went with Morton (18-11, 3.60 ERA 154K) over Carbo (.310, 21 HR).

Among the 5 players receiving votes he was clearly the least deserving. However, other than Cedeno he is probably the player to have the most career success. He is also the only player among the lot to win a World Series.

Phungo Originals

This is one of the cards that made the cut for the Phungo Sketch Challenge

Phungo Original 1971T Larry Bowa

I swapped out the Rookie Cup for a World Series Trophy and went with a simplified background. I think Larry looks more like John Vukovich - oh well, my art career is a Work In Progress - perhaps I can say I have a "fine On-Base Average"

Larry Bowa Index
1972 Topps #520 (2008 NLCS)
1975 Topps #420 (1976 All-Star Team +40)
1975 Topps #420 (Larry Bowa Bobblehead night 2015)
1976 ASG Program (1976 ASG +40)
1981 Fleer #645 (1980 Phillies Reunion/Card Show w/ Pete Rose & Mike Schmidt)
1981 Fleer #645 (1980 Phillies +30)
1984 Topps #704 (1983 NL Champs w/ Joe Morgan & Cedeno)

Peanut Gallery (Other columns on this card)
Topps Baseball 1971 (Night Owl Cards)

Sources and Links
1980 World Champion Philadelphia Phillies
1971 Topps All-Star Rookies
Phungo Artwork
1971 Topps Blog (Night Owl Cards)
baseball-ref
SABR Bio Larry Bowa Rich D'Ambrosio 
SABR Bio Johnny Briggs (John Saccoman) 

Happy Birthday Mike Schmidt: 1977 Topps #140

On September 27th Mike Schmidt will celebrate his 70th birthday. To mark the occasion we are examining a card that was issued back when Schmidt was 27 just on the cusp of hitting his prime.

1977 Topps #140 Mike Schmidt

In 1976 the Phillies wore a Bicentennial/All-Star Game patch on their left shoulders. The 1977T card which displays the patch most prominently is Mike Schmidt's.

That is probably my favorite aspect of the card. I have two other photo observations:

1) I believe this is Shea Stadium which is the setting for several Phillies cards in the era.

2) Schmidt appears to be swinging a Rawlings bat. Adirondack/Rawlings bats from the middle 70s carried a ring on the bat handle in the team color - seen in red here.

However, during a Louisville Slugger tour I took a few years ago I found out something interesting:

Louisville Slugger Museum

Above we have four Louisvlle Slugger Bats. Schmidt's lumber is the 3rd one from the top, notice the Red ring. Schmidt had an exclusive contract with Rawlings, however at times he felt the need to change bats. To hide the switch, Schmidt disguised the Louisville Slugger bat by creating his own red ring using tape. More detail on this can be found at the PSA Card site.

The four bats top to Bottom are Cal Ripken, Eddie Murray (HR #501, last as an Oriole), Schmidt and George Brett (note the Pine Tar).

 Flip

1977 Topps #140 Mike Schmidt (b-side)

This is the first card issued following Schmidt's Four Home Run game on April 17 1976 and the text leads of with that fun fact. The blurb closes mentioning that Schmidt had 11 Homers in April which is a record - not sure if this is for any month or specific to April. Regardless both records have been eclipsed since 1976. Sammy Sosa holds the MLB Record for HR in a month with 20 (June 1998), While the April Record of 14 is shared by Albert Pujols (2006) and A-Rod (2007).

Talkin Toons
Always good to see a cartoon on the back of the card. The subject of today's comic is Yankees Slugger Hank Bauer and his17 game Wolrd Series hitting streak( 1956 OCT 3 - 1958 OCT 4).  At the time this card was released Bauer had held the record for 18 years. Here we are almost 42 years later and he still holds the record. the 2018 World Series marked the 60th Anniversary of the record.

Bauer's 17 game hitting streak is also the record for consecutive postseason games as well. He shares the record with Derek Jeter (1998-1999) and Manny Ramirez (2003-2004).  The Astros George Springer has an active streak of 14 games

Bauer Toons
A couple of Hank Bauer own cards have comics that feature the record including 1960 and 1961.  My favorite is a manager card from 1969.

1969 Topps #124 Hank Bauer (b-side / baseball card datbase)

Rather than featuring a lengthy text bio the Manager cards from 1969 featured a full size cartoon that include a nice profile sketch.

Artsy
Speaking of sketches and bringing this back to our original subject, I created my own version of the 1977T Schmidt card.

1977T Mike Schmidt (Phungo Original)

Drawing 1997 Topps doesn't present any unusual challenges. The Team names are italicized which is a minor hassle. I like the drop shadow on the pennant.

I elected to leave the team logo and number off the uni, which are largely covered in the original - unfortunately this leaves a lot of blue space on the drawing and elongates Schmidt's Torso.

1980 Phillies
I am including this post as part of our 1980 Phillies Series. I hope to return to Schmidt again next year as he is not only one of the  most significant members of that particular team but also the franchise history.

Sources and Links
Mike Schmidt HoF Index
1980 Phillies World Champs Index
Phungo Artwork Index
Baseball Almanac
PSA Card
baseball card database
mlb.com / Astros 
Baseball-Ref

1973 Topps #322 Garry Maddox (rc)

Little late on this one but Garry Maddox turned 70 over the Labor day weekend. To celebrate we are posting a column on his rookie card.

1973 Topps #322 Garry Maddox (rc, image from Baseball Card Database)

Over here at Phungo Headquarters we think of Garry Maddox as a lifetime Phillies player, but as can be seen above early in his career he spent a couple of years with the Giants. Nice to see Maddox get a solo card here as many rookies from this era were awarded shared cards.

However there is a sloppy Topps element to this card as well.  Garry Maddox was a member the 1972 All-Star Rookie team, unfortunately Topps failed to put the trophy icon on his card.

As part of the Team Phungo Art initiative we have decided to correct this error, and while we were being creative we decided to modify a few other things about the card.

Phungo Original 1973T  Garry Maddox

Yes since I was going to the trouble of drawing a new card of Garry Maddox with the Rookie Cup, I figure why not make him a Phillie. I tried to get Maddox face and figure to match the card photo, but with the background I got a little crazy and put in a globe.

The idea was inspired by the quote "Two-thirds of the Earth is covered by water, the other one-third by Garry Maddox." which is often attributed to Ralph Kiner.

So yes in one drawing I made the Topps card my own by 1) Changing the team 2) Adding the missing Rookie Cup and 3) Including a globe in the background to honor Maddox defensive notoriety.

1980 Phillies

The other reason I did the Maddox artwork was because I thought that this was a fun card on the Maddox player collection checker and I wanted to make the card part of our 1980 Phillies retrospective.

My goal is to put together a dozen or so columns on the 1980 Phils, but since I don't post as often I a starting a little early. A few months ago I wrote up Del Unser which I plan on adding to the collection.

For an index of all 1980 Phillies related postings click here. Not much there yet, but hopefully there will be by this time next year.

Whiz Kids
We also profiled Maddox as part of our series on the 1983 Phillies. That posting will be used as our Garry Maddox Index. 

Sources and Links
Garry Maddox Index
1973 Topps All-Star Rookie Cards Index
1980 World Champion Phillies Index
Baseball-Ref Bullpen
Baseball Card Database
Baseball Almanac

ANNIVERSARY - 1979 July 10: Del Unser 3 consecutive Pinch Hit HRs (1980 Topps #6)

Wednesday July 10 marks 40th anniversary of a Pinch Hitter getting into the MLB record book

1980 Topps #6 Highlights Del Unser

That pinch hitter was the Phillies Del Unser who tied a mark first established a year prior by the Dodgers Lee Lacy.

Unser's streak commenced on June 30th. In the 9th inning of game versus the Cardinals at Busch stadium the Phillies were down 4-2 with 2 out in the 9th inning. Phillies Center Fielder Garry Maddox was on base when Unser was sent to the plate to bat for Manny Trillo. Unser homered off of reliever George Frazier to tie the game which the Phillies won 6-4 in extras.

The 2nd Home Run came in a 3-2 loss to the Mets. Unser hit a solo home run in the 7th inning while batting for Larry Bowa in what was basically a convoluted double change. The victim was starting pitcher Craig Swan.

Del Unser finished his Home Run trifecta facing Padres future Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers. The Phillies went into the 9th inning down 5-1, four batters later the Phillies had pulled to 5-3 on a 2 Run single by Bob Boone.

A hit and an out later Del Unser found himself once again pinch hitting for Larry Bowa. This time out he hit a Walk Off Home Run to give the Phillies a 6-5 victory. 

The streak ended 2 days later when Unser was Intentionally Walked by Fingers. The first time Unser was retired following the streak was July 23, Also by Rollie (strikeout).

1980 Topps Hilights
Hilights opens the 1980 set occupying the first six cards. The subset includes three Hall of Famers across two cards: Lou Brock & Carl Yastrzemski share card #1, While Willie McCovey resides at #2. In addition to Del Unser the Phillies are also represented in the subber by Pete Rose at #4.
 

Dennis Rasmussen?

1987 Topps #555 Dennis Rasmussen

What the heck is Dennis Rasmussen doing in the middle of a Del Unser column??, well lets turn over this card and see.

1987 Topps #555 Dennis Rasmussen (b-side)

Ok we are going to bypass that this card discusses Hall of Famer Larry Bird and move down to the On This Date section. Check it out we have today's hero Del Unser! and it mentions his 1979 Pinch Hit Home Run heroics too!

Finally Topps honors their history by mentioning Unser's 1979T card, lets have a look.

1979 Topps #628 Del Unser

Unfortunately Unser is repping a different team, however it always feels good to post and Expos card. Lets flip this one over and see if we have anymore fun items.

1979 Topps #628 Del Unser (b-side)

Well Check it out, we have another This day in History. This time it goes back to May 8 1968. On that date Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter tossed a Perfect game for the Oakland A's as they defeated the Minnesota Twins 4-0. 

And just because I am chaining together cards today, I am going to add one final card.

1969 Topps #235 Jim "Catfish" Hunter

The first card issued of Catfish following his Perfect Game was in 1969 Topps. This is back when Topps was putting -Toons on the back of cards, surely the Catfish comic would be dedicated to his big Game...

1969 Topps #235 Jim "Catfish" Hunter (b-side)

or.....maybe not

The game mentioned in the cartoon was a 15 inning affair won by the National League 2-1. In Hunter's defense he pitched FIVE innings that day, the difference was a Home Run by Tony Perez.

Topps does mention the Perfecto in the text. It also mentions that Hunter's game earned him a $5000 raise, that is a $36,000 raise in 2018 dollars. 

Game Dated Cards
Ok that is enough card chaining, At some point I will be adding each of these cards to the Phungo Game Dated Cards Index. 

1980 Phillies
Next Year will mark the 40th anniversary of the Phillies first World Championship, I hope to feature that team throughout 2020. Since I am not writing as many columns these days I am getting an early start on the feature and will open my Anniversary series a full six months in advance.

Sources and Links
1980 World Champion Philadelphia Phillies
1980 Topps Hilights
No-Hitter Index
Catfish Hunter index
Larry Bird Index
baseball-ref
Baseball Card Database

1980 World Champion Philadelphia Phillies Index

This is an Index related to the 1980 World Series Campion Phillies.

1981 Topps #404 Phillies Win First World Series 

This index is divided into two sections. The first is of new profiles done for the 40th anniversary of the Championship, original material written in the 2019-2020 time frame.

Steve Carlton
Bob Boone
Pete Rose
Manny Trillo
Mike Schmidt
Mike Schmidt (70th Birtday)
Larry Bowa
Greg Luzinski
Garry Maddox
Bake McBride
Tug McGraw
Dallas Green

Lonnie Smith
Del Unser
Greg Gross
Dick Ruthven

This latter list is of Player Indexes that link to various articles on players. My output is not nearly what it was a decade ago, so I wanted to point readers to something somewhat relevant until I get around to an actual posting.

Steve Carlton
Bob Boone
Pete Rose
Manny Trillo
Mike Schmidt
Larry Bowa
Greg Luzinski
Garry Maddox
Bake McBride
Tug McGraw
Dallas Green

Lonnie Smith
Del Unser
Greg Gross
Dick Ruthven

1981 Fleer #645 Triple Threat Schmidt Rose Bowa (30th Anniversary project which was Abandoned)


Sources and Links
Featured Teams Page

Steve Carlton Turns 70

Tomorrow December 22nd  Phillies Hall of Fame Pitcher Steve Carlton turns 70.

1981 Donruss  #481 Steve Carlton Cy Young Award Winner 

There was a twitter exchange last week where Andy from @HighHeatStats noted this will make a lot of us feel old.

Andy is correct. As a hero of my youth Steve Carlton remains perpetually 35, the age he was the night he started and won game 6 of the 1980 World Series.

1981 Topps #404 Phillies Win the World Series

That season Carlton won the Cy Young Award, leading the league in Wins (24), Strikeouts (286), Starts, and Innings. His 10.2 WAR led all players, not just pitchers - Teammate Mike Schmidt took home the 1980 MVP award with a respectable 8.8 WAR. Carlton's 2.34 ERA in 1980 was 2nd to Don Suttom (2.20) but his SABR numbers ERA+ (162) and FIP (2.42) led the league

Of course the calendar inevitably turns and Steve Carlton did not stay perpetually 35. He did pitch pretty well for another couple of seasons (Another Cy Young in 1982) but eventually age and 24 years of fastballs took their toll. In 1988 Carlton retired at the age of 43.

1981 Donruss
Since the above Steve Carlton card was published in 1981 it is likely the photo was taken 35 years ago during his magical age 35 season. A man in the middle of a Cy Young season on the edge of winning a World Championship. 

1981 is the inaugural set for Donruss. The 600 card checker consists strictly of players with a couple of Manager and Coach cards. There are no subsets cards with the exception of four special cards for the MVPs (George Brett and the Phillies Mike Schmidt) and Cy Young (Steve Stone and Carlton)

I remember opening these in 1980. I enjoyed the card being new and different. I thought the backs had a fresh and interesting approach, but they also seemed cheap. They were thinner and if I recall correctly they had a lot of card dust from the cutting process.

Sources & Links
Phungo Steve Carlton HoF Index 
Baseball-ref
Cardboard Connection
Bob Lemke's Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards    

1980 Phillies 30th Anniversary

1981 Fleer #645 Triple Threat Schmidt, Rose, Bowa

One of the things I failed to mention during the State of the Blog post is that I am also plan on marking the 30th anniversary of the 1980 Phillies World Champioinship.

Ideally a couple of players from the team will be featured each month throughout 2010. I figure if I average 2 or 3 a month I should be done by the time the 2010 World Series rolls around. Of course I completely missed January and am I already a month behind.
I would like to try and to feature as many different card editions as possibly. As you are likely aware I am basically a Topps guy so you are going to see the Topps run from 75 to 85 plus a dozen other cards or so.

As part of the retrospective I will also be looking at the 1950 National League Champion Philadelphia Phillies who are marking their 60th anniversary this season.

Phungo Roman Numeral Challenge

I also wanted to note that PatSearcher has been named as the winner of the Phungo Roman Numeral Challenge. He picked out three of the cards while Padrographs and Play at the Plate each figure out 2.

So far in 2010 Challenges and Pop Quizzes we have had 3 different Winners
PatSearcher - Roman Numerals
Padrographs - Joe Jackson/JD Salinger
Nr-Mt - Randy Johnson Retirement

Sources and Links
Larry Bowa Index

Autograph Signing - Dickie Noles

I perused the BadWax autograph event list a few weeks back and found out that Marty Bystrom was signing autographs at a Nursery (botanical), of all places, near me. I had a little bit of free time and decided to check it out. Well......Marty Bystrom couldn't make it but Dickie Noles was good enough to show up in his absence. It turned out that Marty was in a golf tournament that weekend and figured he would only play on Saturday. Well Bystrom played well enough to qualify for the final. Regardless the signing was great. I showed up near the end and there was only one other person there that was really interested in the signing, everybody else was in the employ of Main Line Gardens near as I can tell.

Noles told a couple of stories and made several comparisons between the players of today and his own era both talentwise and money wise. Noles is still employed the Phillies and works for both their minor and major league teams. He also had several anecdotes about Phillies Dream week, which could almost get me to shell out the 4 or 5 grand it takes to go down there.

Noles was good enough to pose for some pictures and sign a couple of items I brought as well as a postcard provided by the venue. I am not sure but it appeared that Main Line Gardens may be somehow connected to the now defunct BC Collectibles. There were a couple of small display cases of autograph items and they appeared to be labeled the same way that one may see them in a BC Collectibles store.

Dickie Noles with World Series Ring (click to enlarge - and see Marty Bystrom ad in back)

This is a picture of Dickie posing and displaying his World Series Ring. As he said he has done this before and he has the pose down.

Main Line Gardens was hosting the signing as part of a Father's Day promotion, I hope they have additional signings. Thanks to them, Dickie Noles, and thanks to Bad Wax for publishing the listing.