30 Day Baseball Card Challenge Day 9

Day 9: One of your favorite cards from the 1950s

I'm going to restrict this to cards from the 1950s that I actually own. There are only 49 of them and most are Phillies. Looking through them, it was no contest.

1958 Topps #230 Richie Ashburn

I got this card in 2007, paid $7.80 for it on eBay. It's in pretty good shape and is a great looking card from a great looking set.

I grew up listening to baseball on the radio and for most of that time, Richie Ashburn was the Phillies color man. I don't really remember him as a player but I loved him doing Phillies games. He worked as a Phillies broadcaster from 1963 to 1997. He was planning to retire after the 1997 season but he died of a heart attack, at age 70, in his hotel room after broadcasting a Mets-Phillies game on September 9, 1997.

A fact we didn't know until he passed is that Ashburn and my father, who also loved Ashburn, were born in the same day.

Top-10 Phillies in Hits

Since Jimmy Rollins became the all time leader in hits for the Phillies, I thought I do a top-10 list.

#1 Jimmy Rollins

Rollins has played his entire 15-year career with the Phillies. He set the record for most hits as a Phillie in last Saturday's 7-3 win over the Cubs. He has 2,235 hits for his career with a career batting average of .268. How does his hit total compare? He is 168th on the all-time hit list. Jimmy is 36 and in good health. He could play another 4 years, but will it be for the Phillies?

#2 Mike Schmidt

Like Rollins, Schmidt spent his entire career, 18 years, with the Phillies. He had 2,234 career hits with a .267 career batting average. Of course, Schmidt was more known as a home run hitter, hitting 548 total. Schmidt was on hand to see his hits record broken on Saturday. I think it will be a long time before we see his home run record broken.

#3 Richie Ashburn

Ashburn had a 15-year career, 12 with the Phillies. He left the Phillies after the 1959 season with 2,217 hits and a .311 bating average. He finished his career with 2,574 hits total. These first three all played during my lifetime. For #4 we have to go a bit further back.

#4 Ed Delahanty

Big Ed played for the Phillies from 1888 to 1901, except for 1890, when he played for the Cleveland Infants of the Player's League. In 13 years with the Phillies he had 2,214 hits and a .348 average. In his 16-year career he had 2,297 hits. He was also a home run hitter, in the days when it was hard to hit a home run, with 101 for his career. He lead the league in homers in 1893 and 1886 with 19 and 13 respectively.

#5 Del Ennis

Ennis played 11 years of his 14-year career for the Phillies, getting 1,183 hits with a batting average of .286.

#6 Larry Bowa

Larry Bowa played 11 years with the Phillies (1970-1981) and had 1,798 hits. He was also in the ball park for Rollins' record breaking hit as he is now the Phillies bench coach.

#7 Chuck Klein

I would have guessed that Chuck Klein was a little higher on this list. He played 15 years of his 17-year career with the Phillies from 1928 to 1944. For part of 1934, all of 1935 and part of 1936 he was with the Cubs. He had 1,705 hits for the Phillies with a .326 batting average.

#8 Sherry Magee

MaGee is one of two players on this list I had never heard of. MaGee played for the Phillies from 1904 to 1914 with 1,647 hits and a .299 average. He played another 5 years for the Boston Braves and Cincinnati Reds.  Sherry was short for Sherwood.

#9 Cy Williams

The other guy I'd never heard of. Williams played for the Cubs from 1912 to 1917 and then the next 13 years with the Phillies. He had 1,553 hits for the Phillies with a .292 average. He was another big home run hitter with 251 for his career. He lead the league in 1923 with 41 homers.

#10 Granny Hamner

This is, by the way, a 1991 Topps Archives card. Hamner played for the Phillies from 1944 to 1959 with 1,529 hits and a .263 BA. Along with Ashburn, he was one of the Phillies Whiz Kids who took the Phillies to the 1950 World Series.

2013 Panini Golden Age - First Peak

I bought one pack of this product at a card show last Sunday, not having any idea what it was. It's Panini's attempt to cash in on the popularity of Topps Allen and Ginter and Upper Deck's Goodwin Champions. My opinion - I love these cards! Enough that I bought a box on eBay. So this is just a first peek, a more detailed post to follow when I get my box.

I also bought a box of 2013 Goodwin Champions, so I'm kind of ODing on vintage style cards. I hope you like these as much as I do.

It didn't hurt my enjoyment of this set by having this being the first card I saw.

You can reel me in with a Richie Ashburn card every time.  Of the 4 base cards in the pack, 3 were baseball players and one was an actor in his role as a baseball player.

No logos of course. At least they give the city so with a player like Fisk you can tell what team he's depicted with. Although I guess with Fisk it wouldn't have been that difficult to figure out.

Freehan was a big time player from 1961 to 1975. Somehow this is the first card of his I've ever gotten.

OK, it's a Little League player but his character played baseball.

Of course, there is a selection of mini parallel cards. I got one, the Carolina Brights Green Back version.

And there was one other insert, Panini Golden Age Playing Cards.  There are 53 of these (one joker).

Random Cards From My Collection #35

Another 10-card collection of randomness.

Card #32,008
1992 Pinnacle Rookies #15 Gary Scott

I paid about $4 for this 30-card set last February. It features a great set of players, except for this guy. I'm sure he's a great fellow, but his career consisted of 2 years, 175 at bats and a .160 average.

Card #9,260
1989 Bowman Reprint Inserts #1 Richie Ashburn

1989 Bowman was pretty forgettable except for their non-standard size. But this re-print insert (even though it has a sweepstake entry form on the back) were pretty nice. They came in a Tiffany version as well.

Card #2,169
 1998 Ultra Gold Medallion #485 Mike Piazza

Sorry, Mike, no first-ballot HOF berth for you.

Card #26,284
2007 Topps #63 Scott Proctor

These 2007 Topps cards feature my least favorite card element: silver foil on a black background. At least this one scanned well.

Card #23,284
1996 Select #165 Jimmy Haynes

I don't actually own this card anymore, I traded it to an Orioles collector a few years ago.

Card #20,710
1993 Pacific #239 Mickey Morandini

I think this is the first year that Pacific published Spanish language cards. Every year their cards got more and more elaborate until they went bankrupt around 2002.

Card #17,507
2002 Topps #339 Alex Rodriguez

Say what you want but I like 2002 Topps with their mud-colored borders!

Card #6, 524
1987 Topps #215 Mark Langston

This card has something modern cards don't have - a gum stain!

Card #14,220
2006 Fleer Tradition #51 Chris Carpenter

The first year of Upper Deck ownership of Fleer and the last year for Fleer Tradition. This is probably the only Fleer branded set by Upper Deck I actually like.

Card #2,501
2004 Topps Traded Future Phenoms Mark Malaska

I think that Mark is still waiting for his Future Phenomship to arrive. In 2 years (2003-2004), split between the Rays and the Red Sox, he had a 3-2 record.

1950 Bowman Reprints

19 Phillies cards from this 1950 Bowman Reprint set were given to me by a friend a few years ago. I believe they were published in 1986 by the Card Collector's Company (C.C.C.). The cards only copyright information is the 1950 Bowman mark. They are clearly not actual 1950 Bowman cards because they sport a glossy front, and the word "Reprint" appears in tiny type. The originals are untouchable, but even the lesser known players are going for $8 and up on eBay right now, so I'm happy to have these. I'm not going to show all 19, just the one's I like the best.

Eddie Waitkus #30

1 am familiar with some of the players on the 1950 club since they played with the Phillies for years, and their fame as the "Whiz Kids" lives on. Eddie Waitkus was one name I didn't know. He was with the Phillies from 1949 to 1955. His career formed part of the basis for the book The Natural at least the part where he gets shot. The back of the card says "Eddie had appeared in 54 games last season and was hitting at a .306 clip when he was shot and seriously wounded by a demented girl fan". You can read about it on Wikipedia here.

Del Ennis #31

Ennis played 11 years in Philadelphia. He was born in Philly and lived the rest of his life in the area. He was a very popular player.

Robin Roberts #32

Roberts was one of the best pitchers in Phillies history. His Phillies record is 234-119. He led the NL in wins from 1952 through 1955 and is 26th on the all-time win list. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1976. He remained a popular figure in Philadelphia up until is death in 2010.

Curt Simmons #68

Another good pitcher. He was 115-110 in 13 seasons with the Phillies, pitching from 1947 to 1960.  He is one of the few Whiz Kids who is still alive.

Richie Ashburn #84

 Ashburn played 15 years for the Phillies, hitting .308 and stealing 234 bases. He was one of the best center fielders of his era. He played the last few years of his career for the Cubs and the infamous 1962 Mets. When he retired, he returned to Philadelphia to work as a Phillies announcer on radio and television. To many people of my generation, he is the embodiment of Phillies baseball. He was elected to the Hall of Fame with Mike Schmidt in 1995. Richie died in his hotel room on the road with the Phillies in 1997. The event still makes me sad.

Andy Seminick #121

Seminick caught 985 games for the Phillies in 12 seasons. He was an All-Star in 1949.

Granville "Granny" Hamner #204

Played shortstop for the Phillies for 16 years, hitting .263. He was a 3-time All-Star.

Eddie Sawyer #225

Sawyer took over a perennial cellar dweller in 1948 and led them to the World Series in 1950.

Jim Konstanty #226

In 1950, Konstanty appeared in 74 games for the Phillies, all in relief. He compiled a 16-7 record with 22 saves, and an ERA of 2.66. He was appeared in the All-Star game, was named the National League MVP and won The Sporting News Pitcher of the Year Award.