1959 Topps #268 Tito Francona

Tonight the Phillies take on the Indians who are led by former Phils skipper Terry Francona. 

Francona is in his first year in Cleveland managing the team for whom his his father once played.

1959 Topps #268 Tito Francona

Tito Francona spent 15 years in the Majors playing for 9 different Clubs.  His longest tenure was with the Indians from 1959-1964 which included his best year in 1959 when he hit .363 with 20 Home Runs.

Tito Francona spent a few months with the Phillies early in the 1967 season.  He only collect 17 hits in 73 ABs and the Phillies shipped him off to the Braves.

Terry Francona's Phillies connection is much more recent - his first career managing stint was in Philadelphia from 1997-2000 with the Phils. The teams results for those four seasons were mixed with the Phillies finishing between 3rd and 5th place.  Terry, of course, went on to lead 2 World Championship squads in Boston.

For The Collector

The above Tito Francona 1959 Topps Card is a common, off center, and severely bitten with a hole punch in the upper left corner - none of that matters as I found this baby in a dime box.

According to the Baseball Card Database Tito Francona's Rookie Card (as an Oriole) is in 1957 Topps.  His Last Topps Card is in 1970.

2013 Phungo Cards #51 Carlos Ruiz

He's Back!

2013 Phungo #51 Carlos Ruiz

The Phils welcomed back Carlos Ruiz over the weekend, and I thought that was a good opportunity to put up his Phungo card from the 2013 set.  Good Shot hear - sort of in action (its a warmup throw) on a Sunny Day in Baltimore.

Regardless of his PED issues I am glad to see Ruiz back in the fold.

Welcome back Chooch!

Rewind - Previous Phungo Cards for Ruiz 
2012 Phungo #20 Carlos Ruiz
2011 Phungo #51 Carlos Ruiz

1958 Topps #483 Luis Aparicio All-Star

Hall of Famer Luis Aparicio turns 79 today.

He may have only had a career .262 average, but the 11 time all-star had plenty of other solid numbers. 

-  His Nine Gold Gloves are 3rd most all-time (Ozzie, Omar Vizquel)
- 1956 Rookie of the Year
- Starting Shortstop on the 1966 World Series Champion Orioles
- 2677 Caree Hits
- 506 Stolen Bases - led League 9 times
- Career Defensive WAR of 31.6 Ranks 6th all-time
- 2581 games at SS (2nd all-time to Vizquel)
- 8016 career assists at SS (2nd, Vizquel)

Cardboard

1958 Topps #483 Luis Aparicio All-Star

I have never been a fan of 1958 Topps, but I do enjoy the all-star subset. By definition all the players in the subset are stars with several being titans of the hobby. 

For The Collector
This card went $1 at the National in Baltimore this past August. This card as a good bit of surface wear (unfortunately a lot is across Aparicio's face) but you know what Folks a HoF card for a buckfrom 1958 that hasn't been chewed up by a dog is stealing.

The Luis Aparicio Topps Rookie is from the 1956 Set #291.  There have been several Aparicio RC auctions that ended under $10 recently for cards w/ marks and bad backs.  The low for slightly better cards was $14 for one with soft corners but otherwise good. At least a dozen cards came in between there and $20. For a mere $649 you can take home a PSA 8.5 NM-MT+ version which was the high-end for the card. The card went as high as $95 unslabbed.

Phungo HoF Index
1966 Topps #90 (As an Oriole)
For a look at non-Topps and other Aparicio Rookies check Old Cardboard HoF RC Detail 

Sources
1958 Topps All-Star Index
Baseball-ref.com
Old Cardboard
Topps Baseball Card Database 
ebay.com

Sunday Night Baseball Post: 1970 Topps Super #7 Bill Freehan

Tonight the Tigers host the Braves on Sunday Night Baseball. Lets face it no sport is probably more parochial than baseball - If your team ain't playing, chances are your not watching.  Typically I do try and check in with the Sunday Night game for an inning or two - I enjoy that the focus of the baseball world is on just two teams for a moment.

This season I am going to try and run a series focused on the Sunday Night game - This will give me a chance to check out some teams other than the Phillies.

Our first Subject is long time Tigers Catcher Bill Freehan

1970 Topps Super #7 Bill Freehan

I like the use of Jumbo or Super when discussing oversized Topps Cards.  If you look up Topps Giant you get a bunch of Willie Mays McCovey and Tim Lincecum cards.  

Topps Super and Jumbo are a good bit larger than their base set partners, but have a similar back.  The Supers are a bit more landscape in dimension so some of the demographic info on the flip is a bit different   

1970 Topps Super #7 Bill Freehan (b-side)


The Bio information on the Freehan Base 1970 Topps #335 (click link then click photo to see flip) is composed over 2 lines on the Super rather than 3 on the base.

Hall of Fame??    

Bill Freehan was an eleven time all-star for the Tigers with whom he spent all 16 years of his career.  His was the starting catcher for the 1968 World Championship squad that defeated Bob Gibson and the St Louis Cardinals in seven games. That was likely also Freehan's best season - he finished 2nd in the MVP voting to teammate Denny McLain (31 Wins).  Freehan's numbers that year included 25 Homers and 84 RBI.

For his career Freehan tallied 200 Home Runs and 1591 Hits.  I am not sure if those are Hall of Fame Numbers but if a man was an all-star 11 times at catcher he had to be solid.

For the Collector

I picked up the above Bill Freehan card for a dollar at the Granite Run Mall show this past weekend. 

Why would Chase Utley STAY in Philadelphia?

This spring Chase Utley was coming off of two injuring riddled seasons. A large question lingering for the Philadelphia Phillies was whether or not they should re-sign the all-star second baseman who is set to be a free agent at the end of the season. 

To me that has all changed.  Utley is off to a good start, the Phillies not so much. 

2011 Phungo #26 Chase Utley

Chase Utley is batting .309 with 4 Homers and 16 RBI with an OPS+ 144 during the early part of 2013. This project to just a tick under his best career years. True he has been worthless v LHP (.200 BA/ .273 OBP/.450 SLG) to the point where he bunted to get on TWICE during the Pirates series, but the overall number still stand up.

This brings up the question with Chase Utley getting this kind of production and the Phillies treading water in neutral at best.

Why would Chase Utley want to remain with the Philliies?

The Spring Traing Q has been reversed.

The Phils keep saying they want to get younger but they don't.  Even with Utley and Ryan Howard in the lineup they are plaqued by the same issues they had in 2012 - General lack of scoring and scoring Opps and bad 7th & 8th inning relief. 

A player of Chase Utley's caliber and age (34) may not want to stick around for the Phillies youth movement and I see him both A) getting traded  and B) becoming a free ageint.  Buster Olney mentioned both the Orioles and Royals as landing spots recently.  I would love to see him play for the O's as they are the Team Phungo AL home team.  I really can't stand to see him go but that would soften the blow.

- signed Phungo 2 Cents

Phungo Cards 
Some other Chase Utley Phungo Cards
2013 Phungo #26 Chase Utley (scroll down)
2012 Phungo #26 Chase Utley
2009 Phungo #26 Chase Utley

Links
Chase Utley Player Collection Index
    

Card Show Granite Run Mall Media PA - This Weekend April 4/27 - 4/28 - Steve Rogers and PHIL LINZ Lots of Eagles Watters Garner Byars Bryce Brown

There are a lot of bigger names at this weekend Poppel Show at the Granite Run Mall, but none of those guys are Phillies Alums.

1966 Topps #522 Phil Linz

Phil Linz played two unremarkable seasons for the Phillies in the middle 60s. His Phillies tenure like much of his career was spent primarily as a utility infielder and pinch hitter and runner.

As a Yankee Linz did have a brief shining moment. He batted leadoff for the Yankees in game 7 of the 1964 World Series and with 2 outs in the 9th inning hit a Home Run off of Bob Gibson.  Unfortunately for the Yankes and Linz, they were down 3 runs at the time.  Gibson went on to record the final out, the Yankees would not return to the post season for over a decade.\

Phil Linz Wiki Bio does contain some reference to both "Ball Four" and "The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book" 

1966 Topps Mid Series (447-552)

The 1966 Topps Phil Linz card is the final card of a somewhat scarcer middle series in the set.  For commons in this series I look for a pricepoint of around $1.50  

Poppel Show at Granite Run Mall 

I enjoy the Poppel Shows.  There are probably less than a dozen dealers but they have a strong enough variety to enjoy a couple of hours. The bulk of this weekends signers are Football Related, Ricky Watters, Charlie Garner, Keith Byars, Blair Thomas, Current Eagles RB Bryce Brown.  The big Baseball name is Expos Ace Steve Rogers. The others are Tito Landrum, Jack Fisher, and Linz

More information on the show can be found at Poppel.com. 

1956 Topps #165 Red Schoendienst

I have Red Schoendienst's 1974 Topps manager card from when I was a kid. Anytime I looked at that card all I thought was "Man that dude is old" - and truth be told I was sort of right - he was 50+ at the time. Back then the only people I knew that were older than that were my grandparents. Now half the people I know are approaching 50 and some have already passed the number.

1956 Topps #165 Red Schoendienst

Red Shoendienst was selected for the Hall of Fame by the Veterans committee in 1989. He had been on the BBWAA ballot a full 15 times concluding with a 39% vote in 1983.  Schoendienst topped out at 42% in 1980.

Red's HoF credentials appear pretty  mediocre.  Most noteworthy number is probably his 10 all-star teams. He did amass 2449 hits and scored 1223 runs.  Among his best seasons was 1953 when Schoendienst finished 4th in the MVP voting when he batted .342 with 15 home runs.  The 1953 NL MVP voting has to be one of the best ever - The top 6 finishers are all in the Hall, Campanella, Ed Mathews, Duke Snider, Schoendiesnt, Spahn, and Robin Roberts - on top of those heavys there was also Stan Musial who finished 8th.      

Schoendienst was also a member of two World Championship teams, Cardinals in 1946 and the Milwaukee Braves in 1957.  Schoendiesnt was only a year removed from playing when he became the Cardinals manager in 1965 - The Cards won the World Series in 1967 followed by an NL pennant in '68. He remained manager through 1976. 

I think Red Schoendienst became a Hall of Famer on his cross discipline record.  He had success as both a player and manager.  Similar circumstances should lead to Joe Torre's induction in the near future. In 1990 At the age of 67 Schoendienst returned to manage the Cardinals for 24 games - He has to be one of the few men to manage in 4 different decades.    
  
For the Collector

Found the above card in a $2 bin.  Any HoF card from the 50s is worth $2 no matter how marginal the candidate. Lo-Bay auction for this card concluded at $1.83.  Four auctions finished under $5. The High end was $228 for a PSA 8.5 NM-MT.

Schoendiesnt's common Rookie Card is 1948 Bowman #38.  Low recent auction concluded at $54.  A PSA 5 Excellent card went for $151.  The card peaked at $203 (PSA 4 VG-EX). go figure.