Phillies Team (#436)

On the 1-year anniversary (plus 3 days) of my being on these blogs, I am now starting a 1970 Topps card blog. As a kid, I only collected baseball cards in '67, '68, '69, and '72. Over the past year, I have acquired 93% of this set, so I'm ready to start spouting off.


1970 was a new beginning for the Phillies. This was the year that Veterans Stadium was scheduled to open. Construction issues delayed that opening until 1971, so it was one more year at Connie Mack Stadium. The Phillies also unveiled their new uniforms in 1970 (which were planned to coincide with the new stadium). Long-time Phillies' minor-league skipper Frank Lucchesi was also named as the new manager, after the Phillies burned through Gene Mauch and Bob Skinner in 1968 and 1969.

It was also a new era, player-wise. After the 1969 season, the Phillies cut ties with veterans like Richie Allen, Johnny Callison, Cookie Rojas, and Turk Farrell. In their place were pitchers Joe Hoerner and Dick Selma, catcher Tim McCarver, outfielder Curt Flood, and rookie infielders Denny Doyle and Larry Bowa. Bowa was handed the starting shortstop job in spring training. He became the first piece in the 25-man puzzle that would win the World Series ten years later.


(Back in the day, the list of Phillies pennant-winners was miserably short!)