Game Thoughts
An explosive 4th inning started with a hit by pitch, and after a series of singles a double by Bryce Harper put the Phillies on top with a 6-0 lead. It has been a long time since we’ve seen the Phillies with any sense of excitement, swagger, or joy. Up until this moment, they have had the black hole of energy hanging over this team, more reminiscent of Ben Affleck smoking a cigarette beaten down by life than professional athletes at the top of their game.
Phillies snap the 5 game losing streak, and that means for the first time in FOREVER, we get High Hopes!/
Cards
#140 – 1977 Topps Mike Schmidt
There is a tremendous writeup on this set I found on the Net54 forums – https://mrpekrul.wixsite.com/narcissism/1977
It’s the sort of writeup that brings me back to what the internet used to be about, and the Topps Set History that they have is amazing all the way up to 1991 Topps.
The card was picked up at Championship Cards, as part of the bargain bin of vintage cards. I don’t subscribe to the grading of cards, so this is a wonderful way for me add to the collection as I go from modern to vintage more and more.
With a Bicentennial 76 patch on the Powder Blues, Schmidt holding the bat, and then I got to thinking what bat exactly did Mike Schmidt use in his career? From PSA, they have a “ProBatFacts” portion which is simply amazing. Here is a snippet specifically about Mike Schmidt’s bats:
For most of his career, Mike Schmidt preferred using Adirondack bats (endorsement contract), but the perennial home run champion did use a fair number of H&B/Louisville Slugger (block letter) bats as well. This is particularly true during the first several years of Schmidt’s career. In some cases, you may encounter a Schmidt H&B professional model bat with a red tape ring added around the midsection of the bat. The purpose of the tape was to make the bat appear like an Adirondack, bats that are made with a colored ring often consistent with the team colors, on television. This was likely done as a result of being under contract with the rival bat manufacturer. While this practice was certainly not commonplace, collectors may encounter gamers that feature this tape addition.
We can see that in 1977 Topps card he had the red band on the bat, the bold #20 on the knob. In later examples, like the one we see below, we can see it was hand written in not so bold fashion. Pretty fascinating. What I was really after was the actual size and weight of the bat, found that on a Christie’s auction – 35.5 in., 34 oz.
I love the back of the card immortalizes the wild 4 homerun game against the Cubs which the Phillies came back a 12-1 deficit, sending it to extra innings, and then Schmidt hits a 2 run homerun in the 10th. The crazy thing is that was 4 homeruns in a row. Phillies went on to win the game 18-16. An excellent recap of this game and the context is here by SABR. Todd Zolecki has this as the best single game hitting performance by a Philadelphia Phillies player.