ANNIVESARY: 1980 Topps #270 Mike Schmidt - Hall of Fame Induction

25 years ago today (July 30 1995) Five baseball legends were inducted into the Hall of Fame. Among them were Richie Ashburn, Leon Day, Vic Willis and 19th century Executive William Hulbert.

The fifth inductee is the one we will discuss tonight. The only one to have played his entire career with the Philadelphia Phillies.

1980 Topps #270 Mike Schmidt

This is the first Mike Schmidt card tagged with an All-Star flair, honoring his first ever start for the NL squad in the mid-summer classic.

If your curious as to how well Mike fared in that game all you need to do is flip over the card.

1980 Topps #270 Mike Schmidt (b-side)

The Triple was in the first inning off of another Haller Nolan Ryan.  The hit plated Steve Garvey for the NLs first run in a 7-6 victory.

Schmidt made 12 All-Star teams and was named a starter 7 times.

1980 World Champions 
It is obvious I am not going to dedicate as much ink to the 1980 Phillies as I would like, but I am still trying to highlight as many players as possible.  For more of these postings see the link below.

Sources and Links
1980 World Series Champions Index 
Mike Schmidt Index
Baseball Card Database
Baseball-Ref
Baseball Hall of Fame

ANNIVERSARY: 2015 JULY 25 - Cole Hamels No-Hits Cubs

Don't worry I am not really returning to blogging, I just wanted to make sure that Cole Hamels 2015 No-Hitter versus the Chicago Cubs didn't not go unnoticed.

2016 Topps Wrigley Celebrates 100 Years WRIG-21 

How cool is it to be featured in an insert set that is dedicated to another team.

Cole Hamels 5-0 no-hit victory versus the Cubs was a bittersweet moment.  On the one hand you have the excitement of the monumental accomplishment of one of the franchises most important players, however on the other hand it would be Hamels last appearance in a Phillies uniform.

A week later Hamels was traded to the Texas Rangers along with reliever Jake Diekman. The return was a bunch of ballplayers that have had varied degrees of major league time. The big chip so far has been Jorge Alfaro who the Phillies flipped for JT Realmuto.

Since leaving Philadelphia Hamels has pitched well and made the postseason with both the Rangers (2015-16) and oddly enough the Cubs in 2018.

Unfortunately he is now with the Phillies division rival Braves - however he is currenlty on the 45 day IL

5 Years Ago
For our original posting on the No-Hitter click here.

Sources and Links
NoHitter Index
Baseball-Ref
Amazon
mlbTradeRumors

Happy 75th Birthday John Fogerty

Just want to take a quick second to recognize the 75th birthday of musician John Fogerty. We are mostly baseball here but we are also dabble in pop culture. Occasionally these two interests intersect.

John Fogerty "Centerfield" (1984)

What baseball fan is not familiar with the title cut from John Fogerty's 1984 Album "Centerfield". Blogger doesn't like the single word spelling but I do - strictly based off of Fogerty's use of it on this album cover. Everything about it is beautiful, the Beat Up Glove, the Baseball Style lettering and the classic tone.

"Centerfield" is such an iconic piece of Fogerty's catalog that he had a custom guitar made just for the song:

"Slugger" 

The guitar was on display when I last visited the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015. If you expand the photo you can read the display card that credits Philip Kubicki as the craftsman who created the guitar which is named Slugger. 

Happy Birthday to Musician and Baseball Fan John Fogerty

Sources & Links
VittlesTunes

discogs - Centerfield 
imdb
Kubicki - Factor

ANNIVESARY: 2000 May 24 Pat Burrell MLB Debut

May 24th marks the 20th anniversary of Pat Burrell's MLB Debut in a Phillies 9-7 victory versus the Houston Astros.

2008 Topps 50th Anniversary All-Rookie Team #AR81 Pat Burrell

in 2008 to mark the 50th anniversary of Team Phungo's favorite subset, All-Star Rookies, Topps issued and 110 card Insert set. Among the 110 players included was Pat Burrell.

The 2008 card format echoes the seminal 1960 Topps subset. For a look at those cards see our posting on Hall of Famer Willie McCovey.

Flip
2008 Topps 50th Anniversary All-Rookie Team #AR81 Pat Burrell (b-side)

The backs also mirror 1960T including the Season Highlights section bottom left. Notice the first bullet cites Burrell's MLB Debut and mentions a Triple he hit in that game. An oddity for a man who would finish with 16 career. That first Triple tacked on an insurance run in the 9th inning. It came off of Burrell's future teammate Billy Wagner. 

Burrell's originally made the 2000 team that was honored in the 2001 Topps.

2001 Topps #144 Pat Burrell 

Sources and Links
Pat Burrell Index
2001 Topps Rookie Cup Index (2000 honorees)
Baseball-Ref 
Check Out My Cards

Phyllis George (1949-2020) the Woman who came between Pete Rose and Andy Warhol

Phyllis George and Bill Kurtis (1985 Jan 18/ Getty Images)

While researching "The Andy Warhol Triple Play" for SABR48 in Pittsburgh one of the fun tidbits that I found out that got dropped from the final presentation involved 1971 Miss America Phyllis George.

Andy Warhol "Pete Rose" Test Print

Carl Solway had conceived the ides of having Andy Warhol painting a portrait of Pete Rose in April of 1985. To produce the painting in a timely (thus "pop") manner meant that for Pete Rose to sit for Warhol the meeting would need to happen during the baseball season.

The Reds only traveled to New York once during the remainder of the 1985 Season. That was a week day series from July 22 through 24th.

1985 Cincinnati Red Schedule (RedsCardCollector 2015 Oct 06)

Unfortunately for Solway and Warhol, Rose had a lot going on. In addition to the normal rigors of playing AND managing for the Reds Pete Rose also maintained a very busy press schedule.

Rather than sitting with Warhol while in New York Rose elected to spend his free morning on the CBS Morning News with Phyllis George.  And we know about it because Rose covered in his journal of the 1985 season "Countdown to Cobb" Co-Written with Philadelphia based author Hal Bodley.

 Countdown to Cobb - Rose/Bodley

The interesting passage above is the 2nd paragraph (click to enlarge) where Rose mentions he already was familiar with Phyllis from guesting on "NFL Today"

"I took the Greek’s (Jimmy the Greek) spot and talked about each of the NFL games."

Certainly not a shock, but it is a bit comical to know that Pete Rose was handicapping games on NFL Today.

So that is the story of how Phyllis George came between Pete Rose and Andy Warhol.

Getty Images

Getty Images / SI - Chuck Solomon (1985 JUL 24)

Amazingly Getty Images has photos of Rose playing in the 3rd game of the Red Mets Series.  

Andy Warhol
Getty also has Photos of Warhol during this time frame.

Andy Warhol and Debbie Harry demonstrate the Amiga Computer (Allan Tannenbaum 1985 Jul 23)


Warhol also has his own journal for 1985, The "Warhol Diaries" confirms that he and Debbie Harry were doing a promotion for Commodore Computers at Lincoln Center that day.

The Diaries also states Warhol thought his "drawing" of Harry was "terrible".

Scheduling Conflicts
There you have it. Rose was in NYC for 3 days. Monday Rose elected to appear on CBS - previewing his upcoming book. Tuesday Warhol was busy at Lincoln center and Wednesday was a day game.

That was the one chance for the two icons to meet, Warhol ended up doing the painting from photographs. You can read more about that here.

Sources and Links
Phungo Andy Warhol - Pete Rose Index
imdb
Countdown to Cobb - Pete Rose / Hal Bodley
Carl Solway
Baseball-ref

RedsCardCollector 2015 Oct 06

Getty Images / SI - Chuck Solomon (1985 JUL 24)

Getty Images Photo by Allan Tannenbaum (1985 Jul 23)

Getty / CBS (1985 Jan 18

The Andy Warhol Diaries

Touch of Modern / hamilton-selway

2000 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Team (2001 Topps Set)

This is an index to postings related to the 2000 Topps All-Star Rookie Team which was honored with cards in the 2001 Topps set. The Set includes 2008 World Champ Pat Burrell.

2001 Topps #144 Pat Burrell 

91    2001 TOPPS MIKE LAMB
144    PAT BURRELL
271    BENGIE MOLINA
278    TERRENCE LONG
293    JAY PAYTON
319    RAFAEL FURCAL
514    ADAM KENNEDY
653    MARK REDMAN
720    KAZUHIRO SASAKI
721    MARK QUINN

2008 Topps TASR 50th Anniversary #AR81 Pat Burrell

1976 Topps #251 Rick Monday

It happened on April 25 1976.

During the Bicentennial 44 years ago Rick Monday became a Patriotic Hero by saving an American Flag from being set afire at Dodger stadium. 

1976 Topps #251 Rick Monday

This is the card that Topps issued of Monday in 1976. Couple of things I like about this card - first off collectors recall the simple design of 1976T which features a team related color with a complimentary color on the name plate. The photo appears to be taken at Spring Training - notice that Monday is wearing a Home Uni yet there is a palm tree in the background beyond his left elbow.

I am always a fan of identifying bat knobs on cards. Here we can sort of see Monday's #7 which he wore most of his career.

The Position Icon

The final item I want to point out is the position icon. It is a point of interest in that becomes the focus on a 1976T design. Each position has a different icon including unique artwork for Left and Right handed pitchers.  For outfielders like Monday the player is show flagging down a fly ball.

Baseball iconography is actually pretty rare in Topps designs. This is really sad and it is getting rarer as Topps moves to using generic formats that can be used for multiple sports, films and other media.

The Photo

Rick Monday Rescues American Flag (Vice/James Roark)

Photographer James Roark caught the above iconic image of Rick Monday saving the flag.  The picture was nominated for the 1976 Photographic Pulitzer which ended up awarded to a different photo taken in April of 1976 that also involved a flag.

Phungo Originals  

For me the Outfielder icon used on 1976 Topps echoed the James Roark photo - it easy to see the fielder running with a Flag rather than Flagging down a baseball. 

This similarity inspired me to create a Phungo Original...

1976T 0425 Rick Monday

For the most part I tried to keep the everything about the card the same as the Topps. I enhanced the Cubs logo a tad and kept the palm tree because I liked how it balanced the image. The 7 on the bat knob is enlarged as well.

The most significant change is adding the American Flag and making it prominent in the frame.

I have always liked when a trading card can tell a story and I am happy that 1) this idea came to me and 2) I was able to execute it to my satisfaction. 

Sources and Links
Rick Monday Index

Vice.com (David Davis / James Roark)
NPR