Wednesday, November 19, 2014

1999 Phillies Team Issue

I updated this post in December 2023 and this original post is now outdated.
 

Number of Cards:  36
Card Size:  4" x 6"
Description:  The fronts once again feature full color photos with the player's, coach's or manager's name in white letters against a blue band.  Scott Rolen's card celebrates his 1997 Gold Glove win with a picture of a Gold Glove on the front of his card.  The card backs feature biographical information and complete career statistics.

How Distributed:  The 36-card set was available for sale at Veterans Stadium throughout the season.  For the fifth year in a row, there was no update set issued.

Complete Standard Checklist:  The cards are unnumbered, but I've presented them below ordered by uniform number.
  • 2 - Rico Brogna
  • 3 - Chuck Cottier CO
  • 5 - Ron Gant
  • 6 - Doug Glanville
  • 7 - Terry Francona MG
  • 8 - Desi Relaford
  • 9 - Brad Mills CO
  • 11 - Kevin Sefcik
  • 12 - Tom Prince
  • 14 - Gary Bennett
  • 15 - Dave Doster
  • 16 - Marlon Anderson
  • 17 - Scott Rolen
  • 18 - John Vukovich CO
  • 23 - Kevin Jordan
  • 24 - Mike Lieberthal
  • 25 - Rob Ducey
  • 26 - Alex Arias
  • 33 - Chad Ogea
  • 34 - Paul Byrd
  • 38 - Curt Schilling
  • 41 - Jim Poole
  • 43 - Galen Cisco CO
  • 44 - Mike Grace
  • 45 - Jeff Brantley
  • 46 - Carlton Loewer
  • 48 - Yorkis Perez
  • 49 - Billy Brewer
  • 50 - Paul Spoljaric
  • 51 - Ken Ryan
  • 53 - Bobby Abreu
  • 56 - Hal McRae CO
  • 58 - Steve Montgomery
  • 59 - Ramon Henderson CO
  • 61 - Wayne Gomes
  • Phillie Phanatic
One and Done (2):  Poole, Spoljaric
First Appearances (13):  Anderson, Bennett, Brantley, Byrd, Doster, Ducey, Gant, Loewer, Montgomery, Ogea, Perez, Prince, Ryan
Returning Players (13):  Abreu, Arias, Brewer, Brogna, Glanville, Gomes, Grace, Jordan, Lieberthal, Relaford, Rolen, Schilling, Sefcik

Relievers Poole and Spoljaric commemorate their time with the Phillies with their sole Phillies baseball cards in this set.  I think when I've wrapped up this project, I'd like to go back and look at those players who had their one and only Phillies baseball cards within the team issued sets.  The First Appearance designation is for players who have never before appeared within a Phillies team issued set.  These players may have already appeared on other Phillies baseball cards.  (I'm not counting Perez's fairly rare card issued at the 1998 ALS Phillies Phestival as his first appearance.)

Manager (1):  Francona
Coaches (6):  Cisco, Cottier, Henderson, McRae, Mills, Vukovich
Phillie Phanatic (1):  The Phanatic gets a close up on his 1999 card.
Broadcasters (0)
Commemorative Cards (0)

Variations/Rarities:  As far as I know, there are no variations or rarities to be found connected to this set.  Rick points out in his comment below that there are few cards available with a facsimile autograph.

Also See:  The Phillies issued a nine-card "Stadium League" set given away on Fan Appreciation Day.  I'd like to feature this set in a future post.  Also see the 14,000 Phillies database entry for the 1999 Stadium League Phillies Finest nine-card set, which was given away as a prize to kids playing a card flipping game in the Fun Zone at the Vet.

Trivia:  I believe this is the first team issued set I've covered that has been completely ignored by Beckett and any other online source.  The set is omitted from the 2001 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards.  Galen Cisco's card uses the same photo as his 1998 card.
Resources:  Me . . . until Rick or Steve comment with the variations available for this set from the 1999 ALS fund raising event!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

The only variations are some that are facsimile signed and were sent out in response to autograph requests. As far as the Stadium League sets there was one that was a SGA for kids that has a 5x7 parallel set and the other had a silver background that was given away as a fan appreciation set.