Merry Christmas

Always love dragging out this favorite photo from the Phungo Collection.

2009 09 29 Phillie Phanatic with the Rockettes

Thanks for dropping in with team Phungo this past year, Enjoy the holidays and best wishes for a fun and happy 2014! 

Phunny Photos: David Wright having a catch with....The Phanatic???

Phrenemies? The Phillie Phanatic and David Wright 2012 08 30

Swag from the Daily Dimwit

The Daily Dimwit ran a group break back in the spring - it featured three 2012 products that I didn't pick up a lot of Heritage, Opening Days, and Gypsy Queen.

Ryan Howard Chrome with floating head sticker

Warren Spahn & Cliff Lee Then & Now 
Phanatic Opening Day

Gypsy Queen Andrew McCutchen and Mike Schmidt Moonshots

The break was an and+1 break and my extra team was the Pirates - That is where the McCutchen came from as well as a Kiner and a Clemente.  The break also yielded a fair share of the Phils checkers for the three products.

Merry Christmas!

2009 09 29 Phillie Phanatic with the Rockettes

The Phanatic sure knows how to enjoy the Holiday. And I sincerely hope you enjoy yours.

Everyone here at Team Phungo would like to thank all the bloggers, readers, card enthusiasts, baseball fans and traders that have helped to make this a rewarding hobby and a fun year. Here's to looking forward to even more cards and more fun in 2010!

Phungo Prediction

2009 10 29 Citizen's Bank Ballpark, Philadelphia PA (click to enlarge)

This photo likely looks familiar to all the Phungo Readers out there (and hello to both of you!!) because it is the one that I have edited up and used as an avatar. The picture was taken 1 year ago tomorrow following the conclusion of the 08 World Series.

One year ago today, October 28th, was the waiting day. The Phils and Rays were tied 2-2 going into the bottom of the 6th inning - for nearly 48 hours. It was odd and surreal then and remains that way today.

Prior to the 2008 Series I predicted the Phillies in 5 largely based on two non-baseball reasons 1) Dave over at Fielder's Choice had predicted the Rays in 4 - a critical error in his thinking was dismissing Phungo Favorite Jamie Moyer. and 2) I had tickets to game 5.

That was it.

This year my prediction is based on even less critical thinking. I am picking the Phils in 5 solely because that is the prediction I laid out last year and it worked - beyond that, Never bet against a streak.

Everyone enjoy the series and may we see the Phanatic waving a Giant Red Banner on Monday Night!

Go Phils!

Blog Bat Around: Why Blog - Because I am a Phanatic!

2009 Phungo #64 Phillie Phanatic

I really enjoy spectator sports especially baseball. Discussing Baseball, the Phillies, Great Games, and Great (or not so great) players is just an extension of ones love of the game. Collecting Cards similarly allows one to recapture the excitement of a carreer, game, great play, big Strikeout or Home Run.

Blogging about cards merges both activities - the colllecting cards and the talkin baseball. The Show and Tell aspect is weirdly awesome - I mean not many folks in my day to day life are going to give much thought to the coolness of a 1971 Topps card, an Autograph from a one time all-star like Gorman Thomas , or the novelty of a Chase Utley Jersey card. But if your a cardblogger you get it. You really enjoy finding them, finding out about them or seeing that somebody in the cardblog community adds another hit to their player collection. I enjoy reading about the cards and the tie-ins with baseball history.

As far as composing posts my favorite's are the Hall of Fame Thursday posts, I enjoy doing the research and finding out about players I knew little or nothing about. I would love to collect a card of every HOF player from their playing days, but realize this is well beyond a person in my budget range, but for the Honus Wagner's of the world there are plenty of interesting retro-cards. The Phungo HOF Thursday feature gives me the chance to focus this collection. It also allows me to exameine who these players were and reflect on their accomplishments both on and off the field.

The recent Phungo 5 feature has given me the chance to interact with Card Bloggers directly, and find out what is going on in their world. I really enjoy when we get involved in something completely off-topic - a faovrite band or an odd nuance. There is also a lot of fruitful discusions about the teams, prospects, Hype, and flameouts.

Running Spot the Sig! was a lot of fun and I was happy to see it get some modest support this winter. I think it is a good feature to keep folks in touch with baseball during the off-season and I expect to run a new STS! in the fall.

And Finally there is the card trading. This is one of the reasons I wanted to start blogging originally, but all my disorganization issues have kept me from trading as much as I would like. Ideally I would like to send out at least 1 package a month both to help build my collection and to meet other collectors. This by far has been the most fun part of my Phungo experience.

My favorite post is from a prior Blog Bat Around and is about my favorite baseball glove.

Phillie Phanatic Boogies!!!

Phils are enjoying a few days off before Starting the Playoff Push on Wednesday. This is another related music post -- check out the Phanatic letting his hair down. Stay with it, the Phanatic doesn't come in until the 2:50 mark.

I love this - The guy with the biggest feet in the room dancing around with "Little Feat"

Go Phils!