Phillies: Building the team through baseball cards
By Bryce Turner
With baseball in hiatus, the thrill of baseball cards will continue. We opened a couple of packs to see which Philadelphia Phillies we could find.
With silent bats and ballparks across the nation, the one noise Phillies fans can still hear is the crinkling of a pack of baseball cards being opened.
The anticipation of what lies inside. Will you find your favorite player? Will there be a special themed card? Will there be a player who you’ve never heard of but will now know about?
Wanting a slice of baseball normalcy in my life, I stopped by my local sporting goods store to pick up some 2020 cards. Unfortunately, the latest they had was 2019 Series 2, but I still bought a couple of packs – 32 cards in total.
As I sifted through the many faces, I separated the cards into three categories – current or former Phillies, players the Phillies could use and players the Phillies could do without.
Here’s what I came up with:
Done sorting through my recently-acquired baseball cards (2019 Series 2 was all I could find at my local sporting goods store). Here's a sneak peek at what's inside. I break them into 3 #Phillies related categories; article coming soon to @FS_TBOH! pic.twitter.com/jkjLM5YAWP
— Bryce Turner (@BryceT24) March 18, 2020
Current or Former Phillies
The first category is current or former Philadelphia Phillies, be it major or minor leaguer.
Despite the odds, among my two packs of baseball cards was a Bryce Harper All-Star card.
The irony of getting a Bryce Harper “All-Star” card, which features interests and a miscellaneous fact on the back, is that Harper did not make the All-Star Game last season, ending a streak of four consecutive appearances.
Harper had a solid season overall, specifically with his 114 RBI (ranked eighth in the National League), .372 OBP and 35 HR, despite a low .260 BA.
As one of the Phillies’ star players heading into the second year of a long-term contract, a Bryce Harper baseball card was certainly a joy to find.