1980-1989 Phillies

1982 Fleer #637, 1985 Fleer #627, 1988 Fleer Award Winners #35 and 1989 Fleer Update #U-131

Next Sunday (or thereabouts) I'll feature the 1990 Topps Phillies cards in a post.  I knew when I started this series of posts that the '90s could be my downfall.  If this series were to ever stall out, it was going to come when I was trying to write about the 1994, 1995 or 1996 teams.  Hopefully, I'm able to maintain enough steam to push through the lean years to see this project through.

Before we get there though, I want to take a look back at the 1980's - the decade that started with so much promise for the Phillies only to end in a heap of festering poo.

Decade MVP
For the second decade in a row, Mike Schmidt was the team's most valuable player.  He won three National League MVP awards, six Gold Gloves and he was named to eight All-Star games.  He was voted to start at third base for the National League All-Stars in 1989, despite having announced his retirement several months before the game.

1981 Donruss #273, 1982 Donruss #1, 1983 Donruss #16 and 1984 Donruss #305

Leaders
Games - Schmidt (1320), Von Hayes (1002), Greg Gross (969), Juan Samuel (852), Steve Jeltz (653)
Average* - V. Hayes (.278), Schmidt (.277), G. Gross (.272), Garry Maddox (.268), Samuel (.263)
Home Runs - Schmidt (313), V. Hayes (107), Samuel (100), Glenn Wilson (49), Ozzie Virgil (46)
RBIs - Schmidt (929), V. Hayes (474), Samuel (413), Wilson (271), Maddox (249)
Stolen Bases - Samuel (249), V. Hayes (177), Bob Dernier (99), Milt Thompson (82), Jeff Stone (68)

Games - Kent Tekulve (291), Don Carman (253), Steve Bedrosian (218), Ron Reed (212), Kevin Gross (203)
Wins - Steve Carlton (93), K. Gross (60), Shane Rawley (59), Carman (47), Dick Ruthven (41)
ERA** - Tug McGraw (2.84), Carlton (3.12), K. Gross (3.87), Rawley (3.88), Carman (4.04)
Strikeouts - Carlton (1299), K. Gross (727), Carman (523), Rawley (447), Charles Hudson (399)
Saves - Bedrosian (103), Al Holland (55), Reed (39), McGraw (35), Tekulve (25)

*At least 6 seasons with the Phillies, completely subjective
**At least 5 seasons with the Phillies, again completely subjective

1980-1989 Topps
Total Phillies Players (1980-1989): 179, which is a big jump over the 142 players who suited up with the Phils during the '70s.
Total Phillies Players with Topps Phillies Cards: 113.  Topps managed to get 63% of all Phillies from the decade onto cardboard in its main or traded sets.  That's a small increase over the 59% success percentage from the '70s.
Managers with Cards:  Dallas Green (2 cards), Pat Corrales (1 card), Paul Owens (2 cards), John Felske (3 cards), Lee Elia (2 cards) and Nick Leyva (1 card).
Topps Phillies Cards of Non-Phillies: 1 card - Jim Wright (1981).

Card Statistics
Most Featured: Carlton (26 cards), Schmidt (26 cards), Pete Rose (17), G. Gross (10 cards), Samuel (9 cards), McGraw (9 cards), V. Hayes (8 cards) and Maddox (7 cards).
Most Games (Batter), No Phillies Topps Card:  Curt Ford (108 games in 1989), Dwayne Murphy (98 games in 1989), Charlie Hayes (84 games in 1989), Mike Young (75 games in 1988), John Vukovich (60 games in 1980-1981), Mike Easler (33 games in 1987), Jackie Gutierrez (33 games in 1988) and Francisco Melendez (30 games in 1984 and 1986).
Most Games (Pitcher), No Phillies Topps Card:  Dave Shipanoff (26 games in 1985), Lerrin LaGrow (25 games in 1980), Dennis Cook (21 games in 1989), Terry Mulholland (20 games in 1989), Randy O'Neal (20 games in 1989), Rocky Childress (18 games in 1985-1986), Don Larson (17 games in 1980-1981) and Danny Clay (17 games in 1988).

1985 Donruss #23, 1987 Donruss #12, 1988 Donruss #13 and 1989 Donruss #24

The Phillies Topps 60
Continuing my imaginery checklist of the top 60 Topps Phillies cards since 1951:

31 - 1980 Topps #270 Mike Schmidt
32 - 1981 Topps #404 Tug McGraw WS
33 - 1982 Topps Traded #28T Bob Dernier
34 - 1983 Topps Traded #40T Von Hayes
35 - 1984 Topps Traded #105T Juan Samuel
36 - 1985 Topps #454 Glenn Wilson
37 - 1986 Topps #200 Mike Schmidt
38 - 1987 Topps #209 Rick Schu
39 - 1988 Topps #440 Steve Bedrosian
40 - 1989 Topps Traded #27T Len Dykstra

1984 Fleer #35, 1987 Fleer Star Stickers #116, 1988 Score #386 and 1987 Donruss Opening Day #158

Cards That Never Were Series
This set is getting a little out of hand, as we're now up to 140 cards.  And I could probably count on one hand the number of people who would actually want to possess a baseball card set featuring Dave Wehrmeister, Joe Cowley and Mark Ryal.

93 - 1980 Topps Bob Walk
94 - 1980 Topps Marty Bystrom
95 - 1980 Topps George Vukovich
96 - 1980 Topps Bob Dernier
97 - 1981 Topps Luis Aguayo
98 - 1981 Topps Mark Davis
99 - 1981 Topps Future Stars - Len Matuszek/Bob Dernier/Ryne Sandberg
100 - 1982 Topps Julio Franco
101 - 1982 Topps Dave Roberts
102 - 1982 Topps Porfi Altamirano
103 - 1983 Topps Charles Hudson
104 - 1983 Topps Kevin Gross
105 - 1983 Topps Sixto Lezcano
106 - 1983 Topps Larry Andersen
107 - 1983 Topps Juan Samuel
108 - 1983 Topps Paul Owens MG
109 - 1984 Topps Tim Corcoran
110 - 1984 Topps Al Oliver
111 - 1984 Topps Shane Rawley
112 - 1984 Topps John Russell
113 - 1984 Topps Jeff Stone
114 - 1984 Topps Dave Wehrmeister
115 - 1985 Topps Darren Daulton
116 - 1985 Topps Dave Shipanoff
117 - 1985 Topps Tom Foley
118 - 1986 Topps Bruce Ruffin
119 - 1986 Topps Ron Roenicke
120 - 1986 Topps Ronn Reynolds
121 - 1986 Topps Mike Maddux
122 - 1986 Topps Dan Schatzeder
123 - 1986 Topps Greg Legg
124 - 1987 Topps Mike Easler
125 - 1987 Topps Joe Cowley
126 - 1987 Topps Keith Hughes
127 - 1987 Topps Michael Jackson
128 - 1988 Topps Bob Dernier
129 - 1988 Topps Ricky Jordan
130 - 1988 Topps Ron Jones
131 - 1988 Topps Greg Harris
132 - 1988 Topps Mike Young
133 - 1988 Topps John Vukovich MG
134 - 1989 Topps Pat Combs
135 - 1989 Topps Charlie Hayes
136 - 1989 Topps Dennis Cook
137 - 1989 Topps Terry Mulholland
138 - 1989 Topps Dwayne Murphy
139 - 1989 Topps Curt Ford
140 - 1989 Topps Mark Ryal

Links to the Past
1950-1959 Phillies

1960-1969 Phillies

1970-1979 Phillies