Wall of Fame: Bobby Abreu (2019)

The Phillies recently announced that this years Wall of Fame inductee is Bobby Abreu. An interesting selection, on paper he is one of the organizations great players, however on the field he represents the long lean period between the 1993 Wheeze Kids and the Late 2000s championship squads.

2002 Fleer Authentix #56 Bobby Abreu

Abreu is often derided for his mediocre defense and to be honest I cannot remember him crashing a wall. Perhaps one of the effects if his tentative approach in the field is that he rarely missed a game. During his eight full seasons with the Phillies Abreu played at least 150 games every year.  An All-Star player never missing game can accumulate some impressive numbers, and Abreu did just that. As a Phillie Abreu tallied 195 Home Runs and 254 steals (7^th in team history). His .928 OPS ranks 2^nd in club history behind only Hall of Famer Chuck Klein. The component numbers (.416 OBP, .513 SLG) are top 10 as well. Advanced stats really don’t back up the no-defense critique, Abreu’s dWAR in Philadelphia was -1.5, below average but not really noteworthy especially when spread across 8+ season. Related note: during his gold glove 2005 campaign had a dWAR of -1.5.

2002 Fleer Authentix #56 Bobby Abreu (b-side)

Kind of a neat idea here. The player photos are on a facsimile tickets of their teams Home Opener. In the game represented here the Phillies defeated the Marlins 6-2. The tickets are purely representative – there is no mentioning of the game on either side of the card, nor the games results or how the player performed. 

Fortunately for that we have Baseball-Reference. 

And it was a good day for Bobby Abreu who went 4 for 4 with a couple of a doubles and a Home Run producing 3 RBI and scoring a pair of runs. Likely one of the best days of his career. 

Team Phungo has been to a lot of Phillies Home Openers and this happens is one of those games. Happy to be adding this one to cards that rep Phungo Games. 

2002 Fleer Authentix
Two years ago we profiled Scott Rolen's card for this set, that column can be found here. 

Bobby Abreu Index

1998 Topps #351: First Phillies Card, Bob vs Bobby Abreu 2011 #60YoT match

1999 Topps Stadium Club #39: Group Break, Cameo Mickey Morandini as a Cub. Named "Bob"

2000 Topps #38: Asian Zodiac Year og the Tiger (2010). Named as "Bob"
2000 Topps #38: Phillies All-Decade Team 

2002 Topps Opening Day #13: Snapshot of Topps Opening Day cards

2003 Bowman Heritage (Nachos Grande Swag)

2005 Topps Update #UH218 (2005 07 11 Home Run Derby Detroit)

2008 Topps Heritage Bat Relic: Hobby Box Break (w/ Yankees)
2009 Phungo BFI: Portrait (w/ Yankees)

2010 Topps #15: First Pack (w/ Angels)

2011 Topps 60 Years of Collecting #60YoT-47: 1998 Topps #351 selfie

2015 Cooperstown Classic

Sources and Links

Game Dated Cards Index

Phillies Wall of Fame Index

Baseball-Ref

2016 Wall of Fame inductee Jim Thome

The Phillies have announced that this year’s Wall of Fame inductee will be Jim Thome

2003 Donruss Studio #165 Jim Thome

Jim Thome’s tenure in Philadelphia was short but it had an impact. He may not have been a member of the playoff teams but he was an important piece that the organization needed to generate publicity while ramping up to opening of a new stadium.

The numbers for Thome’s 3+ Years are impressive, 101 Home Runs including an NL leading 47 in 2003 when he finished 4th in the MVP voting. He followed that up with an All-Star appearance in 2004. During each of his first two seasons in Philadelphia he finished top 10 NL in a number of offensive categories Homers, RBIs, Walks, SLG, and OPS.

2003 Donruss Studio
Picked this one because it features Thome in front of Veteran’s Stadium – the outgoing stadium. Regardless the building was good to Big Jim, He hit 28 dingers in the building including one on September 27 2003 which was the Final Home Run ever hit at the Vet. Later in that game he would also be plated on a Chase Utley single as the winning run in the Phillies final Veteran’s Stadium Walk-off Win.

One of the things I like about this picture is that just beyond Thome’s shoulders it features one of the giant statues that were set at the entrances of the Vet.  The sculptures were retained when Veteran's stadium was imploded and now sit around the former stadium’s perimeter.

Sources and Links
Phillies Wall of Fame Index
Phungo Jim Thome PC index
Baseball-ref

Phillies Wall of Fame Robin Roberts

Each season I make it a priority to check in on Phillies Alumni weekend. I love seeing the players from my younger years come back to Philadelphia, even if it is to just wave to the crowd. When a club is going to lead the league in losses you look for bright spots anywhere they can be found. 

The 2016 Phillies schedule came out earlier this week and it appears the weekend will occur August 12th &13th versus the Rockies.

2006 Toyota Phillies Wall of Fame Robin Roberts

Each year the Phillies add an alum to their Wall of Fame, the initial induction was of Robin Roberts in 1978.

In 2006 the Phillies issued a set of postcards to honor the "Wallers". Today we have the card dedicated to Roberts.

2006 Toyota Phillies Wall of Fame Robin Roberts (b-side)


Robin Roberts Stats on the back plus a ghosted faux-action shot.


Phillies Wall of Fame Index

Robin Roberts	1978
Richie Ashburn	1979
Chuck Klein	1980
Grover Alexander	1981
Del Ennis	1982
Jim Bunning	1984
Ed Delahanty	1985
Cy Williams	1986
Granny Hamner	1987
Paul Owens	1988
Steve Carlton	1989
Mike Schmidt	1990
Larry Bowa	1991
Chris Short	1992
Curt Simmons	1993
Dick Allen	1994
Willie Jones	1995
Sam Thompson	1996
Johnny Callison	1997
Greg Luzinski	1998
Tug McGraw	1999
Gavvy Cravath	2000
Garry Maddox	2001
Tony Taylor	2002
Sherry Magee	2003
Billy Hamilton	2004
Bob Boone	2005
Dallas Green	2006
John Vukovich	2007
Juan Samuel	2008
Harry Kalas	2009
Darren Daulton	2010
John Kruk	2011
Mike Lieberthal	2012
Curt Schilling	2013
Charlie Manuel	2014

Pat Burrell            2015
Jim Thome           2016
 (Pete Rose)          2017 (rescinded)
Roy Halladay       2018
Pat Gillick            2018
Bobby Abreu       2019
Manny Trillo        2020


There is also a Section of the Wall dedicated to the Philadelphia A's

Philadelphia A's Wall of Fame

Connie Mack	1978
Jimmie Foxx	1979
Lefty Grove	1980
Al Simmons	1981
Mickey Cochrane	1982
Jimmy Dykes	1984
Eddie Plank	1985
Rube Waddell	1986
Eddie Collins	1987
Wally Moses	1988
Bob Johnson	1989
Elmer Valo	1990
Chief Bender	1991
Jack Coombs	1992
Frank Baker	1993
Bobby Shantz	1994
Eddie Joost	1995
Ed Rommel	1996
Ferris Fain	1997
Bing Miller	1998
Sam Chapman	1999
George Earnshaw	2000
Gus Zernial	2001
Rube Walberg	2002
Rube Oldring	2003

Sources and Links
Phungo Robin Roberts HoF Index
Phillies

The Pope Visits Philadelphia

Not sure what all the excitement is about, Paul "The Pope" Ownes spent close to 50 years working for the Phillies in some capacity.

2006 Toyota Wall of Fame Paul Owens

I think Owens got his nickname from having a resemblance to Pope Paul VI. I am not Catholic, but I do think of Paul VI as my Pope - he was Pope during my entire childhood. It is hard to make out a resemblance in the image of the plaque of Owens featured above, but one may see it in a card we feature below.

To me Paul Owens will always be the guy who took the reigns from Pat Corrales and led the 1983 Phillies to the NL Pennant. Two years ago we marked the 30th anniversary of that team with a series on a few of the notable players from the squad including Owens.

 Flip

2006 Toyota Wall of Fame Paul Owens (b-side)

The ghosted photo on the back of the postcard doesn't give us much help with a Pope Paul VI connection, but there is something interesting in the stats. I can't recall many cards that have a persons Win-Loss record as a GM - but there it is.

 1985 Topps #92 Paul Owens

Here we have an image of Owens from an angle similar to the one used for the WoF plaque. I suppose he looks Popish - with a baseball cap and windbreaker.

flip

1985 Topps #92 Paul Owens (b-side)

Two things of note on the back of the card 1) Text mentions Owens return to the GM role, 2) The 1984 Phillies fell from being an NL Pennant winner to being a .500 team. With the aging roster and general lack of young talent on that checker it is easy to understand the demise.


Phungo Paul Owens Phillies WoF Index
1984 Topps # 229 (1983 Phillies NL Chanps 2013 retrospective - 20th anniversary)

Sources and Links
Phillies Wall of Fame Index
Baseball-ref

2015 Wall of Fame inductee Pat Burrell

Last week the Phillies announced that the 2015 Wall of Fame inductee will be Pat Burrell

1999 Topps #T44 Pat Burrell

I was pulling for Fred Luderus to get the Phillies Wall Treatment but have no problem with Burrell. He may have never been an All-Star but he had several very good years in Philadelphia. His biggest hit came in Game 5 of the 2008 World Series - A 7th inning double that would eventually score as the series deciding run. 

1999 Topps #T44 Pat Burrell (b-side)

Pat Burrell initially came to the majors as a first baseman which is reflected on a couple of his early  cards. 1999T doesn't have the position listed on the front, but if you look at the flip it is listed across the top next to the player name.  

Sources and Links
Phillies
baseball-ref
baseball card database

Reading the Competition: 1959 Topps #225 Johnny Logan - Milwaukee Braves

This weekend the Phillies are visiting Milwaukee to face the Brewers who later this season will be honoring Johnny Logan who played shortstop for Milwaukee's previous tenant the Braves. 

1959 Topps #225 Johnny Logan

Like the Phillies who have added many Philadelphia A's to their Wall of Fame the Brewers have honored their baseball past by adding Milwaukee Braves to their Wall.

Johnny Logan gets the well deserve honored this season - he has been a leader in the effort to keep the them histoyr of the Braves time in Milwaukee alive. Logan need not enter a teams wall of fame on ambassador credentials alone.  He had one of those really decent, if forgotten, careers. His 13 years in the majors included 11 with the Braves in both Boston and Milwaukee and the balance with the Pirates. He was the starting shortstop on two Braves World Series teams including the 1957 squad which won the World Championship in 7 games. Between 55 and 59 Logan made 5 All-Star appearances. His best year was probably 1955 when he led the league in Games Played and Doubles while batting .297 (116 OPS+, 6.0 WAR ranked 6th in the NL). He also stacked up well defensively, leading the NL in assists at short 4 times during the 1950s.

He has a very interesting SABR Bio that is worth a look if you have some time.  Logan lost 2 minor league seasons to the service during WWII, but he also attributes that time to helping him learn the fundamentals of the game while playing for the Army team based out of Camp Wheeler Georgia. 

While in the Army Logan was sent to Japan, the Bio isn't specific, but this may have factored into him playing in Japan after his Major League career ended with Pittsburgh. Logan joined the Nankai Hawks for a single season. The Hawks won the Japan Series that year making Johnny Logan the first player to be on winning World Series squads in both the US and Japan. Logan also homered in both series

Rewind
Last year the Brewers honored broadcaster Bob Uecker with a statue near the stadium - briefly mentioned in this post last year.

CommishBob covered the 59 Topps Johnny Logan card on his Set blog back in 2011.


For The Collector
I picked up the Johnny Logan card featured above as part of an ebay lot in April of 2008.  The card went for about 40 cents - it is in ok condition, couple of creases the number 16 (Logans Uni # w/ the Bucos) in pen on the front and a small 'x' written on the back.  At larger card shows Topps 1959 commons often be found for 50 cents.

The Topps Rookie Card of Johnny Logan is #158 the 1953 Set. It has sold recently for a low of $15 (there was an off condition card for $5.75 from a questionable seller). The high for the card was $42.50 for a card graded NM by somebody known as Starx Cards, whomever they are.

The 1953 Topps Logan card lists his name as John rather than Johnny and it is the only card where he is a member of the Boston Braves.  He has a Topps card for every year from 53-63 excluding 1955. In 55 Bowman had a Johnny Logan offering (#180).  His last Braves card is in 61, the final two cards are with the Pirates.
   

References
Baseball-Ref
SABR Bio
Pipe Dream - Binghamton University Student Paper
Ebay
Baseball Card Database

Who would induct Curt Schilling into the Phillies Wall of Fame

The fan voting for the Phillies 2013 Wall of Fame Honoree closed earliar today. There was only one reallly legit candidate on the ballot.

2011 Phungo #38 Curt Schilling

There were about a dozen candidates.  My 3 votes went to Jim Konstanty, Harry Wright and Pinky Whitney. Other candidates included Rick Wise, Von Hayes, LC, Fregosi, Ozark, Gregg Gross, and Ron Reed.   

I suppose at some point he would get my Phillies WoF vote, but not just yet. If the fans vote him in for 2013 thats fine with me - I am off the hook.

I do think that he will end up winning the 2013 fan ballot.  The rest of the candidates are too thin and spread across such varied eras that I don't think any of them could muster more votes then Schill. 

This leads me to a question. Who in the Phillies family will induct Schilling into the Phillies WoF? I just don't seem him as being that close with any of the Phils alums. Past inductees were introduced by folks that made some sort of sense.  In 2012 Mike Lieberthal was inducted by fellow Phils WoF catcher Bob Boone.  Darren Daulton was introduced by Steve Carlton which surprised me but apparently the two were known to have an adult bevarage together.

There are other 1993 Phils already on the Wall including Dautlon and John Kruk.  But I always saw them as being from the other end of Macho row.  Kruk and Schilling are both colleagues with ESPN and perhaps the two of them have a better professional relationship then I imagine.

Of course none of this may matter - Maybe Curt Schilling would blow off the honor. Maybe Curt Schilling is too big for Philadelphia, just like he was back in the 2000 season. 

Phungo Cards
I concede this is a crap photo - damn you Valley Forge Convention Center basement and your shoddy lighting.  I wanted a Schilling card in one of the Phungo sets and this was just barely good enough to make the grade.

Snapshots - Mike Lieberthal Phillies Wall of Fame Induction

Mike Lieberthal and his son get the red carpet treatment from the Phillies

I appreciated the Mike Lieberthal WoF induction significantly more then I thought it would.  Some great players returned for the occasion, the Phils video team put together another great production which gave me and other Phillies fans a chance to re-examines the long-time catchers career.

Lieberthal has caught more games for the Phils than any other player including Bob Boone (one time MLB record holder for Games), 1993 NLCS champ team Captain Darren Daulton and current All-Star receiver Carlos Ruiz.  Lieberthal also has the team Home Run record for the position.  He was a two time all-star and earned a gold glove behind the plate.

Ceremony  

Bob Boone

I wasn't sure who would introduce Lieberthal.  The Phillies made an nice choice in bringing back Bob Boone.   

Phillies PA announcer Dan Baker and Mike Lieberthal 

Lieberthal recognized the late John Vukovich among others when speaking about is early career.

Steve Carlton and Mike Schmidt

 If I get time, I will get a posting up on the actual game sometime this weekend - which includes another HR batting stance (unfortunately not Chase Utley's).  I also have a Phungo 5 with Kerry from Cards on Cards in the On-Deck bin. 

2012 Phillies Wall of Fame Night - Mike Lieberthal

Phillies Alumni weekend is upon us.  If you're a Phils fan and you can make it, I recommend the outing.  The organization does a good job bringing back former players and holding events. 

This year the Phillies Wall of Fame inductee is Mike Lieberthal. I haven't seen who will be introducing him, but a number of Phils luminaries are expected to be on hand for the occasion including Steve Carlton and Mike Schmidt.


  

2003 Topps Chrome #140 Mike Lieberthal

Mike Lieberthal is the one guy that most connects all the non-playoff years between 1994 and 2006.  Did a little research and found out he does not have the most games played as a Phil without repping them in the playoffs.  That dubious distinction belongs to Tony Taylor.

Despite his long tenure as a Phillies player I have only featured one Lieberthal card here previously, but I did put him on my Phillies all oughts team.  Which I may rethink with Carlos Ruiz having a very successful post-oughts career. 

Lieberthal did make the all-star team twice (1999, 2000) and hit 150 Home Runs during his Phillies career which I suppose is Wall of Fame worthy - but I got him as one of their weaker candidates.

Phillies 2009 Alumni Night

First off I want to let everyone know that there is still time to get involved in the

John Hughes Memorial Trading Card Trivia Contest!

It's looking like a crummy weather day here in the Northeast, I'm sure there are some 80s trivia buffs out there who could waste 20 minutes on the net finding the answers, and someone has to challenge Dayf.

Moving on to the present post:

Alumni Night was a bit of a bummer for several reasons. The Phils lost for the 2nd game in a row v the 2nd place Marlins. The Phils appeared to have a favorable pitching matchup (Cole Hamels v Sean West). The Alumni accessibility was not as good as expected. And finally we got caught up in a traffic jam on the way home.

Within the game itself the Marlins were terribly sloppy but the Phils let the Fish off the hook several times by going about 2 for 20 with runners on base. The Marlins won 6-4. Dingers were hit for the bad guys by Chris Coghlan (member of Phungo Fantasy Squad at least) and Cody Ross. Former Phil Brian Sanches got the W in relief, Cole Hamels was unimpressive in yet another loss and failed to go 6 innings. On a positive note Ryan Howard looked good without hitting a homer - a rare event. He has not been hitting well recently, hopefully his 4-4 night gets him out of his slump.

Despite the frustrating loss, I did have a good time and I am glad I went. I was able to pick up a couple of autos and got a couple of decent pictures.

Here are some of the hilights (all pix can be clicked to enlarge):

Harry Kalas was this years inductee to the Phillies Wall of Fame, this is his brand new plaque.


Phils New Addition:
Anybody notice anything odd about the above picture?



Mickey Morandini


Jim Eisenreich



National Anthem with Phillies Alumni and Current Phillies on the field

Close Up of Alums including all four Phils living HOFs

And I got some shots of the bad guys.



This is what Chris Coghlan looks like right before he hits a homer to center field

and Marlins Pitcher Sean West:


I met West's Aunt and Uncle at a local restaurant last year and have been following him a bit since then. He is young and has had mixed starts this year. Last night he was fair at best, he was able to get out of a few jams, but lasted less than 5 innings. The Marlins bullpen did a great job of holding the Phils in check and along with Chris Coghlan were the stars of the game.