Top-10 Phillies in Hits

Since Jimmy Rollins became the all time leader in hits for the Phillies, I thought I do a top-10 list.

#1 Jimmy Rollins

Rollins has played his entire 15-year career with the Phillies. He set the record for most hits as a Phillie in last Saturday's 7-3 win over the Cubs. He has 2,235 hits for his career with a career batting average of .268. How does his hit total compare? He is 168th on the all-time hit list. Jimmy is 36 and in good health. He could play another 4 years, but will it be for the Phillies?

#2 Mike Schmidt

Like Rollins, Schmidt spent his entire career, 18 years, with the Phillies. He had 2,234 career hits with a .267 career batting average. Of course, Schmidt was more known as a home run hitter, hitting 548 total. Schmidt was on hand to see his hits record broken on Saturday. I think it will be a long time before we see his home run record broken.

#3 Richie Ashburn

Ashburn had a 15-year career, 12 with the Phillies. He left the Phillies after the 1959 season with 2,217 hits and a .311 bating average. He finished his career with 2,574 hits total. These first three all played during my lifetime. For #4 we have to go a bit further back.

#4 Ed Delahanty

Big Ed played for the Phillies from 1888 to 1901, except for 1890, when he played for the Cleveland Infants of the Player's League. In 13 years with the Phillies he had 2,214 hits and a .348 average. In his 16-year career he had 2,297 hits. He was also a home run hitter, in the days when it was hard to hit a home run, with 101 for his career. He lead the league in homers in 1893 and 1886 with 19 and 13 respectively.

#5 Del Ennis

Ennis played 11 years of his 14-year career for the Phillies, getting 1,183 hits with a batting average of .286.

#6 Larry Bowa

Larry Bowa played 11 years with the Phillies (1970-1981) and had 1,798 hits. He was also in the ball park for Rollins' record breaking hit as he is now the Phillies bench coach.

#7 Chuck Klein

I would have guessed that Chuck Klein was a little higher on this list. He played 15 years of his 17-year career with the Phillies from 1928 to 1944. For part of 1934, all of 1935 and part of 1936 he was with the Cubs. He had 1,705 hits for the Phillies with a .326 batting average.

#8 Sherry Magee

MaGee is one of two players on this list I had never heard of. MaGee played for the Phillies from 1904 to 1914 with 1,647 hits and a .299 average. He played another 5 years for the Boston Braves and Cincinnati Reds.  Sherry was short for Sherwood.

#9 Cy Williams

The other guy I'd never heard of. Williams played for the Cubs from 1912 to 1917 and then the next 13 years with the Phillies. He had 1,553 hits for the Phillies with a .292 average. He was another big home run hitter with 251 for his career. He lead the league in 1923 with 41 homers.

#10 Granny Hamner

This is, by the way, a 1991 Topps Archives card. Hamner played for the Phillies from 1944 to 1959 with 1,529 hits and a .263 BA. Along with Ashburn, he was one of the Phillies Whiz Kids who took the Phillies to the 1950 World Series.

250-card Farimont Cube

I mentioned the other day that I was going to get several posts from the 250-card Fairmont repack cube.  Here's # 3. First off, there were a lot of nice cards in this cube, and a lot of cards I didn't have. Of the 250 cards, about 150 are going into the collection.  In this post, I'm going to focus on some of the more odd-ball cards.

1986 Fleer Sluggers/Pitchers #17 Kent Hrbek

I had 2 cards from this 44-card set already (one of Mike Schmidt). This set was sold in a flip-top box in department stores. Fleer and Topps produced a lot of sets like this in the mid to late 1980s. Half the set were sluggers, the other half were pitchers.

1987 Nestle Dream Team #27 Roberto Clemento

This was a nice find. The 34-card (including a checklist card) set was produced by Topps. Cards could be found in Nestle candy and by a mail-in redemption. According to Beckett, the set was subdivided into 11-card subsets, depicting different eras in baseball. Im not sure when the Nestle "Modern Era" started considering that Clemente had been dead for 15 years when this set was issued.

1990 Topps Ames All Stars #28 Eric Davis

This is not an uncommon set to find in repacks. I've already got more than half the 33-card set from repacks. The card front has a heavy gloss. As you may have guessed these were available in Ames Department Stores. These stores were not located where I grew up in Philadelphia.

1990 Starline Long John Silver #6 Wade Boggs

You'd be hard-pressed to associate this set with the Long John's Silvers fast food chain since the store is not mentioned on the front or back. You could get a 5-card pack with the purchase of a food item at Long John Silver's. There are 40 cards in the set. I now have 3 of these and it looks like the National League cards are red and the AL cards are blue.

1995 Donruss Top of the Order #221 John Smiley

Yet another attempt to make a card game out of baseball cards. This was a 360-card set. It came in a 80-card  box with booster backs.

1997 UD3 #28 Ivan Rodriguez

I don't know to much about this 60-card set from Upper deck. I only have 3 cards from it, all acquired from repacks. Two of the cards I have look like this one with a gorgeous multi-colored foil finish. The other one has a sort of wood grain finish with a clear plastic insert.

1998 Pacific Online #275 Brian Hunder

By the first time I ever saw one of these cards, Pacific was defunct and so was the web site.

2007 Tristar Prospects Plus #97 Travis Snider

Not so much an odd-ball set as a minor-league set, I feature it here because Snider played for one of my favorite named minor league teams, the Lansing Lugnuts. I have a team cap I bought a few years on eBay.

Baseball Birthdays: November 20-26

November 20

Jay Johnstone - 1975 Topps #242

Jay had a 20-year career in baseball. He was with the Phillies from 1974-78 but also played for the Angels, White Sox, A's, Yankees, Padres, Dodgers, and Cubs. He was known as a big clubhouse prankster. I remember when he was in Philly, that he used to wear an umbrella hat during pre-game workouts.

November 21

Stan Musial - 2003 Topps Shoebox #23

This week was Stan the Man's 91st birthday! Wow.

November 22

Greg Luzinski - 2001 SP Legendary Cuts Debut Game Bat

Greg was the Phillies #1 draft pick in 1968. He played 11 years with the Phillies and another 4 for the White Sox. He hit 307 career home runs.

November 23

Jonathan Papelbon - 2009 SP Legendary Cuts #58

The newest Phillie.

November 24

Ben McDonald - 1990 Donruss Rookies #30

The Orioles #1 pick in 1989, he was one of the hottest names in the hobby in 1990.

November 25

Joe DiMaggio - 1992 Score DiMaggio

Joltin' Joe DiMaggio. 56-game hitting streak. Once married to Marilyn Monroe. Shilled for Mr. Coffee.

November 26

Hugh Duffy - 2011 Tri-Star Obak #13

Sir Hugh set the single season batting average record in 1894, batting .440. He also hit 18 home runs, and batted in 145 runs that year to win the Triple Crown.

Youngest players in 2011

I thought I did this feature last year but I can't find the post. So a new tradition begins this year.  I've been informally tracking the age of the youngest player for years. My original benchmark was a player born after my oldest son in 1984. Guys born in 1984 are practically veterans now. The youngest players this year were born in 1991. Here are the youngest players in the big leagues this year, all born after in 1990 or later.

2011 Tri-Star Obak #88 Mike Trout

Born on 8/7/91, Mike debuted with the Angels on 7/811, at only 19 years old. He was the Angel's #1 draft pick in 2009. He appeared in 33 games hitting .220. In 2010 he was considered the top prospect in baseball.

2011 Topps Update #174 Jacob Turner

Jacob was born on 5/21/91 and made his debut with the Tigers on 7/30/11. Another #1 draft pick in 2009. He appeared in 3 games, losing 1. He has a major league contract with the Tigers for $5.5 million.

2011 Topps Update #152 Julio Teheran

Born on 1/27/91, Julio made his debut with the Braves on 5/7/11. He was up and down with the Braves several times in 2011, making 3 starts and compiling a 1-1 record and a 5.03 ERA.

2011 Topps Update #132 Jose Altuve

Jose was born on 5/6/90 and made his debut with the Astros on 7/20/11. He is one of a number of young players who saw action with the Astros this year. On 8/20, he led off a game with an inside-the-park home run.

2010 Bowman Chrome #211 Starlin Castro

Starlin was born on 3/24/90 and made his debut with the Cubs on 5/7/10. A second year player, he looks like the real deal so far with a .304 batting average over 283 career games. He made the All-Star game in 2011. Defense may be an issue as he led all major league short stops in 2011 with 29 errors.

2011 Topps Update #282 Brad Hand

Brad was born on 3/20/90 and made his debut with the Marlins on 6/7/11. He made 12 starts for the Fish, with a 1-8 record and a 4.20 ERA.

2011 Tri-Star Obak #76 Randall Delgado

Randall was born on 2/9/90 and made his debut with the Braves on 6/17/11. He was up from the minors several times, making 7 starts for the Braves. He was 1-1 with an impressive 2.83 ERA in 35 innings.

2011 Topps Update #9 Jose Iglesias

Jose just squeaked into this group being born in 1/5/90. He made is debut with the Red Sox 5/8/11. He spent most of the season down on the farm, getting only 6 at bats with Boston.

Birthdays October 9-15

My Saturday morning birthday series is back in a stripped down format. If you had a birthday last week, I hope it was a happy one.

October 9 
2009 Goodwin Champions #63 Brian Roberts

Roberts has missed a lot of playing time the past two years due to recurring headaches.

October 10
2000 E-X Generation E-X #4 Pat Burrell

Phillies #1 draft pick in 1998. Now with the Giants.

October 11
1989 Topps #161 Gregg Olsen

The Orioles #1 pick in 1988. His 1989 cards were hot at the time.

October 12
1997 Ultra #525 Sid Fernandez

Known mainly as a Met, he spent the last few years with the Phillies and Astros. I have no idea what is going on in this picture.

October 13
1996 Pinnacle Aficionado Artist's Proofs #117 Trevor Hoffman

Retired last year with 601 saves, good for 2nd place on the all-time list.

October 14
2011 Tri-Star Obak #11 Tom Chaney

On September 12, 1962, Chaney struck out 21 batters over 16 innings as his Senators beat the Orioles 2-1. He averaged 7.6 Ks/9 innings pitched in 1962.

Birthdays this past week - Home Run Hitters

Here's the first installment of what I hope will be a weekly feature at Capewood's Collections. Each Friday I'll pick a different stat and feature a player who had a birthday during the week who lead all other players born that day. I hope to be able to accomplish this with cards I actually own. Let's start the year off with home run hitters.

January 1
2010 Topps National Chicle #206 Hank GreenbergHank Greenberg was born in 1911 and played from 1930 to 1947, all but one of those years for the Tigers. Hammerin' Hank mostly played first base and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1956. He hit 331 home runs.

January 2:
1996 Topps Laser #27 Edgar MartinezEdgar Martinez was born in 1963. He played from 1987 to 2004, all for the Mariners. Papi played 3rd base and hit 309 home runs. He was a 7-time All-Star. 2010 was his first year of eligibility for the Hall of Fame and he appeared 32.6% of the ballots.

January 3:
1994 Ultra Phillies Finest Autograph #2 Darren DaultonDarren Daulton was born in 1962 and played from 1983 to 1997, all but the end of 1997 with the Phillies. Dutch was mainly a catcher but played 1st base and right field late in his career as his knees gave out. He hit 137 home runs in his career. In his first year of eligibility for the HOF (2003) he only appeared on .2% of the ballots so he's likely not a future Hall of Famer.

January 4:
1990 Upper Deck #529 Daryl BostonGeorge Selkirk (1934-1942) actually leads players born this date in home runs with 108 but I don't own any of his cards. Daryl Boston is second on the January 4th list with 83. He played from 1984 to 1994, for the White Sox, Mets, Rockies and Yankees.

January 5:
2009 Tristar Obak #65 Ron KittleRon Kittle was born in 1958 in Gary IN. He played from 1982 to 1991. He played parts of 8 seasons with the White Sox but also played for the Yankees, Orioles, and Indians. Mainly an outfielder, he hit 176 home runs. He was the 1983 AL Rookie of the Year.

January 6:
1961 Topps #78 Lee WallsLee Walls was born in 1933 and played from 1952 to 1964. January 6th was not a big day for home run hitters. Walls leads all players born this day with 66 home runs. Walls played for the Pirates, Cubs, Reds, Phillies and Dodgers. Although he seems to have been mainly a utility player he did go to the All-Star game in 1958 when he batted for a .304 average and hit 24 home runs for the Cubs.

January 7:
2001 Bowman Heritage 1948 Reprints Relics Johnny MizeHall of Famer Johnny Mize was born in 1913 in Damorest GA. He played from 1936 to 1953. His career was about evenly split between the Cardinals, The NY Giants and the Yankees. He hit 359 home runs, leading all other players born this first week of January.

2007 Topps Turkey Red #140 Alfonso Soriano Alfonso Soriano was born in 1976 in San Pedro de Macoris, DR. Although he's second behind Johnny Mize for home runs for players born on January 7th, I included him because he's hit 314, third highest for players born the first week in January. And he's still an active player so his total should go higher. He has played for the Yankees, Rangers, Nationals and has been with the Cubs the last 4 years. He is also a 7-time All-Star.