Baseball Card Show Reports - Washington Township & The Philly Show

I think I'm slowly coming out of the November slump caused by the Phillies' unceremonious and unexpected exit from the postseason in Game 7 of the NLCS.  As we get closer to Christmas, I find myself thinking less about the past and the what could have been, and thinking more about the future and what might be.  There's a mental health and wellness lesson in there somewhere, but instead of digging deeper into that topic, here's a look at recent happenings with the Phillies and the hard-working support staff at The Phillies Room.  We've attend two (!) baseball card shows within the past month.

Nola Re-Signs / Hoskins Likely Departs:  It's been a relatively quiet offseason so far for the Phillies, as there thankfully aren't a lot of holes to fill.  On November 19th, the Phillies locked up starting pitcher Aaron Nola, signing him to a seven-year, $172 million deal, that will have him wearing a Phillies uniform through at least the 2030 season.  Nola has the chance to put himself towards the top (or at the top) of several all-time Phillies pitching categories, and I'm happy he's coming back.

On the other hand, I'm sad to see that Rhys Hoskins' days with the Phillies are likely at an end.  Club President Dave Dombrowski recently confirmed that Bryce Harper will be the team's first baseman going forward, leaving no real spot for Hoskins.  Hoskins is a Phillies Room Favorite, and it's going to be tough seeing him in a different uniform.

Baseball Card Show Report #1 - Washington Township:  My wife Jenna found an announcement on Faceback for a baseball card show to be held at St. Charles Borromeo Hall in Sicklerville, New Jersey on November 18th.  I gathered my lists and we made the short drive to what the organizers called the "First Ever Sports Card Show" in Washington Township, which I find hard to believe given the number of baseball card stores in the area back in the 1980s and 1990s.  Potential mislabeling aside, it was a decent-sized show with mostly modern stuff and slabbed Pokemon cards.  I found the one dealer selling vintage cards, and cleaned him out of every 1969 Topps card I needed for our set, along with a few 1959 Topps cards for our next set build.  Credit to Jenna for finding the show, and if it happens again, I'll gladly make the 10 minute drive over there.

Baseball Card Show Report #2 - The Philly Show:  With our oldest son Doug sitting for the SATs (!) on Saturday morning, our only choice for attending the December Philly Show was Sunday.  Honestly, I'm fine with going on Sunday as it's much less crowded, and we were able to actually browse dealer tables.  I still only browsed half the hall, as my allotted budget was gone after seeing only a portion of the show.

• eBay has taken over official sponsorship of the show, complete with a new logo and increased advertising.  The quaint, bubble-lettered logo that had been in place since the 1980s is gone and has been replaced by a more edgy, modern logo.  And so it goes.

• 
  I didn't mess around this time, and headed right for Uncle Dick's Cards, finding the second neon green binder of 1969 Topps cards, #301 to #664.  Within 45 minutes, I had accumulated another stack of commons, with some semi-stars, from #301 to #498 in the set.  There were three or four other oldish collectors sitting in a row with me, all going through our chosen binders and meticulously crossing off our checklists along the way.  Uncle Dick prices his cards reasonably, most of which were $1 before a final discount, and everything is extremely organized.  Definitely my kind of dealer, and it will be my first stop when we go back to the Philly Show in March.  I need to finish off the second 1969 Topps binder, going from card #500 through #664.  I added 145 new commons to our set, putting me a little under 2/3 of the way there.

• Doug secured autographs for me from Tom Herr and Bobby Wine on Phillies Alumni photo cards.  Wine was great, taking his time to appreciate the photo of him in his younger days, and pointing to the bleachers behind him in the photo, telling Doug, "That's where [Dick] Allen used to hit 'em."

• I found three reasonably priced and not too beat up Diamond Star cards for that set build.  I'm getting closer on that one, with mostly the uber-expensive and rare high numbers remaining.  Bill Hallahan has been harder to track down than I would have expected, but I found a nice version of his card from Clean Sweep Auctions.  Carl Hubbell and Ducky Medwick were surprise purchases, found, in all places, a bargain bin.  I had no intention of buying any more Diamond Stars cards at the show, but once I saw the prices for both, I couldn't resist.

• William Shatner was there.  Not somebody I'd expect to see at a sports card and memorabilia show, but it was cool to see Captain Kirk up close and personal.

• On the way out, I recognized Phillies great Art Mahaffey by the exit and I asked if he wouldn't mind posing for a picture with Doug.  He finished his hot dog first, and then graciously posed for us.

Phillies at Mets: September 29th to October 1st

1965 Topps #446

2014 Topps Heritage #424

Friday and Saturday 7:10, Sunday 3:10
Citi Field - Flushing, NY

At the Ballpark:  On Friday night, the first 15,000 fans will receive a Mets crossbody bag, and on Saturday all fans will receive a Mets tie-dye headband.  Following Sunday's game, kids are invited to participate in the Mr. and Mrs. Met Post-Game Dash.  And that's a wrap on the 2023 regular season!

Phillies 89-70
2nd Place in the N.L. East, 14 games behind the Braves

Phillies Probables
Taijuan Walker (15-5, 4.35)
Cristopher Sanchez (3-5, 3.48)
TBD

Phillies Leaders
Average:  Bryce Harper - .295
Runs:  Kyle Schwarber - 107
Home Runs:  Kyle Schwarber - 46
RBIs:  Nick Castellanos - 106
Stolen Bases:  Bryson Stott - 31

Wins:  Taijuan Walker - 15
ERA:  Zack Wheeler - 3.61

Strikeouts:  Zack Wheeler - 212
Saves:  Craig Kimbrel - 23

Mets 72-86
4th Place in the N.L. East, 30 1/2 games behind the Braves

Mets Probables
Tylor Megilll (8-8, 4.92)
Jose Quintana (3-6, 3.39)
Jose Butto (1-3, 3.75)

Mets Leaders
Average:  Brandon Nimmo - .274
Runs:  Francisco Lindor - 104
Home Runs:  Pete Alonso - 46
RBIs:  Pete Alonso - 117
Stolen Bases:  Francisco Lindor - 31

Wins:  Kodai Senga - 12
ERA:  Kodai  Senga - 2.98

Strikeouts:  Kodai Senga - 202
Saves:  Adam Ottavino - 11

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

Baseball Card Show Report - Valley Forge 5 (featuring Don Money)

1961 Bazooka #1

Getting closer to a complete set

1909 T206

Doug and I made the hour-long trek to Valley Forge on Saturday morning so that he could spend the entirety of his allowance and birthday money at the Philadelphia Sportscard & Memorabilia Show. With only a few checklists in tow and no real plan in place, we decided we'd both enjoy a morning of free-style pickin' and just see what we could find.  Doug made out great, obtaining quite a few certified autograph cards for his growing collection, including his two new favorite treasures - the very impressive, and very thick, on-card, gold-framed autographs of Aaron Nola and Maikel Franco from the 2016 Topps Gold Label set.  He's still trying to figure out how best to store and display these cards.

He was also very pleased with the addition of two Hall of Fame rookie cards to his collection - a nice 1983 Topps Wade Boggs (for $2!) and a nearly destroyed 1975 Topps Robin Yount (for $1).

Here's a summary of what I picked up:

• A nice stack of 1971 Topps cards for my set, including the Willie Mays card.
• 1977 and 1978 Phillies Media Guides.
• Only a few Phillies cards - 1961 Bazooka Art Mahaffey (shown above), another T206 Phillies card (Mickey Doolan, fielding, Piedmont back) and a few signed Phillies Alumni Photo Cards (post coming soon)

2016 Chachi Valley Forge Autographs #5

One of the highlights of the day, at least for me, was meeting former Phillies and Brewers third baseman Don Money.  Money was the sole former baseball player signing at the show.  I printed a copy of a newspaper article featuring Money and my Dad from 1970 (see below, my Dad is the Coach) and I asked him to sign it.  He graciously obliged and noted that the photo looked to be "at least a few years old."  He was also kind enough to pose for a photo with Doug.

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 - Phillies acquisitions and 4 Phillies Legends
Valley Forge 5 - December 2016

1961 Topps Stamps Art Mahaffey

Dodgers 6, Phillies 0
Game 87 - Late Thursday Night, July 9th in Los Angeles
Record - 29-59, 5th Place, 19 games behind the Nationals

One Sentence Summary:  The Phillies were shut out for the second game in a row as Zack Greinke did the honors in this 6-0 Dodgers victory.

What It Means:  The Phillies are now an unsightly 30 games below .500.  They are well on their way to losing 100 games for the first time since the 1961 season when Gene Mauch's club went 47-107-1.

What Happened:  The Dodgers got to starting pitcher Severino Gonzalez in the fourth and they scored four times overall in 5 2/3 innings against the young righty.  The offense managed two singles against Greinke.

Featured Card:  The Phillies had three pitchers lose at least 15 games in 1961, with Art Mahaffey leading the way with 19.  John Buzhardt (18) and Frank Sullivan (16) didn't fare much better.  There's not any one pitcher shouldering the bulk of the loss burden this year for the Phillies, as it's been a total team effort thus far.

Aaron Harang (currently at 11 losses) will probably get the chance to lose a few more games and Jerome Williams (7) is another solid candidate for a 15-loss season once he returns from the disabled list.  At least we have some things to look forward to.

Cards from the 1960s from the Annual SBWTABCTJ

1966 Topps #254

One of my collecting goals is to eventually own a full run of Phillies baseball cards from all the Topps base sets beginning in 1951.  With these three cards obtained in the annual Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim, courtesy of my Mom, I'm a little bit closer to wrapping up a complete run of Phillies Topps cards from the 1960s.

Ferguson Jenkins appeared in eight games with the 1965 and 1966 Phillies before the horrendous trade in April 1966 that sent him to the Cubs.  This is Jenkins' rookie card and his sole vintage Phillies card.  There would be few reprints of this card - without Bill Sorrell - in sets from the early 2000s, and Jenkins also received a Phillies card in the 2004 Topps Retired Signature set.  As an aside, the first time I ever realized that this future Hall of Famer had pitched with the Phillies is when I pulled his 1983 Topps Super Veteran card from a pack back in the day.

Jenkins' rookie card was one of a handful of older Phillies Topps cards I deemed to be unobtainable when I first started collecting many years ago.  Thanks to my Mom, it's now in my collection.

For what it's worth, this is Sorrell's only appearance on a Phillies card.  He appeared in 10 games with the 1965 Phillies, hitting .385 (5 for 13) as a September call-up.  He spent all of 1966 playing in San Diego for the Phillies Triple A team and then was selected by the Giants in November 1966 in the annual Rule 5 draft.  He earned a Giants Rookie Stars card (with Dick Dietz) in the 1967 Topps set and he reappeared in the 1971 Topps set with the Royals.

1965 Topps #446

This Art Mahaffey card from my favorite Topps set from the 1960s gets me to just six cards away from having a complete 1965 Topps Phillies team set.  I'm down to needing the Johnny Callison league league card and five high numbers.  This would be Mahaffey's final Phillies Topps card, as he was traded to the Cardinals following the 1965 season.

1967 Topps #309

Finally, this is my favorite card from the 1967 Topps set, featuring two of the best Phillies players from that era on the same card.  Two of my favorite cards growing up were the multi-player Phillies cards of Pete Rose, Mike Schmidt and Larry Bowa in the 1981 Fleer set and the Schmidt and Rose card in the 1982 Donruss set.  The first time I saw either of those cards, I thought I had hit the Phillies baseball card gold mine.  I imagine collectors finding this Richie Allen and Callison card in packs of their 1967 Topps felt the same way.

If you're keeping track at home, my Mom found eight of the ten cards that had been on my Ten Most Wanted - Vintage list and gave them to me for Christmas.  And no, you can't have her.

2014 Santa Brings Way Too Many Awesome Baseball Cards to Jim
Part 1 - 1952 Bowman and 1953 Bowman Color Richie Ashburn
Part 2 - 1950 Bowman Roberts, 1951 Topps Blue Backs Jones, 1955 Bowman Wyrostek

The 2nd Phillies Team Set Gallery Week

Welcome to another Gallery Week, otherwise known as the week of auto-pilot posts since I'm on vacation and doing my best to stay electronic-device free.  Please refer to this post from just prior to my last vacation for a primer on what to expect this week.  I've enjoyed putting these gallery posts together, even though the scanning did tend to get slightly monotonous.  Between now and my vacations next summer, my goal is to track down the remaining cards needed to finish off a few older oddball sets so that I can continue the Gallery Week tradition next year.

First up is the 1963 Fleer Phillies set, from Fleer's first ever set of current baseball players.  The cards were sold in packs with a cookie in an attempt to get past Topps' exclusive right to sell baseball cards accompanied by gum.  Only one series of 66 cards was released before a court order forced Fleer to cease and desist.  Fleer wouldn't return with a set of current baseball players until 1981.

1963 Fleer #50

1963 Fleer #51

1963 Fleer #52

1963 Fleer #53

1963 Fleer #54

1962 Post Phillies

I'm kicking off Gallery Week with one of the oldest oddball team sets in my collection.  These cards are miscut and there are a few creases, but I'm still happy to have them.  By the time kids were cutting these cards off boxes of cereal, Robin Roberts was an ex-Phillie.  The future Hall of Famer was sold to the Yankees in October 1961.  Also, the Pancho Herrera card could serve as his final tribute, as he played his last year in the Majors in 1961 and he did not appear in the 1962 Topps set.

#192

#193

#194

#195

#196

#197

#198

#199

#200

1964 Topps #104 Art Mahaffey

Phillies 5, Pirates 0
Spring Training Game 11 - Monday Afternoon, March 4th in Bradenton
Record - 5-5-1

One Sentence Summary:  John Lannan and a trio of relievers combined for the shutout and Michael Young drove in a pair of runs as the Phillies defeated the Pirates, 5-0.

What It Means:  It was another good showing for the Phillies and their pitchers.  Lannan, the presumed fifth starter, improved his spring record to 2-0 and lowered his ERA to 1.13.

What Went Right:  Lannan pitched well, but the Phillies radio team was very impressed with Mike Adams' perfect inning in the fourth.  Adam Morgan and Raul Valdes pitched the final five scoreless innings.

Featured Card:  Art Mahaffey and his 1964 Topps card have nothing to do with yesterday's game but I've got Heritage fever!  I've been browsing eBay and the Topps Facebook page, enjoying pictures of the new cards that have hopefully made their way to a Target near me.  It's safe to say that Heritage is now the set I look forward to the most on an annual basis.  We won't be collecting the set this year, but a blaster or two is definitely in my future plans.

I'll look to track down all the Philllies cards in the set, and the Beatles card in the News Flashback set will be added to my collection as well.  One small quibble about the Beatles card - Couldn't Topps have found a picture of the Beatles from 1964 with George Harrison included?

1960-1969 Phillies Want List

1961 Topps #433

1963 Topps #13

1964 Topps Stand-Ups

1965 Topps Embossed #36

1968 Topps #225

I don't know what's more fun - compiling these wantlists or daydreaming about the possibility of some kind soul e-mailing me out of the blue to let me know he's been looking for a great home for his shoebox full of vintage, oddball Phillies cards and he'd like me to have them.

1960 Armour Coins - Conley
1960 Bazooka - 24 Ashburn, 26 Roberts
1960 Fleer - 53 Foxx, 57 Evers
1960 Leaf - 39 Owens, 70 Robinson, 80 Mason, 91 Hopke, 104 Woods, 111 Walls, 118 Callison, 125 Anderson, 137 Meyer, 143 Dalrymple
1960 Nu-Card Baseball Hi-Lites - 44 Roberts
1960 Topps Tattoos - Ashburn, Roberts, Phillies Logo, Ashburn Auto

1961 Bazooka - Herrera
1961 Fleer Baseball Greats - 112 Hamilton
1961 Topps Stamps - Farrell, Taylor, Walls

1962 Salada Coins - 105 Covington, 112 Mahaffey, 122 Herrera, 129 Buzhardt, 135 C. Smith, 141 Dalrymple, 163 Amaro, 170 Demeter, 176 B. Smith, 204 Callison
1962 Topps Baseball Bucks - Demeter, Mahaffey, Taylor
1962 Topps Stamps - Baldschun, Demeter, Gonzalez, Taylor

1963 Bazooka - 15 Callison, 35 Mahaffey
1963 Salada Coins - 26 Callison

1964 Bazooka - 15 Callison
1964 Philadelphia Bulletin Photos - Need All
1964 Topps Coins - 69 Baldschun, 93 Bunning
1964 Topps Stand-Ups - Baldschun, Culp, Gonzalez, Roebuck
1964 Topps Stamps - Baldschun, Callison, Culp, Gonzalez, Taylor
1964 Topps Tattoos - Callison, Culp, Phillies Logo
1964 Wheaties Stamps - Bunning

1965 Bazooka - 2 Jackson, 15 Callison, 21 Bunning
1965 Old London Coins - Allen, Bunning
1965 Topps Transfers - Allen, Bunning

1966 Bazooka - 4 Allen, 12 Callison, 23 White, 31 Bunning
1966 Topps Rub-Offs - Allen, Bunning, Rojas, Stuart, Phillies Pennant

1967 Bazooka - 4 Allen, 12 Callison, 23 White, 31 Bunning
1967 Phillies Safe Driving - 4 Mauch, 6 Callison, 10 White, 11 Dalrymple, 12 Briggs, 15 Allen, 25 Gonzalez, 41 Short, 46 Jackson

1968 Bazooka - Allen, Gonzalez, White
1968 Topps Posters - Allen

1969 Topps Stamps - Allen, Briggs, Taylor, Wise
1969 Topps Super - 53 Allen, 54 Short, 55 Rojas
1969 Transogram - Callison

1950-1959 Phillies Want List / 1970-1979 Phillies Want List

1963 Topps Phillies

1963 Topps #434, #283, #32 and #341

If 1962 Topps beget 1987 Topps, then 1963 Topps beget 1983 Topps.  I didn't know much about this set growing up other than it's the set with Pete Rose's rookie card in it.  If you had asked 10-year-old me if I could have any baseball card in the entire world, I wouldn't have hesitated with my pick - the Rose rookie card.  Maybe one day.

The Set

1963 Topps #366 (Back)

Number of cards in the set:  The complete set consists of 576 cards, down from the 598 total cards found in the 1962 Topps set.

My very brief thoughts on the set:  The folks at Topps must have wanted to mix things up in 1963 after a soothing, wood-grained design in 1962.  The '63 Topps set is very colorful, with blues, yellows, oranges, reds and greens used no matter the team.

Notable competition:  Post and the Salada coins were around again in 1963, but it was the 66-card Fleer set that gave Topps its biggest competition since Bowman departed the scene in 1955.  The Standard Catalog mentions that a "lawsuit by Topps stopped Fleer's 1963 set at one series of 66 cards."  The complete Phillies team set from 1963 Fleer consists of five cards.

1963 Phillies

Record and finish:  The Phillies finished with a record of 87-75, their highest win total since also winning 87 games in 1952.  They still finished fourth in the National League behind the Giants, Cardinals and pennant winning Dodgers.  Things were looking up and they would almost reach the promised land in 1964.  Almost.

Key players:  Johnny Callison (.284, 26 home runs and 78 RBIs) and Wes Covington (.303, 17 home runs and 64 RBIs) paced the offense.  Roy Sievers' average dropped to .240, but he still hit 19 home runs and drove in 82 runs.  Tony Gonzalez hit .306 in another steady year for the Phillies.  With Art Mahaffey missing a chunk of the season with a bad ankle, starters Cal McLish (13-11, 3.26 ERA) and Ray Culp (14-11, 2.97 ERA) led the pitching staff.  Jack Baldschun was great out of the bullpen, saving 16 games and pitching to an 11-7 record with a 2.30 ERA.  Johnny Klippstein contributed a 1.93 ERA in 49 appearances.

Key events:  Shortstop Bobby Wine won his first and only Gold Glove.  Richie Allen was a September call-up, making his Major League debut on September 3rd.

1963 Topps #366, #318, #71 and #385

1963 Phillies in 1963 Topps

Cards needed for a complete team set:  There are 29 cards in a 1963 Topps Phillies team set.  The cumulative tally is 121 cards from the '60s (so far) and 294 Topps Phillies cards dating back to 1951.  (Turns out there are actually 30 Phillies cards in a complete team set - see the comments to this post.  I'll update the overall tally if I ever get to a 1951 to whenever Topps Phillies retrospective post.)

Who’s in:  22 players who actually played with the Phillies in 1963 made it into the set - on their own cards.  On three other cards, rookies Marcelino Lopez, Culp, John Boozer and John Herrnstein had to share their rookie cards with several other players on Topps' multi-player Rookie Stars cards.  Mahaffey became the first Phillie to appear on a League Leader card, as he was featured along with the other 1962 victory leaders on card #7.  Rounding out the team set is a card for manager Gene Mauch, a team card, and a card for reliever Billy Smith, who spent the season playing for the Phillies' AAA team in Arkansas.

Who’s out:  Just starting pitcher Chris Short.  And Allen would have to wait for the 1964 Topps set for his rookie card.

1963 Topps #268, #455, #91 and #192

Phillies on other teams:  Ryne Duren (#17) pitched in 33 games for the Phillies after being sold from the Angels in March.  Outfielder Jim Lemon (#369) was purchased from the Twins in May.

What’s he doing here:  I have no arguments with any of the Phillies players featured.  Even Smith, who should have had a card in the 1962 Topps set, was a logical inclusion as he had pitched in 24 games in the prior year.

Cards that never were candidates:  Short and Allen.  The fine Dick Allen Hall of Fame blog has already created a great looking 1963 Topps Richie Allen card.

Favorite Phillies card:  Similar to the 1962 Topps Phillies cards, there aren't any cards that really stand out to me.  I'll pick Bobby Wine's card, although I could be swayed by the smiling Mahaffey or the Cookie Rojas rookie card.

1963 Topps #7 and #221, 2006 Topps Wal-Mart #WM17 and 2001 Upper Deck Vintage #298

Other Stuff

Recycled:  If Topps produces a Heritage set in 2012 (and why wouldn't they?) this will be the design used.  Back in 2001, Upper Deck used a design that looked suspiciously like the 1963 Topps set for its Vintage offering.  And in 2006, Topps failed with a 1963-style Chase Utley card - the circle is too small and the font is all wrong.

Blogs/Websites:  Here's a terrific post on the 1963 Topps set from Dean's Cards.

Did You Know?:  It could be a while before I complete this team set.  John Hernstein's rookie card, #553 in the set, typically sells for a few hundred dollars.  He shares the card with three other Rookie Stars - Brock Davis, Jim Gosger and Willie Stargell.