Phungo Original: 2021T Migue Cabrera Snow Squall variation

We are switching gears here, trying to see if posting sketches will get be more motivated to publish. We will see. 

2021T Miguel Cabrera Snow Squall Variation

A few weeks ago Miquel Cabrera hit a Home Run on opening day, but it was snowing so much he could not tell if the ball had left the park. Miggy elected to slide into 2nd base on the play. We have captured that moment and put it on the canvas of 2021 Topps. 

3 Strikes

This is my comments on the sketch - I try to come up with 3 things going thru my head during the development of the work:

- This is a contemporary event so I went with a 2021 Topps Canvas, I flipped the design on the x-axis because the slash placement interfered with image I wanted to created. 

- Giant snow flakes: I used symbolic flakes over a bunch of little dashes that would have looked like rain. 

- Big Font: I enlarged the name plate, lots of folks have noted that the 2021T player names are unreadable. I agree and well I cannot write that snowfall. The snowflake motif carries through to the name plate acting as the divider between Miggy's name and position.

ToppsNow

Topps issues an instant card for the Homer. 

2021 Topps Now #1 Miguel Cabrera

Turns out Cabrera got card #1 in this years Topps Now set! Nice enough, this angle is always a good one and the image clearly shows the snow shower. Still I prefer mine, mostly because it's mine, but I also like capturing the slide as it was unique moment that doesn't typically happen on a Home Run.

Flagship

2021 Topps #291 Miguel Cabrera

Looks like Miggy's base card was taken on a much nicer day. On this one you get 2 HoF for the price of one as we can see the Al Kaline #6 memorial patch on Cabrera's right shoulder. The card lists Cabrera's position as DH, which is accurate - it is the only position he played in 2020. Oddly it took him one game to get back in the field playing First Base, and that is reflected in my card above. 

Sources and Link

Miguel Cabrera Index

Cardboard Connection

ebay

Anniversary 60 Years ago: Rocky Colavito 4 Home Run Day

June 10th marks the 60th anniversary of an historic game between the Cleveland Indians and Baltimore Orioles. That Day Rocky Colavito became the 6th major league player to record a 4 Home Run game.

1964 Topps Jumbo #9 Rocky Colavito

The Indians won that game 11-8 with Colavito accounting for 6 RBI. Notice that the above card features Rocky as an Athletic not an Indian. Well that is because of the back of the card...

1959 Topps Jumbo #9 Rocky's Hot Bat (b-side)

As we can see the headline on this card is all about the 4 Homer game which is described in the cards first coupe sentences. The remainder of the text discusses Colavito's home run legacy all the way back to his minor league days.

Rocky Colavito's four home run game is also featured on the back of a 1964 Topps base card, #109. Colavito, however, does not appear on the front of that card, to find out more click here.

Sloppy Topps
The photo on the b-side of the card is also not with the Indians. Colavito wore three different numbers with Cleveland 6, 21 and 38 but never 7. The two squads for which he donned #7 were the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City A's. I am thinking that this photo is with the Tigers as Rocky Colavito didn't join the Athletics until 1964. The front appears to be an Airbrushed Tigers photo as well. 

1964 Topps Jumbo
I love this set and I have it on the back burner to build. They are referred to Jumbo or Giant cards because they are oversized at just over 3"x5". I go with Jumbo because when you search on "1964 Topps Giant" you get a bunch of Willy Mays cards, but not necessarily Jumbos. 

Colavito's Four Home Run Game
Baseball-Ref Box
1964 Topps #109 (Rusty Staub)

Sources and Links
Game Dated Cards Index
1964 Topps Jumbo Index
Baseball-Ref
ebay
Cardboard Connection

Happy Birthday & Anniversary Alan Trammell

On Thursday February 21st Alan Trammell celebrates his 60th birthday. His first as a Hall of Famer.

1981 Topps #709 Alan Trammell (pix swiped from Topps Baseball Card Database)

In this photo on his 1981 Topps card the Tigers Shortstop has a "You have Got To be Kidding Me" expression. An expression that many a SABRmetrician had each year when Alan Trammell was rejected for Hall of Fame induction.

This past December after a long wait Alan Trammell was selected for Hall of Fame induction by the latest incarnation of the Veteran's Committees.

Fifteen tallies and Trammell never got more than 50% of the vote. That is an awful lot of NO votes.

Trammell's HOF case is complicated. His career numbers are a tick below the traditional "Hall of Fame Thresholds". Hits = 2365, HR = 185, RBI = 1003. He checked the box on a World Champions and has some All-Star, Gold Glove and Silver Slugger hardware. Unfortunately he did not come up with the MVP, However....

Two years ago in my HOF ballot discussion of Trammell I examined the 1987 MVP award which I felt he deserved over George Bell. While I felt that two candidates were pretty even overall for me one big factor pushed Trammell past Bell. He performed better down the stretch when the players two teams were vying for the same division title.

For my complete Alan Trammell HOF Analysis click here.

1981 Topps
In general I like the 1981T design. I think the use of a cap as the palate for the Team & Position info is unique in the Topps canon. In fact I am not sure baseball cap icons have been used on many sets Topps or otherwise. However, I am not fond of the color combo given the Tigers by Topps. Purple & Black just appear to go together in this format, Works for Rockies Pinstripes but not 1981 Topps.


Flip
Check the Title of this posting. First we mentioned a Birthday, which we covered in the first sentence. But we also specify an Anniversary well...


 
1981 Topps #709 Alan Trammell (b-side)

Check out the first -toon. Yep In addition to being Alan Trammell's 60th Birthday, it is also his Wedding Anniversary. Since the Trammell's Wed on Alan's 20th Birthday it is also a Milestone Wedding Anniversary as well #40.  If Alan is reading this, the gift for the 40th Anniversary is the Ruby.

June 12 1979
The latter cartoon notes a Steal of Home by Trammell during a 9-2 Tigers victory over the Oakland A's. I am not sure, but this steal may be a borderline violation of an unwritten rule. The Tigers had an 8-2 in the bottom of the 8th inning.

The steal was so insignificant that it did not even make the Sporting News Write up for the game.

Although the write up does mention that the game was one of two led by Dick Tracewski who was holding the post on an interim basis until Sparky Anderson could take over. Perhaps Tracewski was trying to get the team in a more aggressive mode prior to Sparky showing up. 

Alan Trammell Index
1980 Topps - 1987 MVP aWARd / 2016 HOF credentials

Sources and Links
Game Dated Cards
Polish Sports Hall of Fame
Sports Illustrated Jay Jaffe 
Baseball-Ref
Topps Baseball Card Database
AnniversaryGift.Org 

Fathers Day - 1976 Topps #67 Father & Son Ray and Bob Boone

 For Father's Day the Philies have a number of things going on including a book signing with Bret Boone promoting his new book "Home Game". Bret is of course the son of former Phillies catcher Bob Boone.

Bob is also the son of a Major Leaguer, their relationship is recognized on a 1976 Topps card - which is a perfect one for us to feature as part of our 1976 All-Star Game coverage. 

1976 Topps #67 Father & Son Ray and Bob Boone

Bob Boone is the middle member of three generations of Boone's. His Father Ray played for 13 seasons mostly with the Tigers and Indians while Sons Aaron and Brett spent 12 and 14 years in the league respectively.

Pretty impressive careers for each but Bob is by far the MLB tenure leader, he spent 19 seasons in the league including a decade with the Phillies

All-Star
Bob Boone made the first of four All-Star teams in 1976. He entered the game in the fourth inning as a defensive replacement for Hall of Famer Johnny Bench. Boone remained in for the balance of the game. He went 0-2 facing Luis Tiant and Frank Tanana. Among the four NL pitchers he caught that day was another future HoF, Tom Seaver.

In 1979 Boone got to start the All-Star game and got to catch teammate Steve Carlton. However that Battery is a bit of an oddity, For the bulk of Lefty's games in that era his receiver was Tim McCarver.

Boone appeared in two other All-Star Games 1978 and 1983 (as an Angel).

1976 Topps Father & Son

1976 Topps #67 Father & Son Ray and Bob Boone

Interesting part of the text here is Bob mentioning that he started his career at third base. In 1972 Boone moved from Third Base to Catcher to make room for Mike Schmidt.

The Father-Son subset is five cards running from #66-#70 the other four pairs are Gus & Buddy Bell, Jim & Mike Hegan, Joe Coleman Sr & Jr, and Roy Smalley Sr & Jr. 

1980 Topps 
Despite appearing in four All-Star Games Boone was never issued a Topps card with an All-Star flair. As noted above he started the 1979 game, however Topps tagged the All-Star ballot winner Ted Simmons with the designation - Simmons had to skip the game due to injury.

Don Sutton Win #300
A just a quick toss back to our posting earlier in the week if you want to read about Don Sutton's 300th victory, a game that was caught by Bob Boone.

Sources and Links
1976 ASG Index
Baseball-ref
Amazon

1976 All-Star Game +40: Ron LeFlore

Tonight ESPN Sunday Night Baseball was supposed to be airing from Detroit but the Tigers game with the Yankees had to be postponed due to inclement weather.

Here at Phungo HQ we are up to the challenges of the elements and will continue our 1976 All-Star Game retrospective with a look at Tigers Alum Ron LeFlore

1977 Topps #240 Ron LeFlore All-Star

1976 was probably LeFlore's best season and he was rewarded with his only All-Star nomination. He started Left Field and led off for the AL squad. Unfortunately LeFlore was erased on a double play ground out so he didn't get to show off his speed during the game. His 455 career steals rank 52nd all time and include leading each league once (68 SB AL 1978, 97 SB NL 1980).

LeFlore is an interesting baseball figure. A troubled youth he found himself in prison for armed robbery at the age of 22 in 1970. While in prison he picked up baseball and was discovered by Tigers manager Billy Martin. The story was chronicled in his (auto)-biography "Breakout: From Prison to the Big Leagues" co authored with Tigers writer and Spink Award Nominee Jim Hawkins. The book begat the film "One in a Million: The Ron LeFlore Story" which was starred LeVar Burton as LeFlore and was directed by prolific TV filmmaker William A Graham

1977 Topps
Nice to see LeFlore get honored with the 77T All-Star Flair, plenty of players in the 1970s era made multiple ASGs but never get an All-Star card.

1977 Topps #240 Ron LeFlore All-Star (b-side)

The text covers LeFlore's All-Star game appearance and also mentions a 30 Game Hit streak he had in 1976. The streak lasted from the Tigers fourth game on April 17th through May 27th. Yankees Pitchers Ed Figueroa and Tippy Martinez shut down LeFlore on May 28th, 1976.

Also I would like to point out the demographics note LeFlore was both born and lived in Detroit. Definitely despite a troubled past (and present) a Tigers favorite.

Finally the Cartoon. Love this one as it covers Frank Robinson winning MVP awards in both leagues. This was discussed in our posting on Robinson's 1967T #100 card, which mentions the fact in the text and has it's own -toon mentioning his 1966 AL MVP award.

Voices in the Crowd
This card was covered by the Baseball 1977

Sources and Links
Baseball 1977
1976 All-Star Game Index
Robert Niemi: History in the Media: Film and Television
Jim Hawkins - Toronto Sun (2013 0226)

BBWAA
Baseball-ref

2016 HoF Ballot: Alan Trammell & aWARds 1987 MVP

In a couple of days the Baseball Hall of Fame will announce the members of the 2016 class. One of the most debated of the candidates is Detroit Tigers Alum Alan Trammell.

1980 Topps Alan Trammell

It is my opinion that Trammell's performance during the final week of the 1987 regular season should have put him in the Hall.

Well in reality his overall career accomplishments should be good enough but more on that later now back to 1987.

The 1987 AL MVP award went to Toronto Blue Jays Left Fielder George Bell. Here I present an argument that today with the emphasis on advanced metrics (notably WAR) the Award would go to Alan Trammell.  

The difference between Bell and Trammell in 1987 was 12 points, which is less than a single first place ballot (14 pts are awarded for a 1st). Both players had very good years. Bell's standout numbers were his league leading 134 RBIs and 369 Total Bases. His 47 Homers were second only to Rookie of the Year Mark McGwire, whom we covered for 2016 HoF Candidates recently. Trammel batted .343 (3rd AL), with a .402 OBP (5th) .953 OPS (6th) and 329 TBs (4th). All good numbers and when coupled with the demand of playing a middle infield position I submit that they are comparable to Bell's.

Voters didn't have the advantage of consulting WAR numbers in 1987, but we do now. The results are not even close. Trammell wins easily 8.2 - 5.0. Baseball-ref has stated that a differences of 1 or 2 wins is not "definitive" - the +3.2 advantage of Trammell beyond this +2.0 margin.

My third argument for Trammel's 1987 MVP award is The Tigers won the AL East while George Bell's Blue Jays finished 2nd. Furthermore Alan Trammell was critical to Detroit overtaking Toronto during the final week of the Season. Following play on September 26th the Blue Jays held a +3.5 Game lead on the Tigers. Detroit had 8 games to play, Toronto 7.

For the balance of the season the Tigers went 6-2 while the Blue Jays failed to win a game.

During the stretch Alan Trammell batted .313/.405/.500 with a Homer, 3 RBI and 4 Runs Scored while George Bell went .111/.250/.111 with no XBH and 1 RBI.

There it is - nearly comparable traditional numbers, WAR numbers that favor Trammell as well as a convincing edge in team accomplishment.

It should be noted that Alan Trammell finished 3rd in AL WAR in 1987. The two players who finished above him were Roger Clemens (+9.4) and Wade Boggs (+8.3) both of the Boston Red Sox  who finished 20 games back of the Tigers. Trammell did pace Boggs in oWAR +8.2 to +7.6

Phungo HoF Verdict - HOF
The missed MVP award may not even matter if one guides their HoF vote via WAR. For his career Alan Trammell had a +70.4 WAR this ranks 11th all time among Shortstops, just below Derek Jeter (+71.8) There are 21 HoF Shortstops with an average WAR of 66.7. Trammell has a +62.4 oWAR ranking 81st among ALL position players. Notables that rank below Trammell include Ernie Banks (+61.8), Eddie Murray (+61.2), and Ryne Sandberg (+59.5).

In additon Alan Trammell checked the Box on a World Championship in 1984 when he was named as the Series MVP.

If he had the Regular Season MVP on his shelf I believe that his Hall of Fame candidacy would not even be in doubt. It is a shame that we didn't have advanced metrics in WAR in 1987, but the BBWAA has the opportunity to right that wrong this week.

Sources and Links
Alan Trammell HOF Index
2016 HoF Candidates
Baseball Hall of Fame
Baseball-ref

Happy 45th Birthday Bobby Higginson - 1991 Phillies Draftee

Why is a marginal player like Bobby Higginson showing up in a Phillies blog.

Well the man has a couple of Philadlephia connections. He was born in the City of Brotherly love and went to school locally at Frankford High and Temple U.

In addition to all that he was selected by the Phillies in the 18th round of the 1991 draft. Unfortunately the Phillies were unable to sign Higginson.

2002 UD Vintage #94 Bobby Higginson

The Phillies planned to move Higginson from the Outfield to second base. Since Higginson was not comfortable with the approach he asked for a signing bonus of $20,000 which was 14k more than the Phillies offered. The draftee wanted the bonus to insure that the Phillies would not give up on him too quickly if his play at second didn't go well initially.

The Phillies never countered the 20K number. A year later Higginson was picked in the 12th round of the Tigers who signed him as an Outfielder for 10 grand, plus an additional 10 thousand college provision.

It turned out to be a good move for the Tigers. Bobby Higginson had an 11 year career spent entirely in Detroit.

War and the Draft - 1991
At the top of this article I dismissed Bobby Higginson as a marginal player, well this is simply not true. He had a career WAR of 23.0. This ranks #1 among all players the Phillies Selected in 1991. 2nd Round pick Kevin Stocker ranks #2 at 5.9. #10 overall pick Tyler Green pitched 70 games for the big club but yielded a negative WAR (-0.5)

Among all outfielder picked in 1991 Higginson ranks #3 Behind Mike Cameron (46.5) and Shawn Green (34.5). Fourth and fifth place on the list are held by Phillies Alums Raul Ibanez (20.1) and Doug Glanville (10.9).

Among all #473 Picks in the history of the Draft Higginson ranks #1 in WAR. Glenn Hubbard (19.1) and Phils Alum Dick Ruthven (18.6) are the only other players drafted at that position to have positive WAR numbers.  Bobby Higginson also achieved the standard for his selection in the 1992 draft - He outpaced Rick Honeycutt (22.3) and five other players that made the majors including Orioles Outfielder David Lough who remains active. 

Higginson's 23.0 career WAR is in the top 100 among Left Fielders, this ranks him in front of Bernard Gilkey, Carlos Gonzalez (Active), Hideki Matsui, 1987 AL MVP George Bell, 1962 Hit, Batting and RBI Champ Tommy Davis, the aforementioned Raul Ibanez, and this years Phillies Wall of Fame inductee Pat Burrell.

 1971 Topps #94 Don Hahn

2002 UD vintage stole their design from 1971 Topps. The Card occupied by Higginson was originally the residensce of Montreal Expos outfielder Don Hahn.

Don Hahn played a few games for the Phillies at the tail end of his career. As far as I know he was never issued a Phil, but apparently he did make it into the teams photocard set.

2002 UD Vintage #94 Bobby Higginson (b-side)
1971 Topps #94 Don Hahn (b-side)

UD changed the color of the flip sides just to show they weren't totally pilfering the original Topps design. Interesting that UD moved around the stats, and opted to drop Total Bases - actually giving LESS info on the updated card.

Four Consecutive HR Club
Didn't want to leave this article without mentioning that Bobby Higginson once hit four Home Runs in four consecutive At Bats. It wasn't four in one game or Four Plate Appearances in a row - there were some walks mixed in there, but it was four Homers in four official ABs. It is a fairly rare accomplishment - I think most recently by Carlos Gonzalez (2012). Phillies Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt hit four in a row during an 18-16 victory over the Cubs on April 17 1976.

Sources and Links
the Phillies Room
WAR and the Draft Index
Philadelphia Inquirer - Sam Carchidi
baseball-ref
MLB
History Channel 

40 Years Ago: Lolich Sets Lefty Strikeout Mark - 1976 Topps #3

On June 6th 1975 Mickey Lolich set the strikeout mark for Lefthanded Pitchers

1976 Topps #3 Mickey Lolich Most Strikeouts, Lifetime, Lefthander

Topps honored the accomplishment with the #3 card in their 1976 set.

The Tigers Southpaw accomplished the feat during an 11-2 victory over the Oakland A's. The record tying and breaking strikeouts were both recorded versus Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson. Of course it should be noted that Reggie is the all-time leader in Ks among batters.  Lolich logged a total of four Ks on the day including one other Hall Of Famer, Billy Williams.

Mickey Lolich finished his career in 1979 at 2832 strikeouts. He would hold the Lefthanded K record for five seasons prior to being eclipsed by the Phillies Steve Carlton in 1980.

Career Ks by Lefthaders in 1976

1976 Topps #3 Mickey Lolich Most Strikeouts, Lifetime, Lefthander (b-side)

After passing Warren Spahn Lolich struck out just a shade under 100 additional batters during the remaining portion of the 1975 season. As you can see Steve Carlton ranked 11th at the time.

Carlton was eventually surpassed by Randy Johnson who is the current all-time MLB Record for career Ks among southpaws with 4875. The Big Unit was 12 when the Lolich Record Breaker card was issued.

Today Mickey Lolich still ranks #3 behind Carlton and Johnson. All 2832 of Lolich's Ks were in the AL which ranks first in the history of the junior circuit.

Lolich ranks 18th among All Pitchers for career Ks. The only pitchers in front of Lolich not in the Hall are Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling.

Sources and Links
1976 Topps Record Breakers Index
Topps Cards
Baseball Alamanc
Baseball-ref

1954 Topps #201 Al Kaline RC

The Tigers are on Sunday Night Baseball this week which is an excellent opportunity for Team Phungo to show off a nice recent purchase.

We have a card show circuit that runs on weekends at local malls. Often the selection is pretty poor and the trip can be a wasted couple of hours.

However occasionally you find something...

1954 Topps #201 Al Kaline (rc)

I first saw the Kaline RC a few weeks ago and wasn't sure if I was ready to take the big plunge into building 1954T, a set I have been slowly hoarding cards for over the last few years.

The nice thing about the card shows returning every week is that if I see a card week one, and I am undecided about picking it up I can think about it buy it the following week.

That is what happened here. I decided at some point during the week to pick up the card if it was still available. I also consulted one of the leading authorities on cards - Twitter.  I simply posted.

Off condition 1954T Al Kaline RC $75,  Buy or Pass?  Soft corners edges,  minor creasing scuffs.

— phungo (@phungo2008) May 1, 2015

and I got one response

@phungo2008 holy crap buy all day buy buy buy buy buy buy and ask 'em if they have a crappy Aaron too

— Ugly Hyena Junkie (@CardJunk) May 1, 2015

I would categorize that as an enthusiastic yes, and I appreciated the feedback. If I was on the fence, It felt good to know there was somebody out there as nuts as me - Even if it was just a ploy to get me to pick up a Aaron RC beater.


1954 Topps
This is a great set, I love the bright colors and the small B/W photo. Team Logos are prominent but not oversized.

Kaline is one of three prominent RCs in 1954 Topps, the other two are Hank Aaron and Ernie Banks. That is one of the primary reason I am considering building the set.

No one has to explain the specialness of the 1954 Rookie Card Class. All three are first ballot guys, Kaline and Banks both spent their entire careers with one club and they are identified as such, Mr Tiger and Mr Cub Respectively.  

1954 Topps #201 Al Kaline (rc b-side)

When this card was issued Kaline was just 20 years old. He was a bonus baby and went directly to the majors. His December 19 1934 birthday is likely the most recent in the 1954 set.

HoF profile
Al Kaline's 3007 career hits made him a first ballot Hall of Famer in 2007. His Credentials go far beyond that single number. The 18 time all-star Spent his entire career with the Tigers including the teams Pennant Winning 1968 season. He won a batting title in 1955, Led the league in slugging in 1959 and collected 10 gold gloves (Ranks #3 behind Mays and Clemente).  His 399 career Home Runs rank 52nd all-time.

Kaline never won an MVP award but he was runner up twice, both times to Yankees Catchers (Yogi in 1955, Elston Howard in 1963).  In each year Kaline at a higher WAR number then the winner but in neither year did he lead the AL in WAR.

Baltimore
I also wanted to note that Al Kaline has roots in nearby Baltimore where he was born and attended school. He was inducted into the Maryland State Athletics Hall of Fame in 1972, He was still an active im the majors at the time.

Sources and Links
Phungo Al Kaline HoF Index 
baseball-ref
SABR bio by  Nick Waddell
Maryland State Athletic Hall of Fame

2015 Heritage the Originals: League Leaders Cards Sonny Siebert - Mysterious Extra

The League Leaders subset returned in 1966 Topps, but it was moved away from the top of the set where it had lived in the past three releases. 

The 12 cards were numbered from 215-226 and represented the same six categories (for each league) that were present in 1965: Batting, HR, RBI, ERA, Pitching, Ks 

There is at least one oddity in the subset

1966 Topps #226 LL AL Strikeouts

All of the other League Leaders cards are of the triple variety, the logical explanation here would have been that McLain and Siebert had tied in strikeouts. But they did not.

1966 Topps #226 LL AL Strikeouts (b-side)


This opens the door for King Felix to get on the 2015 Heritage League Leaders card. In 2014 he finished 4th behind David Price, Corey Kluber and Matt Scherzer.

And YES the Topps Heritage checker came out recently - check it out card #226 has 4 players on the card. Max Scherzer had a legit claim on the #3 spot in AL Strikeouts (252), but he will share his podium spot with Felix Hernandez (248)

Nice attention to detail Topps. 

Sources and Links
1966 Topps Blog
2015 Heritage/1966 Topps Index
topps
cardboard connection
Topps Database
Baseball-ref

Al Kaline 80th Birthday

On Friday December 19th Al Kaline will celebrate his milestone 80th Birthday.

1959 Topps #463 Baseball Thrills Al Kaline 

60 years ago on this date Al Kaline turned 20, the following year he would pace the American League with 200 hits and a .340 batting average. The above 1959T card celebrates Kaline's batting title.  Kaline finished 2nd in the MVP voting that season, the award went to Yankee catcher Yogi Berra.

We have already featured this card in July of 2013, but I wanted to put up a fun card for Kaline's birthday, additionally this is one of the 1959 Topps BT cards that we have yet to cover in our subset series.

1959 Topps #463 Baseball Thrills Al Kaline (b-side)

The flip side of the card goes into some more detail on the first few seasons of Kaline's Hall of Fame career. 

In 1955 Al Kaline was the youngest Batting Champ and I believe he remains the player with that distinction today almost 60 years later. That season he collected 200 of his 3007 hits.

The 15 time all star played his entire 22 year career with the Tigers, Winning a World Series Title in 1968. His career 92.5 WAR ranks 7th all time among Right Fielders.

Happy 80th birthday to one of the all-time greats

1959 Topps
This card is examined in more detail over at the Commish Bob's Site 1959 Topps one f/g card at a time

Al Kaline HoF Index
1954 Topps #201 (rc)
1959 Topps #463 (RTC posting from 2013 July)
1965 Topps Embossed #13
2008 Donruss Threads #23
Kaline's SABR bio can be found here


Sources and Links
1959 Topps Baseball Thrills
Phungo HoF Index
baseball-ref

Philly Show 2014 12 06 - Vintage Phillies

This weekend Team Phungo was at the Valley Forge show for 4 hours os so and picked up a bunch of vintage cards. I concentrated on my Phillies 50s and 60s Topps checkers and Card of Hall of Famers from the same era. There was an additional focus on 1966 Topps in preparation for the release of 2015 Heritage in just a couple of months.

Highlights

1966 Topps Bobby Wine
1966 Topps John Boozer

Who would have thought I would pick up Wine and Boozer cards from the same 50 year old set on the same day. I could also toss out a quip regarding having a Wine Boozer combo on the 1964 Phils may have led to their collapse.

Joking aside, I was very happy to pick up the above cards. The pair which went for 50 cents each closed out the lower & Mid Series cards for my 1966T Phillies team set. Still have 3 cards remaining from the scarce high series.

At least part of the reason 1966T gets dismissed is it arrived on the heals of the popular 1965 Topps set. The upcoming Heritage set may give us a chance to reconsider the orignal set. The two cards above illustrate one of the nice aspects of 1966 Topps. The photographs on the cards come from a variety of angles and often feature faux-action. In my opinion the tedium of repeated head shots throughout recent Heritage sets has heard the set.

We will be taking a look the originals set over the coming weeks and I am sure I will return to that point often.

More Set Closing

1958 Topps Granny Hamner

This was the last card I needed for 1958 Topps, I also picked up the 1960 Topps Bobby Del Greco card to close that set.  Each card was $1.50 although the above Hamner was tossed in for free when I bought twenty 1954T Commons.

The two cards also give team Phungo a run of completed Phillies Team Sets that run for 1958-60 - oddly my longest run among vintage sets.

Other Highlights 

1966 Topps Chisox Clubbers

I am just going to post pix of some other cards now. Time permitting I will return to discuss these cards at some point in the future. Right now I just wanted to post a cross section of the pickups and also give some pricing details which may interest other collectors. The Clubbers card went for 50 cents. Picked up this card as part of our 2015 Heritage research.   

1959 Topps #23 Murry Dickson

$2. Down to 2 more cards to complete the entire 1959 Topps Set! 

1939 Diamond Stars Van Mungo

$14. I think this was the priciest pick up  of the day. Trying to pick up a Diamond Stars card at each big show I attend. This is a pretty sharp looking one. 

 1961 Topps #478 Roger Maris 1960 AL MVP

$8. This is a subset I have been working on. Pretty happy to pull this one in for $8

 1952 Topps George Kell

$10. 1952T of a Hall of Famer.

1934 Goudey Woody English

1934 is my favorite Goudey set. 

 1961 Topps World Series Highlight

$2. Picked this one up just for the hat.

 1960 Topps Hank Aaron All-Star

$10. A subset that I am contemplating building.

1962 Topps Willie Mays All-Star

 $10. Yet another All-Star Subber I am considering building 

2015 HoF Ballot Tony Clark: 1997 Donruss Signature Series

Tony Clark was a switch hitting first baseman who spent the first half of his career with the Detroit Tigers and the remainder as a journeyman with 5 other clubs.

1997 Donruss Signature Series Tony Clark Autograph (#d 488/900)

During His 15 year career Clark's teams made Postseason Appearances: 2004 Yankees - he was the 1B tasked with holding on Dave Roberts in Game 4 of the ALCS  and 2007 Diamondbacks. Other career Highlights include tallying 251 Career Homers, representing the Tigers at the 2001 All-Star Game and finishing 3rd in the 1996 AL RoY voting which was won by Derek Jeter.
 

1997 Donruss Signature Series

1997 Donruss Signature Series Tony Clark Autograph (#d 448/900 b-side)

Ran into something interesting here, An autograph card featuring a photo of the player yes signing an autograph. It isn't that complicated to put this card together, but I am not sure I have ever seen it done elsewhere. Is there a -graph collector out there that has any insight on this?

In 1997 the Donruss Signature Series came in 3 parallels: Red which were the commons, Green shown here - typically numbered to 1000 although Clark is serialed to 900, and finally Blue which are numbered to 100.

Phungo HOF Verdict
YES - a surprise Yes vote team Phungo. Last December Tony Clark became the head of the MLB players association (MLBPA), He is the first former player to lead the union. Clark is the fourth person to lead the MLBPA, a position that was originated by Marvin Miller.

My Tony Clark YES HoF vote is a protest vote against the various folks that have rejected Marvin Miller over the years. Miller may have never played on the field but his leadership changed how players in all sports are compensated, All one has to do is look at the salaries players are earning to realize what Miller has meant to the sprot.    

Sources & Links
2015 HoF Ballot
MLBPA
Baseball-Ref 
Bob Lemke's Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards    

Cy Young and MVP in the Same Season - Can it happen again: Tigers Justin Verlander 2013 Topps Triple Threads

Clayton Kershaw took home the NL Cy Young Award tonight, now we await what is probably the biggest question mark in the 2014 Awards Season. 

2013 Topps Triple Threads Relic TTR-JV1 Verlander (2/18)

Can Clayton Kershaw take the dual Cy Young/MVP Award Hardware. Personally I am from the Pitchers get there own award, Position players should get the other award school of thought.  However, this season the NL really hasn't had a standout candidate. Cases can be made for Andrew McCutchen, Giancarlo Stanton, and Jonathan LuCroy. For me the strongest case among the hitters is McCutchen. In addition to putting up good offensive numbers at the plate, he really carried the Pirates.  When he was out of the lineup the Bucos struggled, upon his return, they made a run that got them into the playoffs. Curiously according to B-R Andrew McCutchen is an average fielder. Had he had a +1 or +2 dWAR season, his overall number would have been more comparable to Kershaws.

The Last time a Pitcher took both awards was relatively recently. In 2011 Justin Verlander won the award over Jacoby Ellsubry, Dustion Pedroia, Miguel Cabrera and others - Ben Zobrist won the WAR crown that year, but a significant portion of the number was defense based. 

2013 Topps 3x Threads
Topps noted Verlander's 2011 double dip on the above Triple Threads card. I am not a big relic or serial collector but those two features combined with the magnitude of the player featured pushed this card onto the buy side at a recent card show. The "M" in MVP is to large and somewhat mars the overall look of the card, otherwise it is decent looking. The Card went for $8 which is probably the most I have ever paid for any relic, including Phillies.

Philly Show
Double duty for this post, this gives me a chance to return to Philly Show coverage. I originally began posting info on pickups from the show on October 1. If you want to see some vintage from taht day and an index to other related postings click here.  


Sources and Links
Philly Show 2014 09 28
Philly Show 2014 09 28 Auto-Relic Summary
Baseball-ref

Sunday Night Baseball: Victor Martinez 2012 New Age Performers #NAP-VM

This weekend the Detroit Tigers host the San Francisco Giants in an interesting inteleague matchup that features two teams battling for a playoff spot. Tonight the Tigers are attempting to salvage the final game of the three game set to avoid a being swept.

2012 Topps Heritage New Age Performers #NAP-VM Victor Martinez

The last two years Miguel Cabrera has been the AL MVP, but this year the Tigers offensive MVP is Victor Martinez. At age 35 the veteran DH is batting .335 with a league leading .406 OBP. The former catcher has also provided the Tigers with middle of the order power, logging 30 Home Runs for the first time in his career.  It is a longshot, but if Martinez has a big week he could make a run at the triple crown - He is off the pace by 5 points in BA, 7 Homers and 10 RBIs ranking 2nd, 7th and 5th respectively in those three categories.

2012 Topps Heritage New Age Performers
NAP has been a part of Topps Heritage since the set debuted in 2001. The 2012 edition of the insert set consists of 15 cards cataloged by player initials. In additions to Martinez the Tigers are also represented by the aforementioned Miguel Cabrera. The Phillies also have 2 players in the small set, Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay.



Sunday Night Baseball Looking at the schedule the Tigers open their upcoming home series with the Division Rival Kansas City Royals with the odd Monday Day game. The scheduling snafu is the confluence of events conspiring against the Tigers. They are important enough to get the Sunday Night slot, however their local football sibling Detroit Lions are playing on Monday Night Football. This adds up to the Tigers playing a late Sunday Night game followed by a quick turnaround for a Monday Day game.

Sources & Links
Baseball-ref
MLB
Baseball Cardpedia
2014 Playoff Teams 

2014 Heritage the Originals - 1965 Topps Embossed #13 Al Kaline

Congrats to all who guessed Al Kaline

1965 Topps Embossed #13 Al Kaline

As I noted earlier today, I have no idea how you would figure out who this is without the name attached. Al Kaline is age 79 now, and if somebody told me the image on this card was of a 79 year old man, I would believe them. The image looks closer to a groundskeeper from "Eight Men Out" then he does to a mid-1960s All-Star ballplayer.  

The original 1965 Topps Embossed cards were inserted randomly to regular packs. Similarly their 2014 Heritage counterparts will be inserts. The set size is not very similar, In 1965 the set consisted of 72 cards. The present day checker consists of 15 cards, which leads me to believe that these will be a pretty tough Heritage pull. The Dodgers get 3 Reps in the small set, with the Tigers, Orioles and Yankees all posting 2. None of the 15 players in Heritage Embossed are Phillies, but they need not be upset - The World Champion Boston Red Sox and NL Champion Cardinals also came up empty as well.  

1965 Topps/2014 Heritage Index   

Base - #534 John Herrnstein 

Rookie Cup - #460 Dick Allen 

Rookie Stars - #282 Dick Estelle & Masanori Murakami 

League Leaders - #4 HRs Mays, B Williams, Callison, Cepeda, Jim Hart

World Series - #139 The Cards Celebrate

2010 Topps Vintage Collection - #VLC2 Johnny Mize

 

More info on 1965 Topps
The entire 1965 Topps Series was covered by Kevin B of Orioles Card "O" the day on The Great 1965 Topps Project
Cardboard Connection
Sports Collectors Digest (TS O' Connell)
Golden Age of Baseball Cards
Dean's Cards
Beckett

PSA

Sources & Links
Phungo Al Kaline HoF Index
Cardboard Connection
Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards

PHUNGO CHALLENGE: Topps Jim Leyland 1992 and 2009 - Fungo on Phungo

Took a look at some of Jim Leyland's cards on the Baseball Card Database and noticed something interesting.  

1992 Topps #141 Jim Leyland (pix stolen from baseball card database)


 Above we have a Topps card of Jim Leyland likely hitting a Fungo as the Pirates manager. 

2009 Topps #339 Jim Leyland (again swiped from baseball card database)

And here we have Leyland with the Tigers 17 years later once again hitting a Fungo.

Most manager cards are profile shots, rarely these sort of "action" shots.  Which brings me to the....

Phungo Challenge
Is there another manager that can be found batting on 2 different cards.   Has to be a manager card, a pair of Ryne Sandberg cards of him batting for the Chicago Cubs doesn't count. 

Jim Leyland
I don't think that Leyland is done managing.  I think he and Detroit may have had enough of each other.  I know 68 seems old enough to retire, but some folks don't appear to be built for Retirement and I think Leyland is one of them. 

2010 Bowman Topps 100 #TP64 Jose Iglesias (pre-RC)

Regardless of the outcome of the ALCS, there is one guy that may end up as a LCS Bonus qualifier either way. 

2010 Bowman Topps 100 #TP64 Jose Iglesias (pre-RC)

Jose Iglesias was traded from Boston to Detroit mid-season. If the BoSox players are generous they could vote Iglesias get a portion of their playoff shares from the 2013 bonu$ pool.

The Tigers picked up Iglesias to fill in the hole created by Jhonny Peralta's Biogenisis suspension and he has been a solid fill in at the Shortstop position.  

2010 Bowman Topps 100
The Topps 100 Insert set consists of 100 Prospects, In addition to Iglesias the impressive checker includes early cards of Dom Brown, Ben Revere, Kyle Drabek, Anthony Gose, Josh Lindblom, Stephen Strasburg, Freddie Freeman, J-Hey, Posey, Bumgarner, Aroldis Chapamn, Logan Morrison, Todd Frazier, Austin Jackson, Ivan DeJesus JR, Koby Clemens, Zack Wheeler as well as several others.

2013 PostSeason Tigers
Max Scherzer
Miguel Cabrera


2013 PostSeason Red Sox

Clay Buchholz
David Ortiz
Dustin Pedroia 

Sources
baseball-ref
baseballcardpedia

2011 Topps Opening Day #16 Max Scherzer

Tonight the Detroit Tigers Max Scherzer is attempting to become the first member of the 20 win club in 2013.

2011 Topps Opening Day #16 Max Scherzer

The Tigers Max Scherzer has put together an amazing season. Going into tonight he is 19-1. Sometimes Win Loss records are seen as empty numbers. Certainly each season there seems like there is one Phillies pitcher that gets no run support (Hamels in 2013), and one who gets a lot of runs (Kendrick every season). In Scherzer's case This isn't true. He may not of racked up 20 wins with less offense, but he was still destined to get a bunch.

The current WAR leader among AL pitchers is Chris Sale. I am not sure why this is. Scherzer and Sale have comparable innnigs, ERA, ERA+, Strikeout and WHIP numbers.In fact Scherzer wins All of those categories. I checked around on Twitter and Dan M @_LeftField  (blog = Left Field) specified higher competition, ballpark factors, and the Whilte Sox mediocre defense as reasons that Sale's WAR rating is better than Scherzer.

This amounts to a WAR calculation for Sale of 6.2 while Scherzer stands at 5.8.

Regardless Scherzer is pitching for a team likely destined for postseason play, while the White Sox certainly are not.  There is still a month left to play and right now I would have Scherzer as unanimous Cy Young in the AL.

Another interesting aspect of Max Scherszer's season is his emergence as staff ace on a team that also has Justin Verlander. Verlander has been decent, but not nearly as dominant as his previous seasons.  He has struggled a bit his last few starts and overall his season has been average since Mid May.  Through his first 8 starts of the Season Verlander had an ERA of 1.93.  Since then his ERA has been in the middle 4s.  He has maintained a .500 record across both sets of starts and is still among the league leaders in Innings and Strikeouts.  However, both of those numbers are in the middle of the top 10 among his peers. He led the the league in both Ks and IPs in 3 of the last 4 years.

Justin Verlander is still a good pitcher on a good team and it will be interesting to see if he can return to form as October approaches.  If Max Scherzer can be the staff Ace in the playoffs it makes for some nice options for Jim Leyland at the top of the Tigers rotation.

Sources
baseballcardpedia.com
@_Leftfield

High Heat Stats

Reading the Competition: 1959 Topps #463 Baseball Thrills Al Kaline

With the Phillies making a rare trip out to Detroit today we take a look at a great subset card of Tigers Hall of Famer Al Kaline.

1959 Topps #463 Baseball Thrills Al Kaline

I have a particular fondness for this Topps Subset.  I believe it is the first subset of cards other than All-Star cards featured in 1958 and rookies in 1959. There are a couple of other Futures HoFs in the set including Mantle, Mays, and Ernie Banks.

Curiously the Baseball Thrills go back further than the previous season.  This one goes back 4 years to the 1955 campaign in which Al Kaline won the batting title at age 20. This is documented on the back of the card in a psuedo-newspaper format which I am a sucker for.  

1959 Topps #463 Baseball Thrills Al Kaline (b-side - click to enlarge)

I think this might be the first baseball card set to ever echo the newspaper theme. not sure.  probably should verify with Night Owl. 

Al Kaline won a batting title at age 20, but then never accomplished the feat again. It isn't that he was a one year wonder, he just didn't repeat the feat.  We have covered his career numbers a bit more in depth here. 

FTC - Baseball Thrills

The Baseball Thrills Subset of 1959 Topps consists of 9 cards that run from #461-470. Al Kaline is the 3rd card of the set at #463.  The card shown above was picked up for $3.50 at a card show in 2011. It has the pencil mark on the back but in otherwise good shape. Current Lobay auction for #463 finished at $2.49 shipped.  

I am too busy to add the graded card pricing at this time, but may return to that at some point. 

Sources & Links

Phungo Al Kaline HoF Index

baseball-ref.com

baseball card database

ebay.com