Thursday, July 7, 2016

20th Anniversary: 1996 07 09 Philadelphia hosts All-Star Game

Saturday will mark the 20th Anniversary of the 1996 All-Star Game which was hosted by the Philadelphia Phillies.

In the contest which the NL took 6-0 the Philllies were only represented by one player Ricky Botallico, however there was a Hometown Hero involved in the Game.

Mike Piazza from nearby Phoenixville went 2 for 3 with a Homer and a pair of RBI. The performance earned the Dodgers Catcher Game MVP Honors.

1997 Topps #104 Season Hightlights Mike Piazza

Topps noted Piazza's accomplishments with a card in the Highlights Subset of the 1997 Flagship Set.

I will not sloppy Topps this one as Piazza is wearing a Home jersey, which he would have donned for the All-Star game, but I am thinking this shot is from LA during a glorious day game at Chavez Ravine not at Philadelphia creaky old Veterans Stadium.

The front of the card isn't specific the event, however...

1997 Topps #104 Season Hightlights Mike Piazza (b-side)

Nice  blurb on the back including dateline Philadelphia. The Home Run Piazza hit is detailed nicely, in the 70 or so games I saw at the Vet I can only recall a handful of balls that were hit as far as that one.

Finally the card also mentions Piazza Tenure at Phoenixville High - Makes for a nice add to the Phungo Locals collection.

Mike Piazza HoF Index
In a Couple of weeks Piazza will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. This posting will serves as our index of Piazza related postings.

1994 Topps #1 Philly Sports Hall of Fame
2006 Fleer Ultra #HRK15 - Junk of the Month (Padres WTF?)

Phungo Games Collection
I was lucky enough to attend the 1996 All-Star Game and I am very happy to have this Piazza card in the Phungo Games Collection which is indexed here.

As far as I know Topps did not issue All-Star cards in 1996 Update/Traded or 1997 Cards with ASG flairs. This is kind of a bummer as I would love to have more cards to represent that game. 1997 UD did add have a nice ASG logo on their 1997 Series 1 cards, I hope to take a look at those in a future posting or series.

Sources and Links
Phungo Games Index 
1996 ASG Index
Baseball-Ref

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2008 World Champions