1993 Medford Philadelphia Phillies Photo Cards

Number of Cards:  45
Card Size:  4" x 6"

Description:  For the fifth year in a row, 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.  Medford Food Company was in the third year of its sponsorship of the set.  Size-wise, the cards lost an eighth of an inch with this set, settling into the 4" x 6" size that has been used for each team-issued photo card set produced by the Phillies as of this writing.

I always thought this was one of the weakest of the team issued sets from the 1990s, and it's a shame since the 1993 squad is really the only team from the 1990s worth remembering.  Some of the cards suffer from strange cropping, dark backgrounds and/or blurry photos.

How Distributed:  As originally detailed in this post from March 2013, the original 35-card set was available for sale at Veterans Stadium through at least early August.  A five-card update set was available for sale at some point during the second half of the season.  A second 36-card set was sold at the ballpark late in the season which included a Bobby Thigpen card and four photo variations of players included within the original 35-card set.  This second set would have been sold at The Vet at some point after Thigpen's acquisition from the White Sox on August 10th.

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

1. Kyle Abbott (#37 - LHP) 2. Ruben Amaro (#33 - OF) 3. Larry Andersen (#47 - RHP) 4. Bob Ayrault (#53 - RHP) 5. Kim Batiste (#5 - INF) 6. Juan Bell (#24 - INF) 7. Larry Bowa (#2 - Third Base Coach) 8. Wes Chamberlain (#44 - OF) 9. Darren Daulton (#10 - C) 10. Jose DeLeon (#50 - RHP) 11. Mariano Duncan (#7 - INF) 12. Lenny Dykstra (#4 - OF)

13. Jim Eisenreich (#8 - OF) 14. Jim Fregosi (#11 - MG) 15. Tyler Green (#28 - RHP) 16. Tommy Greene (#49 - RHP) 17. Dave Hollins (#15 - INF) 18. Pete Incaviglia (#22 - OF) 19. Danny Jackson (#27 - LHP) 20. Ricky Jordan (#17 - 1B) 21. John Kruk (#29 - 1B-OF) 22. Denis Menke (#14 - Hitting Instructor) 23. Mickey Morandini (#12 - INF) 24. Terry Mulholland (#45 - LHP)

25. Johnny Podres (#46 - Pitching Coach) 26. Todd Pratt (#23 - C) 27. Ben Rivera (#34 - RHP) 28. Mel Roberts (#26 - First Base Coach) 29. Mike Ryan (#9 - Bullpen Coach) 30. Curt Schilling (#38 - RHP) 31. Milt Thompson (#25 - OF) 32. John Vukovich (#18 - Dugout Assistant) 33. David West (#40 - LHP) 34. Mitch Williams (#99 - LHP) 35. Phillie Phanatic

Complete First Update Checklist (Unnumbered, presented here alphabetically with uniform number and position from the front of cards):

1. Jeff Manto (#30 - INF-C) 2. Roger Mason (#48 - RHP) 3. Kevin Stocker (#19 - INF)

4. Mike Williams (#41 - RHP)          5. 1993 Phillies All-Stars

Complete Second Update Checklist (Unnumbered, presented here alphabetically with uniform number and position from the front of cards):

1. Darren Daulton (dugout background) 2. Tommy Greene (dugout background) 3. Mickey Morandini (dugout background)

4. Bobby Thigpen (#37 - RHP) 5. Mitch Williams (bright background)

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

First Appearance in Phillies Team Issued Set (13):  Bell, DeLeon, Eisenreich, Green, Incaviglia, Jackson, Manto, Mason, Pratt, Stocker, Thigpen, West, Mike Williams
Returning Players in Phillies Team Issued Set (23):  Abbott, Amaro, Andersen, Ayrault, Batiste, Chamberlain, Daulton (x 2), Duncan, Dykstra, Greene (x 2), Hollins, Jordan, Kruk, Morandini (x 2), Mulholland, Rivera, Schilling, Thompson, Mitch Williams (x 2)

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

Phillie Phanatic (1):  The Phanatic is shown walking on the field with the green and black Veterans Stadium outfield wall behind him.

Broadcasters (0):  N/A
Other Cards (1):  1993 Phillies All-Stars, featuring Mulholland, Daulton, Fregosi, Kruk and Hollins.

Set Composition:  The original 35-card set includes the entire 25-man opening day roster and adds cards for Kyle Abbott and Ruben Amaro.  Amaro would be called up in mid-June, but Abbott would spend the entire season pitching in the minors.  The four players added to the first update set first appeared with the Phillies between mid-May and early July, with Kevin Stocker being the newest member of the bunch having been recalled on July 7th.

As mentioned above, the second update set only included one new player - Bobby Thigpen.  The reliever was acquired from the White Sox on August 10th in exchange for Jose DeLeon.

Omissions:  Early season roster additions who could have made an appearance in the first update set include Mark Davis, Doug Lindsey, Tim Mauser and Joe Millette.  All spent time with the club prior to Stocker's debut.  Joining the club prior to Thigpen's acquisition, but omitted from the second update set was Paul Fletcher, but he pitched in just one game.  September additions left out entirely were Tony Longmire, Donn Pall, Kevin Foster and Brad Brink.

Variations/Rarities:   Comments on earlier posts and e-mails from fellow collectors have led me to the six cards listed below, which I'm calling Non-Set Variations.  How and why these cards were created and issued is still unknown to me, although it's possible the Mike Schmidt card was created for the Annual Phillies ALS Charity Event, held on August 2nd.  Then again, the card comes with a printed black facsimile autograph, so it's doubtful it would have been created for Schmidt to add his actual signature.

Dale Murphy was released by the Phillies on April 3, 1993.  I originally thought the Davis and Mauser cards would have been created for the ALS event, but Davis was released on July 2nd and Mauser was traded to the Padres for Mason on July 3rd, a month before the cards would have been needed had both players still been with the team.

Non-Set Cards 1. Mark Davis 2. Tim Mauser 3. Dale Murphy

4. Dickie Noles (Blue Cross Blue Shield logo on back)   5. Mike Schmidt (with black facsimile autograph) 6. Kevin Stocker (running)

Also See:  1993 Topps Phillies; 1993 Medford Phillies Variations (March 2013) and Update (April 2013)

Resources:  Beckett.com; Phillies collector Rick (@rickphils)

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

1992 Medford Philadelphia Phillies Photo Cards / 1994 Philadelphia Phillies Photo Cards

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

Game 148 - 1992 Donruss Rookies #1 Kyle Abbott

Red Sox 6, Phillies 3
Game 148 - Sunday Afternoon, September 15th in Philadelphia
Record - 76-72, 4th place, 15 1/2 games behind the Braves

One Sentence Summary:  The Phillies continued their slow walk towards the offseason with this lazy 6-3 loss.

What It Means:  The Phillies currently trail the Cubs for the second Wild Card by 4 1/2 games with 14 games remaining.  They'll need to go 6-8 to finish the season with a winning record.  I'm thinking that payment I made to the Phillies for postseason tickets will either be refunded or applied toward my 2020 partial season ticket plan.  Either way, they got an interest free loan from me.

What Happened:  As Jim Salisbury bleakly Tweeted, the Phillies scored four runs in the two-game sweep at the hands of the Red Sox and they struck out 25 times.  Rhys Hoskins hit his 28th home run to tie the game at 1-1 in the second.  Cesar Hernandez and Jean Segura would later add RBI singles, but it wouldn't be enough.

Bryce Harper and Gabe Kapler were ejected in the fourth inning while Harper was complaining about a poor strike call from the home plate umpire.

Featured Card:  Jason Vargas has made nine starts for the Phillies and has won none of them.  As Jayson Stark Tweeted, the last Phillies pitcher with no wins in his first nine starts with the club was Kyle Abbott back in 1992.  Vargas threw away a double play ball in the first that eventually led to the Red Sox' first run and then he surrendered a grand slam to Christian Vazquez in the third.  We probably will need to endure two more Vargas starts this season.

1993 Medford Phillies

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

 
Number of Cards:  45
Card Size:  4" x 6"
Description:  For the fifth year in a row, 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.  Medford Food Company was in the third year of its sponsorship of the set.  Size-wise, the cards lost an eighth of an inch with this set, settling into the 4" x 6" size that has been used for each team issued set as of this writing.

I always thought this was one of the weakest of the team issued sets from the 1990s, and it's a shame since the 1993 squad is really the only team from the 1990s worth remembering.  Some of the cards suffer from strange cropping, too dark backgrounds and/or blurry photos.

How Distributed:  As originally detailed in this post, the original 35-card set was available for sale at Veterans Stadium through at least early August.  A five-card update set was available for sale at some point during the second half of the season.  A second 36-card set was sold at the ballpark late in the season which included a Bobby Thigpen card and four photo variations of players included within the original 35-card set.  This second set would have been sold at The Vet at some point after Thigpen's acquisition from the White Sox on August 10th.

Complete Standard Checklist (35):  The cards are unnumbered, but I've presented them below ordered by uniform number.

2 - Larry Bowa CO 4 - Lenny Dykstra 5 - Kim Batiste 7 - Mariano Duncan 8 - Jim Eisenreich 9 - Mike Ryan CO 10 - Darren Daulton 11 - Jim Fregosi MG 12 - Mickey Morandini 14 - Denis Menke CO 15 - Dave Hollins 17 - Ricky Jordan 18 - John Vukovich CO 22 - Pete Incaviglia 23 - Todd Pratt 24 - Juan Bell 25 - Milt Thompson 26 - Mel Roberts CO

27 - Danny Jackson 28 - Tyler Green 29 - John Kruk 33 - Ruben Amaro 34 - Ben Rivera 37 - Kyle Abbott 38 - Curt Schilling 40 - David West 44 - Wes Chamberlain 45 - Terry Mulholland 46 - Johnny Podres CO 47 - Larry Andersen 49 - Tommy Greene 50 - Jose DeLeon 53 - Bob Ayrault 99 - Mitch Williams Phillie Phanatic

Complete First Update Checklist (5):

19 - Kevin Stocker 30 - Jeff Manto 41 - Mike Williams

48 - Roger Mason 1993 Phillies All-Stars

Complete Second Update Checklist (5):

10 - Darren Daulton (dugout background) 12 - Mickey Morandini (dugout background) 37 - Bobby Thigpen

49 - Tommy Greene (dugout background) 99 - Mitch Williams (bright background)

As mentioned above, these five cards were variations found within a late season 36-card set.

One and Done (0)
First Appearances (13):  Bell, DeLeon, Eisenreich, Green, Incaviglia, Jackson, Manto, Mason, Pratt, Stocker, Thigpen, West, Mike Williams
Returning Players (23):  Abbott, Amaro, Andersen, Ayrault, Batiste, Chamberlain, Daulton (x 2), Duncan, Dykstra, Greene (x 2), Hollins, Jordan, Kruk, Morandini (x 2), Mulholland, Rivera, Schilling, Thompson, Mitch Williams (x 2)

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):  Fregosi
Coaches (6):  Bowa, Menke, Podres, Roberts, Ryan, Vukovich
Phillie Phanatic (1):  The Phanatic is shown walking on the field with the green and black Veterans Stadium outfield wall behind him.
Broadcasters (0)
Commemorative Cards (1):  1993 Phillies All-Stars, featuring Mulholland, Daulton, Fregosi, Kruk and Hollins.

Variations/Rarities:  In addition to the multiple updates available at the Vet throughout the season, it appears as if other cards may have been available either at the annual ALS fund-raising event, or individually to players to honor autograph requests.  Based on a comment to this post, collector Bill W. points out the following 1993 variations in his collection.  Murphy was released prior to the start of the 1993 season and both Davis and Mauser pitched for the Phillies early on in the season.  Per Rick's comment below (and the scans he e-mailed to me) there was also a Schmidt card issued.

3 - Dale Murphy 19 - Kevin Stocker (running) 20 - Mike Schmidt

48 - Mark Davis 52 - Tim Mauser

Also See:  1993 Topps Phillies
Trivia:  The Beckett database makes no mention of any of the update cards, listing only a 35-card set.
Resources:  Beckett.com; 14,000 Phillies; Phillies collector Rick (@rickphils)

1992 Pinnacle #432 Kyle Abbott

Rockies 5, Phillies 2
Game 70 - Sunday Afternoon, June 16th in Denver
Record - 33-37

One Sentence Summary:  The Phillies played like they had a plane to catch, folding easily against the Rockies and losing the final game of the series, 5-2.

What It Means:  It means the disastrous road trip is over with the Phillies losing seven of their last nine games.  They limp home to start a three-game series against the Nationals tonight.

What Went Wrong:  The Phillies showed a little bit of life in the ninth, scoring twice on three hits, but it wasn't enough to make up for the eight previous innings of lifelessness.  In eight innings against Rockies pitcher Jhoulys Chacin, the Phils managed three singles.  This amazing stat was reported by CSN's Reuben Frank:

Phillies faced 90 pitches today, the fewest pitches they've faced in a 9-inning game since they faced 90 on June 27, 1997 [G. Maddux].
— Reuben Frank (@RoobCSN) June 16, 2013

Cole Hamels was the hard-luck loser, dropping his record to 2-10.  Hamels allowed three runs in his seven innings of work.

Featured Card:  Hamels now has the dubious distinction of becoming the first Phillies pitcher since Kyle Abbott in 1992 to lose ten games before the All-Star Game.  Who would have guessed that Hamels would be mentioned in the same conversation as Abbott when this season started?

1992 Topps Phillies

1992 Topps #244, #30, #383 and #200

1992 was a year of change.  I moved 500 miles away from my hometown and started my freshman year of college.  I left my family, my house and my baseball card collection behind and embarked on a new, exciting and occasionally scary journey.

I remember feeling particularly blue one fall day in '92 and being pleasantly surprised to find the Sundry Shop on the Quad sold packs of baseball cards.  There was nothing too exciting for sale - just a few packs of left-over 1992 Topps and 1992 Fleer packs.  I bought two or three packs that day and I'll admit that I spent money intended for food on more packs in the weeks ahead.  Flipping through my 1992 Phillies binder now, I'm reminded just how comforting those packs of baseball cards were to me.

1992 Topps #30 (Back)

The Set

Number of cards in the set:  For the 11th and final year in a row, there are 792 cards in the base set and 132 cards in the traded set.

My very brief thoughts on the set:  This was the first Topps flagship set since 1980 that I did not hand collate.  As I alluded to at the outset, I took the end of High School fairly hard and I all but ignored baseball cards for a big chunk of the year.  (I think Santa brought the factory set for Christmas that year.)  That being said, it's a nice set.  After years and years of gray cardstock, it was a bit stunning to hold a Topps baseball card produced on thinner, white cardstock.  The panoramic view of Veterans Stadium on the backs of some of the cards was a very cool touch.  And I appreciated the return to horizontal card fronts on some of the cards for the first time since 1974.

Notable competition:  1992 was a good year for baseball cards.  It seems as if each of the manufacturers stepped up their game and tried to bring something new to their customers.  The cards were glossier and more thought went into each set's design.  After the lackluster collecting years of 1990 and 1991, the card companies turned things around and started making product that baseball card collectors wanted to collect.  Unfortunately, the card companies did not know when to say when, and we as collectors would soon be bombarded with an absolute deluge of new product in the years ahead.  This was the year the dam started to crack before the flood of way too many different sets overwhelmed me from 1993 through the mid-2000s.

1992 Topps #587, #52, 1992 Topps Traded #5T and 1992 Topps #14

1992 Phillies

Record and finish:  With a record of 70-92, the Phils finished in last place in the N.L. East, 26 games behind the Pirates.

Key players:  Darren Daulton finally arrived, leading the league with 109 RBIs and hitting 27 home runs.  Dave Hollins matched Dutch's 27 home runs and drove in 93 runs to boot.  He finished second in the league with 104 runs scored.  John Kruk enjoyed a solid season, hitting .323 with 10 home runs and 70 RBIs.  The newly acquired Curt Schilling led the pitching staff with 14 wins and a 2.35 ERA.  Terry Mulholland put together another steady season with a 13-11 record and a 3.81 ERA, while leading the league with 12 complete games.  Closer Mitch Williams saved 29 games.  So what went wrong?

Key events:  What went wrong was that 17 different players spent time on the disabled list, including key contributors such as Lenny Dykstra, Tommy Greene and Dale Murphy.  The active roster consisted of a revolving cast of prospects and suspects throughout the year as 48 different players suited up for the 1992 Phillies.  Mickey Morandini recorded an unassisted triple play in September and reserve catcher Jeff Grotewold became the first player in history to hit three pinch-hit home runs in three consecutive games.

1992 Phillies in 1992 Topps

Cards needed for a complete team set:  There are 32 Phillies cards in the base set and another 3 Phillies cards in the traded set.  Once again, Topps opted to include 26 players from Team USA in the traded set, denying several deserving Major Leaguers their traded cards.

Who’s in:

• Cards of the eight starting position players - 7 cards

#244 Darren Daulton (c), #30 John Kruk (1b), #587 Mickey Morandini (2b), #383 Dave Hollins (3b), #30T Mariano Duncan (lf), #200 Lenny Dykstra (cf), #5T Ruben Amaro, Jr. (rf)

Shortstop Juan Bell was acquired in August and took over shortstop duties from the struggling Kim Batiste/Dale Sveum combination.

• Cards of the starting pitching rotation - 3 cards

#100T Curt Schilling, #719 Terry Mulholland, #83 Tommy Greene

Kyle Abbott, who started 19 games, was omitted from the traded set, as was Ben Rivera who started 14 games.  

1992 Topps Traded #100T, 1992 Topps #719, #763 and #83

It's a bit jarring seeing the team's new uniform side-by-side with their old uniforms.  When teams update their uniforms now, the Photoshopping gremlins at Topps busily transform players into their new-look uniforms before the cards are released.  As a side note, I always thought it was cool that there were no Phillies cards in the first series of 1992 Leaf.  Leaf waited until they had photos of the Phillies in their new uniforms before dropping every Phillies card into its second series.

• Base cards of players who played with the Phillies in 1992 - 15 cards

#14 Wes Chamberlain, #103 Ricky Jordan, #258 Jim Lindeman, #331 Steve Lake, #353 Braulio Castillo, #434 Wally Backman, #456 Pat Combs, #484 Mike Hartley, #497 Andy Ashby, #514 Kim Batiste, #544 Cliff Brantley, #599 Steve Searcy, #633 Mitch Williams, #680 Dale Murphy, #791 Danny Cox

• Base cards of players who didn't play with the Phillies in 1992 - 8 cards (with new teams listed)

#63 Randy Ready (A's), #135 Von Hayes (Angels), #159 Darrin Fletcher (Expos), #307 Bruce Ruffin (Brewers), #471 Jose DeJesus (injured), #557 Dickie Thon (Rangers), #696 Joe Boever (Astros), #754 Charlie Hayes (Yankees)

• #1 Draft Pick card - 1 card, #764 Tyler Green
• Manager card - 1 card, #669 Jim Fregosi

1992 Topps #633, #484, #361 and #478

Who’s out:  Rivera and Abbott might have appeared in the traded series if not for the Team USA cards.  Relievers Bob Ayrault (30 games) and Wally Ritchie (40 games) were also deserving of cards.

Phillies on other teams:  An entire 9-pocket page (+1) is needed to contain the 1992 Phillies players who had cards in the set featuring them on other teams.  Ruben Amaro, Jr. (#269 with the Angels), Mariano Duncan (#589 with the Reds) and Curt Schilling (#316 with the Astros) all wound up in the traded set as Phillies.  But these 7 players did not:  #52 Juan Bell (Orioles), #85 Jose DeLeon (Cardinals), #361 Barry Jones (Expos), #373 Don Robinson (Giants), #478 Dale Sveum (Brewers), #581 Stan Javier (Dodgers) and #763 Kyle Abbott (Angels).

What’s he doing here:  One of the things I like about the recent Series 1 releases from Topps is that they give us cards of players on their new teams, as long as those players switched teams early in the off-season.  Ready, Von Hayes, Fletcher, Ruffin and Thon were all long gone by Christmas 1991, but they appear as Phillies in the 1992 Topps set.  

Cards that never were candidates:  Grotewold, Bell, Rivera, Abbott, Javier, Sveum, Jones and Don Robinson.  Robinson wrapped up his 15-year career with 8 uneventful starts for the Phillies.

Favorite Phillies card:  There are some great action photos on these cards, but my favorite two are Spring Training shots featuring Greene and Mulholland on the mound.  Greene's card edges Mulholland's due to the blurry ball heading towards the photographer.  My favorite non-Phillies card is Javier's, which features two soon-to-be members of the 1992 Phillies squad on it.

1992 Topps Traded #30T, 1992 Topps #581 and #103

Other Stuff

Recycled:  If Topps has re-used this design for any Phillies cards since 1992, I don't have them in my collection.

Blogs/Websites:  There aren't many people out there writing about the 1992 Topps set, so I'm going to go ahead and link to a few of my prior Scrapbook Sunday posts.  Here's a post featuring the 1948-style uniforms the team wore on its Turn Back the Clock day on June 21, 1992.  My scrapbook page from the 1992 All-Star Game features a rare photo of Kruk wearing a Braves jersey.  And here's a page from the start of the '92 season, when the team first started to realize that things were going very wrong, very quickly.

Did You Know?:  On Opening Day 1992, I skipped school to go to the game and see the team's new uniforms first hand.  This was before the days of internet leaks, so Opening Day 1992 was truly the first time all 60,000+ of us in attendance were witnessing the new look Phillies.  The team went so far as to conduct Spring Training that year wearing their old maroon uniforms.  I seem to recall the Phillie Phanatic blowing up a safe during a pre-game ceremony containing the new uniforms and then proudly displayed the new duds to the excited crowd.  Little did we know that we'd have very little else to cheer throughout the upcoming season.  (However, with the exception of one pitch from Mitch Williams to Joe Carter, 1993 would turn out just fine.)

Dang Blogger label limitations mean that Stan Javier and Ricky Jordan won't be tagged in this post.  Sorry guys.