Robin Roberts Memorial Posts

2010 Phungo BFI Jim Bunning & Robin Roberts

As mentioned a few days ago the photo from the above Phungo Card was taken prior to 2009 World Series Game 5. The Phils won that game, which was the final game pitched by Cliff Lee as a Phillie.

If you click the link from that post you can see the original picture from which this Phungo Card was created. Due to be taken at a distance under night game conditions the photo is a bit blurry. Thanks to creative reducing and cropping, I can make a photo that is somewhat cardworthy.

I believe this is the first 2010 Phungo Black Frame Insert I have posted. As with 2009 the cards feature a Solid Black Frame and Grey Lettering. The Phungo signature on the bottom right of the card has been altered slightly from 2009. Other than that the cards are basically the same.

Robin Roberts Card Postings

Since Roberts passed away on Thursday several articles have been written by various bloggers. I have collected many of those links here.

Capewoods Collections has featured the largest collection of Roberts cards I have seen posted so far. The title card is a special card from the 1959 set which we here at Team Phungo are frequently writing about. The remainder of the cards are retro cards created after the Hall of Fame Pitchers playing days. There is a Fleer SI auto card featured here that I have had my eye on for a while.

The Phillies Room has featured Roberts cards in several recent posts. The intial Post featured a 1961 Topps Card. For a collection of Jim's Robin Roberts related posts click here. Jim's most recent post features Roberts 1960 Topps card, and he has added Roberts 1956 Card to the top of his sidebar.

Steve over at White Sox Cards even went as far as creating a custom card marking Robin Roberts short stint with the Chicago Cubs at the end of his career.

The Great Orioles Autograph Project posted a really nice TTM auto card.

While Orioles Card "O" the Day posted the 1963 Roberts Card which is the first card to feature him and Oriole.

While checking out the 1963 Card Posted by Kevin I realized the black and white inset photo matches the one from Roberts 1960 Phillies card.

1960 Topps #264 Robin Roberts (From the Phillies Room)
1963 Topps #125 Robin Roberts (From Orioles Card "O" the Day)

Mojo and Beardy have also posted a TTM auto of Roberts 1959 Topps base card.



Robin Roberts Related Pages and Articles

Baseball-Reference
Wikipedia
1952 Game Used Ball from Roberts Fanily Auction
Hall of Fame
SABR Bio Project

Swag from Thorzul UD Piece of History Group Break

Bill over at Thorzul recently ran a group break involving several boxes of Upper Decks 2009 Piece of History. In addition to picking up all 4 of the Phils card in the set, I received the cool cards featured in this post.

MMMM Serial!!

2009 UD PoH #71 Chase Utley (Turquois #d134/150)
2009 UD PoH Box Score Memories #BSM-PB Pat Burrell (#d 447/999)

The Box Score Memories cards all have the box of the game on the reverse. The Burrell card salutes a Phils playoff victory over Thorzul's Brewers October 5th 2008.

2009 UD 20th Anniversary Retrospective

#565 Julius Erving
#765 Mike Schmidt

Two pretty cool cards for any Philadelphia fan to get out of this set.

And a Hit!
2009 UD PoH #124 Lou Marson Autograph with Base Card

And I was lucky enough to get one of the autos from out of the set. Lou Marson was involved in the trade that brought Cliff Lee to Philadelphia and is no longer a Phil, but it is cool to get an autograph card of his. Marson is struggling at the plate for the Indians, but he is still getting the bulk of the playing time at catcher.

Thanks to Thorzul for running a fun break that fell within the Phungo Budget.

Phungo 5 with Cards on Cards

Now I am falling way behind. The Phils series with the Cardinals is already over and I still have not posted the Phugno 5 from Cardinals fan, Kerry, from the great Northwest. Kerry from Cards on Cards demonstrates his versatility here by giving us some feedback on not just the Cardinals, but also the Portland Trialblazers and one of our favorte bands.

First off a hoop question is the Trail Blazers season a success or failure?

If you’re talking about the regular season, then I’d have to say it was a resounding success. I’ve never seen another professional franchise have to deal with so much adversity, more in terms of volume than just severity, that the 09-10 Blazers went through. After Greg Oden went down, I really did not expect the team to make the playoffs considering all of the talent available in the Western Conference right now. The move to pick up Marcus Camby proved to be a critical one in terms of solidifying their playoff position. However, if you look at the end result, the bottom line is that the Blazers did not improve as a playoff team and improvement is what you strive for.

2008 Topps Heritage #433 Adam Wainwright

Do the Cardinals have the best rotation in baseball?

Yes, absolutely. But we’re in Week 5 of the season right now. Adam Wainwright is among the select few elite pitchers in baseball, in company with Roy Halliday and Tim Lincecum. Chris Carpenter is simply amazing at 35. But when you look at the rest of the rotation, we’re getting the best case scenario from all three pitchers. Brad Penny has been the All-Star caliber pitcher he was in 2006-2007, albeit with a Dave Duncanized groundball rate (which means fewer strikeouts.) Kyle Lohse has looked, at times, like the healthy 2008 version of himself. And Jaime Garcia has lived up to his pre-Tommy John surgery top prospect billing. I think it would be quite a leap of faith to count on the latter three situations continuing for the rest of the season, but if one or two of them continue to play out that way I’ll be a very happy Cardinal fan.

Best Year of Topps Heritage for Cardinals Collectors?

I’m going to go ahead and say 2002 for purely aesthetic reasons. I think the most interesting Heritage Cardinals cards end up being short prints, so it’s hard for me to say whether that becomes a “best” situation or is just simply annoying. Also, I don’t have many 2002 Heritage cards, so feel free to send me some!

Last year you introduced us to Daryl Jones - He appears to be struggling this year after a pretty decent 2009. Any updates on his progress?

I suppose I’m admitting to being a bad fan if I reveal that I haven’t followed the minor league clubs at all so far this season. I guess you could blame it on the big club getting off to a huge start. When things aren’t going right, you naturally look to the minors to see what’s on the way. I suppose that it’s probably a bit disappointing that Jones is still in AA, but the AAA club does have two outfielders with big league experience on the roster and are loaded right now in the majors.

TMBG Question - What Album would you like to hear TMBG do a Concert of?

Ordinarily, I would say Apollo 18 without skipping a beat as it is one of my favorite albums of all-time. However, I know that they have done that one a few times on the east coast and I have actually been listening to the Then: The Earlier Years compilation lately. (I recently scored a used copy.) As far as I know, I’ve never heard of them performing Lincoln in its entirety, so I’d love to see that.

Phungo 5 Boxscore

Thanks to Cards on Cards and we have a 5 out of 5. I think Kerry is correct in his analysis of the Cardinals rotation. As with all aspects of the game, the assumption that whatever happens in April is automatically replicated during the rest of the season is certainly dubious. That being said and despite their recent power outage in Philadelphia, I believe the Cards are in the race for the long haul. The Phils and Cards have both been in the mix the last couple of years, but have yet to meet in the playoffs - I think it would make for an exciting series.

Looking Back

For a look back at a previous Phungo 5 with Sports Locker click here.

Hall of Fame Pitcher Robin Roberts Dies at Age 83

Story at Phillies.Com

Photo from the first pitch of game 5 of the 2009 World Series (Roberts is on the Right with the white shoes - Jim Bunning is on the Left)

Pull of the Month - April 2010 - Heritage Chrome Troy Tulowitzki

It is a good thing I got involved in the Cardboard Junkie Heritage Blaster League - or else I would have a very little fodder for Pull of the Month.


2010 Topps Heritage Chrome #C90 Troy Tulowitzki (#d 288/1961)

I was also pretty happy with this Topps Heritage Then & Now Insert that came out of the box.

2010 Topps Heritage Then & Now #TN10 Shutout Leaders Whitey Ford & Roy Halladay

Not exactly sure how Topps came up with this one. According to the card back Ford actually finished 8th in shutouts in 1961. And if the stat doesn't match up there isn't much of a reason to pair up the HoF lefty with The Phils new staff ace.

I could also mention some of the cards I picked up in a group break from Nachos Grande that would be Pull of the month worthy, but I am sticking to packs I actually opened this month.

Meh of the Month


2009 UD Signature Stars #90 Ryan Garko

This product only has 100 veterans and Ryan Garko gets a card marking his 40 games as a San Francisco Giant?

If you want to find out more about the rather bland UD Signature Stars set check out my pack break over at A Pack to be Named Later.

Previous Pull of the Month Posts

2010 March

2010 February

2010 January

Group Break - Nachos Grande

2005 UD Classics
#125 Ryne Sandberg
#81 Richie Ashburn
#83 Robin Roberts
#48 Jim Bunning

These are just four of the cards that I recieved in a recent Nachos Grande group Break. The Break involved the 05 UD Classics and 1998 UD Collectors Choice as well as a handful of miscellaneous packs.

I really enjoy the 05 UD Classics such as the ones featured above. The 1998 portion of the package included a heavy dose of Curt Schilling and Scott Rolen as the star cards from a rather down era for the Phils.

If your interested in another break that is being run by Nachos Grande check out the current break featuring five different boxes from 1995-2005.

Phungo 5 with Sports Locker

The Phils are spending this beautiful, summer-like, weekend hosting the NL East leading New York Mets. Representing the Mets on the Hot Seat is the always informative Sports Locker. In addition to updating on the Mets, Sports Locker is always good about providing hobby related tidbits and commentary with a fresh perspective.

1) How have your plans for the National been shaping up?
I'm actually not sure I'm going this year. I like talking about it and the idea of it, but I'm not sure it's the best thing for collectors any more. Reg. admission is almost $20, plus the parking fee add up to around $30 a day just to walk in the door. TriStar also keeps rolling out the same autograph guests at each show. I'd like to see admission prices cut in half, door prizes, more of a show for the opening, card company product presentations and some collector/hobby presentations like: spotting fake autographs, fake patches and competitions. Lets do some fun stuff with instead of charging $20 for rows of tables to look through. Just my 2 cents.

2) You attend a lot of autograph and card shows, are there any dealers who you try to buy from consistently?
I recognize more faces than names. It's great to see the same people at shows and catch-up with them. Some of the people I talk to are dealers and a lot are fellow collectors.

3) Your a Cowboy and a Mets fans (this would make you very detested locally btw) - if you could add a Cowboy to the Mets Roster who would it be and what position would he play?
I'm a Cowboy fan because of my grandfather. He was born/raised in Louisiana and I spent a lot of time with him as a kid. He didn't like baseball, so when I lived in NJ I started following the Mets. Our family favorite Cowboys player is Bradie James. He's a gamer and the Flushing crowd loves that. He's probably too big for infield - so I'd say corner OF for him.

4) What is the favorite Road food when traveling to all the card and autograph shows that you attend?
I'm a cliff bar fan. I eat a ton of those things. Easy to pack, easy to throw in a backpack and you don't have to worry about finding something disgusting to eat at the food court.

5) Where does the Snuggie go from here?
I've cooled on the TV sales since my favorite BMays passed away. I'm a marketing guy, so if I were marketing the snuggie - I'd like to push for custom imaged snuggies. Submit your photo and get it screened on there.
2010 Topps #249 John Niese

Phungo 5 Box Score

Despite what the Hated Mets did to the Phils last night behind a strong pitching effort from John Niese and an impressive hitting attack, I will need to hand out a 5 of 5. I am not sure I am looking forward to seeing the custom Snuggie, but I am sure it's day will come.

Looking Back

If you want to look back at a prior Phungo 5 with A Giant Blog click here.