1967 Topps #290 Bill White

This is a companion posting to the column earlier this week on AL league president Bobby Brown.

1967 Topps #290 Bill White

Like Bobby Brown, Bill White was a former player who became a league President. White led the NL from 1989-1994. 

His playing career was 13 years 3 of which were spent with the Phillies. We ran a more thorough profile last year on the occasion of White's 80th birthday - click here to read the more.  The 80th Birthday Column also contains a 1966T card of White for those of you that are interested in 2015 Heritage Originals.

John Hancock

2009 Upper Deck 20th Anniversary #1014 Subway Series/Interleague Play  

The 1967T card at the top of the post has a facsimile signature that clearly reads "Bill White", a more familiar and less formal monicker than the "William D White" which appears on the NL Baseball above.

Contrast this with Bobby Brown who we featured on Wednesday. Brown stuck with Bobby rather than sign as Robert on the AL Baseball 

Pencil
When grading cards or commenting on their condition, there are several words or phrases that come up: Creasing, Rounded Corners, Faded, Tape, Gum Residue etc. One of those terms is Pencil or Ink for whenever there is writing on the card. At some point someone had scrawled the number 10 on Bill White's Chest. This was his uniform number while with the Phillies. Noteworthy Phillies to where the number were Larry Bowa and Darren Daulton, Michael Young was the most recent active player to don #10, which has now been returned to Bowa in his current role as Bench Coach. 

Sources and Links
SABR Bio Bill White by Warren Corbett
New York Times
Baseball-ref

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen Rack Pack

GQ isn't my thing, but I was in the store during it's opening week and picked up a rack pack - I am a sucker for those 3 card parallel packs. Ozzie Smith on the cover was also a selling point.

Racks contain three 6-card packs plus a 3 card framed parallel pack. The price was $9.49.

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen Shelby Miller

New Atlanta Brave Shelby Miller was the first card pulled in the 3 packs. He reps his new club, but I also picked up an Evan Gattis card that still has him with the Braves

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen Zach Britton

I have a Rack of Opening Day that I have yet to post - it didn't have any Phillies cards :( and For the second consecutive pack opening where we didn't get any Phils,

In lieu of a Phils card we are posting a card of Zach Britton from the Team Phungo AL Squad, Baltirmore Orioles.

2015 Gypsy Queen Nomar Garciaparra

MLB Alums are part of GQ - We didn't get an HoF players but we did get this fine card of Nomar reading the signs from his 3B coach.

2015 Gypsy Queen RA Dickey

Great Shot of Knuckleballer RA Dickey. He is holding the now defunct Allan H Selig MLB Baseball that we have had under the microscope in a few recent postings.

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen Matt Moore

Cool Pix of Rays Pitcher Matt Moore wearing some sort of goofy uniform

#Added Value

2015 Gypsy Queen Walk off Winners Bryce Harper

This card reps a game played on August 7 2014, an extra-inning game versus the Mets that Harper won with a 13th inning Homer off of Carlos Torres. 

2015 Gypsy Queen Minis 
Salvador Perez
Josh Harrison
Phil Hughes

Each of the three packs contained a mini. Here I present them with the b-side of the Miguel Cabrera card for a size comparison

Bonus Cards

2015 Gypsy Queen Javier Baez (Base and Framed Parallel)

Each 3 Pack Rack contains a parallel pack with 3 Frame Cards which are parallels of the base set. The Frame is an actual frame and slightly raised off of the card.

2015 Gypsy Queen Ben Zobrist (White Frame)
2015 Gypsy Queen Devin Mesoraco (White Frame)

The other two Frames in the bonus pack.

And we close with the wrapper for the pack, Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith

Sources and Links
Baseball-ref
Cardboard Connection

1952 Bowman Bobby Brown - Former AL President

This is a followup from our #tbt posting last week where we saw some Official Major League Baseballs from years past

 1952 Bowman #105 Bobby Brown

Former AL President Bobby Brown never had a Topps card issued while he was playing, but he does have a couple of cards on the Bowman checklist including the 1952 set.

Its interesting to see Bobby Brown's facsimile signature on his 1952 Bowman Card, presumably from a contract he signed with Bowman around 1949. And then take a look at the UD card from 2009

2009 Upper Deck 20th Anniversary #1014 Subway Series/Interleague Play
The lower baseball has Bobby Brown's signature as AL President. He took office in 1984 which means there is roughly 35 years difference in the two signatures. I am no handwriting expert but it is interesting to see the similarities in the two autographs. 

1991 Score
While working on our Year of the No-Hitter Project I ran into this 1991 Score Card

1991 Score #568 Bob Welch

While most of the 1991 Score base set is a bit tired, the cards are so overproduced they can be found EVERYWHERE, there are a few interesting cards spread throughout the set.

There are a lot of subsets within 1991 Score, plus there are base cards like the above Bob Welch gem. The close up is used to display Welch's grip on the split-fingered fastball. In an 800 card set the image jumps off the page. An interesting nuance one may never think about, unless they are checking in on the differences in Official MLB Baseballs, is that it is an Official AL ball of the era signed by Bobby Brown.

So we have found at least two baseball cards that are so detailed that we can see one time AL president Bobby Brown's signature on the horsehide.

FLIP
Fear not Bob Welch Fans

1991 Score #568 Bob Welch (b-side - click to enlarge)

For those collectors that are dismayed that there isn't a player photo on the front Score did put a nice action photo on the b-side. In addition to the pix there is a nice synopsis of Bob Welch's experience with the Split-Finger. Sorry about the blurriness here, if you click on the photo it should enlarge and be a bit easier to read.

Sources and Links
baseball cardpedia
phungo (ibid)
SABR bio of Bobby Brown by Mike Huber

2012 Topps Allen & Ginter's #31 Jackie Robinson

On Wednesday April 15th Major League Baseball will hold Jackie Robinson Day. Once again every player on every team will wear Robinson's uniform number, 42. 

2012 Topps Allen & Ginter's #31 Jackie Robinson

This year the Phillies will don their #42 Jerseys while visiting the Mets for Jackie Robinson Day. The Mets have honored the baseball heritage of the area in their new home at CitiField with numerous references to Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The facade on the front of the building is an homage to Ebbets Field, Home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. The entry way is a rotunda with a large Blue 42 honoring Robinson as a focal point.

Jackie Robinson retired 42 at CitiField 

I remember hearing some complaints regarding the amount items in the Mets new stadium that are dedicated to the legacy of the Dodgers. It may be a legitimate concern, but he Mets to have a nice albeit small museum/Hall of Fame off the rotunda. It appears to feature rotating exhibits, we were in New York when the Mets were hosting the All-Star game and they had several artifacts dedicated to past ASG hosted by the Mets and past performances by Mets in other mid-summer classics. The Museum also had both of the Mets World Series Trophy's on display.

Sources and Links
Phungo HoF Index - Jackie Robinson
New York Mets

Phungo Game Report: 2015 04 12 Nationals @ Phillies

The Northeast is emerging from a long cold winter and baseball on a beautiful Sunday is a very welcome sight. Team Phungo was very excited to make it out to an Opening Week Phillies Home Game versus the World Series Favorite Washington Nationals.

2015 0412 Washington Nationals @ Philadelphia Phillies: Max Scherzer facing Cesar Hernandez

The Nats may be the World Series pick. However it was the Phillies who took the opening two games of the series and entered the day 2 games up on the Washington Squad.

Unfortunately the Phillies were unable to complete the sweep.

The Nats triumphed 4-3 n extra innings. Game Highlights included Yunel Escobar scoring on a Justing DeFratus wild pitch to take the lead in the Top of the 10th, Home Runs by Bryce Harper and Darin Ruf, and fine starts by Nats New Free Agent Acquisition Max Scherzer and Phillies Spot Starter Seaon O'Sullivan.

Snapshots

2015 MLB Opening Day Logo

It has been almost a week since Opening Day but the logo was still visible, albeit a tad faded.

2015 0412 Sean O'Sullivan

O'Sullivan was called up to make the spot start for the Phillies and will likely stay in the rotation until the Phils off-season acquisition Chad Billingsley is ready to pitch again.

2015 0412 Max Scherzer

The Nats big Free Agent signing this winter was Max Scherzer, So far he has pitched very well in both his starts but due to poor offensive support he has not been credited with a W in either start.

Scherzer appeared very upset throughout most of his pre-game bullpen session. Not sure if he was really unhappy with himself or if this is some sort of technique he uses to get himself fired up.

 

2014 0412 Bryce Harper

The biggest blemish on Sean O'Sullivan's start was giving up a first inning Home Run to Bryce Harper. 

2015 0412 Bryce Harper and Bob Davidson

We happened to capture this strange moment between Bryce Harper and Umpire Bob Davidson. Not sure what was going on here. As far as I know there was not a controversial play or other craziness that the two would be discussing.  It just seemed very odd for Bryce Harper to be putting both his hands on Bob Davidson's shoulders.  

 

 2015 0422 Darin Ruf

The sole offensive outburst for the Phillies was a Pinch Hit Homer by Darin Ruf.

 

Line Up Cards

This years Line Up cards are the same in-hous design the Phillies went with in 2014. Here we have two of the new cards for 2015, Jeff Francoeur, Odbuel Herrera, along with Cesar Hernandez. 

2015 0412 Nationals @ Phillies Game Ticket

Sources and Links
MLB Boxes
MLB Umpires

1964 Topps - 2013 Heritage Index

This is an Index of Posts related to our series on 1964 Topps.

1964 Topps #135 Johnny Callison 

Most of the posts originally ran in 2013 coinciding with that years Heritage release which was inspired by 1964 Topps.


1964 Topps / 2013 Heritage Postings 

1964 Topps Design (Ray Culp, Lou Brock, Gus Triandos)  

1964 Topps b-Sides (Ray Culp)

1964 Topps Rookie Cards (Dick Allen)

1964 Topps League Leader Cards (Hank Aaron, Ken Boyer, Bill White) 

1964 Topps Team Cards (Phillies, Reds)  

More info on 1964 Topps

The full series is in the process of being covered at the 1964 Topps Blog 

Chris Stufflestreet - Vintage Sportscards 1964 Topps Giants

The Phillies Room has a posting on the 1964 Topps Phillies as part of the ongoing Topps Phillies Series.

Dean's Cards

Beckett

Sunday Night Baseball: Red Sox @ Yankees - 1962 Topps #475 Whitey Ford

Bosox and Yankees return to Sunday Night Baseball tonight. To mark this years matchup of the two rivalries we take a look at a Yankee that I believe to be under-covered by the hobby, Whitey Ford. 

1962 Topps #475 Whitey Ford All-Star

The Hall of Fame resume for Whitey Ford is built firmly on three of the stronger legs of the HoF qualfiers. Solid, if not exceptional Career Numbers, Hardware for the positions premier single season award - Cy Young, and an Incredible Postseason run including 6 World Championships. Ford has 10 World Series Game Wins, with 146 WS Innings across which he posted an impressive 2.71 ERA.

Whitey Ford lost two seasons to military service. Those two seasons early in his career most likely would have helped his already healthy career totals. 

Cy WAR
In 1962 Whitey Ford was coming off his only Cy Young Award. In a bit of an oddity Ford won the award despite not finishing top 10 in WAR that season. He did go 25-4 and led the league in innings. The oddity is further complicated when one considers Ford finished top 10 in pWAR eight times and
only received Cy Young votes one other season (1956). His best WAR finish was 2nd in 1964 when he received no votes (there was only one award for both leagues at the time). Dean Chance (9.3 WAR) rightfully won the award that season.

Whitey Ford HoF Index
1964 Topps Jumbo #7 
2012 Cooperstown Collection With Honors #8 

Sources and Links
baseball-ref