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Tony Phillips (1959-2016)

Tony Phillips, a member of the 1989 World Series champion Oakland Athletics, died of an apparent heart attack according to a report by Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. He was 56.

Phillips recorded 2,023 hits during an 18-year major league career. He spent nine years with Oakland over two tours of duty, and five years with the Detroit Tigers. Near the end of his major league career, Phillips appeared in 52 games for the 1998 New York Mets. As recently as last year, he was still playing independent baseball.

World Serious

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I really love the back page of the New York Post today.

Today was the first official day of spring training for the Mets, but that means even less than usual when most of the Mets players have been working out in Port St. Lucie for days already. Still, any sign that baseball season is on the way is welcome…Let’s go Mets!

A Hall of Fame autograph… and a Hall of Fame pricetag

If you need new Hall of Famer Mike Piazza‘s autograph, you’ll have an opportunity to get it later this month at MAB Celebrity Services’ “Yankeepalooza” show in Fort Lee. But you’d better have deep pockets.

Piazza’s autograph tickets start at $179, plus an additional $59 fee if you want him to add “HOF 2016” or any other inscription to his signature.

That’s a little bit too steep for me – the rising autograph fees are one of the main reasons I’ve stopped posting about which former and current Mets are scheduled to appear at collectibles shows each month.

Yankee fans may be interested to see that Joe Girardi ($79 and up) and Luis Severino ($65 and up) have recently been added to the show lineup, too.

Featured autograph: Brian Dozier

It’s been a while since I got any autographed baseball cards back in the mail, but then again I haven’t sent any out since August.

Today I received this signed 2015 Topps card I sent to Minnesota Twins second baseman Brian Dozier back during spring training. I’m having a hard enough time getting to everything I want to do during the holiday season, so kudos to Dozier for fitting in time to go through fan mail.

An All-Star for the Twins in 2015, Dozier already has 75 home runs in just three and a half seasons in the big leagues.

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