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

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

Phungo 5 with Play at the Plate

Our last Spring Training Phungo 5 features the Play at the Plate discussing the Reigning AL Champion Texas Rangers. 

1) How does one recover from seeing their favorite team be within a pitch of winning the Series twice and coming up short in back to back series?

After the 2010 WS, I was just pumped that the Rangers had made it.  I fully expected them to beat the Giants, but I was still happy to have been able to take my son to our first World Series game (Game 4).  Experiencing the loss last year was heart wrenching.  Needing one more strike twice and seeing it slip away made me sick.  It put me in a funk that took a couple of weeks to get over. 

2) More interesting story Neftali Feliz moving to starter or Yu Darvish joining the rotation? 

More interesting?  Yu Darvish.  More nerve wracking?  Neftali.  I’m excited to see how Darvish adapts to MLB.  He’s big and has the stuff to be something really special.  I also know he could prove to be very average, which would be a bust with the financial investment the Rangers have made in him.  The Rangers moved CJ Wilson from the closer role to a starter with good results, but I wonder about taking Feliz, who has been a pretty good closer, and making him a starter.  It’s not like the Rangers have a shortage of starters.  They could run out a 7 man rotation if they wanted to, but they like having the depth and I can’t argue with the success they’ve had with Nolan Ryan in charge and Mike Maddux running the pitching staff. 

3) What Catcher deserves a good play at the plate card that has never reallly had one.

My favorite catchers are Ivan Rodriguez, Joe Mauer, Carlton Fisk (his 1977 Topps card is a beauty) and Johnny Bench.  They’ve all had patp cards that I’ve managed to get.  The most iconic patp card I can think of is the ’71 Thurman Munson, which I still need.  As a Ranger fan, I guess the one player I’d most like to see on a patp card would be Jim Sundberg.  He was one of the guys I pretended to be when I was a kid.  

1977 Topps #640 Carlton Fisk (stolen from Baseball Card Database)

4) Which am I more likely to see in your area Rangers or Dallas Cowboy Apparrel? 

Right now it would definitely be Rangers apparel.  The DFW area is a great sports “town”, but if you’re not winning, you sort of get put on the back burner.   That’s not to say there aren’t a lot of Cowboys caps and jerseys around town, but Rangers stuff is everywhere right now. 

5) Which is a more important culinary achievment Texas Chili or Tesas Toast?

 No question, it’s a good bowl of chili.  I’m a little bit of a sissy when it comes to spicy food, so for me, it’s all about flavor over heat. 

Scorecard

First off I am glad to hear there is someone else out there man enough to admit that they prefer a flavourful Chili to a Spicy one.     

  

Moving on to the baseball Qs, I am glad to hear that the Rangers are getting the love they Deserve in Dallas.  The NFL and the Cowboys seem to constantly be shoved in your face.  I also like PATP choices of the Catcher cards as well as his analysis of the Pitching situation in Texas.  And hey we have a Jim Sundberg Sighting - What's not to like 5 out of 5. 

On Deck

We are all fired up for Opening Day with the P5 Debut of Pirates Treasure Room. 

Looking Back

Philadelphia Phillies - The Phillies Room.

Oakland A's - The Fuji Chronicles

Seattle Mariners - Emeral City Diamond Gems 

Hero Numbers Part II: Can they Mean More?

2012 Topps #100 Jose Bautista
 As an adult I now realize Hero is a term that is more appropriate when applied to my local EMT making snap decisions under difficult circumstances then a Millionaire Ballplayer throwing and hitting a little white ball.  In that way I suppose we should use the term Glamor Number, but Hero Number is what I grew up with and I am sticking to it.


This line of thinking let me down a strange path ...Lets look at this years Heroes.  


100 Jose Bautista 
200 Miguel Cabrera
300 Josh Hamilton


I quickly noted that the latter 2 in the group have had various issues with alcohol and substance abuse. 

Should Hamilton and Cabrera get Hero Numbers?

I wanted to find out how much this is noted by fans of the players.  

Regarding Miguel Cabrera 
Too Many Verlanders: 
When he got in trouble again for drinking and driving, I definitely got very frustrated, as I get every time some knuckleheaded gazillionaire athlete, who could easily afford 10 different limo drivers every night, pulls that crap.  He's more frustrating than most for me because he plays for a team I root for, and more importantly he obviously has so much more talent than almost every Major Leaguer that I would hate to see him throw that away.


Then TVL went on to add an interesting comment
....while what Cabrera did (multiple times) was very reprehensible, and probably should have resulted in more severe punishment either by the local authorities, MLB or both, I find people criticizing Cabrera and fawning over Josh Hamilton frustratingly hypocritical.
 
When I asked the questions Too Many Verlanders was unaware that one of the other Hero Number Mates was Hamiton. 


Regarding Hamilton 
Play at the Plate

We would all hope the people our kids look up to would be solid citizens who don’t make mistakes.  In reality, many athletes aren’t good role models.  It could be for any variety of on or off field behavior, but it’s true nonetheless.  The thing I like about Josh Hamilton is that he stood up and faced the media, and thus his fans, when he could have just tried to ignore or cover up his recent relapse.  All of us make mistakes, but most of us don’t face the scrutiny someone like Hamilton faces.

interesting comments all.   And I am glad I asked the question. 

Granted at the time of publication Topps didn't know that Hamilton would tarnish his refurbished image.  Regardless It's obvious that Topps didn't really note off the field activities when awarding the numbers.


And I ask Why Not? 


Would you consider it a gimmick if Topps awarded the Hero Numbers to star players who are also solid citizens??? 

Check the Right Hand Side - Topps sort of owns the concept of Hero Numbers so why not capitalize on it.   

Award Numbers 100 200 and 300 to star players who are also part of the community and generally on the good behavior side.  

Hero Numbers could be a topic of instant conversation every year and not just another lame gimmick.

On Deck
Hero Numbers Pt III - Two more Hero numbers I want to see 


Replay - Previous Post on Hero Numbers Plus
Are Hero Numbers Significant 
A comprehensive List of Topps Hero Numbers (1952-2012) compliments of Night Owl Cards  big THANKS 


Thanks also to Too Many Verlanders and Play at the Plate for some insights into two of the games biggest stars. 

Swag from Play at the Plate - 2010 Topps Chrome - Including an Orange HOF

Play at the Plate ran one of my favorite kinds of contests - A random Winner Contest! Those happen to be the kind I am best at - and guess who won!

The Prize in the PATP contest was a 2010 Topps Chrome Value Pack. Seen a lot of these around the blogs and it was fun to open my own pack.

I was hoping for a cool Rangers card to send back PATPs way but unfortunately came up empty - The 3 packs plus Orange Pack also lacked Phils but were fun to open. Here are the Highlights:


Refractor - Orange

Mickey Mantle
Delmon Young
Carlos Quentin

As with other Topps Products the Mantle is card #7 in 2010 Chrome. Jury is out on the Orange - cool idea having basically an extra parallel pack of cards in with a 3 pack retail product. Kind of weird - I think of Chrome as a parallel set to begin with and they just keep adding parallels to it.

Inserts

Refractor Erick Aybar - I think these used to be X-Fractor's but the card sez Refractor
Refractor - Purple Mike McCoy (#d 237/599)

I think the Purples are 1:12 so those come at about 3/box in retail. Aybar is one of those steady Middle Infielders that none of us folks on the East Coast no anything about. Mike McCoy is a career minor league player who finally broke into the majors in 2009 at the age of 28.

Highlights


Jake Peavy
Chris Heisey
Shin-Soo Choo
Cliff Lee

Chris Heisey is an intriguing player to me - I went to school with a group of brothers named Heisey that were all very good athletes. From his Bio have determined that Chris Heisey went to college very close to my hometown. Have not tracked down weather he is related or not, but I am following the talented prospect.

And of course after Monday Night's performance what Phillies post featuring cards from a Rangers fan would not be complete without mentioning Mr Cliff Lee.

Thanks to Brian over at PATP and hope this gets the Rangers some Mojo 2nite as they face the Yanks.