Uniform Number Update - 2018 Edition

2014 Topps #502

1993 Topps #418

2009 Topps #232

2012 Topps #625

A sure sign that spring training is approaching is the appearance of new uniform numbers on the Phillies website's roster page, usually in mid-January.  New players and coaches have had the dreaded "--" in front of their names all offseason and the Phillies only updated their website for the new uniform number assignments this past week.  Here's a look at the new number assignments and a few number changes.

This is a longer post than in prior years given the complete overhaul of the coaching staff.

New Players (Under 60/Over 90 Division)

• #4 Ryan Flaherty - Flaherty takes over the number that Andres Blanco wore the past four seasons.
• #9 Adam Rosales - Bullpen coach John McLaren wore this number for the Phillies in 2017.
• #12 Will Middlebrooks - Middlebrooks assumes the number associated with former Phillies coach Mickey Morandini.
• #21 Collin Cowgill - Clay Buchholz briefly wore this number last season.
• #30 Matt McBride - Cameron Perkins most recently wore this number last season.
• #33 Drew Hutchison - This number opened up when pitching coach Rick Kranitz switched to #39.
• #40 Tommy Hunter - Former hitting coach Matt Stairs wore this number in 2017.
• #41 Carlos Santana - Santana has worn this number his entire career and with Brock Stassi headed to the Twins, there wasn't even a need to negotiate for it.
• #93 Pat Neshek - If Neshek has explained his reasoning for his new high number, I've missed it so far.  He wore #17 during his stint last season with the club before being traded to the Rockies.  He's the first person in franchise history to wear #93.

New Coaches

• #3 Jose Flores - Oddly enough, this number was vacant all last season.  David Lough last wore the number in 2016.
• #8 John Mallee - New hitting coach Mallee takes over the number that rightfully only belongs to Juan Samuel.
• #22 Gabe Kapler - Bob McClure wore this number the past four seasons.  Interestingly enough, Kapler never wore the number during his 12-year big league career.
• #35 Jim Gott - Gott becomes the first person to wear #35 since Cole Hamels departed for the Rangers in mid-2015.
• #45 Chris Young - The new assistant pitching coach takes over Pete Mackanin's old number.
• #58 Pedro Guerrero - Jeremy Hellickson's number goes to the new assistant hitting coach.
• #59 Rob Thomson - This number became available when Mark Leiter, Jr. switched to #31.
• #62 Dusty Wathan - Patrick Schuster briefly wore this number in 2016.

Number Swaps

1998 Phillies Team Issue #31

• #15 Andrew Knapp - Knapp wore #34 last season and the Phillies announced that no one would wear that number in 2018 in honor of Roy Halladay.
• #31 Mark Leiter, Jr. - This is kind of cool.  Leiter assumes the number his father wore for the Phillies in 1997 and 1998.  Hyun Soo Kim sported the number last season.
• #39 Rick Kranitz - Kranitz swapped the #33 he's worn the past two season for #39.
• #46 Adam Morgan - Morgan had worn #39, but he's now switched to #46.  Jesen Therrien and Jeanmar Gomez wore #46 last season.

Highest Number
If not for Neshek, non-roster invitee Nick Rickles would win the honors with his #86.

Numbers Available - Unofficially Retired Division
The Phillies have a cool, yet unofficial policy of not handing out the uniform number of recently departed players (or coaches) who had been with the team for a while, and left a significant legacy with the franchise.  I'm including #25 on the list below as this may be the Phillies paying tribute to recent Hall of Fame inductee Jim Thome.

#6 Ryan Howard
#10 Larry Bowa and Darren Daulton
#11 Jimmy Rollins
#13 Freddy Galvis
#25 Jim Thome (no offense to Daniel Nava, who wore the number in 2017)
#26 Chase Utley
#34 Roy Halladay

Number Available - Up for Grabs Division
And then there is the one stray number that just hasn't found a new home yet.  #54 was worn by both Casey Fien and Kevin Siegrist last season and it's the only number between 1 and 60, and not unofficially retired, currently up for grabs.  Non-roster invitee Fernando Abad may end up wearing #54, as he's currently numberless on the Phillies website.

Don't Forget Us
The Phillies went the extra mile and list out the following additional coaches/staff on the Coaches portion of their website - #81 Craig Driver (bullpen catcher/receiving coach), #82 Bob Stumpo (bullpen catcher/catching coach), #87 Sam Fuld (Major League player information coordinator) and #95 Mike Calitri (manager, advanced scouting)

Memory Lane

2012 New Numbers

2013 New Numbers
2014 New Numbers - Part One and Part Two
2015 New Numbers
2016 New Numbers - Part One and Part Two
2017 New Numbers
2018 New Numbers

1997 Score #453 Mark Leiter

Pirates 4, Phillies 1
Game 146 - Thursday Night, September 11th in Philadelphia
Record - 67-79, 5th Place, 16 1/2 games behind the Nationals

One Sentence Summary:  The Pirates easily downed the Phillies, 4-1, in the final game of this four game series.

What It Means:  Manager Ryne Sandberg ran out an interesting line-up in this game, which featured an infield of Maikel Franco at third, Freddy Galvis at shortstop and Cesar Hernandez at second.  The youngsters combined to go 2 for 9.

What Happened:  A lack of offense against Pirates starter Francisco Liriano doomed the Phillies, as they managed only six hits and went 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position.

Featured Card:  A.J. Burnett allowed four runs in his six innings of work, earning his 16th loss of the season.  He became the first Phillies pitcher to lose at least 16 games since Mark Leiter lost 17 in 1997.

1997 Collector's Choice #417 Mark Leiter

Marlins 3, Phillies 2
Game 158 - Wednesday Night, September 25th in Miami
Record - 72-86, 4th Place, 21 games behind the Braves

One Sentence Summary:  The Phillies went down quietly in Miami, losing 3-2 to the Marlins.

What It Means:  The Phillies look like they could use a rest.  After four more games with the Braves, they'll have 4 1/2 months to recoup before reporting to Clearwater.

What Went Wrong:  In his final start of the season, Cole Hamels' one mistake was a two-run triple to Adeiny Hechavarria in the second.  He finished the season with a 8-14 record after earning the no-decision for his six innings of work.  Reliever Ethan Martin walked Justin Ruggiano in the eighth, and Ruggiano came around to score the eventual winning run when Carlos Ruiz couldn't handle a Jimmy Rollins throw at the plate.

Featured Card:  Hamels' no decision meant that he avoided becoming the first Phillies pitcher since Mark Leiter in 1997 to lose at least 15 games in a season.

1997 Circa #170 Mark Leiter

Mets 11, Phillies 1
Game 82 - Tuesday Night, July 3rd in Flushing
Record - 36-46, 5th Place

One Sentence Summary:  The Phillies lost in convincing fashion to the Mets, 11-1.

What It Means:  The Phillies are in the midst of a season-high six game losing streak, in which they've been outscored 41-18.  During these six awful games, the offense is hitting .250 while the pitchers have a 7.20 ERA.  By comparison, Phillies opponents are hitting .313 and the opposing team's pitchers have a 2.83 ERA.  They have not been ten games under .500 since July 22, 2002.  Crap.

What Went Wrong:  Pretty much everything.  Other than a Carlos Ruiz solo home run in the second, the Phillies managed just two singles.  Vance Worley allowed six runs on ten hits in his four innings of work.  The trio of pitchers that followed him (Raul Valdes, Brian Sanches and Jake Diekman) just threw fuel on the fire.

Featured Card:  I'm not going to lie to you.  It's bad folks.  My comparison of this season to the woeful 1997 season a few days ago drew quite a few passionate responses, which is to be expected from a Phillies fan base that has come to expect much more from their team.  Until this losing streak is over, I may just continue to post cards of members of that '97 squad.

Mark Leiter went 10-17 with a 5.67 ERA for the 1997 Phillies, finishing second in wins on the club behind Curt Schilling's 17.  The Phils better win this afternoon or so help me I'm pulling out a Calvin Maduro card.

1998 Topps Phillies

1998 Topps #25, #123, #351 and #341

This post has proved to be one of the hardest in this series to compose so far.  Looking through the 1998 Topps set conjures up bitter memories of the summer I packed up and left home to go and work in Raleigh.  Nothing against the city of Raleigh, but I was homesick even before I made that fateful journey down I-95. I missed my family.  I missed going to Phillies games and watching the games on TV.  I missed Wawa.  I resented every single time I was referred to as the "yankee" from the North by my co-workers.  The years covered by these next few Topps Phillies posts will not be fun to revisit - both from a personal perspective and from the perspective of a suffering Phillies fan.  But as I've pointed out several times on this blog, it's living through and learning from the bad times that make the good times all the more sweeter.

1998 Topps #123 (Back)

The Set

Number of cards in the set:  Topps was creeping back up to a respectable set size with 503 cards in its 1998 set.  That's an odd number of cards for a complete set isn't it?  There were 282 cards in series one and 221 in series two.  Once again, there is no card #7 in the set in honor of Mickey Mantle.

My very brief thoughts on the set:  For the first time since 1990, Topps went with non-white borders and it works well.  Unfortunately, Topps was still on overdrive with its gold foil machine, and the player's names on the cards can be a bit tough to read at first glance.  The mini team logos behind the player's name make the card look a little busy too.  

Notable competition:  If I recall correctly, the most highly sought after baseball card set in 1998 was the Leaf Rookies and Stars set, which featured short-printed cards in the actual base set.  This is an idea that the card manufacturers would run with over the next decade.  My 1998 Phillies binder contains a ton of Pacific cards and although the cards are a bit garish, at least they were trying something new.  I referenced the necessity of tracking down the Pacific Online set in the 1998 Phillies Missing Links post a few days ago.  Overall, the baseball card manufacturers seemed baffled by what their consumers wanted.  We had cards issued inside a can (the appropriately named Pinnacle Inside), cards with coins inserted into them (Pinnacle Mint), numbered cards in base sets (SPx) and more bells, whistles, foil, and confusing set configurations than ever before.

1998 Topps #94, #412, #219 and #156

1998 Phillies

Record and finish:  The good news is that the Phils climbed out of the cellar, finishing in third place behind the Braves.  The bad news is that they finished 31 games out of first, with a record of 75-87.

Key players:  Third baseman Scott Rolen once again led the offense, hitting .290 with 31 home runs and 110 RBIs.  Rolen also won his first Gold Glove.  He was supported by first baseman Rico Brogna (.265, 20 home runs, 104 RBIs) and new right fielder Bobby Abreu (.312, 17 home runs, 74 RBIs).  Left fielder Gregg Jefferies (.294) also played well before his trade to the Angels in August.  With his 300th strikeout in his final start of the season, Curt Schilling (15-14, 3.25 ERA) became just the fifth pitcher in history with back-to-back 300-strikeout seasons.  Mark Portugal came back from arm injuries to record 10 wins.  The bullpen was anchored by a trio of work horses - Mark Leiter (23 saves in 69 games), Wayne Gomes (71 games) and Jerry Spradlin (69 games).

Key events:  Ed Wade took over the General Manager duties following the 1997 season, and his first order of business was to swap Mickey Morandini to the Cubs for new center fielder Doug Glanville and to send Kevin Stocker to the Devil Rays for Abreu.  (The Devil Rays had selected Abreu in the expansion draft from the Astros.)  Both deals paid off for the team.  Picking first in the annual amateur players' draft in June, the Phillies selected third baseman Pat Burrell from the University of Miami.

1998 Phillies in 1998 Topps

Cards needed for a complete team set:  There are only 12 Phillies cards in the 1998 Topps set, which represents the lowest total since there were only 10 Phillies cards in the 206-card 1955 Topps Phillies set.  Given the team's poor performance and the lack of any star power outside of Rolen and Schilling, I'm willing to forgive Topps for the low tally.

Who’s in:

• Cards of the eight starting position players - 5 cards

#94 Mike Lieberthal (c), #123 Rico Brogna (1b), #25 Scott Rolen (3b), #341 Gregg Jefferies (lf), #351 Bobby Abreu (rf)

Center fielder Glanville and new second baseman Mark Lewis appear with their former teams in the set. Rookie shortstop Desi Relaford was left out of the set, but he did earn a card within the 1998 Bowman set (along with a bunch of other 1998 cards from the other card manufacturers.)

• Cards of the starting pitching rotation - 1 card

#332 Curt Schilling

For the second year in a row, Schilling is the sole representative of the pitching rotation.  Tyler Green, Portugal, Carlton Loewer and Matt Beech were all left out.

1998 Topps #332, #60, #163 and #192

• Base cards of players who played with the Phillies in 1998 - 3 cards

#60 Mark Leiter, #163 Ricky Bottalico, #192 Garrett Stephenson

• Base cards of players who didn't play with the Phillies in 1998 - 2 cards (with new teams listed)

#156 Kevin Stocker (Devil Rays), #219 Mickey Morandini (Cubs)

• Phillies appearing on '97 Season Highlights cards - 1 card, #476 Curt Schilling

1998 Topps #37

Who’s out:  As already mentioned, Relaford and 4/5 of the pitching rotation were left out.  

Phillies on other teams:  Newcomers Glanville (#37 with the Cubs), and Lewis (#412 with the Giants) appear with their former teams.

What’s he doing here:  Given the low number of Phillies cards in the team set, there aren't any strange inclusions.

Cards that never were candidates:  I'll limit this to ten cards, although I could list twice that many - Lewis, Relaford, Glanville, Portugal, Green, Loewer, Beech, Gomes and utility guys Kevin Jordan and Kevin Sefcik.

Favorite Phillies card:  I'll pick Lieberthal's card by default, which shows him making contact at the Vet and features a nice shot of the Jackie Robinson commemorative patch that all teams wore during the 1997 season.

Other Stuff

Recycled:  Topps would reuse this design, but with a silver border, for its 1998 Topps Chrome set and its inaugural Topps Opening Day set.  There was also a 1998 Topps Superchrome set, which features an over-sized Rolen card.

Blogs/Websites:  There aren't many bloggers waxing nostalgic about the 1998 Topps set that I could find, so here's a self-serving link to a past post on one of my favorite baseball cards from 1998 - the 1998 Topps Stars Reprint of Mike Schmidt's rookie card.

Did You Know?:  As of this writing, I have 517 different Phillies baseball cards in my collection from 1998.  212 (roughly 41%) of these cards feature Scott Rolen while another 97 (roughly 19%) feature Curt Schilling.  The next most featured player is catcher Bobby Estalella with 42 (roughly 8%) different cards.  So perhaps the reason I spend so little time enjoying my 1998 Phillies binder is because almost three-quarters of the cards belong to Rolen, Schilling and Estalella - three players who aren't going to win any Phillies popularity contests any time soon.

1998 Topps #476, 1998 Topps Chrome #25, 1998 Topps Opening Day #18 and #159

1997 Topps Phillies

1997 Topps #268, #56, #64 and #302

I graduated from college in 1997 and spent my last, true career-free summer working at a t-shirt store on the Promenade in Sea Isle City.  I made just enough money to pay for food, sunscreen and a few books, but not enough money to buy many baseball cards.  The 1997 season for the Phillies was another disappointment, but I was thrilled to be able to watch or listen to the games again on a nightly basis after being away from home for the past few summers.

1997 Topps #368 (Back)

The Set

Number of cards in the set:  We got 55 more cards than the prior year in the 1997 Topps set, as the complete set included 495 cards - 275 from the first series and 220 in a second series.  (Note this was the first year Topps "retired" card #7 for Mickey Mantle, so while the set is numbered to 496, there are only 495 cards.)  For the second year in a row, there was no traded set.  I would imagine baseball card sales were still down as a result of the 1994 strike, and it would take a steroid-fueled home run barrage in 1998 to start to bring the collectors back.

My very brief thoughts on the set:  I first mentioned the concept of adding color to borders a few posts back when I was discussing the design of the 2012 Topps cards, and this concept holds true for the 1997 Topps set.  Like the 1996 set, the design is very simplistic - name in block letters across the bottom and a team logo.  How much better would the cards look had Topps color coded the cards based on team colors?  Topps assigned green to all National League base cards and red to all American League base cards and they stopped there.  (Why not blue for all National League base cards?  I think that simple change would have vastly improved the design as well.  Everyone knows that the color blue is associated with the National League.  Right Night Owl?)

Notable competition:  Flipping through my 1997 Phillies binder, I definitely get the sense that the card manufacturers were grasping for any way to possibly connect with their consumers.  There's a lot of foil and gloss and some on-card autographs, but there's no set from 1997 that really distances itself from the herd.  Honestly, my favorite cards from that year were the reprints of older cards which were inserted into packs of Topps Stars.  Topps must have realized that collectors were yearning for more "classic" cards - be they reprints or otherwise - as they would soon start experimenting with various releases featuring vintage designs and themes.  The first Topps Heritage set was only four years away at this point.

1997 Topps #384, #289 and #229

1997 Phillies

Record and finish:  New manager Terry Francona guided his team to one more win than the previous year, as the Phils finished with a 68-94 record and in last place (again).

Key players:  This was the first year of the Scott Rolen Era, as the eventual National League Rookie of the Year hit .283 with 21 home runs and 92 RBIs.  Mike Lieberthal became the team's every day backstop and while his average was low (.246) he managed 20 home runs and 77 RBIs.  New first baseman Rico Brogna also had a decent year (.252, 20 home runs, 81 RBIs) as did Mickey Morandini (.295).  Brogna also provided stellar defense at first.  Curt Schilling re-established himself as a premier pitcher, going 17-11 with 319 strikeouts (a new club record) and a 2.97 ERA.  He'd finish fourth in the National League Cy Young voting.  Other than Schilling's fine performance, the pitching was a complete debacle.  Only Ricky Bottalico's 34 saves merits mention, although he blew 7 saves. And if I recall correctly, a few of those blown saves were recorded in spectacular self-imploding fashion.

Key events:  The Phils drafted J.D. Drew in June, but they were unable to come to terms with the Scott Boras client and Drew eventually signed with the Cardinals.  (Booo!)  Darren Daulton was the team's regular right fielder until a July trade sent him to Florida for Billy McMillon.  Daulton would earn a World Series ring wearing the teal and black of the Marlins.  Interleague play began and the Phillies swept a thrilling three-game series against the Yankees at the Vet in early September.  And sadly, long-time Phillies player and announcer Richie Ashburn passed away on September 9th.

1997 Phillies in 1997 Topps

Cards needed for a complete team set:  There are 18 Phillies cards needed for a complete 1997 Topps team set.  That matches the low tally from 1996, meaning that the 1996 and 1997 Topps sets have the least amount of Phillies cards since 1955.

Who’s in:

• Cards of the eight starting position players - 5 cards

#56 Mike Lieberthal (c), #64 Mickey Morandini (2b), #384 Kevin Stocker (ss), #268 Scott Rolen (3b), #229 Gregg Jefferies (lf)

Regular first baseman Brogna is featured in the set with the Mets.  Center fielder Midre Cummings and right fielder Daulton were omitted from the set completely.  What a quick descent for Dutch.  Daulton was a baseball card force in 1994, and just four short years later he finds himself completely left out of the Topps set.

• Cards of the starting pitching rotation - 1 card

#368 Curt Schilling

This is probably an all-time low as well.  The Phillies used 15 different starting pitchers in 1997.  Schilling is the only one of the top five on that list to merit a card.  Mark Leiter, Matt Beech, Garrett Stephenson and Tyler Green were all left out, although Leiter does appear on a card with the Expos.  Have I mentioned lately how much I truly appreciate the current Phillies starting pitching rotation?

1997 Topps #368, #327, #14 and #242

• Base cards of players who played with the Phillies in 1997 - 5 cards

#14 Ricky Bottalico, #106 Ricky Otero, #144 Ken Ryan, #242 Mike Grace, #302 Wendell Magee, Jr. 

• Base cards of players who didn't play with the Phillies in 1997 - 4 cards (with new teams listed)

#82 Benito Santiago (Blue Jays), #161 Jim Eisenreich (Marlins), #299 Sid Fernandez (Astros), #413 Lenny Dykstra (injured)

This would be Dykstra's last Topps baseball card as an active player.  Following his wonderful 1993 season, the Phils extended Dykstra's contract, paying him $24.4 million for the 1995 through 1998 seasons.  (The team held a club option for 1999.)  The oft-injured Dude played in 84 games in 1994, 62 games in 1995, 40 games in 1996, and then he was done.  Unfortunately, it's been downhill ever since for Dykstra.

• Phillies appearing on multi-player Prospects cards - 2 cards

#205 Bobby Estallela, #492 Ron Blazier

Both actually appeared with the Phillies during the 1997 season, so I have no problem with their selection for these cards.

• Phillies appearing on multi-player Draft Picks cards - 1 card

#479 Adam Eaton

Spoiler alert - This is going to be my pick for the "What's he doing here" segment of this post.  

1997 Topps #106, #492 and #413

Who’s out:  The entire bench, save Otero and Magee got left out.  Outfielder Ruben Amaro, Jr. appeared in 117 games.  Infielders Kevin Jordan (84 games) and Kevin Sefcik (61 games) saw significant playing time, as did outfielders Derrick May (83 games) and Tony Barron (57 games).  I mentioned above how four-fifths of the pitching rotation didn't receive Phillies cards, but the bullpen wasn't well represented either.  Jerry Spradlin (76 games), Reggie Harris (50 games) and Wayne Gomes (37 games) went without Topps cards.

1997 Topps #78

Phillies on other teams:  There are six members of the 1997 squad featured in the Topps sets on their former teams - #33 Mark Portugal (Reds), #78 Danny Tartabull (White Sox), #206 Billy McMillon (Marlins, on a multi-player Prospects card), #254 Rex Hudler (Angels), #289 Rico Brogna (Mets) and #327 Mark Leiter (Expos)

What’s he doing here:  Adam Eaton.  I feel this needs no explanation.

Cards that never were candidates:  There were no manager cards in the set, but I'd come up with something for Francona's first year.  I came up with nine players from 1996 who should have cards, so I'll do the same for 1997 - Brogna, Cummings, Daulton, Leiter, Beech, Stephenson, Spradlin, Amaro and Jordan.

Favorite Phillies card:  It's Rolen's card.  Philly fans were absolutely in love with Rolen and his style of play back in 1997.  A few short years later, we learned that Rolen was actually a fairly grumpy guy who would rather play elsewhere.

Other Stuff

Recycled:  As far as I know, Topps hasn't re-used its 1997 design for any recent releases.

Blogs/Websites:  A little over a year ago, Capewood ran a nice post featuring a few of his favorite cards from the set on his Capewood's Collections blog.

Did You Know?:  Perhaps as a cost cutting measure, the Phillies released their 1997 Yearbook as an insert within its Phillies Magazine publication.  This really bothered me back in 1997 and it still bothers me today.  I have a nice collection of Phillies Yearbooks dating back to 1969, and the 1997 "Yearbook" throws off the whole feng shui of the collection.

1998 Topps #60 Mark Leiter

Marlins 7, Phillies 6

Original Post (Made Obsolete): It got a little soggy, but Ryan Howard's 4-RBI night and Cole Hamels' pitching led the way to another Phillies victory tonight. With the win, the magic number to clinch the NL East drops to 4. Cole scattered eight hits and four runs over seven innings tonight for his 11th win. He also added two hits and knocked in what proved to be the game-winning run in the 6th inning.

Ryan Howard's 2-run double in the 3rd inning started the scoring for the Phils, and his 2-run home run in the 7th inning ended it. It was Ryan's 42nd homer of the year. Raul Ibañez added a 2-hit night, which included his 33th home run.

Updated Post (Reality): I can't believe I waited through a rain delay and stayed up late tonight to watch Brad Lidge blow his 11th save. He's one blown save shy of tying the franchise record of 12 blown saves set by Mark Leiter in 1998. Crap.