Phillies: Building the team through baseball cards, pt.2
By Bryce Turner
We take a look through baseball cards with a Philadelphia Phillies lens
As the Philadelphia Phillies, baseball fans and citizens across the country are asked to practice social distancing, you may find yourselves with more time on your hands.
While the excitement and anticipation of opening some packs of baseball cards can be a good way to pass the time, these cards can also serve as a topic of conversation when messaging your friends.
TBOH’s George Stockburger sent me some lists of players names that he came across in recently purchased boxes of 2020 baseball cards. There’s a lot of talent in his collection, so I had to do my homework to analyze lists from a couple of packs.
As with my first story about two packs of 2019 Series 2 cards that I purchased from my local sporting goods store, I’ll sort George’s cards into three categories – current or former Phillies, players the Phillies could use and players the Phillies could do without.
Current or Former Phillies
Similar to my collection, George got a Bryce Harper card.
The star outfielder is entering his second season with the Phillies after recording 35 HR, 114 RBI, 99 walks and batting .260/.372/.510 through 157 games last year.
He had eight hits, including three home runs and 11 RBI, in 16 at-bats before spring training was halted (that’s a .500/.591/1.250 slash line!).
One timely aspect of mentioning Harper’s name is that the MLB streamed, as part of their Opening Day at Home, where games were streamed for all 30 teams, the Phillies game vs. the Chicago Cubs from Aug. 15 that saw a walk-off grand slam by Harper.
The Phillies entered the bottom of the ninth trailing 5-1. With one out, Cesar Hernandez reached on an error, Scott Kingery singled, Brad Miller hit an RBI single, pitching change, Roman Quinn hit an RBI single, Rhys Hoskins was hit by a pitch, pitching change, then Harper ended the game with a grand slam, 7-5 the final.
I also found myself watching Harper’s MLB debut from 2012, which featured his first hit (a double) and first RBI (a sacrifice fly) in the Washington Nationals’ loss at the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The 19-year-old rookie is now a 27-year-old former MVP and, as a franchise player in the making with the Phillies, could play a large role in returning the team to the postseason and playoff success.