Phungo 5 with Thoughts and Sox

This weekend Red Sox Nation will trek into Citizen's Bank Ballpark. Neither Boston nor the Phils have a natural interleague rival, and the two teams are geographically easy to schedule, so they have met several times during interleague play. Many of these meetings have not gone well for the Phils, but this is the first time that the Phils are the reigning World Champions. It should be an exciting weekend, each team leads their respective divisions and the last 2 World Series as well as 3 of the last 5 have been won by the two teams.

To help us here at Phungo catch up with the happenings of Red Sox nation we have called upon Thoughts and Sox for this weeks Phungo 5.

1) Is Curt Schilling a Hall of Famer?

Man, you are starting out tough. I'm torn on this one. He is one of the greatest big game pitchers of all time but doesn't have the regular season stats to be in the hall. With that said, I really think that it will come down to two things: how much he runs his mouth in the next five years and how many more of the players from his era get the PED black ball. I'm going with yes right now because he is a former Phillie and I want the point at the end of this.

2)Is Terry Francona a good manager or is the team so good that anybody could anybody manage the Bosox to two titles?

Tito's Red Sox teams did that no other Red Sox team did for 86 years Win the World Series. To me it shows that not just anybody can manage this team. The hardest thing to managing the Red Sox has got to be the media and he handles it extremely well. He has a tendency to be vague and sticks with a veteran for too long (Papi...) but I wouldn't want anyone else at the helm.

2005 UD ESPN #13 David Ortiz

3) What Red Sox vintage set are you most interested in completing currently?

I have this thing for mini cards so I love early Bowman and 51 Topps but I am so close to completing the 1960 Topps team set I have to go with that.(4 cards - 474, 520, 537, 544 can anyone out there help?? I have a few hundred 1960 Topps cards that I can trade) After the 1960 set I'm going to chase 1952 Bowman. It gets the nod over the other early Bowman because I don't have to come up with a high dollar Williams card.

4) Where do you find information on Boxing Cards? And is my Tommy Loghran card worth anything?

You can get some good information on boxing cards at both http://boxingcarddigest.com and at http://americasgreatboxingcards.com. I'm guessing it is either a 48 Leaf or a 51 Ringside. The Leaf is a little more sought after but either will sell on ebay for $1-10 depending on condition. The real question is, would it be worth a 1960 Topps Phillie card to you?

Phungo: As much as I would love a '60 Phillies card but the Loughran card is staying in my collection.

5) Which do you find more annoying Cards Fans or Yankees fans?

I gotta say Cardinal fans because they are just as die hard as Sox fans and that is all I see here in Missouri. I have to deal with constant banter from all my Cardinal fan coworkers. I may have brought it on myself a little bit though when I handed out a half dozen brooms at work in October of 04. Needless to say the guys in the office were not very appreciative.

hmmm I can give points on every question but the first. There were moments when I loved Schilling here and then there were moments when I could not stand him. Since Adam starts out by admitting he is torn I will award the point. So 5 out of 5!!.

Thanks Adam, this is all good stuff. On Q2 I agree, the Bosox have thrown out a High Payroll roster but that isn't always a gimmee (08 Yankees). Francona has gotten that team into the playoffs every season and then into the World Series twice. Last year the Red Sox pushed the ALCS to 7 games before being eliminated. Francona has taken all those players and they are always competitive, that isn't easy and should be commended.

We are going back north of the border next week as we will visit with Blue Jays Cards for their take on this years 93 World Series reunion. If you would like to look back at a previous Phungo 5 click here for an interview with Sooz of A Cardboard Problem

Hall of Fame Thursday - Ernie Banks - Phun Stuff from Thoughts and Sox

1964 Topps #55 Ernie Banks

2009 Phungo #14 Ernie Banks

Ernie Banks was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1977, his first year of eligibility. Mr Cub had 512 career Homers, 1636 RBI, 1305 Runs, and 2583 Hits during his 19 year major league career. He was a two-time MVP who played on 13 all-star teams. His 277 Homers as a Shortstop was the major league record until he was passed by Cal Ripken Jr.

The Topps card I received in a trade with Adam from Thoughts and Sox. I sent over a couple of vintage Red Sox and a pile of more recent Bosox and he sent back bunch of Phillies and the 1964 Banks card above.

The Phungo card has a picture taken during the 2008 All-Star Futures game. Banks was named an honorary captain. I erroneously put down his position has 3B, for some reason I thought I heard that he was inducted into the HOF as a Third Basemen. According to the Hall of Fame Website he was inducted as a shortstop. Banks did play about half of his career at first base. Banks' Phungo card number is 14 which is the number he wore during his playing career, and was also the first number ever retired by the Cubs.

One interesting fact I found out while researching this post is that on May 8th 1973, Cubs manager Whitey Lockman was ejected from a game versus the Padres. Banks was a coach for the Cubs at the time and took over the helm for the team. The Cubs went on to win the game in 12 innings 3-2. This game preceded Frank Robinson's first management stint by nearly two years, meaning that Banks was the first black manager in Major League Baseball.

Banks has established the charity Live Above and Beyond Foundation as an organization to fight discrimination among various age groups. Proceeds from the charity wine Ernie Banks 512 Chardonnay benefit the foundation.

Links 
Phungo HoF Index - Ernie Banks 
*Note - This column was written before I started sourcing posts, I am guessing most of the statistical information from Baseball-ref and other info from the always reliable wikipedia