Game Thoughts

Thursday, April 3, 2025
Start Time: 1:05 p.m. Local
Attendance: 34,097
Venue: Citizens Bank Park
Game Duration: 2:43
Day Game, on grass

• 1st Business Person’s special of the season – Thursday 1:05PM start
• First Powder Blues of the season!
• Taijuan Walker exercises his demons with his mother in the stands
• First series sweep of the season
• Kyle Schwarber hits a monster 444ft homerun
• Jose Alvarado fights through it in the 9th for his first save

Unfortunately couldn’t catch much of this game, but the story that stole the headlines was Taijuan Walker’s performance, 6 innings pitched, 4 strikeouts, 1 walk, and 0 runs. A hell of a redemption start. Schwarber hit a monster homerun to center field that was just incredible, considering there was a report about winds knocking down the 4th most balls from being homeruns in the MLB. Here is the MLB source of that article. Long story short, wind prevented 48 homeruns in 2023-2024 season, and aided 3 balls to be homeruns. 3rd behind Kansas City & Seattle (net combined stats).

This is good momentum headed into the series with the undefeated Dodgers coming into town on Apple TV for Friday night baseball.

1990 Bowman

These two were part of the prior post where I had friends open packs while we were at a restaurant. These two cards are the only ones left, as I donated the cards, and a few 1990 Fleer packs to another friend for his kids. I just wanted the Dykstra, but ended up with the Nolan Ryan as well. The Lenny Dykstra is just pure nostalgia injected into your veins. That stance. Those uniforms. The only thing missing is the superwad of tobacco in the mouth, as Nails is waiting for that next pitch. This shot takes me back and is just an amazing card for us right here.

1990 Bowman saw the cards reduce in size to the standard baseball card size from the 1989 “Comeback Edition“. Since I always forget the exact details, I’m going to quote BaseballCardpedia here:

The design of the set was meant to resemble the 1953 Bowman Color Baseball set, and each card measures 2.5″ X 3.75″ — a quarter-inch longer than the post-1957 standard-size trading card.

The standard size was a relief, as the 1989 series was almost the “Disney VHS” of collecting, where it didn’t fit into any standard card products for protection. The design is crisp on the front, emphasizing the picture and the action with the player and team in small text on the front. The picture is the star, and it’s framed perfectly with a white border and multicolor smaller border.

The back of the these cards is amazing, as they outline the stats against teams from 1989, instead of the career stats that have been done traditionally. These are much more interesting, and since in 1990 we had never seen any breakdown of this sort outside of a baseball broadcast. In today’s advanced stats, sabremetrics, and statcast world this seems tame, but I love this idea that Bowman took on the back of the cards here. Even the blue tint on the cardboard stands out.

1989 Donruss Pack

1989 Donruss is a CLASSIC set. This was an absolute JOY to open at the table, this pack had EVERYTHING. From BaseballCardpedia, the two insert sets are Diamond Kings and Rated Rookies, and this pack features both. Speaking of Rated Rookies, look at the very epitome of the junk wax era:

The design of the cards are classic, and the gradient fading of different colors is top notch. The backs of the cards feature full names, including middle names, of the players on the iconic orange backs. 4 years of stats, Career Highlights, MLB logos, Contract status, they packed a TON of information on the backs of these cards.

A Phillies legend note from BaseballCardpedia:

Rookie Cards in this set include Ken Griffey, Jr., Randy Johnson, Craig Biggio, Gary Sheffield and John Smoltz as well as the only rookie card of Curt Schilling.