1985 Phillies Tastykake Tony Ghelfi a Testament to the Power of Hope

Two years' of goodwill cultivated in three games

You remember the 1983 Philadelphia Phillies, right?

Those were the Wheeze Kids guys, the ones who rolled out (or carried out) names like Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Tony Perez, Steve Carlton, Ron Reed, Bill Robinson, and other geezers each night.

They were the same ones who won the old National League East by six games and then took down the Dodgers in the NLCS before finally stumbling against the Baltimore Orioles.

It was a last hurrah for many of the superstars and stars and semi-stars of the 1970s.

But they didn’t do it all alone.

Nope, there were some younger dudes mixed in there, too.

One of the youngest was catcher Darren Daulton who debuted late, late in the season and made two appearances at age 21 — Dutch would go on to do some pretty big things later on, as you might recall.

Find 1984 Tastykake cards on eBay (affiliate link)

More impactful to the 1983 season, though, was Tony Ghelfi, a 22-year-old righty whom the Phils had selected with their first overall pick in the January phase of the 1980 MLB Draft … out of high school.

It took most of four seasons before the still very young Ghelfi was deemed ready for the Bigs, but manager Paul Owens threw him right into the fray.

On September 1, Ghelfi drew the start against the San Francisco Giants and recorded the win after giving up an early run.

That pulled the Phils out of a one-game hole, tying them with the Pirates at the top of the standings.

In his second outing, Ghelfi pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings to help Philly pull out a 2-0 win over the Mets and stay a half-game back.

He was doing his part and then some to keep Philly in the thick of things.

Then, on September 13, with the Phillies again facing the Mets but by then up half a game in the division, Ghelfi took the start … and surrendered three runs in five innings.

The division lead was gone, and Ghelfi would never be heard from in the Majors again.

Find 1985 Tastykake cards on eBay (affiliate link)

Two more seasons in the Phillies’ pharm system gave way to two in the minors with the Indians (after missing 1986), and then Ghelfi wrapped up his professional career at Triple-A Las Vegas for the Padres in 1989.

But his time in Philadelphia would not ever be completely forgotten because 1) he was a Phillie, 2) he was still a prospect, and 3) Tastykake was still making baseball cards.

Oh, and 4) … he had been a net-positive in what would be the Phils’ last division title until 1993.

And so, that three-game set in 1983 meant local collectors would see Ghelfi’s smiling face in both the 1984 and 1985 Tastykake sets, and that we can all get a gander still today.

Three games can go a long, long way if you time them right.

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