TASR: 2009 Topps #390 Joey Votto

Cincinnati Reds Legend and Fan Favorite Joey Votto announced his retirement recently. Amongst active position players he was the longest tenured member of the Topps All-Star Rookie Cup.  That baton has now been passed on to Giancarlo Stanton and Andrew McCutchen who were both named as outfielders to the TASR team in 2011. Justin Verlander (Class of 2007) remains the elder statesman among all active players. 

2009 Topps #390 Joey Votto

This is not Joey Votto's Rookie card, he was in the 2008 Topps base set, it is his 2nd Topps flagship card. Couple of quick Notes on the card: 

-The memorial patch that we can get a glimpse of is for Reds one time young phenom and announcer Joe Nuxhall.

-Joey Votto is not sacrificing here, well at least not successfully. In 8746 career Plate Appearances Joey Votto did not have one Sacrifice Hit. That is the fifth highest number of PAs for a Zero SH player. Carlos Santana has a good chance of passing Votto by the end of the season. 

2008 Season and ROY

Joey Votto had his first full season in 2008 and it was a very productive one (.297/24/84 3.3 WAR) which was good enough to earn him the Rookie Cup at first base. The nearest competitor was Chris Davis (.285/17/55 1.1 WAR)   

In fact Votto's year was so good he was also in the running for NL Rookie of the Year. He finished 2nd in the voting to Cubs Catcher Geovany Soto (.285/23/86 3.3 WAR). Those numbers are very similar but Soto received 31 of 32 first place votes. He had the edge on Votto for two reasons 1) Playing catcher rather than first base 2) Soto's Cubs won the NL Central finishing 23.5 games in front of the Reds. 

Overall the 2009 Rookie Cup Team ended up being a solid class that included Votto's longtime teammate Jay Bruce, Evan Longoria, Denard Span and Alexei Ramirez. Clearly the best players were now fellow 2023 retiree Longoria and Votto.  Both have very similar offensive numbers with Votto edging out Longoria due to many more walks (1365 vs 730). Of course Longoria played the more challenging position of 3rd Base and has a more significant postseason resume. 

Among the first 52 Rookie Cup Classes 2009 ranks in the top third of the years for which we have tabulated stats (1960-2011). The most prominent key number for the 2009 team is Home Runs, the squads 1475 dingers rank 13th - Votto, Longoria and Bruce combined for 1014.  

Rookie Cup Team: Longest Tenured Actives

With Joey Votto's exit a struggling Anthony Rizzo has become the Rookie Cup's longest tenured first baseman*.  Here is a complete list of longest tenured TASR winners

C	Travis d'Arnaud	2015
1B	Anthony Rizzo	2013
2B	Ian Happ	2018
3B	Nolan Arenado	2014
SS	Jose Iglesias	2014
OF	Jayson Heyward*	2011
OF	Andrew McCutchen	2010
OF	Giancarlo Stanton	2011
LHP	Wade Miley*	2013
RHP	Justin Verlander	2007
RP	Craig Kimbrel	2012
DH	Miguel Sano	2016

*I believe both Justin Heyward and Wade Miley have been released and are possibly retired. The Heyward slot would be succeeded by Mike Trout and Bryce Harper (both 2013, Harper was an OF on the team), 2nd in line for LHP is Carlos Rodon  

Also since Bryce Harper was an outfielder on the Rookie Cup Team he remains so for this exercise, otherwise he would be tied with Rizzo for first base honors. 

Extra Innings

Turns out that Joey Votto Rookie Cup card has so much going on that we will need to expand this into multiple postings. Look for some additional info next week. 

Joey Votto Index

2009 Topps #309 Game Dating

Sources and Links

2009 TASR Index

baseball_reference

Getty Images

TASR: 1977 Topps #58 Chet Lemon

This week we got the tough news that Chet Lemon has been having health issues. It's complicated - he has had blood clotting issues for a while and this has led to a series of strokes that has left the Major League outfielder in a near non-communicative state. You can read more about Chet Lemon's condition in Jeff Seidel's sad but interesting Detroit Free Press article here. 

1977 Topps #58 Chet Lemon

1976 was an okay year for Chet Lemon, his .245/4/38 13 SB, 0.4 WAR season beat out Ellis Valentine .279/7/39 14 SB 1.4 WAR and Jerry Turner .267/5/37 12 SB 2.1 WAR and others for cup honors. 

Regardless TASR voters must have foresaw something, after that mediocre start Chet Lemon went on to a productive 16 year career where he racked  up a 55.7 Career WAR, a number that ranks above fellow Centerfielder and first ballot Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett. Meanwhile Lemon got a single 10th place HOF vote.     

In addition to personal accomplishments that included 3 All-Star appearances Lemon's career team highlight was being a member of the 1984 World Series Champion Detroit Tigers.

Chet Lemon 2024

The Lemon family has remained private about Chet's condition until recently. They are only coming forward now because they would like to raise awareness about his condition and they also wanted fans to be aware of Lemon's condition prior to the Detroit Tigers 40th anniversary celebration honoring the 1984 World Series team this weekend. 

I hope that Chet Lemon is well enough to make the trek to Detroit this weekend and enjoy the celebration with his teammates and TIgers fans.  

1977 Topps

This is the first card we have featured from the 1977 TASR class, good design that doesn't get discussed much - The Rookie Cup looks good here, it's present but out of the way. 

Chet Lemon is featured here with his other team the Chicago White Sox. Note the Faux Collar Jersey worn by Lemon. This fashion detail was likely used to dress up the Shorts that Bill Veeck came up for the 1976 White Sox uniform. 

One last detail I want to discuss is the facsimile signature. Chet goes with his more formal full name "Chester Earl Lemon" 

Oh Canada

1977 OPC #195 Chet Lemon

Posting Lemon's 1977 OPC card here so we can take a look at the card sans Rookie Cup. This allows the aforementioned facsimile signature to run at an up angle which is more consistent with 1977 Topps commons.  Also both these cards are screen caps from eBay but the OPC has stronger color and the Marlboro sign in centerfield of Yankee Stadium is a lot more identifiable. 

Closing Thoughts

Just wanted to reiterate I hope the fans and Detroit Tigers get a great 40th Anniversary Celebration and Chet Lemon makes it to the event. 

Sources and Links

1977 TASR Index

Jeff Seidel Detroit Free Press

Detroit Tigers

NBC Sports Chicago

Baseball-Ref

All-Star Rookie Cups at the 2024 All-Star Game

First off I just want to mention that there are 75 All-Stars this year YES 75. That is enough players to roster an entire third team.

2013 Topps #1 Bryce Harper

Of those 75 Twenty of them are All-Star Rookie Cup Honorees including Six from the 2019 TASR Squad. Here is a complet list of tonights TASRs:

1B: Bryce Harper (PHI)	2013
OF: Christian Yelich (MIL)	2014
INF: Carlos Correa (MIN)	2016
SS: Trea Turner (PHI)	2017
OF: Aaron Judge (NYY)	2018
INF: Rafael Devers (BOS)	2018
OF: Juan Soto (NYY)	2019
DH: Shohei Ohtani (LAD)	2019
1B: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (TOR)	2020
DH: Yordan Alvarez (HOU)	2020
OF: Fernando Tatis Jr. (SD)	2020
C: Will Smith (LAD)	2020
INF: Pete Alonso (NYM)	2020
OF: Bryan Reynolds (PIT)	2020
INF: Willi Castro (MIN) +	2021
3B: Alec Bohm (PHI)	2021
RHP: Emmanuel Clase (CLE)	2022
C: Adley Rutschman (BAL)	2023
OF: Steven Kwan (CLE)	2023
INF: Bobby Witt Jr. (KC)	2023
SS: Gunnar Henderson (BAL)	2024

There are 3 Phillies on the List but only Alec Bohm made the squad as a member of the Phillies. 

The showing by the 2020 class is not a  surprise to TASR fans. At the time their combined WAR number was the strongest of any class ever. We will cover this in the future but 4 years later they rank 3rd - one of those more recent years, 2023, did quite well with 3 members while the other, 2024, did manage a single. 

The one year missing from the 12 year span of teams 2013-24 is 2015. The most prominent players from that team are George Springer, Xander Bogaerts, The Phillies Nick Castellanos, and the potentially retired Jose Abreu. 

It is also worth noting that a handful of players like Paul Skenes, Jackson Merrill and Shota Imanaga are rookies and could show up on this years Cup Squad (2025 Cards)

Cover Card

Turns out the elder statesmen of TASR players on the squad is Philadelphia's own Bryce Harper. Maybe it's because I saw Harper in the Minors when I was in my mid 40s but it is very disconcerting to me for him to be the eldest of anything.  To be clear he is not the oldest player on the team, without doing any real poking around one of my guesses would be Professional Frisbee Golfer Seth Lugo at 34.242. 

Enjoy the All-Star game tonight and look for your favorite TASR players who make up more than a quarter of the participants

Sources and Links

baseball_ref bullpen

PDGA

TASR: 1967 Topps #90 Jim Nash

On Tuesday Night the Pirates Rookie Pitcher Paul Skenes will throw the first pitch of the All-Star game. It's a rare occurrence but so is starting your career 6-0. Skenes' name is being mentioned in the same sentence with Rookie phenoms such as Doc Gooden, Fernando Valenzuela, Mark Fidrych and Jim Nash.

Jim Nash?? 

The first three of those names are all folks casual fans know well and whose Rookie accomplishments are referenced frequently. However Jim Nash - well he's before my time and even though he is a member of the All-Star Rookie Cup canon I had to look into his accomplishments

1967 Topps #90 Jim Nash 

Nash was the RHP representative for the 1967 TASR squad and he earned it, 12-1 with a 2.06 ERA. He led rookies in both categories (100 IP minimum). Prominent pitchers in the Rookie class included Future HoFs Don Sutton (12-12, 209K, 2.99 ERA, 3.5 WAR) and Fergie Jenkins (6-8, 3.32 ERA, 150 K, 3.3 WAR)

Flip

Two things to point out from the back, first the last line in the text mentions Nash's TASR nomination and secondly I direct you back to the first comic - I want pitchers to be awarded a trophy with a giant '%' etched on the front. 

Cover Boy

At roughly the same time as the above card was issued Jim Nash was also the triple cover subject for Sports Illustrated. 

Sports Illustrated 1967 March 13

Yes in March of 1967 with 12 Career Wins under his belt Jim Nash made the cover of Sports Illustrated.  At 22 years of age he was the staff ace for an Oakland A's staff that included a Young Catfish Hunter and Blue Moon Odom. 

Phuture Phillie

Jim Nash's ended his career with 8 starts for the 1972 Philadelphia Phillies, He lost ALL 8 of those starts. The 97 Loss Phillies were really bad, however Nash's 6.27 ERA with the squad was a pretty large factor in those losses. 

1973 Topps #509 Jim Nash

 

This looks like an airbrushed shot of Nash.  Check his cap, I doubt he wore that number 23 with the Phillies.  According to baseball-ref both he and Oscar Gamble wore 23 in 1972, but their tenures with the club appear to overlap so I am thinking Nash wore the other number they have listed #42. 

Flip

The comic on the flipside mentions Jim Nash's rookie Win Streak. I also want to note the Weight listed as 220. That is likely Nash's Rookie number. Articles from the era mentioned the voracious appetite of "Jumbo" Jim Nash and that he had ballooned to 260 lbs at one point in his career. 

Best of luck to Paul Skenes on Tuesday Night. Right now I imagine he is the front-runner to be the RHP rep on the 2024(2025 card) Topps All-Star Rookie team - hopefully if he ever becomes a Phillie he does better than 0-8. 

Peanut Gallery

For more coverage of this card check out Jim's column on the 1967 Topps Blog.

Sources and Links

1967 Topps All-Star Rookie Index

1967 Topps Blog

Philadelphia Inquirer (1970 June 11, Sandy Padwe)

baseball-ref

TASR: 1995 Topps #180 Raul Mondesi

In our effort to cover all the Topps All-Star Rookie Cards we are going to run into some stories that are not fun. Raul Mondesi's post playing career is one of those not fun stories. 

For the past seven years Raul Mondesi has been under house arrest in his native Dominican Republic. 

In 2017 Mondesi was convicted of embezzlement of $6 Million public funds. Baseball-Reference estimates Raul Mondesi's career earnings to be $66 Million. 

Earlier this month it was reported that Mondesi has completed his sentence and is now a free man. Hopefully the $66 Million dollar man can avoid embezzlement charges in the future. 

 

1995 Topps #180 Raul Mondesi

1994 was a much better time for Raul Mondesi. He came a HR shy (Klesko 17) of leading NL Rookies in the Triple Crown categories (.306, 16, 56).  He also led all MLB rookies in Hits, Doubles, Triples, Total Bases and the NL in Runs Scored.  

Those numbers were good enough to make Mondesi a unanimous selection for ROY. Modern analytics backs up the selection as his 1.8 WAR also led NL hitters, although a couple of pitchers led by Steve Trachsel (3.4) did finish better. 

Flip

We direct your attention to the text below Mondesi's numbers that features a quote by his Manager Tommy Lasorda who name drops Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente plus a few 1950s era stars - no pressure kid. 

Well I had to check the stats to see how Lasorda's analysis stacks up. Here is what we found:

Turns out Tommy Lasorda was pretty astute. Mondesi's assist numbers are comparable to Carl Furillo and Rocky Colavito. As one can imagine, nobody is in Clemente's Neighborhood, of course. 

Parallels

If Mondesi's numbers appear modest for league leading numbers it is because they are for a partial season. 30 years ago MLB played a strike shortened season. Topps turned this bummer around and used it as an opportunity to produce a parallel set of cards with different back featuring "Cyberstats" 

In Topps completed 1994 season stats Raul Mondesi picked up 6 Home Runs to finish with 22. 

Another interesting Cyberstats development is that Topps awarded Raul 3 Triples which was good enough to tie League Leader Brett Butler at 11 (Butler in reality had 9) and pass 1994 Triples Co-Leader Darren Lewis who went from 9 to 10. This meant that Raul Mondesi received a mythical Cyberstats League leader flare while Lewis lost his. 

It was the only time Darren Lewis Led the league in Triples, in fact it was the only time he led the league in anything - in 13 years of Major League Baseball

Conversely Raul Mondesi who also played for 13 years never led the league in anything. Had he led the league in Triples it would have been his one and only black ink.

It's weird and interesting how a single opportunity to lead the league in an offensive category can turn on a shortened season. And somehow Topps found it.  

This concludes our look at 1994 Rookie of the Year and convicted embezzeler Raul Mondesi. 

Sources and Links

1995 TASR Index

LA Times (Steve Henson)

Baseball-ref

Game Dated Cards: 1978 Topps #52 Jim Lonborg

There are so many trading cards that most are never considered deeply. 

One thing that is good about an active social media collecting community is it gives us an opportunity to examine random cards based on the whims of others. This happened to me over the weekend. The V Family(@CollectibleVs) posted a TTM of the 1978 Topps Jim Lonborg card.

1978 Topps #52 Jim Lonborg

1978 Topps has a couple of action cards but not many and I thought "Hey is that Candlestick". It was a Saturday Night and I quickly got a lot of confirmations including one from Night Owl Cards - who did do some research on this fine card and covered the card here. Turns out it is one of several 1978T cards featuring the -Stick. 

Greg had come to the conclusion that the photo was taken during a game played on July 21 1977 which was a Night Game and qualified the card for the NOC Night Games collection. 

I perused the comments on the NOC post and Lo and Behold apparently I had followed up Greg's initial research and basically confirmed his findings adding some Phillies specific background.  

I had obviously forgotten any of this but it does make me happy to find out that I have been looking into game dated cards for eight years now. 

1977 July 21

Not sure how much I looked into the game in 2016, but turns out the game had a crazy twist that involved Lonborg. Philadelphia Inquirer sportswriter Bruce Keidan described the outing with this bit of Hyperbole: 

What was Keidan referring to? See if you can spot what happened here:

It's blurry so here is the baseball-reference link. 

Turns out that Lonborg left the game after 5 innings with the Phillies DOWN 6-0. Manager Danny Ozark sent Tommy Hutton up to pinch hit for Lonborg, who likely went to the shower expecting to take an L. 

But that's not what happened. Look at the line score, the Phillies put up 8 runs in the top of the 6th, they sent 13 batters to the plate. The fatal blow was a bases loaded triple off the bat of pinch hitter Jerry Martin. The Triple was a misjudged line drive towards converted infielder Derrel Thomas who was in his first year as a Center Fielder. 

Here is the detailed account of the scoring from the following days Inquirer:

  

According to Keidan the Phillies turn at-bat, which included 2 pitching changes, lasted 25 minutes. 

Flip

The win referenced in the text on the reverse put the Phillies into the postseason for the first time in over a quarter century. Jim Lonborg pitched a complete game versus in Montreal that day holding the Expos to four hits. A two-out double by Future Hall of Famer Andre Dawson in the sixth inning was the only thing that stood between Lonborg and a shutout.

Lonborg quickly got that run back on his own when he singled home Garry Maddox in the following inning - picking up one of his 43 career RBI. The Phillies big blow came on a 3-Run Homer by Greg Luzinski. 

Lonborg would go on to start two postseason games for the Phillies losing both. He retired in 1979 just missing the 1980 world championship squad.  

This concludes our deep dive into 1978 Topps #52 Jim Lonborg - 2 game dated card columns for the price of 1, and thanks to Night Owl Cards for discovering this card Eight Years ago. 

References and Links

Game Dated Cards Index

Baseball-ref

CollectibleVs

Night Owl Cards

Philadelphia Inquirer (Bruce Keidan)

1988 Topps Rookie Cup All-Star Team (1987 honorees)

This is an index to our postings related to Topps 1988 All-Star Rookie Cup Team. The subset was published in 1988 to honor the Rookies of 1987. 

192	DEVON WHITE	OF
229	JEFF MUSSELMAN	LHP
269	ELLIS BURKS	OF
275	KEVIN SEITZER	3B
294	AL PEDRIQUE	SS
431	CASEY CANDAELE	2B
493	MIKE GREENWELL	OF
580	MARK MCGWIRE	1B
619	MIKE DUNNE	RHP
645	MATT NOKES	C

Sources and Links

All-Star Rookie Cup Master Index