Cup of Coffee: Moonlight Graham

 

Moonlight Graham

• Moonlight Graham is the epitome of Cup of Coffee Players. His brief baseball career consisted of two innings only in the field, he never got the opportunity to bat.
• However those 2 innings were celebrated in fiction and on screen though the WP Kinsella novel "Shoeless Joe" and the film adaptation "Field of Dreams"
• The canvas for this Cup is the 1908-09 Rose Company Postcards (PC760). A set that Archie "Moonlight" Graham appeared in as a minor leaguer
• The Caduceus symbol is present to represent Graham's career as a Physician.
• Moon appears top right for Moonlight
• A. Graham for Archibald
• Figure in the bottom left is to show that Graham only played in the field.

Sources and Links

Cup of Coffee Index

HOF Gaylord Perry Index

 This is an Index of our postings related to HOF pitcher Gaylord Perry

1962 Topps #199 Gaylord Perry (rc)

1984 Topps #4: 1983 Highlights - Ryan, Carlton and Perry Surpass Johnson for Career Ks

Phungo HOF Index

1973 Topps #322 Garry Maddox (rc)

Little late on this one but Garry Maddox turned 70 over the Labor day weekend. To celebrate we are posting a column on his rookie card.

1973 Topps #322 Garry Maddox (rc, image from Baseball Card Database)

Over here at Phungo Headquarters we think of Garry Maddox as a lifetime Phillies player, but as can be seen above early in his career he spent a couple of years with the Giants. Nice to see Maddox get a solo card here as many rookies from this era were awarded shared cards.

However there is a sloppy Topps element to this card as well.  Garry Maddox was a member the 1972 All-Star Rookie team, unfortunately Topps failed to put the trophy icon on his card.

As part of the Team Phungo Art initiative we have decided to correct this error, and while we were being creative we decided to modify a few other things about the card.

Phungo Original 1973T  Garry Maddox

Yes since I was going to the trouble of drawing a new card of Garry Maddox with the Rookie Cup, I figure why not make him a Phillie. I tried to get Maddox face and figure to match the card photo, but with the background I got a little crazy and put in a globe.

The idea was inspired by the quote "Two-thirds of the Earth is covered by water, the other one-third by Garry Maddox." which is often attributed to Ralph Kiner.

So yes in one drawing I made the Topps card my own by 1) Changing the team 2) Adding the missing Rookie Cup and 3) Including a globe in the background to honor Maddox defensive notoriety.

1980 Phillies

The other reason I did the Maddox artwork was because I thought that this was a fun card on the Maddox player collection checker and I wanted to make the card part of our 1980 Phillies retrospective.

My goal is to put together a dozen or so columns on the 1980 Phils, but since I don't post as often I a starting a little early. A few months ago I wrote up Del Unser which I plan on adding to the collection.

For an index of all 1980 Phillies related postings click here. Not much there yet, but hopefully there will be by this time next year.

Whiz Kids
We also profiled Maddox as part of our series on the 1983 Phillies. That posting will be used as our Garry Maddox Index. 

Sources and Links
Garry Maddox Index
1973 Topps All-Star Rookie Cards Index
1980 World Champion Phillies Index
Baseball-Ref Bullpen
Baseball Card Database
Baseball Almanac

1959 Topps All-Star #553 Orlando Cepeda - and a BIG cartoon

Last month Orlando Cepeda had to be rushed to the hospital to be treated for a "cardiac incident". Thankfully, according to a SF Gate article the Hall of Fame first baseman has made significant progress towards recovery. 

The scary news got me to check and I realized that I had not yet dedicated a column to Cepeda. Tonight we rectify this issue. 

1959 Topps All-Star #553 Orlando Cepeda

In 1959 Orlando Cepeda made the first of eleven All-Star teams that he would be part of during his 17 year career. 1959 began a four year run that featured two all-star games. Cepeda made all 8 of those teams. Cepeda only appeared in the first of the two 1959 games, with the NL winning the contest 5-4 despite the fact that Cepeda went 0-4.

In addition to the 11 ASG Orlando Cepeda's accolades include a World Champion, four postseason appearances,  an MVP (1967) award and a Rookie of the Year (1958).

And oh yeah that Hall of Fame plaque awarded by the Veterans Committee in 1999.  

The 1959 Topps All-Star cards close the set and were the last to be released for the year. The nice thing about this is that it allows Topps to put out an All-Star set representing the current years game, unfortunately they made some dubious choices in selection.

Orlando Cepeda would appear on two other All-Star cards, 1962 and 1968. In addition to being included in the 1968 ASG set Cepeda was also the subject of that years NL All-Star puzzle.

Flip

1959 Topps All-Star #553 Orlando Cepeda (b-side)

I like the backs of the 1959 Topps All-Stars, The full-size cartoon and fun-fact are nicely done. I also like the Bazooka ad at the bottom.

BIG Cartoon
1959 Topps #535 Orlando Cepeda also happens to be a landmark card. I believe 1959 Topps All-Stars are the first subset to include the full-size cartoon. There are actually 2 cards that precede Cepeda in the 1959 ASG Subset, but those are both managers, The first of which is Fred Haney who is the first oversized cartoon back. However since he is not a player, and neither is #534 Casey Stengel that makes today's featured guest Orlando Cepeda the first player to have an oversized cartoon back - PIONEER! Thanks to Fuji for getting my wheels rolling in this direction.

Other Voices
CommishBob covers this over at his 1959 Topps Blog

Orlando Cepeda Index
1975 Topps  #205 1967 MVP  (with Carl Yastrzemski)


Sources and Links
1959 Topps All-Stars Index 
1968 Topps Blog
1959 Topps 1 f/g card at a time
SF Gate
baseball-ref

Updates
2018 0321 - Added Big Cartoon Paragraph, Thanks Fuji

Happy 80th Birthday Willie McCovey and the birth of the Topps All-Star Rookie Team

On January 10th First Ballot Hall of Famer Willie McCovey celebrates his 80th birthday.

To mark the occasion I would like to take a look at McCovey's rookie card.

 1960 Topps #316 Willie McCovey

Not only is this a Rookie Card but it is also Topps first ever All-Star Rookie Cup card.

Therefore here we have a card that historic for not one but two reasons. The card is the beginning of some interesting Topps history. 

Check out the text at the top of the yellow circle. It specifies that McCovey was "Selected by the Youth of America"

What does that mean? Well Topps actually sent out ballots to the Boy Scout, YMCA, Boys Club of America and other youth organizations to vote on the All-Star Rookie team. I believe this was part of a greater effort to attract young collectors.

The Following Ad appeared in an issue of The Sporting News during the summer of 1959.

 The Sporting News 1959 Jul 15  

A couple of things to unpack here, first The trophy looks terrific. The clipart used for the Trophy on early Topps cards looks fine, but here we have a bit more detail, I mean who knew the pedestal was a Top Hat?

The text above is where I got the info on the clubs involved in the rookie all-star election.

Further down in the ad we have additional info:

 

The Sporting News 1959 Jul 15

 

Check it out there was an actual trophy presentation ceremony with an associated bonus of $125! According to the CPI Inflation Calculator that is a little bit over a grand in today's money.

To the right is a "Sample Ballot". Kids write in the players name, team and position, and send their vote to Topps Bazooka office in Brooklyn.

The final thing I want to point out is the "Honorary All-Star Election Committee" which consists of various media representatives plus JACKIE ROBINSON, who is referred to not as Major Leaguer, World Champion, All-Star, or Future Hall of Famer. Nope for purposes of this exercise he was Vice President, Chock Full O' Nuts, Inc.

According to a TSN article the 1959 All-Star Rookie election consisted of 1.5 Million votes. Topps eligibility requirements to make the team were no more than 45 Days in the Majors, 90 Plate Appearances, or 45 innings prior to the season.

Banquet

The Sporting News 1960 Apr 20

And there they are Topps Historic First All-Star Rookie Team. They are pretty much in the order that they appear on the 1960T checklist. Willie McCovey is on the left followed Pumpsie Green, Jim Baxes, Phillies Shortstop Joe Koppe (the shortest guy in the shot) Bob Allison, Ron Fairly, John Romano and Jim Perry. Willie Tasby and Jim O'Toole who could not make the outing are shown in an inset bottom left.

The Subset
The Initial All-Star Rookie subset is unique within the history of the on card award as it is the only time the cards are presented consecutively running from #316-#325.

They also run in position sequence using scoring notation, except they start at 1B rather than pitcher. I don't know if this is luck or if Topps wanted one of the two Rookie of the Year award winners to lead off the subber. The AL ROY was Bob Allison. Regardless if planned or happy accident it is a nice touch that the first All-Star Rookie card EVER went to a 500 Home Run guy and future Hall of Famer. 

 Flip

1960 Topps #316 Willie McCovey (b-side)

The back of the All-Star Rookies are essentially the same as the base backs. Note McCovey took home NL ROY honors despite only getting involved in 52 games. Perhaps it had to do with his HOT start. I always loved how 1960T bullet pointed highlights from the players 1959 season. Check ou the first five of these HighLights for Stretch. The man puts up notable games FOUR days in a row right at the top of his career

Sources and Links
Phungo Willie McCovey HOF Index
1960 Topps Rookie Topps Index
The Sporting News
Baseball Card Database
Cardboard Connection
Baseball-Ref
CPI Inflation Calculator

2013 Phungo #66 Tommy Joseph

Quick Posting to note the Major League Debut of Tommy Joseph

2013 Phungo #66 Tommy Joseph

I knew of Tommy Joseph for a little prior to his trade into the Phillies organization. He was one of the more noteworthy players at the AA All-Star game held at Reading in 2012.

He was still in the Giants organization at the time and signed lots of autographs that night. I liked the fact that he referred to the Plate as "the Dish" when I asked him if he was playing. "I'm starting and playing behind the Dish" he said.

Photo here is a lil blurry, but I was happy enough to add it to the Tommy Joseph Wiki page. I have "donated" a few Pictures to Wikiepedia and it is always exciting to see the subjects reach milestones.

Thanks to the Phillies Room for posting the card so I didn't have to dig around my files to figure out where I stored it.  

Sources and Links
2013 Phungo Checker

Topps #1 Club: 2004 Heritage Jim Thome (and a short print)

The Phillies recently posted their 2016 Wall of Fame ballot, Right at the top of the list is Slugger Jim Thome.

We are going to use this opportunity to extend our tour of #1 cards to include Topps Heritage.

 
2004 Topps Heritage #1b Jim Thome (sp)

In 2004 Topps put Jim Thome on card #1 in both flagship AND their heritage set. At the time Thome was coming off of his first season with the Phillies, a year in which he had led the NL in Home Runs with 47.  Not sure if it was a factor getting Thome on the #1 card but there was also a lot of buzz around Phillies as the team opened Citizen's Bank Ballpark in 2004 as well.

Near as I can tell the #1 Heritage Thome Card has no connection with the subject of the original 1955T card which was Dusty Rhodes.

1955 Topps #1 Dusty Rhodes (image swiped from Baseball Card Database)

Rhodes earned the top spot by hitting a pair of Home Runs and collecting 7 RBI while helping the New York Giants to win the World Series over the Cleveland Indians. Amazingly Dusty Rhodes didn't start a game in the 1954 Series and only played in 3 games, with 7 total plate appearances. But he made them count - one of the Homers was a Walk off in Game one. In game 2 he had a game tying hit in the 5th inning followed by a lead extending Homer later in the game. Those three hits all came off of future Hall of Famers (Bob Lemon G1, Early Wynn G2)

2004 Heritage #1

2004 Topps Heritage #1 Jim Thome (sp, b-side)

Returning to Jim Thome we post the back of his card and you can clearly see the #1 in the top left. We also have a minor connection to the Dusty Rhodes card - the cartoon/trivia Q on the Thome card does happen to reference Dusty's team, the Giants.

Short Print

2004 Topps Heritage #1b Jim Thome (sp)
2004 Topps Heritage #1 Jim Thome (base)

If you have been paying attention you will have noticed that the card we are discussing is a short print. The SP is the top card above with Thome shown holding the bat. The common #1 card is the latter of the pair with and action shot of Thome holding the bag at first. The Facsimile auto is moved a tad to better match the inset shot, other than that the Base and SP are identical.

2nd Flip

2004 Topps Heritage #1b Jim Thome (sp, b-side)
2004 Topps Heritage #1 Jim Thome (base, b-side)

And one final flip just to demonstrate the two cards have matching backs.  This is 2004 and Topps is in the pre-serial code era, that small print above the stats doesn't clue us in to which card is a base and which is a shorty. I pulled the two cards within a string of 3 packs or I may noticed myself.

Sources and Links
#1 Club
Jim Thome Player Collection
Baseball Card Database
Phillies
Baseball-ref

Monte Irvin (1919-2016)

Last week we found out about the passing of Giants Hall of Fame outfielder Monte Irvin.

2003 UD Vintage #89 Monte Irvin

One of the interesting things I found out about Monte Irvin is that he donated proceeds from his autograph signings to benefit his alma mater Lincoln University, a Historic Black College just beyond the edge of the Philadelphia suburbs.

2003 UD Vintage #89 Monte Irvin (b-side)

For their 2003 set UD swiped the design from 1965 Topps - which makes for a great looking card no matter who is in charge.

Card related Tributes and other Memorials
HELP!!! - I got pretty sick last week and was unable to collect as many of these links as I would have liked, if you have a posting please let me know

Arpsmith (1992 Front Row)
Baseball Happenings (GREAT personal recollection story, numerous autograph)
Bob Lemke (1952 Topps)
Cards that Never Were (1957 Topps - custom, 1949 Bowman - custom)
Paul's Random Stuff (HoF Postcard auto)

Cardboard Connection - Top 10 Monte Irvin Cards
Phungo Monte Irvin HoF Index


Sources and Links
Lincoln University
Lincoln Lions baseball-ref 

Phungo Monte Irvin HoF Index

Year ot the No-Hitter: Scott Garrelts near-hitter

On July 29th 1990 Scott Garrelts could have pitched the record setting 8th no-hitter of the Major League season but he missed it by one out. He and the San Francisco Giants had to settle for a one-hit 4-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds as Paul O'Neill singled to center with 2 outs in the 9th. Garrelts subsequently retired Eric Davis to complete the shutout.

1991 Score #541 Scott Garrelts

Garrelts pitched 10 years in the Major, his entire career was spent with the Giants. The one-hitter was the last Shutout and Complete Game of his career.

1991 Score #541 Scott Garrelts (b-side)

The text on the back of Garrelts card mentions the Near-Hitter towards the bottom. It also goes on to mention his 1989 campaign when Garrelts led the NL in ERA, WHIP and W/L percentage. good enough for 6th in the Cy Young voting.

Sources and Links
Year of the No-Hitter Index
New York Times
baseball-ref

SABR 45: Masanori Murakami

One of my favorite presentations at SABR 45 featured Masanori Murakami, the first Japanese born player to join the Major Leagues.

1965 Topps #282 Giants Rookie Stars Estelle and Masanori Murakami

A discussion of Murakami's life and career was moderated by Rob Fitts who has written a biography of the Japanese pitcher. 

The SABR panel in Chicago also included Yuriko Gamo Romer who is putting a documentary together on Murakami. A rough cut of the opening of the film titled "Diamond Diplomacy" was shown, the clip included footage of Murakami from both the US and Japan. 

Fitts' Questions for Murakami focused on how he learned baseball in Japan despite the objections of his family, his initial experiences in the states (spring training in Tucson), and his first game which was at Shea Stadium.

Murakami cited Giants coach Bill Werle as a significant early influence when he came to the states. During the course of the presentation it became clear that Mashi was the perfect candidate to play in the states. He had a fascination with Western Culture and films - specifically he had become a John Wayne prior to his arrival in the states. 

Mashi - Robert K Fitts

The Masanori Murakami biography was penned by Japanese baseball authority Robert K Fitts who is from Philadelphia and when to UPenn. Despite this the Mashi Book tour is not making a stop in Philadelphia. 

The title of the book is MASHI, apparently a nickname - likely shorthand for Masanori - notice on the 1965T card above that Masanori uses the shorter Mashi when autographing items. I also must point out the incredible quality of the penmanship. 

2015 06 27 Masanori Murakami 

After Murakami signed my baseball card, he was even nice enough to pose for this picture simulating a throwing motion. Thanks Mashi - I just wish I would have thought to give him a baseball to pose with. 

For a review of the Mashi book check out examiner.com journalist Nick Diunte here. There Examiner also has a companion interview. 

Sources and Links 

Phungo SABR 45 Index

Rob Fitts

Nick Diunte Examiner.com

Flying Carp Productions 

Baseball-ref

 

Buster Posey - Catcher for 3 World Series Teams and 3 No-Hitters

I don't think I have a Chris Heston card,  Rather than digging around looking for one of his cards we are going to post one of Buster Posey who joined a pretty elite group himself last night. 

2010 Topps #2 Buster Posey (rc)

Posey became the 16th catcher to work 3 no-hitters. The all time record is four held by Jason Varitek.
At 28 years of age Buster is young enough to catch Tek, However...

We don't know how many games Posey will actually catch for the remainder of his career. He is spending about a quarter of his time at first base now and that ratio will likely increase as Posey's
career continues.

2010 Topps #2 Buster Posey (rc - b-side)

Congrats to Chris Heston and Buster Posey. In a year where we are covering the Year of the No-Hitter it is exciting to see the first No-Hitter of 2015

Sources and Links
Baseball-Almanac
Baseball-ref

RTC 1954 Topps #3 Monte Irvin

With the Phillies scheduled to host the San Francisco Giants this weekend, we take a look a a Giants Hall of Famer from their New York tenure, Monte Irvin. 

The Hall of Fame formed the Negro League Committee in 1971. In 1973 Monte Irvin became the fourth player inducted by the Committee, preceded by only Satchell Paige, Buck Leonard, and Josh Gibson

1954 Topps #3 Monte Irvin

Monte Irvin entered the Majors at age 30 in 1949. He won a World Series title as a member of the 1954 New York Giants, his best season was 1951 when he finished 3rd in the MVP award voting (Roy Campanella). Irvin led the league with 121 RBIs in 1951 and finished 5th in Batting average (.351).

In 1952 Irvin made the all-star team but did not get to play. For that years mid-summer classic the Left Fielder found himslf behind the NLs eventual MVP, Hank Sauer, on the depth chart. 

During his eight year career Irvin was a .293 hitter with 99 Homers.
 
Monte Irvin turned 96 a few months ago and is among the oldest living members of the Hall. Later this summer Irvin is expected to join current San Francisco Giants in Washington DC when the reigning World Champions meet President Obama.

To read more about Irvin check out his interesting Baseball Hall of Fame bio here. He could have been Jackie Robinson, but Branch Rickey chose Robinson prior to Irvin getting his opportunity with the Giants. 

For The Collector
Found this beauty at a card show in 2012 for $4.50 which is a solid price for this card. Eight recent auctions came in under $6. The High End was $577 (PSA 8.5), four auctions ended in the $240-$250 range (PSA 8).



Monte Irvin HoF Index 
Memorial Posting (2016 January)


Sources and Links
Baseball Hall of Fame
SF Gate
baseball-ref
ebay

2015 Heritage the Originals: Teammates Subset?

There are a couple of special cards in the 1966T set that include 2 or 3 teammates.

1966 Topps #52 Power Plus Wes Covington Johnny Callison

At card #52 we have the first of the combo cards which happens to be dedicated to the Phillies. Johnny Callison is a worthy subject for a card titled Power Plus, not so sure about his partner.

Wes Covington was coming off a 1965 season in which he hit 15 homers and tallied 45 RBIs. Which I would consider unremarkable power numbers even in the pitching centric middle 60s. Other candidates for the card could have been Dick Allen (20 HR, 85 RBI) or Dick Stuard (28/95).

In addition it was Covington's last season with the Phillies, he was traded during the off-season and was likely gone by the time this card was issued.

1964 Phillies @ 50
Wes was also the a  member of the 1964 Phillies, as a Left fielder for the club he had similar numbers to 1965 13 HR, 58 RBI, .280 BA 126 OPS+, and 1.4 WAR. Covington's dWAR numbers hurt his total throughout his career.

During the clubs fateful stretch run manager Gene Mauch elected to frequently use a platoon in Left field. Following the teams collapse Covington was very unhappy and he would eventually ask for the aforementioned trade.

One of the more humorous parts of an extremely interesting SABR Bio by Andy Sturgill mentions that Covington had already spent his World Series bonus money. He purchased a rifle which he brought into the clubhouse and declared "This is for the sportswriters"

Fortunately for Wes Covington he was able to make the postseason both prior to and after his Phillies tenure. He won a World Series withe 1957 Milwaukee Braves and returned to the series with the club the following season. He also got a pinch hit appearance in the 1966 Series with the Dodgers who lost to the Orioles. 

1966 Topps Combos
Sorry drifted into our 1964 Phils coverage there, now back to our regularly scheduled post.

You may have noticed I had a Question Mark in the title, that is because I am not really sure one should call this theme a subset.  There are 5 combo cards in 1966 Topps with no apparent rationale for the players or teams. All 5 cards appear in the first couple of series. The four other teams repped are the Pirates, Giants, White Sox and Astros.

Willie Stargell is the only Hall of Famer in the subset with each card containing a player that is somewhat comparable to Johnny Callison.

#99 Bucs Belters - Willie Stargell, Don Clendennon

#156 DP Combo Dick Schofield Hal Lanier 

#199 Chisox Clubbers Bill Skowron, Johnny Romano, Floyd Robinson 

#273 Astros Aces - Bob Aspromante and Rusty Staub

Special Thanks to Jim From Downingtown who's research I stole for this post. He points out that the power outage doesn't occur just on the Phillies card, The Chisox card is dubious and ignoring Roberto Clemente on a Bucs Belters card does sound like a gaffe. 

Flipped

1966 Topps #52 Power Plus Wes Covington Johnny Callison (b-side)


There is a fairly detailed write up on the back of each card, although the Wes Covington portion of this one devotes a lot more time to his Braves career than his Phillies tenure.

2015 Heritage Combos
Who will Topps go with for the 2015 Combos?
Will 2015 Heritage have combos? 

I am saying yes to the combos and take a stab at some projections

Phillies Power Plus - egads nobody, I will stick with the standbys of Utley and Howard or Topps could maintain the continuity of the Covington trade by including Jimmy Rollins
Bucs Belters -McCutchen and How about Super Utility guy Josh Harrison filling the Clendennon role.
DP Combo (Giants) - This one is a little complicated. Brandon Crawford is the starting Shortstop for the World Champs, but there was a revolving door at 2nd. I am going with St Johns Alum Joe Panik.
Chisox Clubbers - If we can't go with Jose Abreu 3 times, I will add Konerko and Adam Dunn. I know they are both gone, but it is a deserved nod to their long careers.
Astros Aces - This is great the card is named Aces but has two batters. Going to go with 2 young guys here Altuve and Singleton - just because he came up with the Philllies.

Sources and Links
Willie Stargell HoF index 
1966 Topps Blog
2015 Heritage/1966 Topps Index
1964 Phillies @ 50 Index
SABR Bio by Andy Sturgill
cardboard connection
Topps Database
Baseball-ref

2015 Topps Hobby vs Retail

For the 2015T Hobby vs Retail we have pitted a Hanger Pack and 3 Looseys from a big box store against a Jumbo Pack and 3 Hobby Packs from a Card show. Both purchases were similar in price.

The Retail came to $16, The PA Tax and Target Red Card discount are almost a push which brings everything back to near list price. The Hobby offering was $11 for the Jumbo and $2 each for the Hobby Packs. The dealer unexpectedly charged tax on the purchase pushing the sale to $18.

Here is the scorecard:

 

Retail 
$16 - 1 Hanger & 3 Looseys

5 - Phillies (4 Base - Best = Chooch, 1 Robin Roberts insert)
84 - Unique Base Cards (23% - includes 4 Phils above)
    Best = Stanton, Puig, George Springer, Felix Hernandez
10 - Inserts (including aforementioned Roberts)
 -2 Archetypes (Aaron, Ryan)
 -2 First HR (Mattingly, Matt Carpenter
 -2 Highlight of the year (1968 Catfish, 1973 Ryan)
 -1 Jackie Robinson story
 -1 Inspired Play (Pirates Stargell-McCutchen)
 -1 Free Agent (Fisk)
 -1 Baseball History (1955 Robin Roberts)
1 - Variation (Greg Holland - Gatorade)
13 - Duplicates
102 Total Cards

Hobby
$18 - 1 Jumbo and 3 Hobby
1 - Phillies Card (Bastardo)
68 - Unique Base Card (19%)
     Best = Pence WS, Posey, Springer, Tom Koehler
9 - Inserts
 -2 Archetypes (Puig Jeter)
 -2 Highlight of the Year (1965 Marichal, 2001 Ripken JR)
 -1 Inspired (Pirates AGAIN)
 -1 Free Agent (Dawson)
 -1 Baseball History (1957 Red Schoendienst)
 -1 First Pitch (Keflezighi)
 -1 Call Your Shot (Is anybody using these)
1 - Buy Back (1978 Topps #361 Chris Knapp)
2 - Duplicates
80 Total Cards

The Verdict
Retail Wins NO CONTEST. This isn't even close. Breakdown
Phils Card - RETAIL - Wins on Number, Talent and Inserts
Base Cards -  RETAIL - Volume and Talent
Inserts - HOBBY - The first pitch puts Hobby over but barely
Hit - RETAIL - Buy back of Chris Knapp, and it is in garbage condition for a 1978 card.

There it is Retail tops Hobby in a route.

Collation
The cards came from four different sources (Hanger, Loosey, Hobby Jumbo, Hobby Pack) so there are no conclusion one can draw on collation other than that within each of those 4 segments the draw was fine.

Unfortunately there was heavy duplication across platforms. In addition to the 15 cards duplicated within each market there 18 across the two sets (plus one insert).

This means I picked up 34 duplicates from a bounty of 182 cards or 18.6%.  The number of unique base between bother purchases was 134 cards (38%). Had I been lucky enough to have no Duplicates I would have picked up 167 cards (47.6%)

Sources and Links
2015 Topps Index
Cardboard Connection

Philly Show 2014 12 06 - Vintage Phillies

This weekend Team Phungo was at the Valley Forge show for 4 hours os so and picked up a bunch of vintage cards. I concentrated on my Phillies 50s and 60s Topps checkers and Card of Hall of Famers from the same era. There was an additional focus on 1966 Topps in preparation for the release of 2015 Heritage in just a couple of months.

Highlights

1966 Topps Bobby Wine
1966 Topps John Boozer

Who would have thought I would pick up Wine and Boozer cards from the same 50 year old set on the same day. I could also toss out a quip regarding having a Wine Boozer combo on the 1964 Phils may have led to their collapse.

Joking aside, I was very happy to pick up the above cards. The pair which went for 50 cents each closed out the lower & Mid Series cards for my 1966T Phillies team set. Still have 3 cards remaining from the scarce high series.

At least part of the reason 1966T gets dismissed is it arrived on the heals of the popular 1965 Topps set. The upcoming Heritage set may give us a chance to reconsider the orignal set. The two cards above illustrate one of the nice aspects of 1966 Topps. The photographs on the cards come from a variety of angles and often feature faux-action. In my opinion the tedium of repeated head shots throughout recent Heritage sets has heard the set.

We will be taking a look the originals set over the coming weeks and I am sure I will return to that point often.

More Set Closing

1958 Topps Granny Hamner

This was the last card I needed for 1958 Topps, I also picked up the 1960 Topps Bobby Del Greco card to close that set.  Each card was $1.50 although the above Hamner was tossed in for free when I bought twenty 1954T Commons.

The two cards also give team Phungo a run of completed Phillies Team Sets that run for 1958-60 - oddly my longest run among vintage sets.

Other Highlights 

1966 Topps Chisox Clubbers

I am just going to post pix of some other cards now. Time permitting I will return to discuss these cards at some point in the future. Right now I just wanted to post a cross section of the pickups and also give some pricing details which may interest other collectors. The Clubbers card went for 50 cents. Picked up this card as part of our 2015 Heritage research.   

1959 Topps #23 Murry Dickson

$2. Down to 2 more cards to complete the entire 1959 Topps Set! 

1939 Diamond Stars Van Mungo

$14. I think this was the priciest pick up  of the day. Trying to pick up a Diamond Stars card at each big show I attend. This is a pretty sharp looking one. 

 1961 Topps #478 Roger Maris 1960 AL MVP

$8. This is a subset I have been working on. Pretty happy to pull this one in for $8

 1952 Topps George Kell

$10. 1952T of a Hall of Famer.

1934 Goudey Woody English

1934 is my favorite Goudey set. 

 1961 Topps World Series Highlight

$2. Picked this one up just for the hat.

 1960 Topps Hank Aaron All-Star

$10. A subset that I am contemplating building.

1962 Topps Willie Mays All-Star

 $10. Yet another All-Star Subber I am considering building 

Congrats To Hunter Pence and the San Francisco Giants

Despite the Phillies not being involved and the Baltimore Orioles getting swept by the Kansas City Royals I really enjoyed the postseason.

This morning we featured a card to note the Royals fine season, tonight we recognize the champions

2011 Topps #US92 Hunter Pence

Yes, For 15 Minutes Hunter Pence was a Philadelphia Phillie. In a different world Hunter Pence is still with the club and they have won 3 more championship.

That, of course, did not happen. Regardless I am happy for Hunter Pence. He seems likea  great guy, Things have worked out well for him with the Giants, and he has had a pretty decent 2014 playoff.

2011 Topps #US92
I like this card for our final 2014 postseason card. It shows one of the series heroes with the Phillies, AND it also shows Raul Ibanez lurking in the background. Ibanez wasn't on the Royals World Series team, but he was on their 2014 squad and was in the dugout for the Series. Fox featured him during in game interviews. Raul Ibanez like Hunter Pence has always seemed to be a professional person and player who can offer something to a team, even if he cannot contribute on the diamond. I am glad the the Royals made him part of the festivities.

2014 Playoff Postings 
This concludes our 2014 Playoff Postings series. We have covered all 10 teams and featured 27 cards. During the series I tried to feature interesting and topical cards. An index of all the cards can be found here. Hope you enjoyed it.

The OnDeck feature for Phungo is an analysis of the 2015 Hall of Fame candidates. We have reviewed a few of these already including Tom Gordon & Scott Eyre (for the playoff series) , John Smoltz. and Pedro.

Sources & Links
2014 Playoff Teams

2014 Playoffs: Giants Buster Posey and the Queen of the Indies

Tonight we look at the Giants catcher who some folks have referred to as the Next Derek Jeter

2009 Obak #23 Buster Posey

As we mentioned in a prior posting, the Giants starting 8 during their World Series run has only two recurring regulars Pablo Sandoval and Buster Posey.

Posey at age 27 has collected a Rookie of the Year Award, Batting Title, and MVP AND he is also playing in his 3rd World Series.

That is a solid resume for any player even more so at the demanding position of Catcher. Those tidbits are among the facts folks will cite when beginning the Jeter conversation.

2009 Obak
I really enjoyed opening a Hobby Box of 2009 Obak, For the Highlights check this posting.

Obak is an unlicensed product that consists of a mix of minor league prospects, MLB Alums, and historical figures related to the game. The first 31 Cards in the 100 card 2009 base (non-SP) set were dedicated to prospects.

Cards #22 and #23 feature a couple players that made me think there was a film fan at Obak.

2009 Obak #22 Jarrod Parker  
2009 Obak #23 Buster Posey 

Do these two cards make anyone think of a certain Indie Movie Queen?

Think about it.

Ok if you have given up click here

Yes originally I thought this was a wink to the actress Parker Posey. She seems to be involved in a lot of fun projects and I have always been a fan.

2009 Obak #21-29

See there they are in Numerical Order - top row middle and right Parker, Posey right next to each other. Whoever numbered the cards had to be a Paker Posey fan, right?

Unfortunately this doesn't appear to be the case. If you look at the page more closely you will notice allthe players are simply presented in alphabetical order. Indeed card #1 in the set is Pedro Alvarez, The last card in among the Prospects is #31 Brett Wallace.

Side Note: Just want to point out right next to Jarrod Parker we have #21 Mike Moustakas - another participant in the 2014 World Series.

Sources & Links
2014 Playoff Teams
Triistar productions
imdb
baseball-ref