2017 Hall of Fame Canidate: Pat Burrell

Today we take a look at the most prominent Phillies player on the 2017 Hall of Fame Ballot, Pat Burrell.

2009 UD A Piece of History Box Score Memories #BSM-PB Pat Burrell

For close to a decade Pat Burrell was fixture in the Middle of the Phillies batting order. The 2009 UD card featured here honors one of those games. On October 5th 2008 the Phillies defeated the Brewers 6-2 in game 4 of the NLDS. The W clinched the franchise first Postseason series victory in 15 years.

WAR Stories (actually WPA stories)
Pat Burrell was the offense hero of that game going 3-4 with a pair of Homers and 4 RBI. The big blow was a 2 out/2 strike three run homer in the third. The shot gave the Phillies a 4-0 which they never relinquished. Burrell led all players in Win Probability Added for the game with a healthy 0.282 number. The 3 run homer accounted for 23 of those 28 points.

Flip

2009 UD A Piece of History Box Score Memories #BSM-PB Pat Burrell (b-side)

Back of the card has a nice box score with Burrell Boldfaced in the #5 spot in the batting order. Other noteworthies in the box are Jimmy Rollins who Homered to lead off the game and Jayson Werth who hit a dinger immediately after Burrell's 3 run blast.

Upper Dreck
couple of complaints with the UD box score. I would like to see the line score of the game - Hell UD doesn't even mention who the Phillies played. There pitching portion of the box is also ignored. The often overlooked Joe Blanton went 6 innings allowing just 5 hits and a single run (Homer Prince Fielder)

I have one other complaint. That is on the front of the card - The Phillies and Brewers played this game in Milwaukee, wish that UD would have selected a photo Burrell in an away uni. It is one of those things that I am OCD about on baseball cards - especially cards that are "inserts"

Phungo Verdict

Hell Yes Hall of Fame!

Pat Burrell's tenure in Philadelphia concluded with a World Championship. He followed that up by being part of a World Series winner in San Francisco.  Phungo Verdict = HoF


Phungo Pat Burrell Index 

1999 Topps #T44
1999 Topps Stadium Club #151 Pat Burell - 1998 First overall Pick
2001 Topps #144 (rookie cup)
2001 Topps Stadium Club
2002 Topps Heritage #179
2003 Topps Heritage #11
2004 Fleer Authentix #50
2006 Topps Opening Day #117
2006 Fleer Ultra Diamond Producers #DP19 
2007 Topps Heritage #90 
2008 UD Documentary 2008 06 20
2009 Phungo #5
2011 Topps (w/ Giants)

2010 08 17 Game Report (Burrell returns to Philadelphia with Giants)
2015 Alumni Weekend
Pat Burrell's farewell letter to Philadelphia

Sources and Links
2017 HoF Candidates
Game Dated Card Index
Baseball-ref
Check out my Cards 

ANNIVERSARY: April 17 1976 Mike Schmidt 4 Home Run Game

Missed a Phillies anniversary yesterday and wanted to correct that error today. Special thanks to @HighHeatStats for mentioning the event last night or else I would have completely bypassed the occasion.

2008 UD Baseball Heroes #138 Mike Schmidt 

On April 17th of 1976 Mike Schmidt became the first NL player to hit four consecutive Home Runs in a game. The feat was commemorated on the above card in the 2008 UD Baseball Heroes set.

2008 UD Baseball Heroes #138 Mike Schmidt (b-side)

The back has a capsule summary of the wild game which the Phillies eventually won 18-16.  Schmidt's final Home Run of the four broke a 15-15 tie in the 9th inning.

Upper Dreck
Just gotta mention one of those things that will always bug me, Schmidt's four homer game came at Wrigley field but the UD card captures him in a Home uni - slackers.

Sources and Links
Phungo Mike Schmidt HoF Index
High Heat Stats Twitter
Baseball-Ref 

Upper Dreck Fleer Fail - 2013 Jambalaya Bryce Harper - Detroit Tigers?

Last week Cardboard Connection published info on Upper Deck's return to producing baseball cards in the form of 2013 Fleer Retro Baseball.

2013 Fleer Retro Teaser Jambalaya Bryce Harper (from cardboard connection)

It was good to see UD went all out when sending out their promotional materials.  They get a big star and they got lucky as Harper bumped his Q-Rating with a noteworthy Opening Day performance.

You would think a multi-million dolar company like Upper Deck might put as much effort into returning to baseball as Bryce Harper puts into his game.  Unfortunately they do not appear to have done so.

Yes I realize this may only be a mock up for a some quick pub - but how the hell can you get the Team Wrong? Detroit!! - I was trying to figure out of Bryce Harper had some sort of Detroit on his resume.  Near as I can tell no College or High School there.

The design is based off a Basketball insert set that was issued in 1997/98 so that may have thrown off UD. But those card featured nicknames not city names, so that text had to be changed regardless.

I honestly don't get it.  Maybe I am missing something here, but it is like they put in no effort at all. Or they are leaking a gimmick to get some press.

More Swag from White Sox Cards

Steve also sent over some UD Documentary cards.

2008 UD Documentary #PHI108 Chase Utley
2008 UD Documentary #WAS108 Austin Kearns


I am the only person on earth collecting UD-Doc. But I am only collecting the two dozen or so cards that are related to games I saw during the 2008 season. Since this set is so large, finding individual cards is the equivalent of finding needles in a haystack. As you know each card is related to a specific game during the 2008 season - Of course each game features two teams, therefore each contest also has two cards.

I do have a dealer that is a regular at my mall card shows that will often have a couple of the Phils versions of UD-Doc. But he understandably doesn't carry the cards that feature the team the Phils faced during a given game.

Special Thanks to Steve who was able to find a couple of the cards from the opposing teams including the Nats one above.

These cards represent a game from July 31st 2008. Often we plan a baseball related activity for my Birthday which happens to be on July 31st. In 08 the Phils were at the Nats new Stadium in DC which provided a great opportunity to catch a Phils road game with relatively little travel.

The Phils won the game and the series easily. Several pictures for the 2009 and 2010 Phungo Card set were taken during this birthday trip to Washington. Like many of these Birthday Baseball Trips it was hot and muggy but it was very enjoyable.

back to the cards...

Never mind the fact that the Card represent a Nats home game, but the card pictures the Nats playing an away game at the Metrodome. The Utley card is in deed an away game for the Phils and could possibly be in Washington, could also be Cincinnati or a variety of other venues I am sure. For both teams the game is #108. The backs do seem to mesh up. UD got some information on the Washington card wrong (on the right). Orr played Shortstop for the Nats that day. Nice job Upper Dreck.


2008 UD Documentary #PHI108 Chase Utley (b-side)
2008 UD Documentary #WAS108 Austin Kearns (b-side)

Broken News - UD announces Metrodome Legacy

To commemorate the Minnesota Twins 28 years of playing in the much celebrated Hubert H Humphrey Metrodome trading card giant Upper Dreck has announced that it will produce a Metrodome Legacy Set. The set will consist of 2243 cards each representing a specific game in the Twins Storied Metrodome History.




2009 Upper Dreck #69 Denard Span

The card pictured above represents a Twins win on September 13th of their inaugural season in the Metrodome. This card also represents a memorable game where the Twins drew an incredible 2,795 Fans.

Similar to another recent insert set (Yankee Stadium Legacy) the Metrodome Legacy will feature players that didn't play in the game noted on the card. In fact for this set Upper Dreck has gone a step further and placed Denard Span on a card representing a game that was played before he was even born.

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I firmly believe that I put no more time into this custom card and post than UD put into the Real YSL Set.

Upper Dreck

I have posted a few Sloppy Topps in the past, today - in the interest of equal time I am posting an Upper Dreck entry.

And, yes, I know poking fun at Yankee Stadium Legacy is like picking on the Mets injury depleted 2009 lineup - but it is still fun.

The two budget packs I picked up at Rite-Aid yesterday were basically uneventful (8 base cards - no Phils) but the YSL was an interesting Yogi Berra card.

2008 UD YSL #1869 Yogi Berra

This is perfectly fine card featuring a Hall of Famer and a game the day of September 2nd 1946.

Since the featured game is from 1946, I can't even check Baseball-Reference to see if Yogi played that day. Of course I could read the Bronx Tales - click the picture to enlarge and read, sorry it may be a bit blurry. Notice anything odd. The card represents a game on September 2nd 1946 however, YOGI BERRA DIDN'T EVEN DEBUT UNTIL SEPTEMBER 22nd!!!

Ugh. Aren't insert sets supposed to be special or something?!?! - Like I said there is not much joy in poking fun at this set. I realize it is a large set and a lot of work to create - still it would of been nice for UD to at least show something on the effort end.

All this being said, I am still chasing the two specific UD YSL cards that represent the two games I saw at Yankee Stadium. The first card I chronicled in this post regarding a botched ebay bid. The other card is for the game played May 3rd 2008, which would be among the 2009 UD inserts.

More Yogi at Phungo HoF Index
1959 Topps #180