My First Cards

Manny Trillo’s the 3rd card in the “All-Star trio” or maybe I should call it the “All-Star Trillo“, heh.

We see Tony Armas leaving the scene in the background, giving us a detail that confirms the Phillies sleeve in Tony’s card is indeed Manny. We also see part of Mike Schmidt’s back here! We can be sure it’s Schmidt, because it’s another Phillies uniform and the name begins with “S”. Schmidt was the only Phillies player at the All-Star game who name began with “S”.

So we get a Hall of Famer on this one, along with 2 other All-Stars, each completely candid and unposed. That is just awesome! Besides that, I always liked Manny Trillo….so this card is another favorite of mine.

Manny was one of the best gloves in the game for a few years and that made him fun to watch. In ’82 he was pretty much all defense. He won a gold glove, had a tiny .316 OBP, and didn’t hit a home run all season. In fact, he didn’t hit a single HR between Oct 3, 1981 and July 16, 1983!

His defense was so good that he even set a record for consecutive errorless chances by a second baseman. That came to an end though on July 31, 1982. The Cubs were in Philly and Manny Trillo had just fielded his 479th ball without an error in the 6th inning when Larry Bowa popped a ball to 2B.

All he needed to do was go 3 more games to take the record for consecutive games without an error by a second baseman. He was that close to achieving a very rare feat and slice of baseball immortality.

In the top of the 7th inning, Bill Buckner of the Cubs came up to the plate to start the inning. He slapped a grounder over to the sure handed Manny Trillo, and Manny goofed it up. Error. E4. Manny didn’t make the consecutive games record, in part because of Bill Buckner.

What comes around, goes around. Yep. Sorry Bill.

Manny Trillo finished his career as a 4 time All-Star with 3 gold gloves, a World Series ring, and even a couple silver sluggers to his name.