1988 Phillies signed ball

[Aquapong]

Branch out from the hot stove thread. My mother in law found a ball signed by the 1986 Phillies in her basement while packing to move. At least matching up the names, I’m pretty sure it’s 1986. Just seeing some of the names of past players was cool. Schmidt, Von Hayes, Steve Bedrosian, Juan Samuel, and Darren Daulton.

[Aquapong]

[phillychuck]

That is a really clean autograph ball.

[Aquapong]

Kept in a plastic protector for quite a while.

[Aquapong]

[BostonRoss]

A second place team—though about as close to last place as to first.

[BaseballCat]

As someone who collects autographs, the signatures look like a mass produced team issued ball giveaway to me. I could be wrong and I hope I am.

[California_Dreamin]

That was not from the 1986 team, that autographed ball was from 1988. Phil Bradley, Lance Parrish and Bob Dernier, names that are clearly visible, were not on that eminently watchable 1986 team, but alas were on that horrid 1988 team. If I was to list my Top 10 Favorite Phillie teams of all time the '86 team might get some thought...Schmidt, Hayes, Samuel, Glen Wilson and Gary Redus were lots of fun and Bruce Ruffin was a great rookie pitcher.

That said, if I was to list my 10 All Time Least favorite teams, that 1988 team would be near the top. Not only were they terrible but they were boring. About the only thing memorable about that team was that the aforementioned Bradley did hit the very 1st night game home run at Wrigley Field. That team was a train wreck and led to 5 years [88-92] of almost unwatchable Phillie baseball.

[phillychuck]

Since the '88 team is historic (in sort of a negative way) it might add value to the ball, though...

[zambonir]

See, fun thread! Those signatures do seem rather precise. I mean, I guess major league baseball players are more coordinated than I am but you'd think at least one of them would have bled into another's signature.

[BaseballCat]

I have many team giveaway balls. All the signatures look like this. Yes, too precise, players seem too neatly arranged, none overlapped and the ball is slick in texture. Taiwan stamp probably indicates a giveaway. Fun to see anyway.

[Aquapong]

So ‘88 it is. I only figured out some of the signatures afterwards…Parrish is the give away because they seemed to have a different catcher every year for a while. The thickness of the marker used to “sign” had me thinking it was real.

[zambonir]

I was off at college in Chicago from '85 to '89 and pretty much lost track of the Phillies until I moved to New York (conveniently) in the spring of '93 so all those teams, and the relative merits of '86 vs. '88, are almost a mystery to me other than the big names who were already there after '83. There was of course no Internet ('93 was when I got my first AOL account and for a few years after that could read Inquirer stories on the San Jose Mercury News' portal) and not much national television coverage either though I probably could have listened on the radio at night. Remember Parrish becoming a Phillie of course. Remember watching World Series games with various fans of other teams (the Mets included but also Missourians in '85). Never really got into the habit of going to Wrigley (except to see bands in the same neighborhood). Was more of a hockey and college football fan then. The '93 team (and the PHILS Listserv) is when I became an adult baseball fan and started going to games wherever I was (Phillies or otherwise).

I think I might still have one Phillies memento of my own, a baseball signed by Tom Underwood, whom I was inexplicably a fan of as a child. My family knew Frank Pulli (Lehigh Valley guy) and he got it for me.

[California_Dreamin]

Z...the 1986 team was quite likely the best Phillies team during the period from 1984-1992, a thoroughly forgettable 9 year run of bad luck, bad managers, bad decisions and bad baseball. The old Murphy Law, "if something can go wrong, it will" certainly was a fitting description for that era...even to the synchronistic and quite appropriate acquisition of one Dale Murphy, regrettably a year AFTER he lost his former super star skills.

Its almost nightmarish to recap that period but some of the lowlights I recall...a phenomenal natural hitter [one of the best Phillie hitting prospects I ever saw] named Ron Jones, tearing knee ligaments in not just one knee but BOTH knees in consecutive years, thus basically ending what could have been a very productive career. Jones luck was so bad that one injury came when he made a spectacular catch at Shea Stadium...with 2 outs in the 9th inning of a game the Phils led 7-1. And Jones was NOT a graceful or skillful outfielder, it was his bat that looked like solid gold.

Formerly talented players came and went...Murphy, Lance Parrish, Floyd Youmans. And then there was the mysterious case of pitcher Joe Cowley. Phils got him in 1987 after he had had a very solid year in Chicago the season before, even tossing a no hitter. Upon putting on that Phillie uniform he suddenly forgot how to throw strikes and might well have been the worst hurler in Phillie history. Now this was a 28-29 year old hurler in his prime, mind you. He pitched in 5 games, started 4, lost all of them and had an ERA of 15.43, and it was well deserved. Never pitched another major league game and to this day, I often wonder what became of him? To be so successful and then suddenly lose it, aka Steve Blass, must haunt the recesses of the human mind in ways I can only fathom.

In contrast, the 1986 team was really a good team, and fun to watch. There were some early setbacks, Carlton was a dismal 1-8 before being released in June and young catcher Darren Daulton tore up his knee on the last pitch Carlton threw as a Phillie...a pitch that led to a double and a play at the plate, a play that resulted in Daulton's injury. Still, Mike Schmidt was the NL MVP, Von Hayes had a spectacular year, Glen Wilson knocked in 100 runs and Juan Samuel was as mercurial as he was phenomenal that year. The team had 2 lefties in the rotation and all of them were good...rookie Bruce Ruffin, Shane Rawley and Don Carmen. Kevin Gross the righty and Steve Bedrosian was brilliant as the team's closer.

Their highlight? A 3 game sweep of the Mets in mid September when the Mets only needed one win to clinch the NL East. "Not in our house" was the rallying cry that exciting weekend and the team finished 85-76, good for 2nd place. They looked to be a rising club in the NL...but truth be told, it would be another decade in a half [other than 1993] before the team would ever become relevant again in the National League.

[Philsmania]

Z...the 1986 team was quite likely the best Phillies team during the period from 1984-1992, a thoroughly forgettable 9 year run of bad luck, bad managers, bad decisions and bad baseball. The old Murphy Law, "if something can go wrong, it will" certainly was a fitting description for that era...even to the synchronistic and quite appropriate acquisition of one Dale Murphy, regrettably a year AFTER he lost his former super star skills.

Its almost nightmarish to recap that period but some of the lowlights I recall...a phenomenal natural hitter [one of the best Phillie hitting prospects I ever saw] named Ron Jones, tearing knee ligaments in not just one knee but BOTH knees in consecutive years, thus basically ending what could have been a very productive career. Jones luck was so bad that one injury came when he made a spectacular catch at Shea Stadium...with 2 outs in the 9th inning of a game the Phils led 7-1. And Jones was NOT a graceful or skillful outfielder, it was his bat that looked like solid gold.

Formerly talented players came and went...Murphy, Lance Parrish, Floyd Youmans. And then there was the mysterious case of pitcher Joe Cowley. Phils got him in 1987 after he had had a very solid year in Chicago the season before, even tossing a no hitter. Upon putting on that Phillie uniform he suddenly forgot how to throw strikes and might well have been the worst hurler in Phillie history. Now this was a 28-29 year old hurler in his prime, mind you. He pitched in 5 games, started 4, lost all of them and had an ERA of 15.43, and it was well deserved. Never pitched another major league game and to this day, I often wonder what became of him? To be so successful and then suddenly lose it, aka Steve Blass, must haunt the recesses of the human mind in ways I can only fathom.

In contrast, the 1986 team was really a good team, and fun to watch. There were some early setbacks, Carlton was a dismal 1-8 before being released in June and young catcher Darren Daulton tore up his knee on the last pitch Carlton threw as a Phillie...a pitch that led to a double and a play at the plate, a play that resulted in Daulton's injury. Still, Mike Schmidt was the NL MVP, Von Hayes had a spectacular year, Glen Wilson knocked in 100 runs and Juan Samuel was as mercurial as he was phenomenal that year. The team had 2 lefties in the rotation and all of them were good...rookie Bruce Ruffin, Shane Rawley and Don Carmen. Kevin Gross the righty and Steve Bedrosian was brilliant as the team's closer.

Their highlight? A 3 game sweep of the Mets in mid September when the Mets only needed one win to clinch the NL East. "Not in our house" was the rallying cry that exciting weekend and the team finished 85-76, good for 2nd place. They looked to be a rising club in the NL...but truth be told, it would be another decade in a half [other than 1993] before the team would ever become relevant again in the National League.

You pretty much summed up my feelings and memories of the '86 Phillies in a post that got left behind on the Turner thread. Yes, that was a fun season. 37-24 from August onward, finished second, Schmidt's third MVP season, arguably Hayes's best season, Ruffin's rookie season (and best season as a starter), Don Carman being converted to starter to work on stuff in the hope that he would straighten himself out for his bullpen role and instead totally clicking as a starter and later pitching eight perfect innings at Candlestick, sweeping the Mets at the Vet in September and sending them and their hordes of barbarian fans who came to the Vet to see them clinch the NL East home empty (I was at opening game of that series when they rocked Gooden), one of only two winning seasons between 1983 and 2001...good times! Yeah, I too thought order had been restored and the Phillies were back to their 1974-86 ways and that Phillies-Mets would be an epic rivalry for the rest of the decade. But alas, that season was a mirage and the fun was fleeting as the organization's rot continued and would become increasingly exposed over the next two seasons before they had to commit to a long, painful rebuild (which only brought us one winning season in the end, though it was a glorious one).

1988..ugh. One of my all-time least favorite Phillies teams as well. As CD said, they were bad and boring, played with no fight. Only one walk-off win during the second half of the season. Otherwise, they rolled over and played dead every game. Turmoil off the field as well with Woody Woodward being hired then fired as GM after just a few months on the job because Giles became alarmed by his lack of people skills (and blunt talk that some of Giles's cronies should get canned). Years later at the trade deadline in 1997, Woodward was the contending Mariners' GM and looked ready to trade hot prospect Jose Cruz, Jr to the Phillies for Ricky Bottalico but, late in the eleventh hour, he instead traded Cruz to the Blue Jays for Mike Timlin and Paul Spoljaric (both of whom later would have undistinguished stints with the Phillies) and leaving the rebuilding Phillies with nothing to show for their best trade asset at the deadline. Rumors abounded that Woodward relished the opportunity to screw over the organization which he felt didn't give him a fair shake and the GM who replaced him (Lee Thomas).