1978 Phillies yearbook

As you can probably tell by now this collection was somewhat Phillies-centric. Here's another one.

They were in some of the other publications too, but I found it cool that the credits include future Donruss artist Dick Perez and future Fleer photographer Bob Bartosz. I've interviewed them both for my blog.

The yearbook starts with a month-by-month recap of the 1977 season. The day I was born the Phillies dropped to fourth place as they lost to the Cardinals. They would eventually come back to win the division.

Lots of awesome full-page color photographs of each player on the team.

I thought this was a cool photograph with an angle of Veterans Stadium you don't usually see. Hazelton Day! Jim Lonborg is one of several players on this team that are not often thought of as Phillies - others I would include in that list would be Jay Johnstone, Jim Kaat, and future Mets managers Davey Johnson and Bud Harrelson.

I thought this was interesting - looks like Garry Maddox is on base but not wearing a helmet.

There were only a couple of prospects in this section. One of which was someone I had never heard of. Steve Waterbury pitched in one major league game for the Cardinals in 1976. Despite the hype in this writeup, Waterbury washed out very quickly - he went 5-12 with a 6.73 ERA in AA in 1978 to end his career.

So much great hair in this team photo.

You don't always get to see minor league photos from the 1970s, so here are a few.

Four pages of family photos. I love the 70's looks. A couple of future pro baseball players on this page - Garry Maddox Jr. and Ryan Luzinski.

"Bob Boone and wife Sue with their two handsome sons Brett and Aaron". They spelled Bret's name wrong. I certainly didn't expect to find the 2021 Yankees manager in a 1978 yearbook.

I thought this article about Phillies fans was interesting. Cool photos too. It tells an interesting story I had not heard before - that in Game 3 of the NLCS against the Dodgers, Burt Hooton got so unnerved by the fans' booing that he walked three batters in a row with the bases loaded. I decided to check it out for myself because I thought that would be fun to see. I found the video - the relevant action starts around 21:40. The umpire makes a bad call on what should have been strike three, and Hooton is visibly disgusted with the call, and clearly loses focus at this point, looking at the ump with disgust and waving his arms around after every pitch. Hooton clearly lost it at this point, but it's the ump, not the fans, that were the cause. It even looks like the ump is squeezing Hooton on some of these calls. Tommy Lasorda yells at the ump too. Hooton himself said a week later "I got heated up over what I thought were miscalls and lost confidence in myself." Sure, the fans were loud, but it's clearly the ump and not the fans that messed up Hooton. Oh, by the way, the Dodgers won the game.

Some old scouting reports and photos of the Phillies in their youth.

The back had player stats and some more great photos.

A nice bit on Phillies and the community. Somehow I don't think MLB players would be allowed to bike from Philadelphia to Florida for charity today.

What struck me on this page was the TV schedule. Only 72 games on TV, including just 17 home games. By the time I was following baseball in the mid-80s, all but a couple of games a year were on TV.

Think you have what it takes to be a Phillie? Why not stalk a Phillies scout at their home address.

The only advertising in the book is for Tastykake on the back and inside covers.