Game Thoughts

There was a fever spreading across Phillies fans to ride the hot bat of Edmundo Sosa who is hitting out of his mind this season so far off the bench batting .550. Zack Wheeler coming into the game looking to extend his record breaking streak of 13 games with 6 innings and under 2 runs scored. An excellent write up of the game from Todd Zolecki, but a pivotal moment that put a collision course on these two story lines in the 2nd inning. He writes:

Johan Rojas looked up, but he never moved. He watched the ball fall in front of him in the second inning of Tuesday night’s 7-5 loss to the Braves at Truist Park. The ball bounced so close that he stuck out his glove to catch the rebound.

Later in the inning, Wheeler would give up monster blast of a homerun to Sean Murphy. The debacle in the outfield overshadowed Sosa’s amazing homerun robbing catch. Although the Phillies would get the 3 runs back, and Kyle Schwarber’s 462ft blast wouldn’t be enough as the bullpen couldn’t hold it together.

Cards

$1 pack bargain bin special!

These dollar bin specials are always fun as you never know what you are going to get. The cards on the outside of the transparent pack are:

• Ozzie Smith – 1984 Topps – Ralston Purina 1st Annual Collectors Edition
• Gary Gaetti – 1992 Topps Gold – Just noticed the Topps Gold on the back of the card!

Highlights:

• Darryl Strawberry – 1993 Donruss
• Jay Buhner – 1997 Upper Deck – Special Report – History in the Making
• Roger McDowell – 1988 Score
• Brad Pennington – 1994 Topps Gold
• Bowman 1st Cards
  • Marcos Molina
  • Rafael Ortega – 1st Bowman Chrome
  • Andrew Morales – 1st Bowman Chrome

The Ozzie Smith card came in a set that was inserted in breakfast cereals! The journey it must have taken to end up more than 40 years later in a $1 grab bag at a card shop is simply amazing considering the condition it is in! More on the 1984 Topps Ralston Purina card set:

1984 Ralston Purina is a 33-card set produced by Topps for the breakfast cereal maker. The front of each card states that it is “The First Annual Collectors Edition of Baseball Cards;” however, Purina would not make another card set until 1987.

There are two different versions of this set, each with the same design and checklist. The “Ralston Purina” set has the familiar “checkerboard” logo on both sides of the card; while the “Cereal Series” does not, and has “CEREAL SERIES” printed on top of the card.

It is believed that Ralston Purina cards were inserted into MARKED boxes of various Purina cereals, while the Cereal Series cards were in UNMARKED cereal boxes. In both cases, each cereal box had a cello-wrapped pack of three cards plus a checklist — the back of which had a form where collectors could buy an additional 12 cards for $1.50.

Source: https://baseballcardpedia.com/index.php/1984_Ralston_Purina