All-Time Jeltz: A top 5 presentation

I'm kind of excited about tonight's game- so excited that I think it might be time to unveal the top 5 greatest Steve Jeltz cards of all-time:

#5: 1987 Topps



Jeltz + Action Pose + Wooden Borders = #5 ranking- nuff said

#4: 1991 Impel Line Drive



Oh the comedy, a 1991 card of veteran Jeltzie and yet still the card labels him a "pre-Rookie" Hilarious.

#3: 1987 Donruss Opening Day



You can't see it, but in his back pocket, he has a wallet with "Bad Mother f***er" written on it. You'll have to take my word on it.

#2: 1984 TCMA Portland Beavers



Jeltz and that Jericurl in the Minors- if they only knew then...

#1: 1986 Topps



Because it's blog-worthy, and I say so...


GO PHILLIES!!!!!

Pile 'O Phils: Best of the Bunch #9

Let me start by saying that this next card features one of my least favorite baseball personalities ever. As a broadcaster, I find him droll, partial, over-confident and just plain annoying. But as a second baseman, there may have never been anyone better:



1984 Fleer Joe Morgan

Morgan was a member of the 1983 National League Champion Phillies team that was called the "Wheeze Kids"- a fun moniker based on the teams collection of old players, largely a reunion of some of the key players (Joe Morgan, Pete Rose and Tony Perez) of the "Big Red Machine":

Pile 'O Phils: Best of the Bunch #10

Disappointment- that's the only way to describe how I felt about my recent Ebay lot of Phillies cards. They were in fact all Phillies cards, but it was mostly all junk. I had to dig deep to come up with a top 10 for this blog. But I did it, and here is #10 (and it's #10 for ALL the wrong reasons):

1985 Topps Kevin Gross



This cards is symbolic of the entire of lot of cards- it's a boring mid 80's common of a bad player from a bad team. Kevin Gross cracks the top 10 for one reason- as a result of this purchase, I now have more 1985 Topps Kevin Gross cards than any other individual card in my whole collection. Although I didn't count them, there was well over 100 of these bad boys sitting in my box O' Phillies junk. So doing the math, approx. 10% of all the cards I received were of this guy holding up his glove, staring into the camera with a bad 80's mustache.

Even the back of this card is boring. We learn "Kevin is an accomplished artist, having sold a number of his paintings. He enjoys duck hunting."

I liked Duck Hunt in the '80's too:

Phillies cards galore on the way- soon time for a new top 10!!!

Alright, I'm a sucker for big collections of Phillies cards for sale on Ebay. Getting those packages on the doorstep can be a lot like christmas day, riffling through those cards, and seeing if there are any unexpected prizes mixed in there.

With that said, I'm also not a fan of owning 6 or 7 of the same 1989 Donruss Steve Bedrosian card, so I try and be selective and only bid on auction lots that might contain some cards of interest. This weeding out leaves very few auction lots that look promising.

Another plus to these purchases is getting everything on the cheap.

I think this $5 purchase (with $10 shipping) might be an one of those interesting, and clearly affordable lots- and if it's not, it'll still be fun to blog about :)



The lot is advertised as:

"1000+ card lot of Vintage Phillies"

· Phillies cards from the early 70’s through the 80’s

· Mixture of stars and commons. A few examples listed below plus the pics

· Cards are generally NM-MT.

· Great lot for a Phillies collector

· There are a few 90’s cards mixed in but probably not more than 25 or so

Some cards included are:

96 Donruss and Leaf Mike Schmidt cards

Assortment of 87 Fleer Mini’s

Over a dozen Steve Carlton cards

Over a dozen Mike Schimdt cards

71 Topps Jim Bunning Ex-Mt

Bobby Abreu Rookie

1999 Upper Deck Black Diamond Desi Relaford Serial numbered 552/1500

Willie Montanez Rookie Ex+

78 Topps Larry Bowa

77 Topps Greg Luzinski

I like that it's not containing a ton of 90's cards- 70's and 80's cards are almost always better in completing my team sets.

So that's a start- as soon as I open up my bounty, I'll go ahead and count down my favorite top ten cards in the lot. The serial numbered Desi Relaford might be locked in to the top ten- time will tell :)

Ebay Purchase of the Day: Cliff Lee 2002 SP Authentic Future Watch 632/1999

Ok- first off- it's been a while since I got on here and updated this- the birth of a future Phillies Phan (aka my first son) will limit you on your baseball card blogging :)



I wanted to get back in the swing of things, and I thought no better way than featuring a short printed, numbered rookie card of the Phillies new ace! Although he's not in a Phillies uniform on this particular card, I'll look past that. Aside from attemtpting to acquire all the Phillies team sets, I also try to have a collection of every rookie card for every player on the Phillies 25 man roster. I was happy to shop around and find my best deal for this gem- found this particular one for under $11.

I'm very excited about the Phillies chances of going back to back. Additions of Cy Young award winners like Cliff Lee have that effect on me :)

Trade Me a Better Card Crossover Deal

As promised, I wanted to feature some of the cards that I'm going to be sending to "FTN" from Silver Spring, MD who so generously dealt me the "Fab Five" autograph cards (2005 UD Clayton Kershaw, 2005 Bowman Jon Papelbon, 2007 Bowman Refractor Longoria/Crawford, 2005 Bowman Refractor Justin Verlander & 2007 Bowman Refractor Joba Chamberlain) in an effort to bolster my Honus Wagner efforts on my other blog, Trademeabettercard.com.

So with no further adu:

1951 Bowman Del Ennis

Although it wasn't requested, I wanted to make sure I passed along a nice collection of Phillies cards over the years, and I decided I would start with a key member of the 1950 Phightin Phillies.

Ennis, an underated player in team history, remains in the Phillies all-time record books with the following achievements (among others):

- 5th most games played (1630)

- 4th most hits (1812)

- 2nd most home runs (259)

- 3rd most RBIs

Ennis was a teamed with a young collection of players that featured two other all-time Phillies greats that went on to the Hall of Fame- Starting Pitcher Robin Roberts and ...

1958 Topps Richie Ashburn

Ashburn is beloved among Phillies fans- that's understood. I'd actually like to point out that this card set, 1958 Topps, was the 2nd set to feature the modern size baseball card (2.5'' by 3.5''). And while 1957 might have been the first, I always prefered the style and design of this set. Great colors, clear presentation, clean and not too busy.


1974 Topps Mike Schmidt




This is Michael Jack's second card, and first card that he doesn't have to share the cardboard with other "Rookie Stars". Once again, Schmidt is missing the trademark moustache that he carried for rest of his career- I'll go on the record in guessing that this and the previously mentioned rookie card are the only cards ever issued that were missing his stache action (this photo captures the stache, not to mention a killer whiteman fro):

So those are a few of the classically great players featured on cards I'm passing along to FTN. FTN insisted that I only send him some of the Phillies featured players of the late 80's and early 90's, and I'd be remiss if I didn't features a couple of those bad boys as well:

1987 Donruss Chris James

I always thought it was kind of neat when athletes had brothers who played professional sports in other leagues. I honestly can't think of many instances, although I'm sure there are a few I'm not aware of. Right now, the best I can do is Mark and Dan McGwire (Seattle QB) & Chris and Craig James (New England RB). Help me out with other instances of this if you can't think of any.

1987 Topps Steve Jeltz

From now on, any package of cards that I deal in the trademeabettercard experiment should include at least one Jeltzie- It can be my calling card.


1989 Donruss Ricky Jordan


FTN requested one particular player- Ricky Jordan- and I was happy to comply. Jordan was one of my favorites back in the day as well. After a stellar rookie year, I thought the Phillies had the next Don Mattingly- unfortunately it ended more like Randy Milligan.


I sent out quite a few other cards, some notable (1964 Topps Rishie Allen rookie, some Carltons, a couple other Schmidts) and some less notorious (Ron Jones, Rick Schu, Glenn Wilson, Wes Chamberlain, & Kim Batiste), but I altogether, a package IMHO custom made for a Phillies fan- I hope you enjoy FTN.

Blog Trade!!! The Great '65 Topps Project!

One of the main reasons I got involved in this Blogging business was to reconnect with my inner 12 year old, and trade some baseball cards. Buying the cards off of ebay is fun and all, but I love making a deal with a fellow collecter, and exchanging cards for other cards. It's the ideal baseball card transaction, in my humble opinion. With that said, I'm happy to announce the first Phillies 4 Me deal- a deal constituted with another great baseball card blog:

http://1965topps.blogspot.com/

Kevin over at '65 Topps approached me regarding whether or not I had any '65 Topps cards towards his ultimate goal of a complete set. Here is what I had to send along to him (with The Phillies duplicates that I was able to trade posted with photos- this is a Phillies site, right?):

Frank Thomas - AKA the Big Crew Cut


John Boozer - Are people with this last name destined to a lifetime of alcoholism- odds have to be increased a little, right?


Gus Triandos- Grumpy Gus is a popular phrase that was possibly started by this card.

Tony Taylor - Taylor remained a member of the Phillies organization as a coach for many years, and was inducted onto the Phillies "Wall of Fame" in 2002 for his years of service.

Alex Johnson - Dude won the A.L. 1970 Batting Crown with the California Angels, hitting .329. That's something, right?

Ray Herbert - If Ray had fangs, I think he'd look a little like Dracula. Count Ray.

Ray Culp- The Phillies had the market on Rays in 1964. Not a lot of Rays around these days. And yes, that was an unintentional rhyme. It happens from time to time.

Along with these Phillies, I sent Kevin these other '65 Topps cards that I somehow managed to own (don't ask me how):

Orioles 1965 ROOKIE STARS (Curt Blefary & John Miller)

Tigers 1965 ROOKIE STARS (Bill Roman & Bruce Brubaker)

Senators 1965 ROOKIE STARS (Pete Craig & Dick Nen)

Twins team card

3rd series checklist (unmarked)

4th series checklist (marked)

Stay tuned- my next post will discuss the booty that I received in return for these gems.