The give away item for the Phillies final game of Alumni Weekend was a special pack of Wall of Fame baseball cards.
Counter to the tired storyline that card collecting is dying I did see some signs of life for the Hobby on Sunday.
First off as I entered the game I saw a guy holding a sign that said “Baseball Cards WANTED Please & Thanks”. I didn’t see the guy get any cards but I hope he did after putting together the sign.
I also witnessed different groups of folks of varying ages opening packs and discussing contents – I even saw a guy in Mets gear that appeared pretty happy to be getting a pack.
Finally when I left the game I overheard someone asking an usher if there were any leftover packs, alas there were none.
Ok back to the card. The Wall of Fame set is 20 cards, packs contained 15 cards each. While you don’t get a full set, I figure most folks attend games in groups of two or more. If one of the folks isn’t interested in the cards then building a complete set should be pretty simple.
The Design is pretty generic – something that allows for Topps Reuse in Football Hoop Hockey or even TV and Movies. Note that Toyota sponsors the Wall of Fame weekend and made sure to get their brand splashed on the cards.
I did a Getty images search and found the photograph on the card was from a game the Phillies lost 7-2 to the Mets. Unfortunately it was not a memorable game for Lieberthal who went 1-4. He was the final out of the inning in the three ABs in which he didn’t record a hit.
Oddly the game in which the Phillies celebrated baseball card day was also a bad loss to the Mets this time by a similar 6-2 score. The only player common to both boxes which are separated by over a decade was Jose Reyes.
The picture was taken by Robert Leiter who is based in Santa Clara California.
The backs do not contains stat lines but do have a nice summary of each players career.
On The Road
The Team Phungo Baseball Road trip for this year was to Denver to see the Rockies who happened to be having their trading card day when they hosted the Phillies on August 5. As you see, same design, however in the top right along with the Topps logo there is a “National Baseball Card Day 2017” flair.
I hope National Baseball Card Day works out well for Topps. It is a good hobby and hobbies are good to us.
Sources and Links
A short list of Game Dated Cards
SABR's Baseball Cards Research Committee 