2005 charleston riverdogs team set review

2005 Charleston RiverDogs team set
Official Score – 2-6-5-4-2-6 CAUGHT STEALING
Manufacturer: undetermined
Sponsor: SunCom Wireless
Retail price: $6.00

Just under a quarter of a million fans attended games at the “Joe” to cheer on the Charleston RiverDogs as they finished the 2005 season with a record of 80 wins and 58 losses. Crowned the first half Southern Division champions of the South Atlantic League, the RiverDogs were unable to defeat the Kannapolis Intimidators in the first round of the SAL playoffs at the end of the season.

Outfielder Tim Battle led the RiverDogs in games played (134), at bats (525), runs scored (97), doubles (33), triples (11), homers (16), stolen bases (40), caught stealing (16) and strikeouts (195). I think those stats are deserving of having his card featured here.

It would be a mistake for me to not also feature the card of Phil Hughes from this set, if for no other reason than using his name recognition to help attract new readers. Philip Hughes led the RiverDogs pitching staff with a WHIP of 0.90 and winning 7 of his 12 starts. The fact that Hughes yielded only a single long ball in 68.2 innings helped keep his season ERA at 1.97. Hughes was one of three RiverDogs who hurled complete games during the 2005 season. The other two were Eric Hacker and Jeff Marquez. They both have cards in the set, so I will also include scans of them to give you a good idea of the sort of variation to expect with this set.

The design layout of the front doesn’t offend me, but I don’t feel that it is as interesting as the 2007 RiverDogs team set. “Minor league-thin” cards in this set have a semi-gloss finish on both sides. Card backs consist of black and tan printing over white. As expected, this is where you will find short player bios and stats. In addition to the RiverDogs logo, the back also contains a cartoon baseball player. Well, don’t get too excited over this news because there are only two variations of the cartoon- one for hitters and one for pitchers.

No printed checklist or any sort of # or # designators, so I have listed them alphabetically- with the nonessential cards at the end. Be sure to consult minors.baseball-reference.com to review the stats of all the RiverDogs from the 2005 season.

1 – Tim Battle (of)
2 – Saydel Beltran (p)
3 – Phil Coke (p)
4 – Jordan Devoir (inf)
5 – Christian Garcia (p)
6 – Mike Gardner (p)
7 – Cody Ehlers (inf)
8 – Edwar Gonzalez (of)
9 – Ryan Haag (inf)
10 – Eric Hacker (p)
11 – Estee Harris (of)
12 – Mario Holmann (inf)
13 – Philip Hughes (p)
14 – Ben Jones (inf)
15 – Jeff Marquez (p)
16 – Mike Martinez (p)
17 – Bill Mosiello (manager)
18 – Shaun Parker (p)
19 – William Plaza (c)
20 – Grant Plumley (inf)
21 – Steve Renko (pitching coach)
22 – Kevin Rival (p)
23 – Irwil Rojas (c)
24 – Torre Tyson (hitting coach)
25 – Marcos Vechionacci (inf)
26 – Chase Wright (p)
27 – Tim Lentych (trainer) & Orlando Fernandez (clubhouse manager)
28 – Ken Carrington (announcer)
29 – Charlie T. RiverDog (mascot)
30 – Chelsea (mascot)

All photos are credited to Brad Nettles, Sr. This shot of Mario Holmann is my selection for “best” card in the team set.

I also like this card of Irwil Rojas who seems to have removed his catcher’s mask to ask the home plate umpire if Holmann’s card truly is the best in the set- lobbying with the man in blue, “But it looks like it was taken directly from “The Sandlot!”

I know it’s crazy, but Ben Jones appears to have been caught between the moon and New York City, and is trying to make up his mind on what to do next… if anything.

Of course it comes down to a matter of your priorities, but I’d say an entire team set for about what you’d expect to pay for a single gallon of gas these days is a reasonable deal. Best deal is for you to purchase this team set directly from the Charleston RiverDogs.

Expect to pay in the range of $11 to $15 if you buy this team set on the secondary market. Or you could go nuts and buy a partially autographed set on eBay for approximately sixty to eighty bucks.

– Kris

Tags: Charleston RiverDogs, Kris, minor league baseball, Single A baseball, South Atlantic League, team set review