2009 baseball card wrapup

It's January 2010. We have only a few weeks (maybe) until the 2010 cards start to appear. So it's time to wrap up the 2009 collecting year. I'm going to show some of my favorite cards of the year with some random observations and stats.


2009 Tristar Obek Tom Seaver (#39)2009 my be the year that we overdosed on retro cards. At least I did. I bought 4 backs of Obek in Walmart not knowing what it was. When I went back for more, there was no more. The set featured a retro design of former major league players with their minor league teams. Good concept and good execution.

A high point of the year for me was finding a baseball card store near my new job. I've not had easy access to a card store for many years. It may not be the best shop but the people there are knowledgeable and it's nice to talk about baseball cards with someone who knows what you're talking about.

2009 Topps Heritage Mayo Ichiro (#15)
OK, another retro card. This was an insert to Topps Heritage. I pulled two of these from a hobby box. Topps also produced a whole set of Mayo football cards. I don't do football cards.

I bought a number of hobby boxes this year which I don't normally do. In addition to Topps Heritage, I bought hobby boxes of Allen & Ginter, Topps 206, Upper Deck Goodwin Champions and Topps Update.

2009 Topps American Heritage Barak Obama (#126)
Although I generally dislike the trend to more non-baseball cards in baseball card sets, this set was a non-baseball card set which used baseball card designs. Topps used their base set designs from many years to make an enjoyable set. See Night Owl's post on the worst card in 2009 here. I voted for the Upper Deck Retrospective.

I acquired 3,272 2009 baseball cards. This is a bit down from 2008. In 2008, I acquired the most cards I had in years. I attribute this to getting involved in the baseball card blogosphere. Most of the 2009 cards I acquired by purchasing hobby boxes, blaster boxes and some loose packs. I also got a bunch of cards through trades with other bloggers and purchases of individual cards on eBay.

2009 Topps 2006 Cliff Lee (#46)
It was an exciting year to be a Phillies fan with them going to the World Series for the second year in a row. And Cliff Lee was a big part of that excitement. This is the only Cliff Lee card as a Phillie that I have. I don't think there are many Phillie Lee cards and there probably won't be many more since he's already not a Phillie. Although I was happy to pull this from the hobby box I bought, in general, Topps 206 is my biggest disappointment of the year. I really liked past Topps 206 sets and was looking forward to this. I don't think it is a very good set.

Another disappointment to me this year was the availability of cards in the local Target and WalMarts. New product was slow to appear and when it did appear it didn't last long.

2009 Topps WalMart Black Ken Griffey, Jr. (#30)
Speaking of WalMart, Topps sold alternative designs to their base set in Target and WalMart. WalMart cards had the background of the photos almost completely blacked out. The Target cards were on gray stock with an old-school logo. I thought it was a pretty clever ploy by Topps but I hope they don't do it again in 2010. I bought a lot more product from Topps then I planned to because of this, which, come to think of it is why they did this. So I'm sure they will do it again.

Overall, I acquired 8,436 baseball cards in 2009. The non-2009 cards were from various years picked up at the card shop, in repacks or on eBay. I also had all those late 1980s cards I got at the church bazaar.

2009 Topps Allen & Ginter Mini Framed Silk Albert Pujols (1 of 10)
This may be the best pull I've ever had. I know I featured it before but I love this card so much I had to show it again.

My overall card collecting goal is to acquire one of each kind of card produced (which is another reason I was so thrilled with the Pujols card above, having to buy one of these on eBay would be expensive). For awhile in 2009, I concentrated in 1996 cards. There were 307 different kinds of cards (base sets, inserts and parallels) produced in 1996 and I had 167. I set a goal of getting up to 200 of them. I had 11 posts in 2009 featuring 1996 cards but I didn't finish the whole year. But I did get up to 202 1996 cards.

2009 Topps Mike Schmidt (#475b)
This seemed to be the year for alternate short-print cards. The regular Topps #475 features some other third baseman named Chipper Jones. I didn't pull this myself but got it in a trade with Dinged Corners.

2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Championship Ryan Howard (#106b)
Another short print alternate design. Howard is featured on 106 and 106b. All of the 'b' cards have the moonlit background. As I mentioned, I bought a hobby box of this product and didn't get a single one of these short prints. Topps 206 had a similar thing going only the short prints, while featuring the same player had a completely different picture and different back.

2009 Topps Allen & Ginter N43 Ryan Howard (#RH)
These N43 cards are larger than regular cards and come one per hobby box. This is the first year I bought a hobby box of Allen & Ginter so this is my first N43. And, what luck, it was Ryan Howard, right out of the box.

If you've stuck it through this far, I've one more comment about 2009. In order for me to acquire one of each kind of card made, I need to know what's produced each year. I mainly rely on Beckett.com (mostly) and the card manufacturer's web sites. I also track how many cards are in each set. A few years ago, MLB put a limit on the number of sets each manufacturer could produce. They also declined to renew the license with Donruss and Fleer went out of business. This cut back on the amount of new product but through use of parallels and insert sets, the manufactures started increasing production. In 2008, by my count, there were about 141,000 different cards produced (counting every card by every player in every set). This was the most cards produced in several years. In 2009, production dropped significantly, to about 53,000 cards. My guess is that production will be even less next year with only Topps holding a license with MLB.

Trade with the Night Owl

I got an email out of the blue from The Night Owl the other week, offering me a trade, his Phillies and Astros for my Dodgers. He even sent a list of what he had. We reached a deal quickly. Here are my favorites from what he sent.

2004 SP Prospects Jim Thome (#44)I only had one card from this set, the Roy Oswalt. Now I have a Phillie to keep him company.

2009 Upper Decl Scott Eyre (#811)
Normally I wouldn't be too excited about a player like Scott Eyre. He was acquired by the Phillies in August 2008. Overall he was 5-3 for the Phillies in 2008 and 2009. He only pitched a few innings in the 2008 and 2009 playoffs but he pitched well. Ten years from now I'd be featuring him as a Phorgotten Phillie Phile. As near as I can tell there are only 3 cards featuring Eyre as a Phillie. One from 2008, this 2009 UD and the gold parallel to the UD. So this is the only Scott Eyre as a Phillie I have. From his Wikipedia entry, Eyre has retired. He also suffers from adult attention deficit disorder.

2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions Steve Carlton (# 124)
I bought a hobby box of Goodwin. It is probably my favorite set of the year from an appearance standpoint, even though I'm pretty tired of these retro themed cards. I already had the mini version of this card.

2009 Topps Chrome Refractor Auto Sergio Escalona (#239)
I had to give up a Dodger Allen & Ginter auto for this one. The card features an on-card auto and is numbered to 499. Escalona was 1-0 for the Phillies in 2009 in 14 appearances. Probably another Phorgotten Phillie some day.

1995 Pinnacle Team Pinnacle Roberto Alomar/Craig Biggio (#4)
This is the back of the card. Alomar is on the front. The back of this card is a lot more fancy than the front which was puzzling to me when I saw it. According to Beckett, this is a parallel to the rebular Team Pinnacle insert. This one has a Dufex back. The front is just foil. This card has so much foil on it that it will hold it's shape if you bend it slightly. Then you can flatten it back out. I never saw one of these before.

2000 Upper Deck Gold Reserve Scott Rolen (#237)
In addition to the Rolen, I also got Mike Jackson and Rico Brogna. I had never had one of these Gold Reserve cards.

In addition to these were the following:
2009 Topps Chrome Brad Lidge (#5)
2009 Topps Chrome Geoff Jenkins (#13)
2009 Topps Chrome Chase Utley (#62)
2009 Topps Chrome Miguel Tejada (#64)
2009 Topps Chrome Carlos Lee (#122)
2009 Topps Ticket to Stardom Hunter Pence (#22)
2009 Topps Ticket to Stardom deckle edge Chase Utley (#176)
2009 O-Pee-Chee Brian Moehler (#342)
2009 Goodwin Champions mini Jimmy Rollins (#215)
2009 Goodwin Champions mini black border Michael Bourn (#251)
2009 Uper Deck Icons Lance Berkman (#73)
2009 Upper Deck Xponential 3 Ryan Howard (#X3-HO)
2008 Topps Stadium Club Cole Hamels (#690
2006 Fleer Ryan Howard
2006 Topps Rookie of the Week Mike Schmidt (#615)
2001 Upper Deck Vintage Randy Wolf (#302)

I'm pretty happy with these. I sent out my cards to Greg last Saturday. I hope he is as happy with his end of the trade.

Your 2009 National League Champion Phillies!

This will be like the post I made last year after the Phillies won the NL Championship. I could get used to doing this every year. I'm writing this on Tuesday night hoping, with a few edits, I can post it Wednesday night. Go Phillies!

Jimmy Rollins - Shortstop: I noted last year that Jimmy didn't have as good a year in 2008 as he did in his 2007 MVP season. I hate to report that 2009 wasn't as good as 2008. His BA dropped from .277 to .250 and his on-base percentage dropped from .344 to .296. Neither good trends for a lead-off hitter. In fact, he was dropped from the lead-off spot for part of the season. His home runs increased from 11 to 21, but you're not paying Rollins to hit home runs. Defensively he had a great year. But he was in the lead-off spot in all the games of the playoffs. And he had that huge hit in Game 4 of the NLCS to win the game.

Shane Victorino - Outfield: Shane had another fine regular season and another great post season. As usual he was in the thick of all the action.

Chase Utley - 2nd Base: Chase had a typical Chase Utley regular season, appearing in his 4th straight All-Star Game. In the NLDS, he hit .429. He did have costly errors in both series which factored into both games the Phillies lost. He's still the premier 2nd baseman in the National League.

Ryan Howard - 1st Base: I don't know what more can be said about Ryan Howard. His performance in this post-season has been phenomenal, with 2 HR, 14 RBIs and a .380 BA. He has surpassed Mike Schmidt for most RBIs by a Phillie in the post-season. If they named an MVP for the NLDS it would have to been him. And he was named the MVP of the NLCS!

Jayson Werth - Outfield: Jayson hit 36 home runs in the regular season, a career high for him, 12 more than he had in 2008. He had some big hits in the NLDS although he was pretty cool in the NLCS, except for 2 big home runs in Game 5.
Rual Ibanez - Outfield: Rual was a free agent signing by the Phillies to replace Pat Burrell. For the first part of the regular season he was terrific. He got hurt and didn't come back as strong but still finished the season with 34 home runs. The fans love him, shouting "Ruaaaaaaal" when he comes up to bat.
Pedro Feliz - 3rd base: Pedro is probably the least heralded Phillie. He had a solid year at 3rd base. He hasn't been outstanding in the post season, but hasn't embarrassed himself either. A big home run in Game 5.
Carlos Ruiz - Catcher: Carlos is the surprise favorite this post season. While he shared the starting catcher with others in the regular season he was the starter for every post season game. He calls a great game and really performs offensively in the post season.

Cole Hamels - Pitcher: Cole was the darling of the post season last year but had a pretty disappointing 2009, going only 10-11. He hasn't been much of a factor in the post season either.

Cliff Lee - Pitcher: The Phillies acquired Lee from the Indians on August 1 for 4 prospects. This acquisition made the Phillies virtually a lock for the post season. Lee, last year's AL Cy Young Award winner was 7-4 with the Phillies. He is 2-0 in the post season with an ERA of 0.74.
Pedro Martinez - Pitcher: The Phillies signed Pedro on July 15, for a million bucks. This was a few weeks before they signed Lee and I think folks were pretty disappointed that Martinez was the best they could get. "I might surprise you, I might not," Martinez said. "It's going to be really fun to go find out." And it has been fun. He was 5-1 for the Phillies down the stretch and pitched a great 7 innings in Game 2 of the NLCS. He didn't get the win (in fact the Phillies lost 2-1) but that wasn't his fault.
Jamie Moyer - Pitcher: After going 16-7 in 2008 (one of the best years of his career) he was only 12-10 in 2009. And he was hurt for part of the season. And he got demoted to the bullpen when the Phillies acquired Lee. And he hasn't been much of a factor in the post-season. But he's still everybody's favorite 46-year-old pitcher.
Ryan Madson - Relief Pitcher: Madson was 5-5 for the Phillies this year with 10 saves. He had more oppotunities for wins and saves this year because of Brad Lidge's troubles. He hasn't been real effective in the post season, giving up 3 earned runs in 5 innings of work.

Brad Lidge - Closer: Much has been made of Brad's troubles in 2009. After a perfect season in 2008, almost anything would have been a disappointment in 2009. He only had 31 saves compared to 41 in 2008. But even more alarming he blew something like 11 saves and had an ERA of 7.21. But in the post season he has 3 saves and 1 win. Here's hoping he can carry on through the World Series.
Charlie Manual - Manager: If Charlie can hang around with the Phillies for a few more years (and with this team he should) he will go down as the best Phillies manager ever. He has a 447-363 record in 5 years with the Phillies. He is 4th on the all time win list for Phillies managers. Only Gene Mauch (1960-1968), Harry Wright (1884-1993) and Danny Ozark (1973-1979) have more wins. Only Ozark had a team comparable to today's Phillies. Charlie's team has won 89.4 games a year with him as manager, while Ozark's teams won 84.8. He's been looking like a genius so far in the post season. 2009 Manager of the Year?

2009 Topps Manager cards

I always liked that Topps includes manager cards in their set. Unfortunately, the cards are mostly boring this year. I'm going to use this opportunity to tell my Terry Francona story.A friend or mine and I went to Spring Training in 2006. One of the games we saw was the Red Sox at the Devil Rays. Before the game we had seen where the Red Sox team bus was parked and near the end of the game we went out there hoping to get an autograph or two. Hardly any of the big Sox players had made the trip and the guys coming out were guys we didn't know and they all ignored the 15 or so people gathered. One guy near us had books. He and the girl with him had about 10 books about the 2005 World Series winning Red Sox. He said he was hoping to get Terry Francona to sign them. Francona came out of the gate with a gym bag and a slice of pizza. Like the rest, he just swept by and onto the bus. The guy with the books said "What a jerk". But then Francona got off the bus. I told the guy I was going to tell Francona what he said. "No, no" he pleaded. Francona signed every one of his books and whatever else the rest had. I got a baseball signed.
Here's Terry and his dad, Tito on a 1985 Topps card.
When I saw this card, I thought, can this be the same John Russell who used to catch for the Phillies?
Sure enough, it is.

2009 Topps Shortstop cards

Continuing with my position-by-position review of 2009 Topps cards. Today it's shortstops. I have 33 Topps cards portraying shortstops and not surprising, most of them (23) show the player in defense. 6 of the cards show the player batting and the other 4 running the bases. Derek Jeter, probably the most well-know shortstops is not included in this collection because I don't have his Topps card.Yunieskey Betancouet showing real effort here. I'm guessing he's digging for second.
Brandon Ryan ready to connect. I like cards of players batting which show the ball. And what about those stirrups?
Jose Reyes and, I'm guessing, Nick Evans executing some obscure defensive play. Does Jose always look this disheveled when he plays?
Yunel Escobar catches a pop up while Kelly Johnson averts his gaze. The contrast in pant leg lengths between these two players is striking. Are there no standards any more?
Hanley Ramirez starts a double play. The guy on the ground is Callix Crabbe of the Brewers. This is another card in which the play can probably be identified. Crabbe only had 48 at bats for the Brewers last year.
Edgar Renteria makes an acrobatic catch while maintaining contact with the ground.
Nothing special about the pose but I like the contast of Angel Berroa's orange sunglasses with the black background.

Game ending unassisted triple play

In the 9th inning, with the Phillies up by 9-6, Ryan Howard failed to backhand Angel Pagan’s grounder, resulting in a three-base error. Second baseman Eric Bruntlett bobbled Luis Castillo’s grounder, allowing Pagan to score, and was unable to make what would have been a tough play on Daniel Murphy’s grounder up the middle.

With the tying run on first, Jeff Francoeur stepped to the plate. As the runners were attempting a double steal, he scorched a 2-2 slider right at Bruntlett. Bruntlett caught the line drive, stepped on second base to double up Castillo, then turned toward Murphy, who tried to retreat but was unable to elude the tag.This 2009 Topps Heritage card is the only card I have of Bruntlett in a Phillies uniform. His only other 2009 card is in the Upper Deck set. There was only one regular card for him in 2009, Topps Update. Such is the fate of a utility player, who often doesn't get much playing time.

The last time the Phillies had an unassisted triple play was 1992, executed by Micky Morandini. He got a baseball highlights card out of it.
Unless I'm very much mistaken, that Pirate is Barry Bonds.