Monday, December 8, 2014

2007 Phillies Team Issue

I updated this post here in October 2020 and this original post is now outdated.

 

Number of Cards:  42
Card Size:  4" x 6"
Description:  Full color photos are surrounded by a blue border (for pitchers) or a red border (for everyone else) with the player's name featured prominently in blue or red at the top of each card.  The Citizens Bank Park logo can be found in one of the four corners on the fronts.  Ryan Howard's card contains a gold badge commemorating his 2006 N.L. MVP win.  The horizontal card backs feature biographical information and complete career statistics.

How Distributed:  The original 36-card set was available for sale at Citizens Bank Park throughout the first half of the season.  As pointed out in comments to this post from Steve and Rick (and completely unbeknownst to me) there were six more cards issued as either part of an update set or (perhaps in the case of the cards for Michael Bourn and Francisco Rosario) an extension of the originally issued set.

Complete Standard Checklist (36):  The cards are unnumbered, but I've presented them below ordered by uniform number.
  • 2 - Rod Barajas
  • 3 - Abraham Nunez
  • 5 - Pat Burrell
  • 6 - Ryan Howard (with MVP logo)
  • 7 - Steve Smith CO
  • 8 - Shane Victorino
  • 10 - Karim Garcia
  • 11 - Jimmy Rollins
  • 15 - Davey Lopes CO
  • 17 - Mick Billmeyer CO
  • 18 - Wes Helms
  • 19 - Greg Dobbs
  • 21 - Jon Lieber
  • 22 - Jimy Williams CO
  • 23 - Adam Eaton
  • 25 - Milt Thompson CO
  • 26 - Chase Utley
  • 27 - Chris Coste
  • 28 - Jayson Werth
  • 30 - Rich Dubee CO
  • 31 - Ramon Henderson CO
  • 33 - Aaron Rowand
  • 34 - Freddy Garcia
  • 35 - Cole Hamels
  • 39 - Brett Myers
  • 40 - Matt Smith
  • 41 - Charlie Manuel MG
  • 45 - Tom Gordon
  • 50 - Jamie Moyer
  • 51 - Carlos Ruiz
  • 52 - Fabio Castro
  • 56 - Geoff Geary
  • 57 - Antonio Alfonseca
  • 63 - Ryan Madson
  • Phillie Phanatic
  • Phillies Broadcasters
Complete Update Checklist (6):
  • 6 - Ryan Howard (no MVP logo)
  • 9 - Michael Bourn
  • 16 - J.C. Romero
  • 38 - Kyle Kendrick
  • 49 - Jose Mesa
  • 54 - Francisco Rosario
  • 59 - Mike Zagurski
Steve points out in his comment that the update set pulled the cards for Castro, F. Garcia, K. Garcia, the Howard MVP card, Lieber and M. Smith.

One and Done (1):  K. Garcia
First Appearances (17):  Alfonseca, Barajas, Bourn, Castro, Coste, Dobbs, Eaton, F. Garcia, Helms, Kendrick, Moyer, Romero, Rosario, Ruiz, M. Smith, Werth, Zagurski
Returning Players (14):  Burrell, Geary, Gordon, Hamels, Howard, Lieber, Madson, Mesa, Myers, Nunez, Rollins, Rowand, Utley, Victorino

Karim Garcia was released prior to the start of the season and never suited up with the Phillies.  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.

Manager (1):  Manuel
Coaches (7):  Billmeyer, Dubee, Henderson, Lopes, S. Smith, Thompson, Williams
Phillie Phanatic (1):  This is one of the strangest Phanatic cards from all the team issued sets.  The card is horizontal and someone played picture putty with the fans in the background of the photo to create a multi-colored psychedelic design.
Broadcasters (1):  Scott Graham got the boot and was replaced by Gary Matthews in the booth.  Sarge is joined on this card by Harry Kalas, Scott Franzke, Larry Andersen and Chris Wheeler.
Commemorative Cards (0)

Variations/Rarities:  As pointed out in a comment to an earlier post by Steve F., Geoff Jenkins and Brad Lidge had cards designed in the style of the 2007 Phillies Team Issue set.  Both Jenkins and Lidge were acquired prior to the 2008 season.  Rick adds that there are cards with facsimile autographs for Burrell, Howard, Rollins and Utley.
  • 10 - Geoff Jenkins
  • 54 - Brad Lidge
Also See:  The Phillies and Upper Deck gave away a pack of baseball cards on Alumni Night featuring 25 regular cards and 10 "Vintage" cards featuring Phillies alumni.  The alumni cards only came one per pack, making them much harder to track down.
Trivia:  There's no record of this set on Beckett.com or on any other online resources.
Resources:  Phillies collector Steve F. and Rick (@rickphils)

7 comments:

Unknown said...

There was an update set later in the season: 9 Michael Bourn, 16 JC Romero, 38 Kyle Kendrick, 49 Jose Mesa, 54 Francisco Rosario, 59 Mike Zagurski. Also facsimile versions in response to auto requests through the mail for Howard, Rollins, Utley, Burrell

Unknown said...

The Phillies started making photocards for Alumni at Meet and Greet signings in the Hall of Fame Club and other signings at the stadium in 2007. The list:
Terry Harmon, Marty Bystrom, Darren Daulton, Ricky Jordan, Mitch Williams, Von Hayes, Kent Tekulve, Bob Walk, Ricky Bottalico, Rico Brogna, Mike Rogodzinski, Larry Christenson. Note: Tekulve was scheduled to be the guest at a Meet and Greet in the HOF club but his flight was canceled because of weather in PIttsburgh. I was able to get a couple of the cards which to my knowledge were not made available at a later date.

Steve F. said...

MY notes show the following differences between the 1st and 2nd series:

1st only: Fabio Castro, Freddy Garcia, Karim Garcia, the Ryan Howard MVP-branded card, Jon Lieber, Matt Smith

2nd only: Ryan Howard (same photo but without the gold MVP badge), Kyle Kendrick, Jose Mesa, J.C. Romero, Mike Zagurski

I just checked and Bourne played in game #2 of the season, while Rosario was purchased from Toronto after the 3rd game of the season, so I think it is very possible they were in the first series (or maybe a "version 1.1"). I'll try to check tonight to see for sure that I have a second copy of each, which I would if they were in the first series.

Rick, were these Meet and Greet alumni cards in the 2007 style?

Steve F. said...

I know it's a topic for another day, but the alumni night set also included some "winner" version of the card that allowed the lucky recipients to trade in the card for a replica jersey of that player. My recollection (not from being there but from hearing it later) was that there was a mistake in the number of winner cards issued and so they stopped handing out the sets very early (i.e., they had way too many winners from the early packs being opened and scrambled to stop giving them out at the gate), and then they told people to bring their ticket stub to a future game and get the giveaway set. Presumably in the meantime they had opened the packs to pull out the extra winner cards. Has anyone else heard that before? I ended up getting all 10 of the alumni cards through an eBay auction soon afterward, and the seller, I believe, told me that. I think he said that he had gathered a lot of ticket stubs or something and was able to trade them in and end up with full sets of the alumni too. (Or maybe that story was an elaborate ruse and he just had a friend who worked the gate....)

Jim said...

Awesome - thanks guys.

Rick - I'm going to do a separate post for the alumni postcards, so please keep this information coming.

Steve - I wasn't lucky enough to get any of the winner cards. I attended the holiday sale at CBP in 2007 and purchased a dozen or so packs of the alumni night sets for $1 each so that i could finish the "vintage" set.

Steve F. said...

I checked and I do have doubles of Bourne and Rosario, and I am pretty sure I only bought one pack from each series, so maybe they were added after Opening Day, but those two were available at some point earlier in the season.

Jim, speaking of the holiday sale, did you go last weekend? I was at the Philly Show (buying all the 1970s and early 1980s Phils photocards I could find!) and didn't get there, but I am hoping to get to the Authentics Store sale this Saturday. I wonder whether they had any good deals last Saturday. No good card sets available this year like that alumni one, alas.

Jim said...

We didn't make it to the holiday sale. My son's birthday party took priority!