Topps Cards That Should Have Been: 2007 Mike Lieberthal

 From the mid-80s to the mid-2010s, the Philadelphia Phillies were insanely lucky in terms of catching options. They essentially had like 3 catchers from Darren Daulton taking over in 85 until Carlos Ruiz gave the position to Cameron Rupp. Yes, there was a brief drought between Dutch and Mike Lieberthal, but it was really just Benito Santiago sandwiched in between on a one-year deal. It was really just Daulton, Lieberthal and Ruiz for 30 years, and...then we have the rotating door of catchers in Philly we've come to expect. 

But despite being the least starry name of the three, Mike Lieberthal held the position of catcher for 10 seasons, bridging from the contending early 90s Phils teams until the beginnings of the Howard-Utley-Rollins teams, had four seasons above 2.0 WAR, two seasons above 20 home runs, two seasons above 150 hits and two seasons above .300. So...he was an okay perennial catcher, but he was OUR okay perennial catcher, and it was good to have him play for the Phils for a decade and some change. 

Ultimately, as Carlos Ruiz and Chris Coste came to prominence late in 2006, the Phils decided not to re-sign Lieberthal, who was about to turn 35, and so he took a one-year deal with the Dodgers during the 2006 offseason. He knew that he'd be backing up Russell Martin, but Lieberthal just wanted to play another year, which is perfectly fine.

So, in a wild card Dodger year in 2007, Lieberthal saw action in 38 games, and hit .234 with 16 hits and 1 RBI. Not much to report, but he was still solid defensively. And then he's released in August and retires after the season.

This was one of the priorities for me to make in this series because...I got into the hobby in 2007, I heard Mike Lieberthal was signed by the Dodgers, and I was waiting to see Topps card evidence of that and...never did. As the 2007 set is still very important to me, as it's the first one I truly collected, I needed to do this one pretty far in. It's a very niche tribute, but it's still Mike Lieberthal's last season, and what would have been his last Topps card. So...I think that's reason enough.