1991 Bowman #3 Rod Carew

Tonight in honor of the Phillies rare trip to Minnesota (and as part of our 1976 All-Star Game Coverage) we take a look at Twins Hall of Famer Rod Carew.

1991 Bowman #3 Rod Carew III

When he played in Philadelphia's Bicentennial All-Star Game Rod Carew was 30 years old and was playing in his 10th major league season.

Incredibly He was also a member of his 10th All-Star Team.

In every one of his eight previous All-Star games (Made team but DNP 1970) Carew played 2nd Base. 1976 was the first mid-summer classic which Carew played at his new position, First Base.

The Seven time batting champion did not fare quite as well in All-Star game play. In 1976 Carew was 0-3 with a walk and a stolen base. At the time the performance brought his career numbers to 2-24 a .083 Batting Average. Quite an anomaly for a player who batted .328 in the regular season through that point in his career.

Carew's All-Star performances would improve during the 2nd half of his career, he finished with a career .244 BA in 48 ABs. His best performances was in 1978 when he had a pair of triples and scored two runs.

1991 Bowman
I went with the 1991 Bowman card over one of the many Rod Carew All-Star cards.

This is because I am fond of the #29 Jersey stamp on the upper right. The flair represents Carew's uniform number that was retired by the Twins on July 19 1987.

Recently Rod Carew suffered a major heart attack, and may possibly need a heard transplant. Subsequently in partnership with the Twins Carew and his wife Rhonda launched a project to raise funds for the American Heart Association - the name of the initiative is The Heart of 29 Campaign.

Flip

1991 Bowman #3 Rod Carew III (b-side)

The post career card highlights Carew's accomplishments during the 1970s including his six batting titles and 1977 MVP award.

Sources and Links
1976 ASG Index
Rod Carew HoF Index
Minnesota Twins
Baseball-ref
Cardboard Connection

Sunday Night Baseball: Angels Rod Carew 1981 Topps #100

With Sunday night baseball in Anaheim for the Tigers and Angels we take a look at Hall of Famer Rod Carew

1981 Topps #100 Rod Carew

Rod Carew spent seven of his 19 seasons with the California Angels. While his best years were behind him by the time Carew got to LA, he still was an important contributor to the team. Carew was a member of each of the Angels first two playoff clubs (1979, 1982), and represented the team in six All-Star games. A hitting machine Rod Carew ranks 2nd among all Angels in both Batting Average (Vladimir Guerrero .319/.314) and On Base Pct (Mike Trout - .395/.393).

The Angels retired Rod Carew's #29 on August 12th 1986. He was the first player to be so honored by the club who had previously retired the #26 for owner Gene Autry (26 was chosen to symbolize the 26th man)

Angels Retired Numbers (photo 2014 0523)

Of course it is the entire career of Rod Carew that makes the Panamanian born infielder a Hall of Famer. He earned an MVP and Rookie of the Year award with the Twins while racking up 2082 of his 3053 career hits (Ranks 23 in MLB history).

Carew's .328 batting average ranks 34th all time and would top all active major leaguers (Miguel Cabrera .321 as of 2015 0516)

His seven batting titles rank fourth all-time behind Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, and Tony Gwynn.

1981 Topps
This is Rod Carew second Topps base card as an Angel. 1981 was the fifth time that Topps awarded Carew a Hero Number, an honor they would bestow on the hitter 10 times during his playing career.

1981 Topps #100 Rod Carew (b-side)

There he is Rod Carew with close to 1900 games under his belt and a career .333 batting average. 2394 hits down, 659 or so to go 

Sources and Links
Phungo Rod Carew HoF Index
baseball card database
Baseball-ref
LA Times (Jim McCurdie)
LA Angels

2012 Timeless Talents Andy Pettitte Cliff Lee

Last week the New York Yankees announced that they are retiring the numbers of Bernie Williams Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte.

2012 Topps Timeless Talents #TT12 Andy Pettitte Cliff Lee

This generated some discussion among Baseball Nerds. First there is a the sheer gluttony - the Yankees have 17 Retired Numbers (for 18 players - 8 is retired for both Yogi and Bill Dickey). Secondly Andy Pettitte's name raised some eyebrows.

Pettitte admitted to HGH use after being named in the Mitchell Report. It should be noted that according to Pettitte the PED use occurred in 2002 prior to the banning of HGH.

Andy Pettitte's borderline HoF resume is largely based upon his incredible postseason numbers. The Mitchell Report may tip the scales against him.

I believe a large part of the Yankees motivation for retiring Pettitte's number now is to ease the return of Alex Rodriguez from his PED suspension. 

Timeless Talents
Andy Pettitte's partner on the 2012 Timeless Talents card is the Phillies Cliff Lee. The players are partnered as lefty aces that have big-game reputations.  

Lets take a closer look at the flip o the card that has some comparatives of the two players.

2012 Timeless Talents Andy Pettitte Cliff Lee (b-side)

Stats are interesting with one Lee at mid career while Pettitte was (at the time retired)

There is also a bit of a lazy Topps here - despite being released in 2012 the copy ignores the 2011 postseason. Cliff Lee took an L in his only 2011 playoff start - his record would have been 7-3 with a 2.52 ERA when this card was released.

Cliff Lee 2015
Today we find Lee 24 wins and 500 strikeouts down the road and 3 years older.  Last year was the worst season for Lee since 2007. He pitched only 13 games, 81+ innings with a mediocre 102 ERA+, all good for a replacement level +0.8 WAR.

Cliff Lee is now 36. From what I understand Lee is healthy after opting for rehab and recovery over surgery that would have cost him the 2015 season. Only 3 of Lee's top 10 comps made significant contributions at 36+, 2 never pitched again - including #1 comp Roy Oswalt. However miserable of a memory Oswalt may be for Phils fans, I am going to bring up one that distresses them more.

2011 Chris Carpenter

Yes Carpenter's age 36 season was the one where he dominated the 2011 postseason which included eliminating the Phillies in a 1-0 NLDS game 5.

In 2011 Carpenter was good for a 3.5 WAR, which is where I will target Cliff Lee. Not great, but not bad, and if he mimics 2011 Carpenter there is that World Series victory.

Sources and Links
Phillies WAR Projections 2015
Baseball-ref
Cardboard Connection
New York Yankees
ESPN

Snapshots 2014 08 22 White Sox @ Yankees

Team Phungo took a road trip to New York this past weekend to catch what is likely our last Derek Jeter home game. 

Derek Jeter (Tyler Flower Catching - I believe this is in the 1st inning)

We may have been there to see the Captain but the evening belonged to Martin Prado.  The veteran super utility player got both a Home Run and a Walk off single accounting for 3 of the Yankees runs in the 4-3 victory.

Jeter went 1-5 in the game with the ht being a single. Regardless the Yankees crowd was glad to see him play and showed their appreciation.


Snapshots

Shane Greene vs Tony Abreu

The Three White Sox runs came courtesy of a Home Run by Cuban Rookie of the Year candidate Tony Abreu.  The photo above is of the pitch upon which Abreu hit is homer. The ball just cleared the wall in left center. Greene settled down after a miserable first inning and was able to pitch into the 6th. 

John Danks vs Jacoby Ellsbury (5th inning) 

We didn't sit there much but our tix were int he CF bleachers. It was a fun atmosphere for a game. We had an obstructed view that kept us from seeing Left Field, but it to allow me to take some ok shots of the action at the plate.

In my opinion Yankee Stadium is better lit than Citizen's Bank Park. There is a bank of lights behind the plate that were not even lit during the game. Not sure of the reasoning, but adequate illumination form the remaining lights does seem a possibility

Retired Numbers

The Yankees retired Joe Torre's #6 the day after our game, so I imaging Friday night was the last time that the Retired number board had "only"17 numbers displayed.

Sources
Baseball-ref

New Feature Good Bad Ugly Meh the weekend that was

I plan on periodically attempting to capture some Hi and Lo-Lights from recent sports and culture on Planet Phungo in a new Feature I refer to as G-BUM - Good, Bad, Ugly, Meh.  It is going to have a strong Philly Bent, but will definitely include Baseball, Sports and Trading Cards.


Good

-NFL Playoffs - Both games were pretty good and both games went my way +2

-Ms Phungo and myself had a big day out in the city on Saturday included stops at Federal Donuts CC, Dandelion, and a visit to Jet Wine bar. thumbs up all +3

-While dontown we took in a play "Assistance" at the Wilma. apparently an upcoming NBC sitcom based on the characters is in the works. I thought the story was ok, but the Wilma put together a great set and it is cool seeing hi-tech theater. Also discovered discount Rush tix at the Wilma. +2

-Welcome Back NHL +5


Bad

Deaths of Hall of Famers Earl Weaver and Stan Musial. -10

2011 04 04 Earl Weaver's Retired #4


Ugly
 
MAssKissing of Ray Lewis. It is amazing how the NFL has rebranded Lewis - Lance Armstrong will likely be iconicized in a decade -5.

Meh
 
Te'o Hoopla - I don't care about this story at all, except that everytime I hear a detail it makes me laugh like hell. push.

G-Bum scorecard
 
-3 for the week - largely due to the sad news we got on Stan the Man and Earl Weaver. Really it was a great weekend - ran around to much on Saturday, recovered on the couch with Football on Sunday. January don't get much better than that in the northeast. 

Roberto Clemente (1934-1972)

Today marks the 40th anniversary of Roberto Clemente's death in a plane crash off the coast of Puerto Rico.

 2013 Phungo Retired Number #42-SJP21 Roberto Clemente

Clemente died before I had a concept of baseball, life or death. However is legacy is important to both the Latin Americans and to baseball.

I have jumped the gun a bit on the 2013 Phungo card release in order to honor Clemente today. This is his retired number not from Pittsburgh, but from Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan Puerto Rico. I am pretty sure that his number #21 is honored and retired across the entire commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

This is another first for Phungo Cards.  There have been other retired numbers in the series but this is the first one from outside of Major League Baseball.  The Photo was taken during the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

Enjoy your New Year's Eve safely and think about Roberto Clemente he spent his last New Year's Eve trying to help needy people after an earthquake in Nicaragua.

Phungo Roberto Clemente HoF Profile

1968 Topps #374

  

SUS - Shut Up Stats: Grand Slams for Gehrig and A-Rod

2011 Phungo 42-NYYa4 Lou Gehrig

Last night in the Yankees 6-4 win over the Braves Alex Rodriguez tied Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig for Career Grand Slams with 23.

Using the Baseball-Reference Home Run Log feature we can find out a little more about the 23 Slams hit by each of the players.

		Lou Gehrig
Slam#	HR #	Date	For		Vs	Pitcher	Score	Inning
1	11	7/23/1925	NYY		WSH	Firpo Marberry	behind 5-6	b 7
2	44	5/7/1927	NYY	@	CHW	Ted Lyons		t 9
3	65	1927-07-04 (2)	NYY		WSH	Bobby Burke		b 6
4	88	5/11/1928	NYY		CLE	Joe Shaute	behind 0-1	b 6
5	142	1929-09-10 (2)	NYY		DET	Phil Page		b 1
6	145	1929-09-18 (2)	NYY		CLE	Milt Shoffner		b 7
7	154	1930-05-22 (2)	NYY	@	PHA	Bill Shores		t 1
8	179	7/31/1930	NYY	@	BOS	Ed Durham		t 7
9	223	8/29/1931	NYY	@	PHA	Lefty Grove		t 6
10	225	8/31/1931	NYY		WSH	Lloyd Brown		b 5
11	227	1931-09-01 (2)	NYY		BOS	Ed Morris		b 3
12	240	5/26/1932	NYY	@	WSH	General Crowder		t 6
13	265	1932-09-09 (1)	NYY	@	DET	Earl Whitehill		t 3
14	305	5/10/1934	NYY		CHW	Lee Stine		b 5
15	307	5/13/1934	NYY		CLE	Lloyd Brown		b 1
16	314	6/10/1934	NYY		PHA	Bill Dietrich		b 1
17	321	7/5/1934	NYY		WSH	Lefty Stewart		b 3
18	359	7/7/1935	NYY	@	WSH	Bobo Newsom		t 5
19	368	1935-08-21 (1)	NYY	@	SLB	Jim Walkup		t 3
20	414	8/15/1936	NYY	@	PHA	Randy Gumpert		t 8
21	422	1936-09-09 (2)	NYY	@	CLE	Oral Hildebrand		t 2
22	458	8/31/1937	NYY	@	CLE	Mel Harder		t 5
23	488	8/20/1938	NYY	@	PHA	Buck Ross		t 1
		Alex Rodriguez
Slam	HR #	Date	For		Vs	Pitcher	Score	Inning
1	8	4/18/1996	SEA		DET	Clint Sodowsky	ahead 2-1	b 2
2	12	5/17/1996	SEA	@	BAL	Alan Mills	behind 7-9	t 8
3	22	7/6/1996	SEA	@	TEX	Kevin Gross	ahead 3-1	t 4
4	126	7/19/1999	SEA		ARI	Vicente Padilla	tied 3-3	b 6
5	130	7/30/1999	SEA		BAL	Arthur Rhodes	behind 1-2	b 5
6	144	9/16/1999	SEA	@	TBD	Esteban Yan	behind 0-2	t 8
7	153	4/16/2000	SEA	@	TOR	Pedro Borbon	ahead 15-7	t 8
8	214	7/5/2001	TEX		SEA	Brian Fuentes	ahead 8-1	b 4
9	275	7/27/2002	TEX		OAK	Billy Koch	tied 6-6	b 10
10	323	7/31/2003	TEX		BOS	Todd Jones	tied 3-3	b 11
11	388	4/26/2005	NYY		LAA	Bartolo Colon	ahead 6-2	b 4
12	430	4/3/2006	NYY	@	OAK	Barry Zito	ahead 3-0	t 2
13	447	7/2/2006	NYY		NYM	Alay Soler	behind 2-4	b 3
14	467	4/7/2007	NYY		BAL	Chris Ray	behind 6-7	b 9
15	486	6/7/2007	NYY	@	CHW	Ryan Bukvich	ahead 4-3	t 9
16	517	9/25/2007	NYY	@	TBD	Jason Hammel	ahead 1-0	t 3
17	552	9/14/2008	NYY		TBR	Edwin Jackson	tied 0-0	b 1
18	583	10/4/2009	NYY	@	TBR	Andy Sonnanstine	ahead 6-2	t 6
19	587	5/14/2010	NYY		MIN	Matt Guerrier	behind 3-4	b 7
20	590	5/31/2010	NYY		CLE	Chris Perez	ahead 2-1	b 7
21	596	7/6/2010	NYY	@	OAK	Trevor Cahill	tied 1-1	t 3
22	618	4/23/2011	NYY	@	BAL	Josh Rupe	ahead 9-3	t 8
23	639	6/12/2012	NYY	@	ATL	Jonny Venters	behind 0-4	t 8

He didn't know it at the time, but after Gehrig hit career Slam #23 he would play less than 60 more games. Lou Gehrig hit his last Grand Slam at the age of 35 - he only lived to be 37.  Alex Rodriguez is now 36.

There were at least two future Hall of Famers that Gehrig hit his slams off of, Lefty Grove and Ted Lyons.  None of A-Rod's victims appear to be of that caliber - Barry Zito is likely the best pitcher of the bunch.

Three of Rodriguez Slams are of the Walk-Off variety.  None of Gehrig's 23 were Walk-Offs.  Of course none of the Lou Gehrig's Home Runs were steroid induced either.

Source: Baseball-Reference.com