2026 Chachi Field of Dreams Set

I knew I'd create a few custom cards from the Field of Dreams game for my 2026 Chachi set, but when walking from the movie site to the actual ballpark, I had the idea for an insert set to commemorate the event.  There was a meandering gravel path between the two locations with some concessions, helpful ushers and what looked to be somewhat sturdy, life-size standees of stars from the Phillies and Twins.  I took pictures of all the Phillies and the one ex-Phillie, with Jenna posing with a few of her favorites.

Shown here are those 11 photos, presented on a 1941 Play Ball design, which is close enough to represent the 1939 throwback uniforms worn by the Phillies.

Game 99 - Suarez Shelled by Halos in Loss

Los Angeles Angels	8
Philadelphia Phillies	2

1941 Play Ball #60

Sunday Afternoon, July 20th

Citizens Bank Park - Philadelphia, PA
56-43, 1st Place, 1/2 game ahead of the Mets

One Sentence Summary:  Ranger Suarez was hit early and often and the Phillies couldn't get their bats going in this 8-2 loss.

What It Means:  We listened to the entirety of this game on the Sunday afternoon drive from Rhode Island back down to New Jersey.  It was not very entertaining.

What Happened:  Maybe it was the rain delay that pushed this game back by 41 minutes, but Suarez was off from the start, and he'd not make it through five innings.  He allowed six runs on eight hits and four walks, as the Angels seemed to always have runners on base.  The only offense from the Phillies was an RBI single from Rafael Marchan in the second and a solo home run from Otto Kemp in the sixth.

Featured Card:  The Phillies would announce on Monday the signing of veteran reliever David Robertson for the rest of the 2025 season.  Robertson will become just the third player with three separate stints with the club, joining Hall of Famer Chuck Klein (1928-33, 1936-39, 1940-44) and Bill Hallman  (1888-89, 1892-97, 1901-03).  That's pretty incredible.  Hallman doesn't appear on any Phillies cards, but here's one of 32 Klein cards from my Phillies collection.

Transaction:  Alec Bohm (3b) landed on the 10-day injured list with a left rib fracture and Weston Wilson (inf) was recalled to take his place.

2025 Virtual Phillies Wall / 2025 Season Summary Index / 2025 Chachi Set Checklist

Philly Baseball Card Show Report - Finishing 1971 Topps, Starting 1965 Topps

On Saturday, and for the third and final time this year, Doug and I attended the Valley Forge baseball card show.  Doug was given a "loan" based on his anticipated upcoming birthday money haul and he spent the show picking up new Bryce Harper, Scott Kingery and other Phillies cards along with adding to his Mike Trout personal collection.

We added autographs from Benito Santiago, Brad Lidge and Ryan Howard, and I'll have photos of those friendly encounters up in a separate post.  Doug was happy to get the other half of his Pride of the Phillies print signed by Howard, as it had been previously signed by Carlos Ruiz.

Here's a summary of what I tracked down during another very productive, very crowded show:

•  I completed my 1971 Topps set, giving me a complete run of Topps flagship sets from 1970 to 2018.  The entire set took about 18 years to complete with the first batch of cards arriving from Santa on Christmas morning in either 2001 or 2002.  I purchased a large lot of cards (maybe 150 or so?) in the summer of 2002, and I've been slowly adding cards ever since.  The final three cards needed were #596 Mike Jorgensen, #662 Mike Hedlund and #715 Horace Clarke.
• Doug and I officially started our 1965 Topps set with the addition of 26 cards.  We had a goal of adding a bunch of commons and one or two semi-star cards, and that mission was accomplished.  I was very happy to add cards of Robin Roberts, Dick Sisler, Jim Fregosi, Cookie Rojas, Rick Wise, Johnny Callison, Dallas Green and Tony Taylor as part of this first batch.  I'll slowly post each of the cards added over at my new 1965 Topps blog.  I'm also proud to say that Doug rejected a few cards I had picked if they had corners a little too dinged up.  We're looking to build a set in great shape.
• I added three Phillies cards that had been on my want lists for quite a while - the 1972 Topps Steve Carlton, the Traded version, a 1941 Play Ball card of Chuck Klein and the 1962 Topps Rookie Parade card featuring Jack Hamilton, whose face is covered by a price tag in the photo above.
• Finally, a 1965 Phillies Yearbook entered my collection as I continue to slowly fill in the gaps I have in my Phillies Yearbooks collection.

It was another great day, although I'm happy (and my wallet is happy) that we now have a few months off until our next show.

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

Game 149 - 1941 Double Play (R330) #123 & #124 Nick Etten & John Rizzo

Mets 9, Phillies 4
Game 149 - Monday Night, September 17th in Philadelphia
Record - 76-73, 2nd place, 6 1/2 games behind the Braves

One Sentence Summary:  Jake Arrieta struggled again and Michael Conforto drove in six runs for the Mets in this 9-4 loss.

What It Means:  The Braves lost too and the Phillies remained 6 1/2 back in the division.

What Happened:  Arrieta lasted five innings, giving up four runs on nine hits.  Conforto hit a three-run home run off Hector Neris in the 9th, putting the game out of reach.  J.P. Crawford contributed a bases clearing triple in the 5th.

Featured Card:  As Matt Breen Tweeted, the Phillies are on pace for their worst finish to a season since the 1942 Phillies went 6-21 in September.  That 1942 Phillies team was missing several players due their service in World War II and they finished with a record of 42-109.  Nick Etten was one of the few bright spots on that team as the first baseman hit .264 with 8 home runs and 41 RBIs.  Etten's partner on this 1941 card, Johnny Rizzo, had moved on to the Brooklyn Dodgers for the 1942 season.

Baseball Card Show Report - Valley Forge 4

1941 Play Ball #9

1957 Topps #174

1958 Hire's Root Beer #43

1959 Topps #338

On Sunday, Doug and I attended the Philadelphia Sportscard & Memorabilia Show in Valley Forge. Doug had actually saved Christmas money for this show and he's spent the last few weeks preparing his checklists.  We had a fantastic day, and I'm OK with the fact that Doug came away with way more cards than I did.  I'm always grateful to those dealers that give Doug some extra attention, especially when they realize that this kid is truly a collector and not just looking for the big hits.

There were four former Phillies signing autographs on Sunday, and Doug admittedly had never heard of any of them.  That being said, we still decided to buy four autograph tickets so that he could at least meet them and add to a growing autograph collection.  I'll have a separate post coming up to show off our new autographs.

Doug was very happy going through the bargain bins and he added a small stack of vintage (1970s is vintage to him) Hall of Famer cards to his collection.  He also came away with a bunch of newer Phillies cards and some more Mike Trout cards for his growing player collection.  He's within a few cards now of completing his 2016 Topps Opening Day set, and he needs just one more card (Johnny Bench) for a complete 2016 Topps Bunt set.  Not to leave out his brother Ben, Doug hunted down an autographed Ben Revere card and a signed 8 x 10 photo of Revere for his brother's collection.

1948 Philadelphia Bulletin Stand-Ups

1949 Philadelphia Bulletin Phillies

While we weren't adding cards to Doug's collection, I managed to add a bunch of cool cards to my collection as well.  The "newest" card I brought home was from 1971:

• I wanted to add at least one of the four following big stars to my 1971 Topps set:  Ernie Banks, Willie Mays, Bench or Roberto Clemente.  I came away with both the Banks and Bench cards along with several other semi-stars and a few high numbers.  I'm slowly making progress on this set and once it's completed I'll be the proud owner of a complete run of Topps sets from 1970 through 2015.
• I picked up a nice assortment of Phillies cards from the 1950s and 1960s, with the highlight being the addition of Sparky Anderson's rookie card from the 1959 Topps set.
• I found a gorgeous (and cheap!) Pinky May card from the 1941 Play Ball set.
• I found a few oddball Dick Sisler items from newspaper sets from the late 1940s.
• Finally, I added two 1911 T205 Gold Border Phillies cards to my collection, and I'll show these off in a future post.

It was truly a fantastic day and we're already making plans for our next big baseball card show outing!

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
Valley Forge 4 - September 2016

1941 Double Play (R330) #45 & #46 Dan Litwhiler & Merrill May

She's done it again.

Last year, I chronicled my Mom's quest to continue the annual "Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim" tradition.  (See the posts linked below.)  This year, the tradition continued and I added several amazing vintage Phillies cards to my collection.  Similar to last year, I'm going to take my time in featuring the cards I received and spread them out over several posts.  As a teaser of what's to come, I can reveal that my Mom took care of two of the cards previously listed on my "Ten Most Wanted" list on the sidebar.  The list has since been updated to the "Eight Most Wanted," and I'll need to figure out two more cards to eventually add to the list.

Cross two cards off this list!

The card featured at the top of this post is the first Phillies card in my collection from the 1941 Double Play (R330) set.  According to my new copy of the Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards, which my Mom also gave me for Christmas, the 75-card Double Play set was issued by Gum Products, Inc., based out of Cambridge, Massachusetts.  I found it amusing that the Catalog mentions, "Cards which have been cut in half to form single cards have little collector value."  This is something I definitely would have done had I been a kid in 1941.

This is the first card of Danny Litwhiler in my collection.  Litwhiler spent only parts of four seasons with the Phillies, from 1940 to 1943, enjoying his best season with the Phils in 1941.  That season, he hit .305 with 18 home runs and 66 RBIs.  More impressively, in 1942 he played 151 games in left field for the Phils and did not committ a single error, becoming the first player in history to play 150 or more games in the outifield in a season without an error.

Litwhiler went on to find great coaching success with the Florida State and Michigan State baseball programs and he was elected into six different baseball or athletic hall of fames.  He's also credited with developing the Jugs Speed Gun and as a member of the U.S. Olympics Baseball Committee from 1969 to 1983, he was instrumental in bringing baseball to the Olympic Games.  He passed away in Clearwater last year at the age of 95.

I featured a brief write-up on Merrill "Pinky" May a few years ago when I obtained his 1939 Play Ball card.

As confirmed with the 14,000 Phillies Database Project, there are two more Phillies cards in the 1941 Double Play set.

2011 Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim
Part 1 - Continuing a Tradition
Part 2 - 1971 Topps Set - 13 More Down
Part 3 - 1952 Topps Phillies
Part 4 - 1951 Bowman Phillies
Part 5 - Curt Simmons - Two New Bowman Cards
Part 6 - 1955 Bowman and Topps Phillies

1941 Play Ball #28 "Joe" Marty

I've always been very envious whenever I read a blog post by someone who can provide the exact number of a certain player's baseball cards he owns in his collection.  There are a few bloggers out there who can tell you, at any given time, exactly how many cards they have in their collection including the player and/or team break-down.  I think these bloggers use some combination of Excel spreadsheets or home-made databases to accomplish this, and I've seriously considered trying this approach myself.  However, as someone who works with Excel spreadsheets on a daily basis in my chosen profession, the thought of coming home after a long day in the coal mine and relaxing in front of another Excel spreadsheet just seemed depressing.

Sure, I've got detailed checklists, and I can tell you exactly what cards I have and what cards I need, but I have absolutely no idea how many cards are currently housed within the actual Phillies Room from where I'm typing this now.

So I've joined Zistle.  Zistle has been around for a while, but it recently re-launched with (I'm assuming) a more user-friendly approach. Its tagline is simple, "Organizing your collection online couldn't be easier. Zistle actually makes organizing your collection online, dare we say, fun!" And, dare I say it, I agree.

I started adding cards in my collection to my new account over the weekend.  I started with the few Phillies cards I have from the '30s and I've worked my way forward up through the 1981 Donruss set.  I'm going to stick to only including my Phillies cards as this is now the main focus of my collection.  Said another way, I'm more interested in knowing how many Putsy Caballero cards are in my collection (currently one) than knowing how many 1992 Donruss doubles I have.

One of the cool things about Zistle is the ability to add sets, teams, and photos to their ever expanding inventory.  Shortly after posting this, I'll upload front and back scans of this 1941 Play Ball card to the database, as there's currently no image available for this card on Zistle.

There are also trading and wantlist tools available that I have yet to explore.  And once I've input my collection, I have the ability to download the whole mess to an exportable file whenever I want.  I like this.  It's free, and they say they'll never charge for their service, but I like the idea of being able to take my Phillies collection data with me, especially after the time investment it's going to take to get everything in there.

So look for me on Zistle (Ringo73), where as of this writing, I have 756 Phillies-related baseball cards in my collection from the 1934 Diamond Stars Blondy Ryan card through the 1981 Donruss Greg Gross card.