Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Phorgotten Phillie Phile - Wes Chamberlain

Wes Chamberlain isn't like the usual Phorgotten Phillie I've posted in the past in that he did play for the Phillies a 5 years. His rookie year was 1991. In 101 games, he hit .240, had 13 HR and 50 RBI. He was the 5th runner up for NL Rookie of the Year. He was also on the 1993 World Series team, but like most of the Phillies, he didn't have much of an impact (0 for 2). He was traded to the Red Sox in 1994 for Paul Quantrill and Billy Hatcher. In 1996 he played in Japan. After that he played in independent leagues until around 2003. I always hoped that Wes would be a big star because of this card. 1991 Topps #603.Because that's not really Wes Chemberlain. It's Louie Meadows. Louie was signed by the Phillies as a free agent in July 1990. Wes was traded to the Phillies in August 1990. The story I heard is that the Topps photographer was looking for Chamberlain and was told that Meadows was Chamberlain. Meadows never corrected the misidentification. The card above was the result.

Here's the corrected card.
Unfortunately, Wes did not become a big star. I'm not sure which card is harder to get, but I suspect that the corrected card is less available. Both of these cards were in a box of cards Eric recently sent me. I had them both (5 of the Meadows verson and 4 of the corrected version). The cards are just rectangular pieces of cardboard today with no real value.

5 comments:

night owl said...

I was never aware there was another '91 "Chamberlain" card until I saw this post. According to Beckett the error card is "worth" more, by 30 cents.

I pulled Chamberlain cards like mad in the early '90s.

deal said...

nice phorgotten phillie. looking forward to the season.

Wes like a lot of other Phils had a great 93 but never was able to repeat his success outside of that great line-up and the platoon situation.

capewood said...

My Beckett bi-monthly doesn't list it. Why would anyone be interested in a Louie Meadows card misidentified as Wes Chamberlain. There is a Don Mattingly and a Mark McGwire error card in this set as well. I could see someone being interested in those. I have 5 of the Mattingly errors but I can't remember what the error is.

Anonymous said...

You have them backwards, the lefty is Meadows and the close up is Chamberlain

Anonymous said...

You're wrong. They are reversed. Chamberlain is actually the error and Meadows is the correct.