#CupOfCoffee Index

 This is an Index of our #CupOfCoffee Postings

Phungo Original: 1908-09 Rose Company Postcards (PC760) Archibald "Moonlight" Graham

Archie "Moonlight" Graham: the epitome of Cup of Coffee Players.(1908-09 Rose Company Postcards - PC760)

Jeremy Brown: Catching prospect from "Moneyball" (2007 Topps)
Ginger Clark: - Pitcher for one game and went 2-4 scoring 2 runs at the plate  (T205)
Eleanor Engle: Signed a contract to play for the 1952 Harrisburg Senators (1953 Topps)
Eddie Gaedel: 3' 7" pinch hitter for the St Louis Browns (1951 Topps)  

Ralph Gagliano: Pinch Ran once prior to being drafted into the Army (1965 Topps Rookie Stars)
Elmer Gedeon: Killed in Action World War II (1953 Topps Fighting Marines) 
Bill Greason: Negro League Player that served at Iwo Jima (1954 Topps)

John Kennedy: Integrated the Phillies (1957 Topps)
Harry O'Neill: Killed in Action World War II (1953 Topps Fighting Marines) 
John Paciorek: Perfect Hitting Day in only Major League Game (1963 Topps) 

Sidd Finch: Fictional Character from 1985 Sports Illustrated (1985 Topps)
Ted Turner: Owner of the Atlanta Braves who Managed One Game (1977 Topps)
Cy Twombly: Athletic Director Washington & Lee University, father of pop artist Cy Twombly (1920s Tobacco) 

Other #CupOfCoffee that have been created but not yet documented

Joe Cleary
Erskine Thomason 
Doc Daugherty
Larry Colton
Dick Thoeren
John Carden
Lino Urdaneta
Sam Hairston
Johnny Hairston
Rafael Quiricos
Lariel Gonzalez
Al Lamacchia
Tom Chism

Jim Rittwage

Cleveland(SABR54) Index

Phungo Artwork Index

Books & Other CupOfCoffee resources

Once Around the Bases (1998) - Richard Tellis 

Cup of Coffee (2003) - Rob Trucks

Bitter Cup of Coffee (2019) - Douglas J Gladstone

Baseball's Untold History The People (2015) - Michael Lynch 

One Shining Season (1991) - Michael W Fedo

Our Game (column)- John Thorn

1997 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Subset (honoring 1996 Winners)

This is an Index of postings related to the 1996 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup team that was honored in the 1997 Set.

1997 Topps #22 195 Jason Kendall

13	DEREK JETER	SS
17	F.P. SANTANGELO	OF
22	BILLY WAGNER	LHP
177	TODD HOLLANDSWORTH	OF
195	JASON KENDALL	C
216	JOE RANDA	3B
239	JERMAINE DYE	OF
344	TONY BATISTA	2B
351	ALAN BENES	RHP
406	TONY CLARK	1B

Sources and Links
B-R Bullpen Baseball-Ref
Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Master Index

Phungo Original: 2021T Migue Cabrera Snow Squall variation

We are switching gears here, trying to see if posting sketches will get be more motivated to publish. We will see. 

2021T Miguel Cabrera Snow Squall Variation

A few weeks ago Miquel Cabrera hit a Home Run on opening day, but it was snowing so much he could not tell if the ball had left the park. Miggy elected to slide into 2nd base on the play. We have captured that moment and put it on the canvas of 2021 Topps. 

3 Strikes

This is my comments on the sketch - I try to come up with 3 things going thru my head during the development of the work:

- This is a contemporary event so I went with a 2021 Topps Canvas, I flipped the design on the x-axis because the slash placement interfered with image I wanted to created. 

- Giant snow flakes: I used symbolic flakes over a bunch of little dashes that would have looked like rain. 

- Big Font: I enlarged the name plate, lots of folks have noted that the 2021T player names are unreadable. I agree and well I cannot write that snowfall. The snowflake motif carries through to the name plate acting as the divider between Miggy's name and position.

ToppsNow

Topps issues an instant card for the Homer. 

2021 Topps Now #1 Miguel Cabrera

Turns out Cabrera got card #1 in this years Topps Now set! Nice enough, this angle is always a good one and the image clearly shows the snow shower. Still I prefer mine, mostly because it's mine, but I also like capturing the slide as it was unique moment that doesn't typically happen on a Home Run.

Flagship

2021 Topps #291 Miguel Cabrera

Looks like Miggy's base card was taken on a much nicer day. On this one you get 2 HoF for the price of one as we can see the Al Kaline #6 memorial patch on Cabrera's right shoulder. The card lists Cabrera's position as DH, which is accurate - it is the only position he played in 2020. Oddly it took him one game to get back in the field playing First Base, and that is reflected in my card above. 

Sources and Link

Miguel Cabrera Index

Cardboard Connection

ebay

1996 All-Star Game 25th Anniversary: John Smoltz 2002 Topps #145

Our 2021 year long series is dedicated to the 1996 All-Star Game which occurred at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia 25 years ago. 

My goal is to get 20 or so postings on the subject. Almost anything will be better than the half dozen columns on last years subject, the 1980 World Champion Phillies.

Tonight our first posting is dedicated to Braves Hall of Famer John Smoltz who was bestowed the honor of staring for the National League by his manager Bobby Cox.  

2002 Topps #145 John Smoltz (stolen from amazon)

Smoltz was the first of 9 pitchers involved in the The NLs 6-0 shutout the Junior circuit. Among the hurlers Smoltz was the only pitcher to record more than an inning pitched. He faced 8 batters giving up a pair of hits. Smoltz only strike out was Albert Belle, among the other five batters he retired were four future Hall of Famers: Wade Boggs, Robby Alomar, Cal Ripken, and Pudge Rodriguez. For you advanced stats folks among the 14 pitcher who saw action in the game Smoltz was the WPA Leader with +0.102.

2002 Topps

This is definitely one of my least favorites Topps flagship issues. Don't like the brown/orange border color. It's a shame because I do like the pennant design - and this is the one year where I think Chrome looks better than flagship. 

Chose this one because it ties together two Braves Hall of Famers. The other is Eddie Mathews who passed away in 2001. To Honor Mathews the Braves wore a memorial patch which you can see on Smoltz upper sleeve. It is Eddie Mathews #41 which the Braves retired on July 26 1969. 

Sources and Links

1996 All-Star Game 25th Anniversary

John Smoltz HOF Index

Eddie Mathews HOF Index

Baseball-Ref 

mlb

Cup of Coffee Index

This is an Index to our Cup of Coffee postings

Series 1:

Tom Paciorek

Archie "Moonlight" Graham

Joe Cleary

Sidd Finch

Erskine Thomason

Doc Daugherty

Larry Colton

Dick Thoeren

John Carden

Harry O'Neill

Series 2:

Lino Urdaneta

Sam Hairston

Johnny Hairston

Rafael Quiricos

Lariel Gonzalez

Al Lamacchia

Bill Greason

Tom Chism

?????

?????

Series 3:

????

Happy 70th Birthday Greg Luzinski 1978 OPC #

Today we are noting a milestone birthday for Phillies Slugger Greg Luzinski born on November 22 1950. 

Luzinski remains active with the Phillies in an baseball ambassador role and as namesake for one of the teams signature restaurants "Bull's BBQ"

To mark the Birthday we are going to feature his 1978 OPC card

1978 #42 OPC Greg Luzkinski

I always the All-Star subset. 1978 has its own icon never used before or since - Topps/OPC gave the cards a dash of Red White and Blue on a shield that kind of looks like an Interstate Route Number sign. 

In 1978 Luzinski played in the final of his four consecutive All-Star games. He went 1-2 with an RBI on a Bases Loaded Walk off of Hall of Fame Pitcher Jim Palmer. Of course the 1978 card represents the previous years ASG in which the Bull Homered, also off of Palmer. 

OPC

1978 OPC #42 Greg Luzinski

Typically I would use an OPC card for a column with a Canadian or French Connection. Today my reason is for the card number 42. 

While the Bull is remember for wearing #19 for almost the entirety of his career, when he came up in 1970 he wore the now league-wide retired #42 which happens also to be his OPC card. Six other Phillies wore the number after Luzinski, the most significant of which was Ron Reed. The last player to wear the number as a Phillies Player was Toby Borland. 

Luzinkski 1978T Card number is 420 - significant to some folks for a totally non-baseball reason. 

Phungo Original

1978T Greg Luzinski

I tackled the 1978T card by going pretty vanilla. I elected to not give the sketch a background and had Luzinski's powerful Rawlings Bat busing out of frame. I also added the discrete position of LF to the All-Star Shield. 

Greg Luzinski Index

1971T #439 (rc) 2013 Philadelphia Sports HOF Induction

1977 Topps #30: 1976 ASG +40 

2003 Fleer Ultra All-Vet Stadium #7 Spot the Sig

1971T #439 Card Show Swag

1974 Kellogs 3D Swag from the Phillies Room

1975T Mini Card Show Swag

1978T #420 Year of the Tiger

Sources and Links

1980 Phillies World Champs

Baseball-Ref

MLB

ANNIVERSARY: Phillies First World Championship - 1981 Topps #404

Another year has passed and once again I have pretty much failed in my goal of putting together my annual single subject series.

This year my target was the 1980 Phillies world championship team.

looks like I managed to add a grand total of four postings related to the 1980 Phillies – all in the middle of the field: Manny Trillo, Larry Bowa, Garry Maddox, and Dick Ruthven.

Today marks the 40^th anniversary of the Phillies cinching their 1980 championship.

 

1981 Topps #404 Phillies Win First World Series

Topps honored the Phillies Victory on card #404 of their 1981 set. The featured player is Tug McGraw.

Today the demise of starting pitching is frequently discussed, However even 40 years ago McGraw registered the 3^rd most outs of any Phillies pitcher for the series. His 7 1/3 innings ranking behind only Steve Carlton and Ruthven.

Even more importantly were the outs that Tug McGraw registered. Baseball-Ref has a new to me stat cWPA – Championship Win Probability Added. Basically the concept is how much each plate appearance affects the probability of winning a championship.

Tug McGraw led all pitchers in the Series with a cWPA of 18.05% (100% represents a single Win). For comparison Steve Carlton who Won 2 games in the series had a cWPA of 2.67%.

Among Phillies batters only Mike Schmidt (19.48) and..... Del Unser! (26.11) who had a couple of big pinch hits off Dan Quisenberry outpaced McGraw.

Perhaps I will dig deeper on this series in the future but for now we are likely on pause with the 1980 Phillies.

Sources & Links

1980 Phillies World Champs Index

Tug McGraw Index

Baseball-ref