Phillies at Diamondbacks: August 29th to August 31st

2000 Topps Traded #T120

2000 Topps #32

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 9:40
Chase Field - Phoenix, AZ

At the Ballpark:  It's ASU Night at the ballpark in Monday night, and there's no explanation given for this, but Wednesday night is Paint at the Park per the Diamondbacks' website.

The Phillies Room staff are currently enjoying an offsite late summer training and wellness seminar, and daily posting will return in early September. 

2022 Virtual Phillies Wall / 2022 Season Summary Index / 2022 Chachi Set Checklist

2001 Topps Heritage #381 Omar Daal

Padres 3, Phillies 0
Game 118 - Wednesday Afternoon, August 16th in San Diego
Record - 43-75, 5th place, 28 games behind the Nationals

One Sentence Summary:  Clayton Richard threw a three-hit shutout as the Padres easily dismissed the Phillies, 3-0.

What It Means:  This is the first time the Padres have swept the Phillies since 2000.

What Happened:  Nick Pivetta struck out a career high 11 in five innings, but he also allowed five stolen bases.  Wil Myers stole second, third and home in the fourth inning, becoming the first player to do that since Dee Gordon in 2011.

Featured Card:  When the Padres last completed a three-game sweep of the Phillies, back on August 2, 2000, Omar Daal was the losing pitcher and his record dropped to 2-12.  At one point, at least according to my fading memory, Daal was the pitcher the Phillies featured on the scoreboard of an early model of Citizens Bank Park.

2001 Topps Phillies

2001 Topps #487, #478, 2001 Topps Traded #T66 and 2001 Topps #144

This post has been sitting in my draft folder for the better part of 9 months.  I started the Topps Phillies series of posts in January 2011 with a look at the 1951 Topps Red and Blue Backs sets.  The next 49 posts focusing on the Topps Phillies cards from 1952 to 2000 came together quickly and easily as it was genuinely fun and interesting for me to revisit those years in Phillies history.

And then I hit 2001.  And I fizzled out.

2001 is divided very clearly in my mind into two distinct parts - before 9/11 and after 9/11.  The entire year was fraught with turmoil for me personally, and it's not a year that I'm necessarily keen to revisit at this point.  But for the sake of the ongoing Topps Phillies project, I'll soldier on.

The Set

2001 Topps #487 (Back)

Number of cards in the set:  The set comes in at a whopping 790 cards - 405 from series one and 385 from series two.  There's another 265 cards available in the Traded set, meaning there are a total of 1,055 base cards available - by far the largest tally for a Topps flagship set to this point in time.

My very brief thoughts on the set:  The set uses an all-green border, which works surprisingly well.  There's a little too much foil for my taste, but I can say that for just about every Topps set released from 1995 through the present day.  Topps acknowledges its 50 years in the baseball card racket with a tasteful "Topps 50 Years" gold rectangle logo on the front of each card.  The backs of the cards are nicely done, carrying over the green theme to the back borders and using the front photo as a watermark behind the player's statistics.  Honest to goodness team cards return for the first time since 1981 and manager cards are present for the first time since 1993.

Notable competition:  The scientific term for the amount of baseball cards released in 2001 is crap-ton.  By my very unofficial count, the card manufacturers released 74 different sets as follows - Fleer (16), Pacific in its last year (2), Playoff (11), Topps (23) and Upper Deck (22).  Perhaps the biggest competitor to the Topps flagship set was the Topps Heritage set, which used the design of the classic 1952 Topps set.

2001 Topps #124, #523, #574 and #592

2001 Phillies

Record and finish:  Larry Bowa brought some excitement to the club in his first year as manager, and the Phillies put together a winning season (86-76) for the first time since 1993.  They entered the All-Star break in first place, but they ultimately finished just two games behind the Braves in the N.L. East.  Bowa was named the National League Manager of the Year for his efforts.

Key players:  Right fielder Bobby Abreu contributed his third straight stellar season, leading the club in home runs (31) and RBIs (110) while hitting .289.  He became the first player in club history to have 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases in the same season.  Shortstop Jimmy Rollins, playing in his first full season, made the All-Star team, led the league in triples with 12 and tied for the league lead with 46 stolen bases.  Third baseman Scott Rolen (.289, 25, 107), left fielder Pat Burrell (.258, 27, 89) and first baseman Travis Lee (.258, 20, 90) also enjoyed strong seasons at the plate.  Robert Person (15-7, 4.19) and Omar Daal (13-7, 4.46) led the pitching staff while new closer Jose Mesa notched 42 saves.

Key events:  All-Star catcher Mike Lieberthal missed most of the season after tearing up his right knee in May.  Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Phillies and Braves helped the nation try to return to a sense of normalcy with an emotional game on September 17th.  Topps would commemorate the game with a card within its 2002 set.

2001 Phillies in 2001 Topps

Cards needed for a complete team set:  There are 23 Phillies within series one and two, and another 8 Phillies base cards within the traded set.  The 31 total cards are the most since there were 39 cards in the 1995 Topps base and traded sets.

Who’s in:

• Cards of the eight starting position players - 7 cards

#124 Travis Lee (1b), #523 Marlon Anderson (2b), #T66 Jimmy Rollins (ss), #478 Scott Rolen (3b), #144 Pat Burrell (lf), #574 Doug Glanville (cf), #487 Bobby Abreu (rf)

Only starting catcher Johnny Estrada got left out.  Fleer, Playoff and Upper Deck all managed to include Estrada in a few late season releases, but Topps neglected to include the rookie in their Traded set or any other set.

2001 Topps #676, #236, #131 and 2001 Topps Traded #T24

• Cards of the starting pitching rotation - 3 cards

#676 Robert Person, #236 Omar Daal, #131 Randy Wolf

Dave Coggin (17 starts), Bruce Chen (16 starts) and Amaury Telemaco (14 starts) were left out by Topps.  Coggin and Chen were featured in the other manufactuer's sets.

• Base cards of players who played with the Phillies in 2001 - 10 cards

#172 Kevin Jordan, #194 Rob Ducey, #563 Nelson Figueroa, #592 Mike Lieberthal, #639 Wayne Gomes, #656 Paul Byrd, #T12 Rheal Cormier, #T24 Jose Mesa, #T40 Ricky Bottalico, #T50 Brian L. Hunter

• Base cards of players who didn't play with the Phillies in 2001 - 6 cards

#13 Brian R. Hunter, #182 Mike Jackson, #274 Jeff Brantley, #539 Kevin Sefcik, #T159 Carlos Silva, #T229 Ryan Madson

Jackson, Brantley and Sefcik were with other organizations by the time this set was released.  It seems particularly odd that Sefcik received a card in series two since he signed with the Rockies in early January.  Hunter made it through Spring Training with the Phillies in 2001 before getting released.  Silva made his Phillies debut in 2002 and Madson followed with his debut in 2003.

• Phillies appearing on multi-player Prospects cards - 1 card, #733 Eric Valent
• Phillies appearing on multi-player Draft Picks cards - 1 card, #751 Keith Bucktrot

After what seemed like dozens of appearances on prospect and future stars cards, Valent finally made his debut with the Phils in June 2001.  He'd play in 29 games for the team in 2001 and 2002, hitting .118.  He eventually found some success with the Mets in 2004, hitting .267 in 130 games.  Bucktrot never made it to the Majors, but the player he shares this card with - Reds catching prospect Dane Sardinha - played in 18 games with the Phillies in 2010 and 2011.

• Manager cards - 2 cards, #347 Terry Francona and #T146 Larry Bowa
• Team card - 1 card, #773

2001 Topps Traded #T146, #T40, #T12 and 2001 Topps #199

Who’s out:  The biggest omission is the eventual starting catcher - Estrada.  He hit .228 in 89 games after taking over for the injured Lieberthal.  Tomas Perez was a valuable utility player, hitting .304 mostly as a pinch-hitter and late inning defensive replacement.  As mentioned above, three of the main starting pitchers were left out, as was reliever Jose Santiago, who appeared in 53 games.

Phillies on other teams:  There are quite a few here.  Brian L. Hunter (the actual one) appears with the Reds on card #199 while Ricky Bottalico appears with the Royals on card #283.  Both would have Phillies cards in the traded set.  Or would they?  (See the Did You Know? section below for an explanation.)  Other 2001 Phillies appearing on cards with their former teams are - #23 Todd Pratt (Mets), #156 Dennis Cook (Mets), #168 Turk Wendell (Mets), #309 Matt Walbeck (Angels), #589 Turner Ward (Diamondbacks) and #590 Felipe Crespo (Giants).

2001 Topps #773

What’s he doing here:  For the second year in a row, both Jackson and Bucktrot share the honors.  Jackson missed the entire 2000 season due to injury, was granted free agency immediately following the season, and signed with the Astros.

Cards that never were candidates:  I'll go with just six, although the number could easily reach a dozen - Estrada, Perez, Coggin, Chen, Telemaco and Santiago.

Favorite Phillies card:  The photography used for the cards continued to improve, but there really aren't any Phillies cards that stand out from the others.  I'll pick Rollins' card as my favorite as it was his first base Topps card.

Other Stuff

Recycled:  The Topps Opening Day set from 2001 uses the same design and photos, but with a navy blue border instead of green.  Maybe it's just because I'm used to the green borders by now, but the navy blue borders look odd.

Blogs/Websites:  Topps produced a novel insert set in 2001 called Through the Years, featuring reprints of key cards from its 50 year run.  It was a cool idea back then, but Topps has sort of run the idea into the ground with seemingly a new reprint set every year since then.  bdj610's Topps Baseball Card Blog ran a post several years ago featuring a gallery of the 50 cards included in the original Through the Years insert set.

Did You Know?:  Brian L. Hunter appears in the 2001 Topps Traded set as a Phillie in name only.  I wrote a couple of posts a few years ago explaining this conundrum and celebrating the fact that at least Brian L. Hunter received a team-issued Phillies card for his efforts.

2000 Topps Phillies

2000 Topps #328, #38, #10 and #327

As of this writing, I have just 13 more of these posts to go to cover the Phillies baseball cards featured in each of the Topps flagship baseball card sets since 1951.  I'm a little relieved to be leaving the '90s and heading into happier times for the Phillies (and me).  But before we get to those happier times, there's the little matter of the year 2000.

2000 Topps #327 (Back)

The Set

Number of cards in the set:  There are 478 cards in the base set with no #7 in the set as Topps continued to honor Mickey Mantle.  If you count all the variations available for the Magic Moments subset, there are actually 520 cards in the set.  Topps released five different versions of each of the Magic Momemts cards featuring highlights from the careers of Mark McGwire, Hank Aaron, Cal Ripken, Jr., Wade Boggs, Tony Gwynn, Ken Griffey, Jr., Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez.  Topps also released a Traded Set with 135 cards.

My very brief thoughts on the set:  Remember how weird it was to first write out the year "2000"?  The Topps design team must of have wanted to make sure we knew we were collecting futuristic cards since they added the little "TOPPS 2000" bit above the player's name on the base cards.  This was the first time Topps ever featured the year of the card within the design of its base cards, and it's also the first time the word "Topps" is redundantly featured twice on the fronts of its base cards.  Other than the difficult to read gold foil, I really liked these cards when they came out.  The cards have a clean design and the appearance of the team logo is a plus.  Topps brought back vertical backs for the first time since 1993.

Notable competition:  There were a ton of baseball cards released in 2000.  With some disposable income available and eBay just a dial-up on the modem away, I added as many Phillies cards as I could.  This was also the year I began to catalog my growing Phillies collection in Excel spreadsheets.  By my unofficial tally, the card manufacturers released a large number of different baseball card sets, as follows:  Fleer (15 sets), Pacific (13 sets), Topps (18 sets), Upper Deck (16 sets).  The days of conceivably being able to add just about every baseball card released in a given year (circa 1980 to 1986) were now long gone.

2000 Topps Traded #T104, 2000 Topps #258, #102 and 2000 Topps Traded #T105

2000 Phillies

Record and finish:  The Y2K Phillies were terrible.  Just awful.  They finished in last place with a record of 65-97, equalling their loss total from the dreadful 1972 season.  The horrible season cost manager Terry Francona and his coaching staff their jobs at the conclusion of the season.  It was the team's 13th losing season in a 14-year span, with the only bright spot being the surprising 1993 season.  Fortunately, the Phils were about to turn the corner in 2001.

Key players:  Scott Rolen was limited to 128 games due to injuries (sprained ankle, sprained wrist and back issues throughout the season), but he still hit .298 with 26 home runs and 89 RBIs.  Bobby Abreu had his second straight strong season, hitting .316 with 25 home runs and 79 RBIs.  Pat Burrell (.260, 18 home runs, 79 RBIs) took over regular first base duties while Mike Lieberthal (.278, 15 home runs, 71 RBIs) enjoyed another decent season despite only playing in 108 games.  Randy Wolf led the pitching staff with 11 wins, followed by Robert Person's 9.  Jeff Brantley was the team's top closer, saving 23 games.

Key events:  Disgruntled star Curt Schilling asked for a trade and General Manager Ed Wade delivered, shipping the pitcher to the Arizona Diamondbacks in July for four question marks - Pitchers Omar Daal, Vicente Padilla and Nelson Figueroa and first baseman Travis Lee.  Wade wheeled and dealed all season, with not much to show in return.  By the end of the season, five of the Phillies' Opening Day starters were with other teams - First baseman Rico Brogna (Red Sox), second baseman Mickey Morandini (Blue Jays), shortstop Desi Relaford (Padres), left fielder Ron Gant (Angels) and pitcher Andy Ashby (Braves).  Wearing #29, Jimmy Rollins made his Major League debut on September 17, 2000, starting at short and collecting his first hit (a triple) off Marlins' pitcher Chuck Smith.

2000 Phillies in 2000Topps

Cards needed for a complete team set:  There are 14 Phillies cards in the regular set and another 7 Phillies cards in the traded series.  The total of 21 cards is a step up from the 16 Phillies cards available in 1999.

Who’s in:

• Cards of the eight starting position players - 7 cards

#10 Mike Lieberthal (c), #T104 Mickey Morandini (2b), #258 Desi Relaford (ss), #328 Scott Rolen (3b), #102 Ron Gant (lf), #327 Doug Glanville (cf), #38 Bobby Abreu (rf)

Now we're talking.  After years of having just a few starters receive cards, Topps redeemed itself with a nice player selection in its regular and traded sets.  First baseman Burrell is featured on a multi-player Prospects card.

2000 Topps #120, #393, 2000 Topps Traded #T134 and 2000 Topps #166

• Cards of the starting pitching rotation - 3 cards

#120 Curt Schilling, #393 Andy Ashby, #T134 Bruce Chen

Top starters Wolf and Person were completely shut out from the set for some reason.

• Base cards of players who played with the Phillies in 2000 - 5 cards

#166 Paul Byrd, #273 Rico Brogna, #341 Marlon Anderson, #T105 Travis Lee. #T120 Omar Daal

• Base cards of players who didn't play with the Phillies in 2000 - 4 cards

#63 Chad Ogea (Indians), #T11 Russ Jacobson, #T25 Brett Myers, #T87 Keith Bucktrot

The traded series was heavy with prospects and suspects and we got two Phillies cards for a couple of players who never sniffed the Majors.  Jacobson bounced around the team's minor league system until 2004 and Bucktrot lasted until 2005.  Myers was fist called up by the Phillies in July 2002.

• Phillies appearing on multi-player Prospects cards - 1 card, #204 Pat Burrell
• Phillies appearing on multi-player Draft Picks cards - 1 card, #213 Brett Myers

2000 Topps #341, #273, #48 and 2000 Topps Traded #T120

Who’s out:  Wolf and Person, as previously mentioned, should have had cards.  The bullpen got completely shut out, with nary a reliever in the set.  If I had to pick three relievers deserving of cards, I'd go with Brantley (55 games, 23 saves), Chris Brock (63 games, 7-8 record) and Wayne Gomes (65 games, 7 saves).  Bench mainstays Kevin Jordan (109 games) and Rob Ducey (112 games) were also left out.

Phillies on other teams:  Daal (#32 with the Diamondbacks), Morandini (#106 with the Cubs) and Lee (#377 with the Diamondbacks) made it into the traded series as Phillies while Kent Bottenfield (#48 with the Cardinals) did not.  Also, reliever Michael Jackson (#194 with the Indians) is in the set.  Jackson returned to the Phillies as a free agent in December 1999, hurt himself warming up on Opening Day, and never pitched during the season.

2000 Topps #204

What’s he doing here:  Jacobson and Bucktrot share the honors.

Cards that never were candidates:  It was always strange to me that Myers received a stand-alone card in the traded series, but Burrell didn't.  Here's a list of ten players deserving of cards that never were:  Burrell, Wolf, Person, Brantley, Brock, Gomes, Jordan, Ducey, Padilla and Rollins.

Favorite Phillies card:  Nothing really jumps out at me.  By default, I'll pick Byrd's card over Morandini's return to Phillies cardboard.  Chalk it up to the high socks.

Other Stuff

Recycled:  Topps re-used this design on a number of parallel sets in 2000 - Topps Chrome, Topps Limited Edition and Topps Opening Day.  I believe the Limited Edition cards were available only in factory set form, and they're supposed to somehow be glossier than the "regular" edition of Topps.  Opening Day featured silver foil in place of the gold foil found in the regular set.

Blogs/Websites:  I got nothing.  Maybe there's a kid somewhere out there who loves the 2000 Topps set and he or she is about to take the plunge and blog about this set.  Until then, here's a post I ran a few years ago pondering the decade of the '00s. 

Did You Know?:  Wade traded Rob Ducey to the Blue Jays and received . . . Rob Ducey in return?  And now you know.