1992 Topps #78 Ivan Rodriguez

In recognition of the Phillies Interleague matchup with the Texas Rangers this week we are going to take a look at 2017 Hall of Famer Ivan Rodriguez

1992 Topps #78 Ivan Rodriguez (rookie cup)

Twenty-Five Years ago Ivan Rodriguez made the 199 Topps All-Star Rookie Team. In 88 Games he batted .264 with three Home Runs. The numbers were good enough to rank 4th in the AL Rookie of the Year voting which was won by Chuck Knoblauch.  

Pudge spent the bulk of his 21 year career with the Texas and he will be the first player enshrined in the Hall of Fame with his primary team listed as the Rangers. He is also the Franchises first rep, as all the Senators inducted are from the DC->Minnesota squad.

Rodriguez was selected for the Hall in his first year of eligibility, although his 76% tally was just one point above the 75% Hall of Fame threshold. Regardless it puts Ivan Rodriguez in the inner circle of Hall of Famers. Of the 15 Catchers in the Hall, I think he and Johnny Bench are the only two to get in on the first ballot.  

 

Catchers are surprisingly under-represented in the Hall. The are 15 Backstops enshrined, which is the lowest of any Batting position other than 3rd Base. 

Flip

1992 Topps #78 Ivan Rodriguez (rookie cup)

I was to lazy to look up a Box for the FSL All-Star game referenced, perhaps I will add it to this posting in the future. I like the fronts of 1992 Topps, but I am not a fan of the wasted space on the back. Do we really need the same picture of the stadium for every player on the team? It is a pretty dumb concept when you think about it, I mean how do you capture a stadium in basically a landscaped thumbnail.

Ivan Rodriguez Index

2010 Phungo #7
2011 Phungo #21
2015 Topps Stadium Club (Blaster Break)

Sources and Links
1992 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Index
Baseball-Ref

1992 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Index (1991 Award 1992 Card)

This is an Index to our postings related to the 1991 Topps Rookie All-Star Team. The award is for the 1991 season with the cards issued in the 1992 set.

 1992 Topps #78 Ivan Rodriguez (Rookie Cup)

#	Pos	Player	Team
12	OF	Luis Gonzalez	Houston Astros
23	2B	Chuck Knoblauch	Minnesota Twins
78	C	Ivan Rodriguez	Texas Rangers
84	3B	Leo Gomez	Baltimore Orioles
288	SS	Andujar Cedeno	Houston Astros
292	OF	Ray Lankford	St. Louis Cardinals
520	1B	Jeff Bagwell	Houston Astros
522	OF	Milt Cuyler	Detroit Tigers
537	RHP	Mark Leiter	Detroit Tigers
614	LHP	Al Osuna	Houston Astros

  

Sources and Links

Topps All-Star Rookie Master Index

B-R Bullpen

Alex Rodriguez: Exclusive Member of Topps #1 Five Timers Club

Last Year in the wake of the commotion regarding Topps awarding the #1 Card to Derek Jeter we took a look at the other lead off cards from Flagship. One of the things we found out was that the Captain had not made the top spot previously.

 However one of his teammates had done it a number of times

2005 Topps #1 Alex Rodriguez

This isn't A-Rod's first #1 but it is the first time he was honored with the top spot as a member of the New York Yankees. I am not positive but I am pretty sure that is Derek Jeter hovering in the background. The photo and the card is a summary of Alex Rodriguez's Yankees career. No matter what he did Jeter would always be looming.

Quote

2005 Topps #1 Alex Rodriguez (b-side)

Given his polarizing career and personality, I found the Buck Showalter Quote and related Text on the back of A-Rod's 2005 Card pretty amusing.

"A Good Man with a Pure Heart" and "One of the game's Classiest Emissaries" are definitely not in the narrative I most often see associated with Alex Rodriguez.

Five Timers Club
Alex occupied the top spot four other times including three with the Yankees. He is the sole 5 time member of the Topps #1 Club.   

(Four Scans below are from Baseball Card Database)

Realizing that Alex Rodriguez is a Five Time Topps Lead-Off player reminded me of "The Five Timers Club" sketch on Saturday Night Live. Essentially anyone that has hosted the show five times a member of an exclusive club. Folks in that club include Tom Hanks, Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin, Paul Simon and Justin Timberlake.

Alex is the charter member of the Five Timer Club related to #1 Cards in Topps.

Sources and Links
Topps #1 Club
Baseball Card Database
NBC

1976 ASG +40: Don Money 1979 Topps #265

The Phillies hosting the Brewers for a four game set this weekend gives us the chance to discuss a 1976 All-Star with ties to both clubs.

1979 Topps #265 Don Money (AS)

1976 marked the second time that Don Money made the All-Star Team but it was the first time that he got to play in the game.

Money came into the 1976 ASG in the 6th inning replacing George Brett at Third Base. He would later bat in the 9th popping out versus Astros Pitcher Ken Forsch. Looking back today the AB is a bit of an oddity as at the time, Money was repping the AL as a Brewer and Forsch the NL as an Astro, Since then the two teams have flipped leagues.

1979 Topps
I selected 1979T card for our Don Money posting because it is the one time that he received the All-Star flair from Topps. This does cause a bit of a discrepancy...

Notice that we specified that Money played Third in the 1976 ASG, however are cover card lists second base as the position. To accommodate the Brewers Free Agent Signing of Sal Bando the Brewers moved Don Money to 2nd Base prior to the 1977 season.

The move worked out for Don as he would eventually get his only starting assignment as an All-Star in 1978. Money went 0-2 in the game including going down on strikes versus Vida Blue. The 1978 ASG was played in San Diego which will be also be the home of the 2016 Mid-Summer classic.

Flip

1979 Topps #265 Don Money (AS - bSide)

Not sure how accurate it is but despite

The game referenced in the text at the bottom of the card was a 7-1 Brewers victory over the expansion Seattle Mariners.  The Pitcher who induced all those ground balls was rookie Larry Sorensen who pitched a complete game in only his 4th career start. 

Don Money was the 5th player to achieve the feat. Since 1977 five other second baseman have recorded a dozen assists in a game including the Phillies own Juan Samuel in 1985 and Former Phillies Manager and Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg (1983).

Stray Observation: Larry Sorensen made his only All-Star Appearance in the 1978 game that Don Money started. Sorensen pitched 3 shutout innings for the AL squad which was the strongest outing among the squads six pitchers.

Baseball Dates
A fun nuance of 1979 Topps is the Baseball Dates feature on each player card. Jim Umbarger recorded the unusual unassisted Pitcher DP while pitching for the Texas Rangers in a 2-1 Win over the Cleveland Indians. I could not find any additional footage or Info on the DP beyond the Box. It did occur with the bases loaded pop up. I can only assume that it was a Hit and Run or a freak play where the Infield Fly Rule was invoked and a runner got caught off a bag.

The Double Play occurred in the 2nd inning and was a big help towards giving Umbarger the W in the game.  According to the b-ref Win Expectancy chart for the game, prior to the play the Rangers had a 45% chance of victory. The double play increased that number by 17 points to 62%, the greatest impact of any single AB in the game.

The Indians batter was Catcher Alan Ashby, B-ref does not indicate the runner but the 3 men on base at the time were Rico Carty, Charlie Spikes and Buddy Bell.

Jim Umbarger was only involved in 5 other Double Plays in the remaineder of his 4 year 133 game career.

WAR Stories
Don Money put up much better career numbers that I realized. Among Third Baseman his career 36.3 WAR ranks just above Hall of Famer Pie Traynor (36.2). Among notable contemporary players he ranks somewhere between Troy Glaus (37.9) and Ryan Zimmerman (35.1)

More Money
1972 Ticketron Phillies

Sources and Links
1976 All-Star Game Index 
Baseball-ref
Baseball Almanac (1978 ASG)
Baseball Almanac (Assist Record)

1990 Year of the No-Hitter: June 11th - Nolan Ryan Pt 4

Our 1991 Year of the No-Hitter coverage will always be a work in progress. I started the series focusing on the 1991 Score No-Hit Club subset, but it has become more interesting as I have found other cards related to that years no-hitters. 

1992 Pacific Nolan Ryan #170 Number Six

Pet peeve here as Nolan Ryan is clearly shown in a Home Rangers uni rather than a Road Texas jersey which he would have been wearing the night that he no-hit the Oakland A's. We have featured four other cards on Ryan's 6th no-hitter and all four card companies got the threads correct.

1992 Pacific Nolan Ryan is a continuation of the 1991 set that Pacific put out the previous year. Each of the two sets are similar in design and consist of 110 cards.

1992 Pacific Nolan Ryan #170 Number Six (b-side)

The flip contains the box score with a two sentence synopsis of Ryan's achievement.

Of the four previous cards we featured on Nolan Ryan's 1990 gem only one included the box score. The 1991 Score No-Hit Club Card.

1991 Score No-Hit Club #701 Nolan Ryan (b-side)

While formatted just a bit differently the two box scores cover the info at the same level of detail. The Date is given on the Pacific Card, while it is only on the front of the Score card.

Sources and Links
1991 0611 Nolan Ryan 6th No-Hitter Index
Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards (2006 ed) - Bob Lemke
sbnation

ANNIVERSARY: Nolan Ryan 300 Wins

25 years ago Nolan Ryan won his 300th game, a 11-3 decision over the Milwaukee Brewers. Ryan went 7 2/3 innings in the victory giving up all 3 runs (1 earned) while recording 8 Ks. The 1 and 2 hitters for the Brewcrew that day were future Hall of Famers Paul Molitor and Robin Yount.

1991 Score #417 Nolan Ryan HL 300 Career Victories

Score honored the accomplishment with a card in their Highlights subset. The Front Shot shows Ryan acknowledging the fans.

1991 Score #417 Nolan Ryan HL 300 Career Victories (b-side)

The flip of the card contains an action shot and game summary. Note the 146 pitches thrown by Ryan in the victory. The 55,097 attendance was the 3rd largest Brewers crowd of the 1990 season, and the #1 draw for a weeknight game.

This is not a no-hitter card, but Ryan is obviously the most prominent member of the Year of Clan and we will be adding this card to the extras in our 1990YotNH index. 

Sources and Links
Nolan Ryan HoF Index
1990 Year of the No-Hitter Index
baseball-ref

1990 Year of the No-Hitter June 11th - Nolan Ryan pt 4

Thanks for indulging us with Four postings on the Ryan Express today. During a season in which we are producing a series dedicated to the Year of the No-Hitter I felt that honoring the man who authored Seven of them was warranted.

1991 Donruss Bonus Card #BC-3 Nolan Ryan No-Hits A's 

Our final card is one from a 1991 Donruss "Insert" set. The Photo here looks pretty similar to the one on the Topps Card in our previous post. Both cards have Nolan Ryan in a Rangers road grey as he would have been for the June 11 1990 game at Oakland, However I am not so sure that looks like the Colosseum. I am thinking that we are seeing Yankees stadium.

1991 Donruss Bonus Card #BC-3 Nolan Ryan No-Hits A's (b-side)

For sheer volume this is probably the strongest of the b-sides. The card name drops Fellow No-Hit artist Sandy Koufax and goes on to mention Ryan's previous No-Hit victims. Props to Donruss for running down the outs recorded in Ryan's final inning

This concludes are look at cards specific to Nolan Ryan's 6th caree no-hitter. I like the Pacific Texas Exrpess card the best, Topps the least. I am sure there are other cards specific to this game, but for purposes of today's articles I wanted to stick to those issued contemporary to the event.  I have at least one other Nolan Ryan card for the coming days but by the end of the month we will need to move on to some other events in Year of the No-Hitter. 

Sources and Links
1990 Year of the No-Hitter Index
Nolan Ryan No-Hitter #6 1990 06 11
Baseball CardPedia

1990 Year of the No-Hitter June 11th - Nolan Ryan pt 3

This is the third of four postings on cards dedicated to Nolan Ryan's 6th No-Hitter.

 

1991 Topps #6 Record Breaker - Nolan Ryan 

Topps chose to honor the fact that Ryan became the oldest pitcher to throw a No-Hitter, rather than to honor that fact that he had pitched a record 6th no-hitter - which was breaking his own record of five no-hitters. 

Of course less than a year later Ryan broke both of these records once again when he tossed his 7th No-Hitter at age 44. 

1991 Topps #6 Record Breaker - Nolan Ryan (b-side)

The flip side contains the an Oakland CA dateline and notes the record was previously held by Cy Young who pitched one at 41+ on June 30 1908

Cy Young No-Hitter #3
Boxes don't go back to 1908 in Baseball-ref but we were able to find this line score for the game

Salt Lake Tribune July 1 1908

Interesting that a No-Htter in a Red Sox vs Yankees (Highlanders) game warranted a grand total of 1 line in the article.

According to the B-R Bullpen the future Hall of Famer almost pitched a perfect game. The first batter Harry Niles walked but was subsequently erased on a caught stealing. Cy Young then retired the last 26 batters to complete the No-Hitter .

Sources and Links
1991 0611 Nolan Ryan 6th No-Hitter Index
Baseball-ref
Salt Lake Tribune (1908 07 01)

1990 Year of the No-Hitter: June 11th - Nolan Ryan Pt 2

There are at least Four Cards in the Phungo Collection dedicated to Nolan Ryan's 1990 No-Hitter against the Oakland A's. 

This 1993 Pacific Card is my favorite of the lot.


1993 Pacific Texas Express #63 Last Pitch No-Hitter #6

This is a great baseball card. I would have elected to crop out the Jack in the Box/Michelin ads at the top, but otherwise this is pure beauty.

We can see Ryan on the follow through and Willie Randolph mid swing for the final out.

In an MLB Network interview Randolph mentioned hitting into the last out of the No-Hitter as one of his biggest career disappointments. Go to the 3:20 mark in the interview here.

Flip

1993 Pacific Texas Express #63 Last Pitch No-Hitter #6 (b-side)

The fireball is part of the design on the flip side of the Texas Express series - A set dedicated exclusively to Nolan Ryan.

Good synopsis of the game including nods to former Phils Julio Franco and John Russell.

To Look at our master posting on Nolan Ryan's sixth no-hitter click here. 

Sources and Links
1990: Year of the No-Hitter Index
1990 0611 Nolan Ryan 6th No-Hitter Index 
MLB Network Willie Randolf Discusses WBC 
Baseball-ref
Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards

1990 Year of the No-Hitter: June 11 - NOLAN RYAN

As noted earlier in this series there are some great names and stories among the pitchers who were involved in the year of the No-Hitter, none of those pitchers was bigger than Nolan Ryan.

1991 Score No-Hit Club #701 Nolan Ryan

Nolan Ryan only had 7 spring training innings in prior to his Opening Day start which he had to leave despite having not given up a hit over 5 innings.

By June 11th he had nine starts under his belt including a 1-hitter versus the White Sox on April 26th.  Ryan now had built up plenty of arm strength to finish his record setting sixth career no-hitter.

Box Notes

1991 Score No-Hit Club (b-side)

First off that is a scuff on the card, that is not bird droppings on Nolan's cap!

For the second time in the series we have the Oakland A's making a guest appearance. Back in mid-April we discussed Brian Holman's near perfect game which was spoiled by a Ken Phelps Home Run.  

Ken Phelps made a 9th inning pinch hit appearance in this game as well. Nolan Ryan won this battle as he did something he did 5713 other times in his career. He Struck Out Phelps. That was the first out of the 9th which left Future Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson and Willie Randolph as the last two outs Ryan needed to complete his record extending 6th no-hitter. Henderson Grounded  Out and Randolph Fouled out to right.

More Cards
There are three other Cards in the Phungo Collection dedicated to this game. We will be taking a closer look at each of the other cards tomorrow. For now we will just post the cards. 

1993 Pacific Texas Express #63 Last Pitch No-Hitter #6

1991 Donruss #BC-3 Nolan Ryan 6th No-Hitter

1991 Topps #6 Record Break Nolan Ryan

You cannot tell from the front but this card honors Nolan Ryan breaking his own record of five no-hitters.

1992 Pacific Nolan Ryan #170

Added this card to the listing in November of 2015. Found it in a card show dime box.

Nolan Ryan
The name most associated with No-Hitter is likely Nolan Ryan, to recognize this we will be dedicating several postings to this no-hitter and the Ryan Express over the next few days. Below is an Index to these No-Hitter related Postings - a couple related to the cards above.

1993 Pacific Texas Express #63
1991 Donruss #BC-3
1991 Topps #6
1992 Pacific Nolan Ryan #170
Guaranteed No-Hitter Night

Sources and Links
1990 Year of the No-Hitter Index
Nolan Ryan HoF Index 
baseball-ref
MLB Network Willie Randolph Discusses WBC

Joey Gallo (Baseball America #6 Prospect) Gets the Call

The Texas Rangers are expected to call up Third Base Prospect Joey Gallo today.

2011 Topps USA Baseball Joey Gallo

The 21 year old Third Baseman has 40+ homers each of the last two seasons with 9 through 34 games at AA this year. He is a strike out machine (478Ks in 330 professional games) however he has been able to cut down that rate as he has developed.

Las Vegas is suddenly a source of big time baseball talent. Gallo was a teammate of Bryce Harper's before either of them were in their teens and Cubs Prospect Kris Bryant also hails from the Nevada gambling mecca.

2011 Topps USA Baseball
This is at least the 2nd card we have featured from this set. Last month we discussed Cubs rookie second baseman Addison Russell.

Sources and Links
Baseball America 2015 Prospect Handbook
Baseball-ref

Bobby Abreu to represent Phillies at 2015 Hall of Fame Classic

The Hall of Fame Classic is an Alumni game played at Doubleday Field in downtown Cooperstown.

1998 Topps #351 Bob Abreu

Like the Major League All-Star game the HoF Classic gathers players from each Major League Team to play in the contest. In addition to the Bobby Abreu several other Phillies Alums will be on hand representing other teams including Tony Perez, Bob Dernier, Jim Eisenreich, Aaron Rowand, Roy Oswalt, and David Delluci.

There are six Hall of Famers scheduled to be on hand for the day. The Team Captains are Ozzie Smith and Phil Niekro with Perez, Tom Glavine, Robin Yount and Rollie Fingers acting as coaches.  

For further information on the classic click here.

1998 Topps
This is the first Topps issue Bobby Abreu on a Phillies card. He was known as Bob Abreu to Topps until 2003.

2011 60 Years of Topps #60YOT-47 Bob Abreu (right)

The 1998 Abreu card made the cut for the 60 Years of Topps series.  The name plate on the cards is different. The same style of Phillies logo shows up on both cards but on the 60YoT version on the riht the liberty bell is white, while on the original it is red.

The Flip side of the card mentions Roberto Clemente - I assume the connection is both are Latin American players. But they could have gone with a more direct connection of one of Clemente's countryman like Roberto Alomar, Ivan Rodriguez, or Carlos Delgado.

2011 60 Years of Topps #60YOT-47 Bob Abreu (b-side)

Of course my other less likely thought is that Topps mentions Roberto Clemente here because they used to call him Bob, just like they at one time referred to Bobby Abreu as Bob.

Below we have a picture of the box Top referred to in the text of the 60YoT card. 

1998 Topps Box (image swiped from Baseball Cardpedia)

Sources and Links
Baseball Hall of Fame
baseball cardpedia
Topps Baseball Card Database

The day Nolan Ryan was yanked from a possible record setting No-Hitter

Twenty Five Years ago Nolan Ryan who had already tossed a Major League Record FIVE no-hitters was working on his sixth.

It was an Opening Day Game for the Texas Rangers who were hosting the Toronto Blue Jays.

Unfortunately Bobby Valentine had to remove the future Hall of Famer after just 5 innings and only 91 pitches. 

1992 Topps #1 Nolan Ryan

One may ask how could anyone like Nolan Ryan who still advocates lots of throwing (as opposed to limiting innings) could let himself get taken out after recording just 15 outs.

There really was no other decision for Bobby Valentine.

1989 Topps #314 Bobby Valentine

It was opening day of the 1990 season which had an abbreviated Spring Training due to a player lockout. Prior to his opening day start Ryan had only pitched seven Spring Training innings total and Valentine didn't want to risk an injury to his most valued pitcher.

1990 Year of the No Hitter
This is just an Appetizer for this years planned subset series "1991 Score No-Hit Club".  A card set that commemorated the nine no-hitters pitched the previous season. 2015 marks the 25th anniversary of that season.

In addition to taking a look at each of the nine cards in the subset, we will check in on near no-hitters and other related events.

Nolan Ryan's Opening Day start didn't make the final No-No list - Reliever Mike Jeffcoat retired the first two batters of the 6th inning before giving up a double to Blue Jays Third Baseman Kelly Gruber. The Rangers held on to win 4-2, giving up 3 hits. 

Phungo Nolan Ryan HoF Index
1975 Topps #7 No-Hitter 3: September 28 1974
1977 Topps #650
1984 Topps #4 - 1983 Highlights
1990 Topps #4 - The 1990s - The Astros Years - 4000Ks
1991 Score #417 (300th Win)
1991 Score #701 No-Hit Club (No-Hitter #6 - contains links to several other cards related to Ryan's 6th no-hitter)
2015 Topps Baseball History #14B 4000Ks/Live Aid

Sources & Links
Phungo 1990 Year of the No-Hitter Index 
Topps #1 Club
New York Daily News (Bill Madden)
baseball-ref
Baseball Library
baseball cardpedia
Baseball Card Database
 

WAR Stories: Phillies 2015+ Jerome Williams

The Phillies picked up Jerome Williams in early August of 2014 and he well. Over the course of nine starts with the club the Right Hander went 4-2 with a 2.83 ERA. 

2015 Topps #236 Jerome Williams

During his brief stint with the Phillies Williams peripheral numbers were better than career averages, in most categories including  WHIP, H/9, K/9, BB/9 K/BB, ERA+ and FIP.

Maybe Jerome WIlliams has found something, however I would think his 9 start bump with the 2014 Phillies is an anomaly. His 132 ERA+ with the Phils far exceeds any number he has ever put up. Outside of his rookie campaign in 2003 (128 ERA+) Williams has never done better than 104 ERA+.

It is also worth noting that Williams is now 33 years old and last year was not good enough to stick with not one but two teams that lost more games then the Phillies (Astros and Rangers).

Additionally Williams has struggled in two spring starts.

The Verdict
I am projecting a regression to mean for Jerome Williams. Last year he posted 1.5 WAR for the Phillies but negative numbers for each of his Texas based teams. At his age he is a replacement palyer at best. 0 WAR. 

2014 Topps Card
I like this card with a nice photo which prominently features Jerome Williams signature pink glove.  Williams wears the distinct glove to honor the memory of his mother who died of Breast Cancer.

Sources and Links
Phillies 2015 WAR Projections
Baseball-Ref
ESPN LA

Sunday Night Baseball: Nolan Ryan 1977 Topps #650

This week the Baseball Big Show heads to Anaheim to see the Angels host the Rangers in an AL West battle. One of the first names that comes to mind when those two teams are mentioned is Nolan Ryan

1977 Topps #650 Nolan Ryan

We have had a couple of posts here that have casually mentioned Ryan cards but we really haven't dedicated a post to a single one of his cards.

Nolan Ryan is very popular with collectors, fortunately he played for an eon so there are a great many of his cards available. To me Ryan is an Angel, this is despite the fact that he spent more years with Houston, and that he faced the Phillies in a memorable NLCS as a member of the Astros. However the memories of our youth persist and Nolan Ryan was an Angel during my early years. It is also with the then California Angels where the Ryan Express was the most dominant. Seven of his eleven strikeout titles were while he was pitching for the Angels.  Oddly he never took home a Cy Young award - his best finish was 2nd in 1973.

Ryan remained with the Angles through 1979 before leaving for Houston via Free Agency. In 1988 He moved across Texas to pitch for the Rangers. 

Topps issued 10 cards of Nolan Ryan as an Angel the first of which was 1972 Topps #595 (Hi Number). The card back mentions an incredibly dominant game that Ryan had as a member of the Mets at the expense of the Phillies. His final Angels Card is 1980T #580 which features a fine action shot and it's flip mentions Ryan's famous 100.9 mph velocity.

Nolan Ryan's first Topps Ranger card was produced in 1990, he was featured five years through his retirement in 1994. The first five cards of the 1990 Topps honor Nolan Ryan.  Card #1 is his base cards while cards #2-5 are dedicated to the pitcher reaching the 5000 strikeout milestone. Each of the four cards represents a different era and team: Mets, Angels, Astros, and Rangers.

Topps then gave Ryan the honor of the #1 spot each of the next two season. I will need to check, but I think that makes him the only player to get the set debut spot in three consecutive years. In 1993 He is on Hero #700. Finally in 1994 Topps gave Ryan his Uniform Number #34 for his final card. The Card also features a special 27 seasons logo.     

The Nolan Ryan Rookie Card, 1968 Topps #177,  is shared with Jerry Koosman who we profiled last month. The 1969T #533 is the first card which Ryan appears Solo. Both of these cards are with the Mets as well as his memorable 1971 Topps Card #513

1977 Topps
I am not positive of this but I think this card is from the Phungo 1.0 collection. At one time I probably had 80%-90% of the 1977T set. It is easily the set that I bought the most of when I was a kid. Most of those cards are long gone, and I have very few cards from that set today. If I see them at a show I rarely pick them up. 

Sources & Links
Phungo Nolan Ryan HoF Index
Baseball Card Database
Old Cardboard
Baseball-ref

1966 Topps #254 Ferguson Jenkins/Bill Sorrell RC

The Phillies are on a travel day between the opening series’ for the Rangers and Cubs. There are several players that tie the three teams together including Mitch Williams and Jamie Moyer. Today we are going to feature one of their pitching brethren Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins.

1966 Topps #254 Ferguson Jenkins/Bill Sorrell RC

Yes Fergie Jenkins’ rookie card was issued with him wearing Phillies pinstripes. Unfortunately the Philllies traded Fergie to the Chicago Cubs in a deal that returned an end of career Larry Jackson. Jenkins pitched for several clubs, but the two teams that make up the bulk of his Hall of Fame career are the Cubs and Rangers.

Career Highlights include Jenkins’ 1971 Season in which he won the Cy Young Award (backed up by modern WAR numbers that also would have made him NL MVP).  Fergie led the league in Ws twice ('71 & '74), four times he led the league in CGs and K/BB ratio 5 times. For his career he won 284 games vs 226 losses. 

Despite his long and successful career Jenkins never got the opportunity to play in the postseason.

Phun Phact

During Jenkins 1971 Cy Young Award season he HIT 6 home runs.

Fergie Jenkins HoF Index
1970 Topps #240
1984 Topps #456 Cubs Team Leaders 
1984 Topps #706 Active Career Wins Leaders
Phungo HoF Index Page

Sources

baseball-ref

1989 UD #338 Mike Maddux

Five days after the Phillies won the 2008 World Series, the Texas Rangers named Mike Maddux their pitching coach. He has held the position since. The Rangers have posted sub 4.00 ERAs each of the five seasons they have been under Maddux's tutelage. During 2013 the staffs 3.62 ERA and 1309 strike outs were both good enough to rank 4th in the AL.

1989 UD #338 Mike Maddux

Mike Maddux's MLB playing career began with the Phillies in 1986. He spent four years with the local 9 before being released. Maddux hung on for another decade bouncing around with 9 different teams before retiring in in 2000.  His best years were a pair of seasons with the Padres in 1991-92 and he reached the playoffs as a member of the 1995 Red Sox.

Maddux is, of course, the older brother of Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux. As a coach for the Rangers Mike Maddux were #31, the same number the Greg wore while playing for the Cubs and Braves.

1989 Upper Deck
Maddux is one of 29 Phillies players in the inaugural UD release. 2014 marks the 25th anniversary of the historic set. One of the cool features of 89UD was the 2nd photo on the back

1989 UD #338 Mike Maddux (b-side)

This is a fine example of good use of the flip side photo. There is something interesting about the shot, looks to be the bullpen in the old vet. Maddux's hand is close to the camera. The landscape format fits the player nicely.

I don't have a big UD collection but we will try and focus on the set a bit throughout the year. The Phils that are in the set are listed here:

11 Ron Jones

31 Kevin Gross

33 Jeff Calhoun

35 Ricky Jordan RC*

207 Kent Tekulve

219 Steve Jeltz

229 Phil Bradley

240 Lance Parrish

246 Von Hayes

317 Milt Thompson

319 Bruce Ruffin

336 Juan Samuel

338 Mike Maddux

340 Bob Dernier

406 Mike Schmidt

409 Don Carman

427 Shane Rawley

430 Jackie Gutierrez

448 Darren Daulton

511 Steve Bedrosian

513 Chris James

515 David Palmer

532 John Russell

534 Greg Gross

684 Mike Schmidt TC

704 Dickie Thon

720 Tommy Herr

730 Floyd Youmans

741 Jeff Parrett

Sources
Baseball-ref
Texas Rangers
TeamSets4U

Opening Day: 2009 UD Piece of History CSC-UK Utley & Kinsler

We have already had Australia Opening Day and ESPN Opening Night. Today we finally get to Phillies Opening Day.

2009 UD A Piece of History #CSC-UK Chase Utley and Ian Kinsler

Five years ago both the Phillies own Chase Utley and the Rangers Ian Kinsler were coming off exceptional seasons. Among second basemen, Utley led all of Major League baseball in Offensive WAR, Kinsler was 2nd in the AL to Dustin Pedroia.

Today both players find themselves at a significantly different stature. Utley (age 35) hasn't played 140+ games since 2009, and Kinsler (31) has been jettisoned by the Rangers in favor of younger talent.

Reading the Competition
RTC will be returning for 2014. I hope to feature some two team cards like the Utley-Kinsler combo above.  I expect this will present us with some interesting pairings and players for discussion.

Source
Chase Utley Player Collection Index
Baseball-ref.com

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