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Card Size: 4 7/8" x 6 1/4"
Description: The Phillies broke the mold for their 1988 photo card set and went with a set of supersized cards. The fronts of the cards feature full color action photos while the backs contain biographical information and complete minor and Major League statistics. The nine photo cards found in the update set have blank backs. I've always thought this was one of the more impressive team-issued sets released by the Phillies, but I guess the larger size may have indirectly led to less cards in the set. This is seventh year in a row the set was sponsored by Tastykake.
How Distributed: Saturday, April 9, 1988, the first Saturday night home game of the season, was Tastykake Photo Card day with all fans receiving the original 30-card set. (The Phillies won the game, 9-3 over the Mets, behind a complete game effort from Don Carman and 5 RBIs from Lance Parrish.) The set was comprised of the entire opening day roster, 1987 Cy Young Award winner Steve Bedrosian, who opened the season on the disabled list, manager Lee Elia and cards for the coaches, top prospects, a team photo and the Phillie Phanatic.
The nine-card update set was released later in the season, and I believe was sold at various vendor stands throughout Veterans Stadium. The update set checklist would have been finalized in mid-July as Larry Bowa took over for the fired Dave Bristol on July 15th and Ricky Jordan was recalled on July 16th.
Complete Update Checklist (Unnumbered, presented here alphabetically with uniform number and position from the front of cards):
Managers (2): Elia (2)
Coaches (3): The coaches card in the base set includes Dave Bristol, Claude Osteen, Mike Ryan, Tony Taylor, Del Unser and John Vukovich. Bowa and Vukovich get solo cards in the update set.
Surprises: The original 30-card set doesn't have many surprises, although there are a few omissions - see below. The update set surprises me somewhat as I'm not sure why the Phillies decided we needed a second card of manager Elia and a stand-alone card of coach John Vukovich. For some background here, the Phillies fired third base coach Bristol and hitting coach Del Unser on July 15th. Vukovich, who had been serving as Elia's bench coach, moved over to third for a few games before the Phillies hired old friend Bowa who had recently been let go as the Padres manager. Vukovich would switch jobs again on September 23rd, taking over as interim manager when Elia was fired. Bowa wore #16 in his first stint as a Phillies coach, before switching to #2 at the start of the 1989 season.
Omissions: If we use July 16th as a cut-off date for the update set, there are a few more deserving candidates. The oft-injured pitcher Bill Dawley was recalled from Maine on April 22nd but was on the disabled list between May 11th and August 18th. Reliever Danny Clay was recalled on April 30th and had three different stints with the Phillies in between trips back to Maine. The only other possibility is pitcher Bill Scherrer who joined the team on July 5th but was gone less than a month later on August 2nd. Wild speculation on my part here, but maybe one or more of those three pitchers were slated to receive cards in the update set only to be replaced by second cards for Elia and Vukovich.
Variations/Rarities: As fellow collector Rick e-mailed me, there's also a smaller-sized Mike Schmidt card available, featuring the same photo as his regular 1988 Tastykake photo card, but on a smaller scale.
Complete Standard Checklist (Unnumbered, presented here alphabetically with uniform number and position from the front of cards):
1. Luis Aguayo (#16 - INF) 2. Bill Almon (#15 - INF) 3. Steve Bedrosian (#40 - P) 4. Phil Bradley (#29 - OF) 5. Jeff Calhoun (#31 - P) 6. Don Carman (#42 - P) 7. Darren Daulton (#10 - C) 8. Bob Dernier (#22 - OF) 9. Lee Elia (#4 - MG, Vertical) 10. Todd Frohwirth (#52 - P) | 11. Greg Gross (#21 - OF-1B) 12. Kevin Gross (#46 - P) 13. Von Hayes (#9 - 1B) 14. Chris James (#18 - OF) 15. Steve Jeltz (#30 - SS) 16. Mike Maddux (#44 - P) 17. David Palmer (#45 - P) 18. Lance Parrish (#13 - C) 19. Shane Rawley (#28 - P) 20. Wally Ritchie (#38 - P) | 21. Bruce Ruffin (#47 - P) 22. Juan Samuel (#8 - 2B) 23. Mike Schmidt (#20 - 3B) 24. Kent Tekulve (#27 - P) 25. Milt Thompson (#24 - CF) 26. Mike Young (#19 - OF) 27. Phillies Coaches 28. Phillies Prospects 29. Team Card 30. Phillie Phanatic |
| 1. Larry Bowa (#16 - CO) 2. Lee Elia (#4 - MG, Horizontal) 3. Jackie Gutierrez (#15 - INF) | 4. Greg Harris (#33 - P) 5. Ricky Jordan (#17 - 1B) 6. Keith Miller (#11 - INF-OF) | 7. John Russell (#6 - C) 8. John Vukovich (#7 - CO) 9. Phillies Broadcasters |
One and Only Phillies Baseball Card (1): Almon
First Appearance in Phillies Team Issued Set (7): Bradley, Gutierrez, Harris, Jordan, Miller, Palmer, Young
Returning Players in Phillies Team Issued Set (22): Aguayo, Bedrosian, Calhoun, Carman, Daulton, Dernier, Frohwirth, G. Gross, K. Gross, Hayes, James, Jeltz, Maddux, Parrish, Rawley, Ritchie, Ruffin, Russell, Samuel, Schmidt, Tekulve, Thompson
Returning Players in Phillies Team Issued Set (22): Aguayo, Bedrosian, Calhoun, Carman, Daulton, Dernier, Frohwirth, G. Gross, K. Gross, Hayes, James, Jeltz, Maddux, Parrish, Rawley, Ritchie, Ruffin, Russell, Samuel, Schmidt, Tekulve, Thompson
Managers (2): Elia (2)
Coaches (3): The coaches card in the base set includes Dave Bristol, Claude Osteen, Mike Ryan, Tony Taylor, Del Unser and John Vukovich. Bowa and Vukovich get solo cards in the update set.
Phillie Phanatic (1): The Phanatic is once again pictured atop his ATV.
Broadcasters (1): Features Richie Ashburn, Harry Kalas, Garry Maddox, Andy Musser and Chris Wheeler
Phillies Prospects (1): Features eight prospects on one card - Tom Barrett, Brad Brink, Steve DeAngelis, Ron Jones, Keith Miller, Brad Moore, Howard Nichols and Shane Turner. DeAngelis and Nichols never played for the Phillies.
Other Cards (1): Team card
Phillies Prospects (1): Features eight prospects on one card - Tom Barrett, Brad Brink, Steve DeAngelis, Ron Jones, Keith Miller, Brad Moore, Howard Nichols and Shane Turner. DeAngelis and Nichols never played for the Phillies.
Other Cards (1): Team card
Surprises: The original 30-card set doesn't have many surprises, although there are a few omissions - see below. The update set surprises me somewhat as I'm not sure why the Phillies decided we needed a second card of manager Elia and a stand-alone card of coach John Vukovich. For some background here, the Phillies fired third base coach Bristol and hitting coach Del Unser on July 15th. Vukovich, who had been serving as Elia's bench coach, moved over to third for a few games before the Phillies hired old friend Bowa who had recently been let go as the Padres manager. Vukovich would switch jobs again on September 23rd, taking over as interim manager when Elia was fired. Bowa wore #16 in his first stint as a Phillies coach, before switching to #2 at the start of the 1989 season.
Vukovich and Elia aren't the only two to appear in the set twice. Prospect Keith Miller is one of eight prospects on the multi-player Phillies Prospects card and then he received his own card in the update set. Five of the eight players on the Prospects card appeared with the Phillies in 1988 - Tom Barrett, Ron Jones, Miller, Brad Moore and Shane Turner.
Omissions: If we use July 16th as a cut-off date for the update set, there are a few more deserving candidates. The oft-injured pitcher Bill Dawley was recalled from Maine on April 22nd but was on the disabled list between May 11th and August 18th. Reliever Danny Clay was recalled on April 30th and had three different stints with the Phillies in between trips back to Maine. The only other possibility is pitcher Bill Scherrer who joined the team on July 5th but was gone less than a month later on August 2nd. Wild speculation on my part here, but maybe one or more of those three pitchers were slated to receive cards in the update set only to be replaced by second cards for Elia and Vukovich.
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Resources: Beckett.com; Phillies collector Rick G.
This set was originally featured in a post back in October 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.
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