Tommy Greene No-Hitter Card #2: Stadium Club Members Only

For the middle edition of our Tommy Greene No-Hitter Trilogy we take a look at a special card from the 1991 Topps Stadium Club set.

1991 Topps Stadium Club Members Only Tommy Greene

Little hard to make out in the card photo but at the bottom of the card it states "Members Only". The Phrase refers to the set only issued to TSC Members.

Good Action shot of Tommy Greene here and the Full Bleed is nice, especially for 1991. However Topps stumbled on a pet peeve for me - on Specialty card dedicated to No-Hitters and other milestones it always irks me when the card messes up the Home/Away illusion.

As we know from the no-hitter box featured in our earlier posting, Tommy Greene tossed his gem in Montreal. In the above photo Greene is obviously in the Phillies Home Whites.

1991 Topps Stadium Club Members Only Tommy Greene (b-side)

Topps makes up for that oversight on the back of the card. Yeah my irrational dislike for Fouling up the Uni- Colors is matched by Irrational love of Newsprint themed cards.

Pretty sure I would read the Stadium Club Herald cover to cover if it were published today.

I am a little disappointed with the portion of the Text that specifies "Seven bases on balls were all Tommy permitted...".

In what world are 7 walks considered trivial! 
 
Sources and Links
Tommy Greene No-Hitter Master Posting
No-Hitter Index
Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards - Bob Lemke  

25 Years Ago: Tommy Greene 1992 Score #426 No-Hit Club

We have reached 25th anniversary of the No-Hitter authored by the Phillies own Tommy Greene. 

1992 Score #426 No-Hit Club Tommy Greene

Greene Shutout the Expos 2-0 in Montreal. The game was Greene's second start of the season and only the 15th of his career. Greene's Catcher Darrin Fletcher was just as inexperienced, playing in only his 27th game.

Tommy Greene had come over to the Phillies in the same deal that brought Dale Murphy to the team less than a year prior. As of May 1992 the 24 year old Greene had still not established himself as a regular starting pitcher. The only reason that Greene even got to face the Expos was because Danny Cox had to skip a start due to an injury.

Box Notes

1992 Score #426 No-Hit Club Tommy Greene (b-side)

Lots of unknowns in the Phillies LineUp of May 23 1991. I vaguely remember Rod Booker and the short-lived Wally Backman era, John Morris rings no bells at all. We also have a John Kruk game with him playing in Left Field.

Among the hitters that Tommy Greene were Hall of Stats member Larry Walker, Andres Galarraga, and Delino DeShields. Greene struck out 10 Expos in the game including Hat Tricks for Galarraga and Marquis Grissom.

Greene's game was not without it's blemishes. He gave up seven walks which led to him facing 33 batters, which I suspect is a pretty high number for a no-hitter.

The opposing pitcher was Oil Can Boyd who had a pretty good game of his own 8 innings, 6 Hits and 1 run.

More Greene
The Tommy Greene No-Hitter gave Phillies fans a few other cards, over the next day or two we will take a quick look at these gems.

1991 Topps Stadium Club Members Only Tommy Greene

We discuss the above Stadium Club here.

1992 Donruss #94 Tommy Greene No-Hitter Against Expos


Sources and Links
No-Hitter Index
Philadelphia Inquirer/Daily News - Jennifer Frey 1991 0524
Philadelphia Inquirer/Daily News - Paul Hagen
Philadelphia Inquirer - Jayson Stark/Dick Polman
Baseball-Ref
Inky/Montreal Gazette - Larry Fredricks and Frank Lawlor
Hall of Stats

Swag from Night Owl Cards

Last week the incoming mail included some great cards from Greg of the Prolific Night Owl Cards. So many of the bloggers blow me away not only with their frequency of posts, but also with so many ideas that are both interesting and funny. As you all are aware Night Owl is one of the best at coming up with so many of these gems.


Swag


2007 Bowman's Best #14 Chase Utley
1981 Topps #40 Tug McGraw
1992 Classic Best #395 Checklist
2010 Topps #89 JA Happ

The Bowman's Best Utley card is real nice. On top of being nice and shiny the card has some real weight and sturdiness. Any card of the Tugger Rocks - I like the artwork on the front of the checklist - Finally just wanted to post JA Happ and mention that the fan favorite is returning to Philadelphia this week after being traded last month in the deal for Roy Oswalt.


1995 Score #26 Tommy Greene
2009 Topps Chrome #62 Chase Utley
2009 Uppder Deck Gold #813 Ryan Howard

Tommy Greene with some Chrome and Gold.

A sad note, Tommy Greene's young wife just passed away after battling cancer I think. He was in town for the Alumni weekend a few weeks back. I was always a fan of his and hope that he is able to deal with this real life loss.

And There's More

If you take a close look you may notice a Non-Phils card in there. At some point I hope to put up a posting regarding this card that should be a significant help in completing a special Phungo Set.

Phillies @ Dodgers Game 4 and 1993 NLCS clincher 15th Anniversary!

Today marks the 15th anniversary of the greatest game I ever saw - October 13th 1993 - NLCS game 6 Atlanta Braves @ Philadelphia Phillies. The Phils had taken a 3-2 series lead by winning two very tight games in Atlanta. They were returning home for game 6, which was one of the games I drew as a season ticket holder.


The Phils took a 4-1 lead in the 5th on a Dave Hollins Homer, Mickey Morandini tripled the following inning to stretch the lead to 6-1. Tommy Greene, who was at the end of his best season of his brief career, gave the Phils seven strong innings and left with a 6-3 lead.

1994 Fleer Flair #412 Tommy Greene
Mitch Williams pitched an improbable 1-2-3 Ninth for the save clinching the 1993 National League crown for the Phils.

Amazingly the pitcher that Tommy Greene out-dueled that night is now, 15 years later, a member of the team the Phils are facing in the 2008 NLCS - Greg Maddux.


1994 Fleer Ultra #446 Greg Maddux

The only proper way to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the greatest game I ever saw would be with another playoff victory. Hopefully the baseball fates agree with me.

Note 1 - You can't tell in the scan, but the price of the Phils NLCS ticket in 1993 was $30 - that was for a ticket in the last row of the old Vet. I am not sure what upper level tickets are going for this year but the lowers carry a face value of $120.

Note 2 - The Tommy Greene card is from 1994 Fleer Flair, one of my favorite sets. The dual photos on the front of these cards are usually very good and there is even a 3rd photo on the back. I particularly like the in action pitching shots like this one. The card stock is also very strong - it really gives you the feeling your holding a premium card.

Go Phils!