The Phillies Room: 1995

Showing posts with label 1995. Show all posts

Saturday, November 25, 2023

1995 Philadelphia Phillies Photo Cards

Number of Cards: 36
Card Size: 4" x 6"

Description: For the seventh and final year, the card fronts feature a photo with the player's, coach's or manager's name in a red band with white text. The card backs feature biographical information along with complete career statistics. At the time, I considered it a major step forward that the set's designer had actually modified the appearance of the backs of the cards.

How Distributed: The original 36-card set was available for sale at Veterans Stadium throughout the season. There was no update set issued, marking the first time since 1986 no new cards were issued later in the season.

Complete Set Checklist (Unnumbered, presented here alphabetically with uniform number and position from the back of cards):

1. Kyle Abbott (#39 - LHP)
2. Toby Borland (#42 - RHP)
3. Ricky Bottalico (#52 - RHP)
4. Larry Bowa (#2 - Third Base Coach)
5. Norm Charlton (#37 - LHP)
6. Darren Daulton (#10 - C)
7. Mariano Duncan (#7 - INF)
8. Lenny Dykstra (#4 - CF)
9. Jim Eisenreich (#8 - RF)
10. Jim Fregosi (#11 - MG)
11. Dave Gallagher (#17 - OF)
12. Tyler Green (#28 - RHP)

13. Gene Harris (#33 - RHP)
14. Charlie Hayes (#13 - 3B)
15. Dave Hollins (#15 - 1B)
16. Gregg Jefferies (#25 - LF)
17. Tony Longmire (#16 - OF)
18. Denis Menke (#14 - Hitting Instructor)
19. Michael Mimbs (#45 - LHP)
20. Mickey Morandini (#12 - 2B)
21. Bobby Munoz (#35 - RHP)
22. Johnny Podres (#46 - Pitching Coach)
23. Paul Quantrill (#48 - RHP)
24. Randy Ready (#23 - INF)

25. Mel Roberts (#26 - First Base Coach)
26. Mike Ryan (#9 - Bullpen Coach)
27. Curt Schilling (#38 - RHP)
28. Heathcliff Slocumb (#51 - RHP)
29. Kevin Stocker (#19 - SS)
30. Gary Varsho (#5 - OF)
31. John Vukovich (#18 - Dugout Assistant)
32. Lenny Webster (#27 - C)
33. David West (#40 - LHP)
34. Richie Asburn HOF (#1 - CF)
35. Mike Schmidt HOF (#20 - 3B)
36. Phillies Team

One and Only Phillies Baseball Card (0): N/A

First Appearance in Phillies Photo Card Set (7): Bottalico, Gallagher, Harris, Jefferies, Mimbs, Varsho, Webster
Returning Players in Phillies Photo Card Set (19): Abbott, Borland, Charlton, Daulton, Duncan, Dykstra, Eisenreich, Green, Hayes, Hollins, Longmire, Morandini, Munoz, Quantrill, Ready, Schilling, Slocumb, Stocker, West

Managers (1): Fregosi
Coaches (6): Bowa, Menke, Podres, Roberts, Ryan, Vukovich

Phillie Phanatic (0): N/A

Broadcasters (0): N/A
Other Cards (2): Asburn, Schmidt

The Ryan card uses the same photo as his 1994 photo card. Ashburn and Schmidt were both inducted into the Hall of Fame on July 30, 1995. The backs of their cards indicate their Hall of Fame status and list career highlights.

Set Composition: Of the 26 players featured in the set, 25 were on the Phillies' opening day roster and one (Munoz) started the season on the disabled list.

Omissions: The Phillies carried 28 players for the first 17 games of the season, due to the strike-shortened spring training. That means three players on the opening day roster were omitted from this set - Mike Lieberthal (c), Andy Carter (lhp) and Mike Williams (rhp). Tommy Greene (rhp) also started the season on the disabled list, and he was omitted while Munoz got a card.

There are a bunch of good candidates had the Phillies decided to issue an update set. If we go with the same 10 card set-size from 1994, and use the Mark Whiten acquisition on July 24th as the cut-off, my imaginary update set would include: Kevin Elster, Sid Fernandez, Tommy Greene, Mike Lieberthal, Tom Marsh, Omar Olivares, Andy Van Slyke, Mark Whiten, Mike Williams, Phillie Phanatic.

Variations/Rarities: This is relatively tame year in terms of variations or rarities, most likely thanks to the lingering effects of the strike. In the original post for this set (see link below), fellow collector Rick mentioned there are some cards available with facsimile autographs. He also passed along he had added a Larry Andersen photo card to his collection with a 1995 copyright date, the same photo as Andersen's 1994 photo card and this quote on the back: "You're only young once, but you can be immature forever." Andersen spent the 1995 season as the pitching coach for the Reading Phillies.

Also See: 1995 Topps Phillies - featuring a list of the 92 players (including replacement players) in camp with the Phillies during spring training 1995.

Resources: Phillies collector Rick G.

This set was originally featured in a post back in November 2014, and I'm going through these older team-issued photo card set posts to update them with new information learned (if any) over the past nine years.

1994 Philadelphia Phillies Photo Cards / 1996 Philadelphia Phillies Photo Cards

1980-1999 Phillies Team-Issued Photo Cards Want List / Phillies Team Issued Sets Index Page

Saturday, August 20, 2022

Game 118 - Phils Throw It Back to the '90s with Loss

1995 Donruss
Diamond Kings #DK-18
Mets 7, Phillies 2
Game 118 - Friday Night, August 19th in Philadelphia
Record - 65-53, 3rd Place, 11 games behind the Mets

One Sentence Summary: The Mets offense hit Aaron Nola early and often, and the Phillies offense couldn't string together meaningful hits in this 7-2 loss.

What It Means: Frustrating night at the ballpark, exacerbated by the obnoxious Mets fans in attendance who lost their minds every time a Mets player did anything remotely positive. (Disclaimer - Not all Mets fans are obnoxious.)

What Happened: Nola labored through five innings, allowing five runs on eight hits, including a two-run home run to Pete Alonso in the third. Andrew Bellatti coughed up two more runs in the seventh, and the game was pretty much out of reach at that point. Phillies pitchers struck our 14, but allowed 11 hits.

Kyle Schwarber knocked in the only Phillies runs of the game with a two-run single in the fifth. J.T. Realmuto had three hits and Nick Castellanos stranded four baserunners.

Featured Card: This Lenny Dykstra Diamond Kings card is perhaps the most '90s card in my entire extensive Phillies baseball card collection, and I thought it fitting to post here given the events of the evening - see below.

Field Report: We attended this game with my brother-in-law Andy and his wife Wendy, and while the company was good, the game was not. However, I need to talk about the I Love the ‘90s concert we attended following the game. It was surreal, and here's a quick recap:

DJ Jazzy Jeff - Great set, excellent skills, fun opener.
Tone Lōc - Good effort, very sweaty, felt nostalgic.
Rob Base - Genuinely enjoyable, still has it although he might be a bit slower now (we all are).
Vanilla Ice - WHAT IS HAPPENING? Why is there an inflatable polar bear and an upside down clown on stage? HERE COMES A NINJA TURTLE??

Transaction: Brandon Marsh suffered a bone bruise and sprained ankle after coming down hard during Tuesday night's game in Cincinnati, attempting to reel in a home run ball. Marsh (of) was placed on the injured list and Bradley Zimmer (of) was claimed off waivers from the Blue Jays to replace him. Zimmer was immediately inserted into Friday night's line-up, going 1 for 4 with a run scored. He's a five year veteran and has a surprising amount of baseball card appearances. Bryce Harper (of) was moved to the 60-day injured list to make room for Zimmer, but the expectation is Harper will return in early September.

2022 Virtual Phillies Wall / 2022 Season Summary Index / 2022 Chachi Set Checklist