1952-69 Philadelphia Phillies Photo Cards

Number of Cards:  79
Card Size:  3 1/4" x 5 1/2"
Description:  These photo cards feature black and white portraits of prominent Phillies players (and managers) to have suited up for the team between 1950 and 1969.  Most of the photo cards contain black facsimile autographs on the fronts, and all the backs are blank.

How Distributed:  The cards were produced throughout the '50s and '60s by the Phillies as needed and as new players joined the club.  There's no way to tell which year any particular card is from, other than each player's card would have been issued during his tenure with the Phillies.  For example, the Johnny Callison card featured above could have been issued at any point, and over several different years from several different printings, between 1960 and 1969, the years Callison played for the Phillies.

Vintage-wise, Dick Sisler is the earliest Phillie represented, having left the club following the 1951 season.  Deron Johnson is the newest Phillie on the checklist, having joined the club in 1969.  The list presented below could grow, although I suspect that any new photo card discoveries from this era would have been made by now.  With the advent of the internet age, the mysteries surrounding these types of issuances are slowly dissipating. 

Complete Standard Checklist (Unnumbered, presented here alphabetically, with variations): 

1. Rich Allen - Glasses 2. Rich Allen - No glasses, Phillies visible 3. Rich Allen - No glasses, cropped              4. Harry Anderson 5. Richie Ashburn 6. Jack Baldschun 7. Dennis Bennett 8. Ed Bouchee 9. Johnny Briggs 10. Jim Bunning       11. Smoky Burgess 12. John Buzhardt 13. Johnny Callison 14. Doug Clemens 15. Jim Coker 16. Gene Conley 17. Wes Covington 18. Ray Culp 19. Tony Curry 20. Clay Dalrymple - With glove 21. Clay Dalrymple - Portrait 22. Clay Dalrymple - Portrait, cropped 23. Jacke Davis 24. Don Demeter 25. Dick Ellsworth 26. Del Ennis 27. Dick Farrell - '50s version

28. Dick Farrell - '60s version 29. Chico Fernandez 30. Woodie Fryman 31. Tony Gonzalez - Phillies visible         32. Tony Gonzalez - Phillies partial 33. Dallas Green 34. Dick Groat 35. Granny Hamner 36. John Herrnstein  37. Larry Hisle 38. Grant Jackson 39. Larry Jackson - Phillie visible 40. Larry Jackson - Cropped 41. Deron Johnson 42. Jerry Johnson 43. Willie Jones 44. Jim Konstanty (Not team issued) 45. Stan Lopata 46. Art Mahaffey 47. Gene Mauch MG 48. Jack Meyer (Not team issued) 49. Don Money 50. Bobby Morgan 51. Wally Post 52. Robin Roberts 53. Cookie Rojas

54. Mike Ryan 55. Ted Savage 56. Eddie Sawyer MG - Facsimile auto 57. Eddie Sawyer MG - No auto 58. Andy Seminick 59. Ray Semproch 60. Chris Short - Phillies visible 61. Chris Short - Phillies partial 62. Roy Sievers 63. Curt Simmons 64. Dick Sisler 65. Bob Skinner MG - Stands behind 66. Bob Skinner MG - No stands 67. Bobby Gene Smith 68. Charley Smith 69. Frank Sullivan 70. Gary Sutherland (Not team issued) 71. Tony Taylor - Facsimile auto 72. Tony Taylor - No auto (Not team issued) 73. Earl Torgeson 74. Gary Wagner 75. Bill White - Portrait 76. Bill White - With bat (Not team issued) 77. Bobby Wine - Phillies visible         78. Bobby Wine - Phillies partial 79. Rick Wise

One and Only Phillies Baseball Card (1):  Going through my collection and double checking the Beckett database, I believe these photo cards mark the only Phillies baseball card appearance of Charley Smith (112 games in 1961).

First Appearance in Phillies Team Issued Set (62):  There are 63 known players to have appeared in these postcard sets.  C. Smith and 62 other players who appeared elsewhere on Phillies baseball cards throughout the years.

Managers (3):  Sawyer, Mauch, Skinner

Omissions:  The players with the most games with the Phillies in the 1950s without a team issued photo card are - Eddie Waitkus (559 games), Ted Kazanski (417 games) and Johnny Wyrostek (315 games).  From the 1960s, the top three players by games played but not appearing on a Phillies photo card are - Ruben Amaro (668 games), Pancho Herrera (271 games) and Don Lock (215 games).

Variations/Rarities:  I've listed in the checklist above the variations to be found for Allen, Dalrymple, Farrell, Gonzalez, L. Jackson, Sawyer, Short, Skinner, Taylor, Wine and White.  I'm not sure which of the versions of their cards are more prevalent than the others, so I've listed them all above as part of the main checklist.

Special Note:  Fellow collector Rick pointed out to me via text that some of the cards included above are not in fact true team issues.  These are either smaller in size, feature action poses or in some cases are printed on a thicker stock of cardboard.  Rick notes the cards listed above that are almost certainly not team-issued are as follows:  Jim Konstanty, Jack Meyer, Gary Sutherland, Tony Taylor (no auto) and Bill White (with bat).  Collectors should also be aware there are photo cards of similar size and paper stock featuring action shots of Jim Bunning, Chris Short and Rick Wise.  Finally, there's a Mike Ryan card available that is slightly smaller in size than the team-issued version.

Resources:  Fellow Phillies collector Rick (@rickphils) provided the checklists I used to compile the list above, and Rick notes these checklists were originally compiled by collector Dan E., and please refer to my Special Note directly above.                                                                  

Checklist by Decade:  Similar to how I store my multi-year Phillies Alumni photo cards, I've broken out these cards by decade, depending on the years in which the player appeared the most.

1950s (22) - Anderson, Ashburn, Bouchee, Burgess, Ennis, Farrell, Fernandez, Hamner, Jones, Konstanty, Lopata, Meyer, Morgan, Post, Roberts, Sawyer (2), Seminick, Semproch, Simmons, Sisler, Torgeson

1960s (57) - Allen (3), Baldschun, Bennett, Briggs, Bunning, Buzhardt, Callison, Clemens, Coker, Conley, Covington, Culp, Curry, Dalrymple (3), Davis, Demeter, Ellsworth, Farrell, Fryman, Gonzalez (2), Green, Groat, Herrnstein, Hisle, G. Jackson, L. Jackson (2), D. Johnson, J. Johnson, Mahaffey, Mauch, Money, Rojas, Ryan, Savage, Short (2), Sievers, Skinner (2), B. Smith, C. Smith, Sullivan, Sutherland, Taylor (2), Wagner, White (2), Wine (2), Wise  

This set was originally featured in a post back in October 2014, and I'm going to slowly go through some of these team issued set posts and update them with new information gleaned (if any) over the past nearly six years.

1970 Phillies Team-Issued Photo Cards

1950-1969 Phillies Team-Issued Photo Cards Want List / Phillies Team Issued Sets Index Page