2025 Topps - The First Phillie!

I didn't hesitate earlier this year when the e-mail from Topps arrived in my inbox alerting me that boxes of 2025 Topps Series One were on sale from their website.  I've missed out in the past, having to go to the secondary market (eBay) and paying an upcharge when the need to open new baseball cards inevitably overpowered me in prior Februarys.  I didn't go crazy, adding just a hobby box and a blaster to my cart, and then waiting patiently for the February 12th release date.

The box was waiting for me when I arrived home on Wednesday, but sports practices required us to wait until Thursday to open the first packs of 2025 Topps as a family.  The first Phillie, this Alec Bohm card, came quickly within the first pack I opened.

Topps has been on a roll over the past several years, and with the exception of the misfire with 2020's design, the 2025 Topps design adds to four solid set designs in the past five years.  Updating my top ten gallery below, the 2025 set takes the place of the 2015 set in the #2 spot, with 2015 leaving the list after 10 years (!).  I've used this summary in the past to describe the new Topps flagship design, but this is what a baseball card in the year 2025 should look like - crisp, great photo, modern graphics, some non-intrusive glittery effects and a little bit of silver foil with the Topps logo.  I really like that we get the team's logo and name going up the side of a card, and the curved lines along the left border are a nice modern update to the 1982 Topps design.

We were particularly impressed with how Topps found a new way to display the player's position.  The diamond in the bottom right indicates where the player would stand on the field, and it's one of those things I can't believe we've not seen on a baseball card before.  The backs are nice and clean too, as has been the case in recent years, and kudos to Topps for once again making the card number easy to find and easy to read.  My only very minor complaint is that some of the teams have player's last names in black (not white) making those harder to read.  I would have preferred Topps go with all white for every last name for each team.

Revisiting my top ten ranking below, I might move 2022 and 2019 ahead of 2023.  I still don't like the bottom three, but 2021 may eventually take over the worst design spot in my mind.

Best - 2024 Topps #194

#2 - 2025 Topps #7

#3 - 2023 Topps #278

#4 - 2022 Topps #249

#5 - 2019 Topps #303

#6 - 2016 Topps #15

#7 - 2018 Topps #26

#8 - 2021 Topps #79

#9 - 2017 Topps #247

Worst - 2020 Topps #221

Past First Phillies

2010 Topps #300 Chase Utley

2011 Topps #242 Brad Lidge

2012 Topps #98 Domonic Brown

2013 Topps #6 Ryan Howard
2014 Topps #90 Ethan Martin
2015 Topps #309 Maikel Franco
2016 Topps #15 Ryan Howard
2017 Topps #247 Hector Neris
2018 Topps #26 Cesar Hernandez
2019 Topps #303 Ranger Suarez
2020 Topps #190 Aaron Nola

2021 Topps #79 Roman Quinn

2022 Topps #249 Zack Wheeler

2023 Topps #278 Aaron Nola

2024 Topps #194 J.T. Realmuto

2025 Topps #7 Alec Bohm

Spring Training Game 27 - Phils Fall Again, Haven't Won This Week

2017 Topps Heritage #42

Rays 6, Phillies 5
Spring Training Game 27 - Thursday Afternoon, March 21st in Clearwater
Record - 8-13-6

One Sentence Summary:  Late inning runs from the Rays took the win away from the Phillies, and it's been a week since the team last won a game.

What It Means:  Austin Brice has had a rough spring, and tasked with holding a 5-3 lead in the eighth, he was charged with a pair of runs as the Rays tied the game.  Brice has already blown three saves, and narrowly missed his fourth as Taylor Lehman was on the mound when the Rays' Willy Vasquez hit his game-tying double.  (Both runs were charged to Brice.)

What Happened:  Kody Clemens, hoping for a bench spot, hit another home run, his third of the spring.  He'd add an RBI single in the sixth.  Johan Rojas and Edmundo Sosa also came through with RBIs in the Phillies' four-run sixth inning.

Featured Card:  Brice was previously reassigned to minor league camp on Tuesday so he was a minor league call-up for this game.  He's got one mainstream baseball card to his name so far, from the 2017 Topps Heritage set.  Brice shares a Marlins Rookie Stars card in that set with Yefri Perez.

Camp Head Count:  43

The First Phillie - 2024 Topps!

Topps mixed things up this year, making collectors wait until January 11th to reveal the design of its 2024 flagship set.  In year's past, the design was released in August or September and when the season came to a close with no announcement and no inkling as to what the 2024 Topps cards would look like, I was a little worried.  I prepared myself to be underwhelmed whenever the design was finally released.

My first thought on seeing the design in mid-January:  These are cool.  My second thought:  The neon-like team name is fantastic, and how has Topps not done this before?  This is what a baseball card in 2024 should look like.  It's a modern look with the foggy border elements Topps likes so much from recent years, but collectors are given a solid photo, a unique way of presenting the team name, the team logo and clearly legible names and positions.  It's a great looking card, and it springs to the top of my list of favorite Topps flagship releases over the past 10 years.

The set was officially released on Valentine's Day, but I didn't open my first packs until February 19th.  My wife Jenna found three blaster boxes at our local Target that day, and I happily opened all three after dinner.  In the past, we've made a big show of the first packs of the year, but this year was a little more subdued.  The First Phillie hunt was extremely anti-climatic, as J.T. Realmuto was staring at me atop the first plastic-wrapped bunch of 59 cards I took from the first box I opened.

This is an exciting design, and Topps clearly creates its base cards now to work well with multiple parallel versions.  It wasn't until I had the cards in hand that I realized the team name and photo borders have foil-like features to them.  Scans don't do the cards justice, as these elements can't really be seen unless you're holding them.  I had a blue-bordered Alec Bohm card in one of my three boxes, and I like the full blue border more than the smoky black and white border on the normal base cards.  That's my only complaint, and if I had designed the cards, each card would have a border color corresponding to the player's team.  I like the backs too - very clean, with complete career statistics as has always been the norm with Topps flagship sets.

Finally, it's a promising sign of things to come that three of my top four sets over the past 10 years are all recent releases.  With 2014 dropping off the list, here's a look at my updated rankings:

Best Five:  2024, 2015, 2023, 2022, 2019

Bottom Five:  2016, 2018, 2021, 2017, 2020

Best - 2024 Topps #194

#2 - 2015 Topps #309

#3 - 2023 Topps #278

#4 - 2022 Topps #249

#5 - 2019 Topps #303

#6 - 2016 Topps #15

#7 - 2018 Topps #26

#8 - 2021 Topps #79

#9 - 2017 Topps #247

Worst - 2020 Topps #221

Past First Phillies

2010 Topps #300 Chase Utley

2011 Topps #242 Brad Lidge

2012 Topps #98 Domonic Brown

2013 Topps #6 Ryan Howard
2014 Topps #90 Ethan Martin
2015 Topps #309 Maikel Franco
2016 Topps #15 Ryan Howard
2017 Topps #247 Hector Neris
2018 Topps #26 Cesar Hernandez
2019 Topps #303 Ranger Suarez
2020 Topps #190 Aaron Nola

2021 Topps #79 Roman Quinn

2022 Topps #249 Zack Wheeler

2023 Topps #278 Aaron Nola

2024 Topps #194 J.T. Realmuto

Game 110 - Nola Can't Contain Witt and Lowly Royals

2017 Topps #660

Royals 7, Phillies 5
Game 110 - Friday Night, August 4th in Philadelphia
Record - 59-51, 2nd Place, 12 1/2 games behind the Braves

One Sentence Summary:  The Phillies fell to Bobby Witt Jr. and the Royals, dropping the first game of this three-game series, 7-5.

What It Means:  This was not a great start against a team 40 games under .500 at the start of this series.

What Happened:  A four-run sixth inning sunk the Phillies, as Aaron Nola yielded to Yunior Marte and the Royals ended up with a 6-4 lead.  Nola just hasn't been consistent this season, and his final line wasn't great, despite having eight strikeouts - 5 1/3 innings pitched, 8 hits, 5 runs, 2 home runs.  Witt hit his 20th home runs in the third, a two-run shot, making him the first player in MLB history to reach 20 home runs and 30 stolen bases in his first two seasons.  There were only a few highlights for the Phillies, including a two-run home run from Nick Castellanos in the first, and a two-run double from Johan Rojas in the fourth.

Featured Card:  The last time the Royals played in Philadelphia was way back in July 2016.  The Phillies took two out of three from that series with Nola earning the only loss, once again.  The two winning pitchers were Jeremy Hellickson and Vince Velasquez, with Jeanmar Gomez earning his 22nd save of the season for the Phillies in the first game.

Field Report:  Doug and I took in most of this game from Section 315, our first game in almost two months.  We were excited to see some new menu options from Bull's BBQ, and the highlight of the game was standing with most of the rest of 36,000 fans in attendance to offer the struggling Trea Turner our support.  Turner went just 1 for 4 at the plate, but would have a memorable night on Saturday.

Transactions:   Rule 5 pick Noah Song (rhp) was returned to the Boston Red Sox after not being placed on the Phillies active roster.  Andrew Vasquez (lhp) was claimed off waivers by the Detroit Tigers.  In 30 games with the Phillies, all in relief, Vasquez actually did fairly well.  He was 2-1 with a 2.27 ERA in 39 2/3 innings pitched, striking out 34 and walking 14.  He'll likely never appear on a mainstream Phillies baseball card.

2023 Virtual Phillies Wall / 2023 Season Summary Index / 2023 Chachi Set Checklist

Game 48 - Big Hit Eludes Phils in Latest Loss

2017 Topps Update #US46

Diamondbacks 4, Phillies 3
Game 48 - Tuesday Night, May 23rd in Philadelphia
Record - 22-26, 4th Place, 7 games behind the Mets

One Sentence Summary:  Dylan Covey made his Phillies debut and provided five much-needed innings of work, but the Phillies offense couldn't string together many clutch hits in this 4-3 loss.

What It Means:  The Diamondbacks take the series, and a win on Wednesday was needed to avoid the sweep.

What Happened:  Matt Strahm served as the opener, pitching the first two innings and giving up a pair of runs.  Covey covered the third through seventh innings, allowing only one more run to score while striking out six.  The Phillies tied the game up 3-3 in the seventh with the key hit being a pinch-hit single from Alec Bohm up the middle to tie the game.  A costly passed ball from J.T. Realmuto in the eighth set up the Diamondbacks taking the lead again when Corbin Carroll singled home Lourdes Gurriel Jr.  Seranthony Dominguez took the loss after failing to retire a batter in the eighth, while allowing two hits and a walk.

Featured Card:  Covey has appeared on a few mainstream baseball cards, with his first being found in the 2017 Topps Update set, shown here.  Between 2017 and 2023, he's appeared in 63 games with the White Sox, eight games with the Red Sox, one game with the Dodgers and one game (so far) with the Phillies.

Transaction:  Covey (rhp) was activated and Andrew Bellatti (rhp) was optioned to Lehigh Valley.

2023 Virtual Phillies Wall / 2023 Season Summary Index / 2023 Chachi Set Checklist

Game 5 - Strahm Comes Through, Schwarber Homers in Win

2017 Topps Allen & Ginter #313

Phillies 4, Yankees 1
Game 5 - Tuesday Night, April 4th in New York
Record - 1-4, Tied for 4th Place, 3 games behind the Braves

One Sentence Summary:  Just like everyone had predicted, it was a strong start from reliever Matt Strahm that led to the first Phillies victory of 2023.

What It Means:  For the first time in five games, the entirety of the game was enjoyable to watch.

What Happened:  Strahm got the start due to Ranger Suarez's injury, and he was fantastic.  He allowed one hit in four innings while walking a batter and striking out three.  Andrew Bellatti was credited with the win after a perfect fifth inning.  Craig Kimbrel made things interesting in the ninth with a run allowed, but he recorded the final out to secure the victory.

Kyle Schwarber and Brandon Marsh both hit their first home runs of the season, with Schwarber and Trea Turner adding much-needed runs with RBI singles in the fifth.

Featured Card:  I think I like Strahm.  He's appeared on a surprising amount of baseball cards since 2015, including a lot with the Royals featuring him clean-shaven and with short hair.  He's pretty much unrecognizable on his 2017 Topps Allen & Ginter card, shown here.

Transactions:  Before the game, McKinley Moore (rhp) had his contract selected from Lehigh Valley and Yunior Marte (rhp) was optioned down.  To make room for Moore on the 40-man roster, Jhailyn Ortiz (of) was designated for assignment.

2023 Virtual Phillies Wall / 2023 Season Summary Index / 2023 Chachi Set Checklist

Philly Baseball Card Show Report - 1969 Topps Commons Explosion

On Sunday, Doug and I drove an hour north to the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center at Oaks for the March Philadelphia Sports Collectors Show, known to its friends as the Philly Show.  This could be our last show for a while, as baseball schedules along with a packed summer and fall tend to keep us away from any June or September shows.  We were happy we had decided to attend on Sunday, as we both heard from dealers and other collectors that Saturday's show was, "way too crowded, "a madhouse" and "chaos."  There were still a lot of people there on Sunday, but we were able to leisurely browse the dealer tables and we both came away with hauls that had us smiling all the way home.

• Doug's collecting habits are geared towards cards he thinks are cool, which is usually some combination of a signature, a relic and/or a low serial number for a favorite baseball or basketball player.  He's got quite the display going on his bedroom desk, and he added the cards shown below to his collection after a few hours of scouting and negotiating.
• After being a big spender on star cards at the December show, and completing our 1965 Topps set, I was focused on volume this time around.  I pulled up a chair at Uncle Dick's table, found the first binder of 1969 Topps commons (1-300) and plowed through it.  I stopped after each 100 cards to ask for a price check, and with the understanding I'd buy more if there was as a discount in play for volume, I soldiered on.  I added 193 cards to our 1969 Topps set, which is most likely the highest single set tally since the 1980s when my Dad and me were collecting the 1976 Topps set and we bought most of the commons needed for that set at an Ocean City baseball card show.
• I was happy to find quite a few dealers with Diamond Stars cards for sale.  I visited three separate dealers, making three separate purchases, all of which came in a little lower than the advertised prices. With five more cards added to that set, I'm down to needing 38 cards out of the 119 I'm collecting as my version of a master set.

I purchased one Phillies card, a 1987 team-issued variation card of the Phillie Phanatic, and we didn't purchase autographs from any of the dozens of autograph signers.  It was another great show, and it may need to hold us over until December.

Doug's Haul

New Diamond Stars cards

Memory Lane

Valley Forge 1 - September 2010 - Thinking of my Dad
Valley Forge 2 - October 2012 - Doug's first baseball card show
Valley Forge 3 - September 2014 - Meeting Darren Daulton
Oaks 1 - October 2015 - Meeting Pete Rose and Steve Carlton
Valley Forge 4 - September 2016 - Phillies acquisitions and 4 Phillies Legends
Valley Forge 5 - December 2016 - Meeting Don Money
Valley Forge 6 - September 2017 - Doug's big day
Valley Forge 7 - December 2017 - Ben's first baseball card show with Mike Schmidt and Rhys Hoskins!
Oaks 2 - December 2018 - Meeting Matt Stairs and Cole Hamels
Valley Forge 8 - March 2019 - 5 Phillies Autographs and Vintage Phillies Additions
Valley Forge 9 - September 2019 - Closing in on 1971 Topps set and Andrew McCutchen
Valley Forge 10 - December 2019 - Finishing 1971 Topps set, Starting 1965 Topps set, adding key autographs from Ryan Howard and Brad Lidge
Valley Forge 11 - February 2020 - More 1965 Topps cards, Jimmy Rollins, Mike Lieberthal and Jim Kaat

Valley Forge 12 - December 2021 - Huge haul of 1965 Topps, Jim Thome

Valley Forge 13 - March 2022 - Easy like Sunday morning, close to completing 1965 Topps

Oaks 3 - December 2022 - 1965 Topps set completed, dent made in 1969 Topps, Schwarber, Vierling and Stott

Oaks 4 - March 2023 - Huge haul of 1969 Topps and five Diamond Stars cards added

Blue Jays 8, Phillies 3
Spring Training Game 16 - Sunday Afternoon, March 12th in Clearwater
Record - 7-8-1

One Sentence Summary:  Further south, the Phillies dropped a spring training game to the Blue Jays.

What It Means:  With our fresh spoils in hand, we listened to the start of this game on our ride home from the Philly Show.

What Happened:  Starting pitcher Bailey Falter got hit early and often, allowing seven hits and three runs (two earned) in 2 2/3 innings of work.  Jake Jewell was the recipient of four unearned runs in the ninth due to a costly error by second baseman Hao-Yu Lee.  Josh Harrison hit a two-run home run in the fifth.

Featured Card:  See above!

Camp Head Count:  65 - 7 - 3 = 55

Before the game, James McArthur (rhp) was optioned and Mick Abel (rhp), Andrew Baker (rhp), Jon Duplantier (rhp), Griff McGarry (rhp), Francisco Morales (rhp) and Billy Sullivan (rhp) were all assigned to minor league camp.  Following the game, Jhailyn Ortiz (of) and Simon Muzziotti (of) were optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley and Johan Rojas (of) was optioned to Double-A Reading.

The Tradition Continues! - 2023 First Phillie Winner

I surprised myself last week by deciding to buy a hobby box of Topps Series One, as I'm still riding the high of the Phillies being in the World Series and this is the first flagship set design in several years I really like.  As much as I enjoyed the 2022 Topps design, it was almost too plain for me and this year's design will definitely not be accused of that.  There's a lot going on here.

I appreciate that Topps recognizes a somewhat under appreciated tradition of having two photos - one action, one portrait - on the front of its flagship cards every 20 years in years ending in -3.  This started in 1963, came back in 1983, kept the tradition going in 2003 and makes its triumphant return in 2023.  Well done, Topps.  While I expect the 2043 Topps baseball cards to just be holograms we launch from our tricorders, hopefully the two photos on the front return for a fifth time in the sequence.

Since I've been opening packs of Topps flagship cards, we've had a family tradition of seeking the First Phillie of the year.  My Dad and I started the tradition in the early 1980s, I carried it through, some years by myself, through the early 2000s, and the practice has continued with my wife and sons since then.  On late Friday afternoon, not soon after the box had been delivered to the door, we selected our packs and commenced the search for the First Phillie of 2023.  There was some controversy this year as Doug pulled a league leaders card featuring Kyle Schwarber seconds before I found this Aaron Nola card in my first pack.  Ben quickly followed with the J.T. Realmuto card in his first pack.  Consulting the hallowed family First Phillie bylaws, I'm awarding First Phillie honors this year to myself, as the league leaders card doesn't quite count.

Yes, the fronts of these cards are busy.  Yes, there are a few too many design elements crammed on the bottom of the cards.  But I like them, and these seem to me what baseball cards should look like in the year 2023.  Our box had amazing collation, as we didn't have any doubles and we were just 14 cards short of a complete 330-card first series set.  There seemed to be way fewer inserts and parallels than in prior years, and I was completely fine with that.  My one continued gripe with Topps flagship is that I wish the checklist grouped subsets together.  League leaders and the combo card/checklists should be grouped sequentially and not dropped in randomly throughout the checklist.  

Revisiting a ranking of Topps flagship sets from the past 10 years, the 2023 Topps set, at least for now, finishes near the top.  I think I could flip flop the 2022 and 2019 designs in these rankings too:

Best Five:  2015, 2023, 2022, 2019, 2016

Bottom Five:  2018, 2014, 2021, 2017, 2020

Best - 2015 Topps #309

#2 - 2023 Topps #278

#3 - 2022 Topps #249

#4 - 2019 Topps #303

#5 - 2016 Topps #15

#6 - 2018 Topps #26

#7 - 2014 Topps #90

#8 - 2021 Topps #79

#9 - 2017 Topps #247

Worst - 2020 Topps #221

Past First Phillies

2010 Topps #300 Chase Utley

2011 Topps #242 Brad Lidge

2012 Topps #98 Domonic Brown

2013 Topps #6 Ryan Howard
2014 Topps #90 Ethan Martin
2015 Topps #309 Maikel Franco
2016 Topps #15 Ryan Howard
2017 Topps #247 Hector Neris
2018 Topps #26 Cesar Hernandez
2019 Topps #303 Ranger Suarez
2020 Topps #190 Aaron Nola

2021 Topps #79 Roman Quinn

2022 Topps #249 Zack Wheeler

2023 Topps #278 Aaron Nola

Game 153 - Phils Still Flat in Windy City

2017 Topps Heritage #608

Cubs 2, Phillies 1
Game 153 - Tuesday Night, September 27th in Chicago
Record - 83-70, 3rd Place, 13 games behind the Braves and Mets

One Sentence Summary:  The Phillies offense came out flat in the series opener in Chicago, collecting only five hits in this 2-1 loss to Marcus Stroman and the Cubs.

What It Means:  I'm late with these posts again due to work commitments, and as I'm getting caught up on Friday night we already know this series was a disaster.

What Happened:  Zack Wheeler kept his team in the game, allowing a third inning solo home run to Christopher Morel and striking out five over six innings.  Connor Brogdon took the loss after he allowed Yan Gomes to double home Ian Happ with the eventual winning run in the bottom of the seventh.  The punchless Phillies scored their only run in the sixth when Bryce Harper doubled home Bryson Stott.  Stroman went seven strong innings, allowing the one run on four hits.

Featured Card:  Former All-Star Chris Devenski made his Phillies debut, pitching a perfect eighth inning.  Devenski appeared in 10 games for the Diamondbacks in July and August, compiling a 7.59 ERA over 10 2/3 innings.  The Phillies are hoping he recaptures some of the ability that made him an All-Star with the Astros in 2017.

Transaction:  Nick Castellanos (of) was activated from the injured list and Donny Sands (c) was optioned to the IronPigs.  Johan Camargo (inf) was sent outright to the IronPigs.

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

2022 Chachi #61 Bradley Zimmer

#18
Bradley Clarke Zimmer
Outfield

Bats:  Left  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'4"  Weight:  185
Opening Day Age:  29
Born:  November 27, 1992, San Francisco, CA
How Obtained:  Claimed off waivers from the Toronto Blue Jays, August 18, 2022
Contract Status:  Arbitration eligible in 2023, free agency eligible in 2025
Major League Teams:  Cleveland Indians 2017-2021; Toronto Blue Jays 2022; Philadelphia Phillies 2022

First Phillies Card:  N/A
Newest Card Added:  N/A
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (3):  2017-2018, 2022

0 - Zimmer baseball cards in my collection per The Phillies Room Checklist as of 8/20/22.

Complete Chachi Checklist
2022 Chachi #61

2017 Topps Update #US275

2018 Topps #374

2022 Topps #407

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

2022 Chachi #60 Sam Coonrod / 2022 Chachi #62 Tyler Cyr