Arizona Diamondbacks at Philadelphia Phillies: Phils Look to Heat Up

2006 Topps #418

2026 Chachi 2006 Topps Missing Links #5

Friday, April 10th - 6:40
Saturday, April 11th - 1:05
Sunday, April 12th - 1:35

Citizens Bank Park - Philadelphia, PA
On Saturday, all kids will receive a Phillies hooded sweatshirt.  And it's the Phanatic's birthday on Sunday with kids getting a cool-looking Colonial Phanatic bobble head.

Arizona Diamondbacks 7-6
Tied for 2nd Place in the N.L. West, 2 1/2 games behind the Dodgers

Diamondbacks Probables
Michael Soroka (2-0, 0.90)
Brandon Pfaadt (0-0, 6.75)
Zac Gallen (1-1, 3.00)

Diamondbacks Leaders
Average:  Corbin Carroll - .333
Runs:  Corbin Carroll - 9
Home Runs:  Corbin Carroll and Jose Fernandez - 2
RBIs:  Corbin Carroll - 11
Stolen Bases:  Geraldo Perdomo and Alek Thomas - 2

Wins:  Michael Soroka - 2
ERA:  Eduardo Rodrigez - 0.50

Strikeouts:  Michael Soroka - 13
Saves:  Paul Sewald - 3

Philadelphia Phillies 6-6
4th Place in the N.L. East, 1 1/2 games behind the Braves and Marlins

Phillies Probables
Jesus Luzardo (1-1, 4.97)
Taijuan Walker (0-2, 9.31)
Andrew Painter (1-0, 4.82)

Phillies Leaders
Average:  Justin Crawford - .306
Runs:  Trea Turner - 9
Home Runs:  Kyle Schwarber - 3
RBIs:  Alec Bohm - 8
Stolen Bases:  Bryson Stott - 2

Wins:  Six tied with - 1
ERA:  Cristopher Sanchez - 1.65

Strikeouts:  Cristopher Sanchez - 23
Saves:  Jhoan Duran - 4

2026 Virtual Phillies Wall (Coming Soon) / 2026 Season Summary Index / 2026 Chachi Set Checklist

Series Preview - Phillies at Rockies: April 23rd to April 25th

2021 Chachi 1986 Topps Missing Links #14

2021 Chachi Fan Favorites #14

Friday 8:40, Saturday 8:10 and Sunday 3:10
Coors Field - Denver, CO

At the Ballpark:  The first 10,000 fans at each game this series will receive a Rockies tote bag presented by the MLB Network.  Coors Field is currently capped at 42.6% capacity, or about 21,000 fans.

Phillies 9-9
Tied for 1st Place in the N.L. East, 1 game ahead of the Braves and Marlins

Phillies Probables
Vince Velasquez (0-0, 9.00)
Aaron Nola (1-1, 2.19)
Chase Anderson (0-2, 4.15)

Phillies Leaders
Average:  Bryce Harper - .357
Runs:  Bryce Harper and Rhys Hoskins - 13
Home Runs:  Bryce Harper - 4
RBIs:  Alec Bohm and Didi Gregorius - 10
Stolen Bases:  3 tied with - 2

Wins:  Connor Brogdon - 3
ERA:  Aaron Nola - 2.19
Strikeouts:  Aaron Nola - 28
Saves:  Hector Neris - 2

Rockies 6-12
5th Place in the N.L. West, 7 1/2 games behind the Dodgers

Rockies Probables
German Marquez (1-1, 3.57)
Antonio Senzatela (1-3, 5.40)
Jon Gray (2-1, 2.42)

Rockies Leaders
Average:  Ryan McMahon - .275
Runs:  Garrett Hampson - 14
Home Runs:  Ryan McMahon - 6
RBIs:  Ryan McMahon - 10
Stolen Bases:  Garrett Hampson - 5

Wins:  Jon Gray - 2
ERA:  Jon Gray - 2.42

Strikeouts:  Jon Gray - 21
Saves:  Daniel Bard - 2

2021 Virtual Phillies Wall / 2021 Season Summary Index / 2021 Chachi Set Checklist

2006 Philadelphia Phillies Photo Cards

Number of Cards:  43
Card Size:  4" x 6"
Description:  The Phillies moved back to a simplified design with their 2006 team-issued set, with the fronts featuring full color photos and a white block design in one of the top corners.  The horizontal card backs once again feature biographical information and complete career statistics.

How Distributed:  The original 37-card, first version of this set was available for sale at Citizens Bank Park throughout at least the first month of the season.  At some point after the season was underway, and perhaps even as early as mid-May, four player cards were added, and for some reason the cards of coaches Mick Billmeyer and Milt Thompson were re-issued with different photos.  The cards of Tomas Perez, Ricardo Rodriguez and Robinson Tejada were removed from the second version of the set.  Rodriguez was released on March 29th, Tejada was traded to the Rangers on April 1st for David Dellucci and Perez was released on April 2nd.

The second version of the set was advertised with a sticker displayed prominently on the front of the packaging (see below).  Three of the four players added were on the team's opening day roster - Dellucci, Gavin Floyd and Geoff Geary.  Top prospect Cole Hamels was the fourth player added, and he was recalled from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on May 12th.  As the photo used for Hamels' card was taken during spring training, the Phillies could have rushed an updated version of the set to be ready for Hamels' debut or at least shortly thereafter.

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

1. Bobby Abreu (#53)          2. David Bell (#25) 3. Mick Billmeyer CO (#17)           4. Marc Bombard CO (#7) 5. Eude Brito (#58) 6. Pat Burrell (#5) 7. Rheal Cormier (#37) 8. Bill Dancy CO (#16) 9. Rich Dubee CO (#28) 10. Sal Fasano (#13) 11. Ryan Franklin (#23)  12. Aaron Fultz (#46) 13. Alex Gonzalez (#8)

14. Tom Gordon (#45) 15. Ramon Henderson CO (#31)           16. Ryan Howard (#6) 17. Cory Lidle (#30)        18. Jon Lieber (#21) 19. Mike Lieberthal (#24) 20. Ryan Madson (#63) 21. Charlie Manuel MG (#41) 22. Brett Myers (#39) 23. Abraham Nunez (#3) 24. Tomas Perez (#9) 25. Arthur Rhodes (#22)

26. Ricardo Rodriguez (#47) 27. Jimmy Rollins (#11)  28. Aaron Rowand (#33)          29. Julio Santana (#44) 30. Robinson Tejada (#50) 31. Milt Thompson CO (#15)           32. Chase Utley (#26) 33. Gary Varsho CO (#19) 34. Shane Victorino (#18) 35. Randy Wolf (#43) 36. Phillie Phanatic 37. Phillies Broadcasters

Complete Update Checklist, 2nd Version:  

1. Mick Billmeyer CO (#17) - In the dugout    2. David Dellucci (#2)

3. Gavin Floyd (#34) 4. Geoff Geary (#56)

5. Cole Hamels (#35)           6. Milt Thompson CO (#15) - Watching BP

One and Only Phillies Baseball Card (1):  Rodriguez

First Appearance in Phillies Team Issued Set (14):  Brito, Dellucci, Fasano, Franklin, Geary, Gonzalez, Hamels, Howard, Nunez, Rhodes, Rowand, Santana, Tejada, Victorino
Returning Players in Phillies Team Issued Set (16):  Abreu, Bell, Burrell, Cormier, Floyd, Fultz, Gordon, Lidle, Lieber, Lieberthal, Madson, Myers, Perez, Rollins, Utley, Wolf

Manager (1):  Manuel
Coaches (7):  Billmeyer (2), Bombard, Dancy, Dubee, Henderson, Thompson (2), Varsho
Phillie Phanatic (1)
Broadcasters (1):  The set contains the highly coveted Scott Franzke rookie card.  Franzke is featured along with fellow broadcasters Scott Graham, Chris Wheeler, Larry Andersen and Harry Kalas.

Version 1

Version 2

Version 1

Version 2

Surprises:  The Phillies made a flurry of roster moves before opening day, so the creator of this set's checklist can be forgiven for opting to include Rodriguez (who never played a game for the Phillies) Perez and Tejada and missing out on Dellucci, Floyd and Geary.

Omissions:  There are a few omissions here, although none are egregious.  Reliever Chris Booker started the season on the disabled list and was claimed off waivers by the Royals on May 10th.  There are a number of players who were seeing regular time with the club prior to the All-Star Break.  Catchers Carlos Ruiz and Chris Coste were both recalled at various points over the first few months of the season due to injuries to Mike Lieberthal and Sal Fasano.  Relievers Clay Condrey and Brian Sanches were up and down a few times as was outfielder Chris Roberson.  Rick White was claimed off waivers from the Reds on June 23rd.

The annual ALS Phillies Phestival was held on May 22nd.  The only players on the active 25-man roster on that date without photo cards are Coste, Roberson and Ruiz.  The Phillies acquired veterans Jamie Moyer, Jose Hernandez and Jeff Conine in August for an improbable pennant run, so there were plenty of options had the team decided to issue an update set.

Variations/Rarities:  Fellow collector Rick clued me in to cards being available with black facsimile autographs for four of the team's stars.

Facsimile Autographs        1. Pat Burrell (#5) 2. Ryan Howard (#6) 3. Mike Lieberthal (#24) 4. Jimmy Rollins (#11) Also See:  The Phillies gave away a set of Wall of Fame postcards on August 11th featuring cards of the 29 Wall of Famers, up through the 2006 induction of Dallas Green.  On Fan Appreciation Day, September 24th, the Phillies handed out a Topps team card pack containing 27 cards with yellow ink replacing the normal foil found on regular 2006 Topps cards.  There's a nice entry for the set over at 14,000 Phillies.

Resources:  Phillies collectors Steve and Rick (@rickphils).

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

2005 Philadelphia Phillies Photo Cards / 2007 Philadelphia Phillies Photo Cards

2000-Present Phillies Team-Issued Photo Cards Want List / Phillies Team Issued Sets Index Page

Tracking the Ex-Phillies - Featuring Utley, Revere, Fasano, Schu and More!

One of my annual habits is to review the complete rosters of all 30 Major League teams, paying particular attention to see where former Phillies have ended up.  I'll review the 40-man rosters, the non-roster invitees and the coaches pages on each team's website.  Even though I do this every year, I don't always formalize my findings in a post, but it seemed like a good idea this year to give me an excuse to create a few custom cards.

Presented below, at least by my unofficial tally, are the former Phillies players in camp across the majors this spring.  I'm only tracking those players (or coaches/managers) who spent time with the Phillies.  So while Jesse Biddle is in camp with the Braves, he won't appear on the list below as he never played for the big club.  (And I think some of these players may have already moved on.)

N.L. East
Atlanta Braves:  Sal Fasano - catching coach
Miami Marlins:  Tylor Cloyd - rhp (NRI), Brian Schneider - catching coach
New York Mets:  Ruben Amaro Jr. - first base coach, Ty Kelly - inf (NRI)
Washington Nationals:  Joaquin Benoit - rhp, Reid Brignac - inf (NRI) , Howie Kendrick - of, Ryan Madson - rhp

N.L. Central
Chicago Cubs:  Peter Bourjos - of (NRI)
Cincinnati Reds:  Billy Hatcher - third base coach, David Hernandez - rhp, Ben Revere - of (NRI), Darnell Sweeney - of (NRI), Vance Worley - rhp (NRI)
Milwaukee Brewers:  None
Pittsburgh Pirates:  Daniel Nava - of (NRI), Tom Prince - bench coach, Kevin Siegrist - lhp (NRI)
St. Louis Cardinals:  John Mabry - hitting coach, Mike Maddux - pitching coach


N.L. West
Arizona Diamondbacks:  Antonio Bastardo - lhp (NRI), Torey Lovullo - manager, Humberto Quintero - bullpen catcher
Colorado Rockies:  None
Los Angeles Dodgers:  Chase Utley - inf, Turner Ward - hitting coach
San Diego Padres:  A.J. Ellis - c (NRI), Freddy Galvis - inf, Michael Mariot - rhp (NRI), Matt Stairs - hitting coach
San Francisco Giants:  Andres Blanco - inf (NRI), Chase d'Arnaud - inf (NRI) Hunter Pence - of, Rich Schu - assistant hitting coach

A.L. East
Baltimore Orioles:  Alec Asher - rhp, Roger McDowell - pitching coach, Joely Rodriguez - lhp (NRI), John Russell - bench coach
Boston Red Sox:  Ron Roenicke - bench coach
New York Yankees:  Erik Kratz - c
Tampa Bay Rays:  Dustin McGowan - rhp (NRI), Colton Murray - rhp (NRI)
Toronto Blue Jays:  Ezequiel Carrera - of, J.A. Happ - lhp


A.L. Central
Chicago White Sox:  Jeanmar Gomez - rhp (NRI)
Cleveland Indians:  Terry Francona - manager, Michael Martinez - inf (NRI), Brad Mills - bench coach
Detroit Tigers:  Daniel Stumpf - lhp
Kansas City Royals:  Cody Asche - dh (NRI). Michael Saunders - of, Dale Sveum - bench coach
Minnesota Twins:  Taylor Featherston - inf (NRI), Brock Stassi - inf (NRI)

A.L. West
Houston Astros:  Ken Giles - rhp, A.J. Hinch - manager, Charlie Morton - rhp
Los Angeles Angels:  JC Ramirez - rhp
Oakland Athletics:  Brandon Moss - dh
Seattle Mariners:  Juan Nicasio - rhp, Cameron Perkins - of
Texas Rangers:  Jake Diekman - lhp, Cole Hamels - lhp, Dan Warthen - assistant pitching coach

2006 Upper Deck Special F/X #745 Sal Fasano

Nationals 5, Phillies 2
Game 10 - Thursday Night, April 16th in Washington
Record - 3-7, Tied for 4th Place, 4 games behind the Mets

One Sentence Summary:  Cole Hamels allowed two more home runs and turned in a mediocre pitching performance in a 5-2 loss to the Nationals.

What It Means:  The Phillies have lost five in a row and they've looked bad doing it.

What Happened:  Hamels pitched six innings, allowing five runs on five hits while walking four and striking out seven.  The Phillies runs came courtesy of an RBI-triple from Freddy Galvis in the third and a sacrifice fly from Darin Ruf in the fourth.

Featured Card:  Ryan Howard went 1 for 3 with a soft single to deep second/shallow right, raising his average to .167.  That in and of itself isn't that noteworthy, but what is noteworthy is that Howard was batting seventh in the line-up for the first time since April 21, 2006.  The eight-hole hitter in that game, hitting behind Howard, was Phillies Room favorite Sal Fasano.

No offense to Fasano here, but you know things are going poorly when I'm pulling out cards of former back-up catchers.

2006 Phillies Team Issue

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

 
Number of Cards:  43
Card Size:  4" x 6"
Description:  The Phillies moved back to a simplified design with their 2006 team issued set, with the fronts featuring full color photos and a white block design in one of the top corners.  The horizontal card backs once again feature biographical information and complete career statistics.

How Distributed:  The original 37-card set was available for sale at Citizens Bank Park throughout the first half of the season.  At some point in the second half of the season, six new cards were added, and the cards of Perez, Rodriguez and Tejada were removed.

In summary, a 37-card set was available at the start of the season and a 38-card set was available at some point during the second half of the season.  To have a "complete" set, there are 43 different cards needed.

Complete Standard Checklist (37):  The cards are unnumbered, but I've presented them below ordered by uniform number.

3 - Abraham Nunez 5 - Pat Burrell 6 - Ryan Howard 7 - Marc Bombard CO 8 - Alex Gonzalez 9 - Tomas Perez 11 - Jimmy Rollins 13 - Sal Fasano 15 - Milt Thompson CO 16 - Bill Dancy CO 17 - Mick Billmeyer CO 18 - Shane Victorino 19 - Gary Varsho CO 21 - Jon Lieber 22 - Arthur Rhodes 23 - Ryan Franklin 24 - Mike Lieberthal 25 - David Bell 26 - Chase Utley

28 - Rich Dubee CO 30 - Cory Lidle 31 - Ramon Henderson CO 33 - Aaron Rowand 37 - Rheal Cormier 39 - Brett Myers 41 - Charlie Manuel MG 43 - Randy Wolf 44 - Julio Santana 45 - Tom Gordon 46 - Aaron Fultz 47 - Ricardo Rodriguez 50 - Robinson Tejada 53 - Bobby Abreu 58 - Eude Brito 63 - Ryan Madson Phillie Phanatic Phillies Broadcasters

Complete Update Checklist (6):

2 - David Dellucci 15 - Milt Thompson CO (watching BP) 17 - Mick Billmeyer CO (posed photo)

34 - Gavin Floyd 35 - Cole Hamels 56 - Geoff Geary

One and Done (1):  Rodriguez
First Appearances (14):  Brito, Dellucci, Fasano, Franklin, Geary, Gonzalez, Hamels, Howard, Nunez, Rhodes, Rowand, Santana, Tejada, Victorino
Returning Players (16):  Abreu, Bell, Burrell, Cormier, Floyd, Fultz, Gordon, Lidle, Lieber, Lieberthal, Madson, Myers, Perez, Rollins, Utley, Wolf

Rodriguez never suited up with the Phillies.  He was acquired from the Rangers in December 2005 (for Vicente Padilla) and released at the very end of spring training 2006.

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.  Gonzalez appears as a Phillie in name only on his 2006 Fleer and Upper Deck cards.  He's wearing a Rays uniform on those cards, making the card found in this set his sole Phillies card on which he's actually wearing a Phillies uniform.

Manager (1):  Manuel
Coaches (9):  Billmeyer (two versions), Bombard, Dancy, Dubee, Henderson, Thompson (two versions), Varsho
Phillie Phanatic (1)
Broadcasters (1):  The set contains the much coveted Scott Franzke rookie card.  Franzke is featured along with fellow broadcasters Scott Graham, Chris Wheeler, Larry Andersen and Harry Kalas.
Commemorative Cards (0)

Variations/Rarities:  As Rick points out in his comment below, cards with black facsimile autographs can be found for Burrell, Howard, Lieberthal and Rollins.

Also See:  The Phillies issued a set of Wall of Fame postcards on August 11th featuring cards of the 29 Wall of Famers.  I'd eventually like to put together a post on this set.  On Fan Appreciation Day (September 24th), the Phillies handed out a Topps team card pack containing 27 cards with yellow ink replacing the normal foil found on regular 2006 Topps cards.  There's a nice entry for the set over at 14,000 Phillies.
Trivia:  Beckett.com lists the set as "2006 Phillies Postcards" and its checklist contains 38 cards, omitting the cards for Perez, Rodriguez and Tejada.  This is the version of the set that was available later in the season at Citizens Bank Park.
Resources:  Beckett.com; Phillies collectors Steve F. and Rick (@rickphils)

2006 Chachi #10 Sal Fasano

If I were to list my top five passions, it would go like this: family, baseball, Phillies, Beatles, Disney. Easy isn't it?

Today is a huge day for me and Beatles fans everywhere. The Beatles' entire back catalogue is being re-released in deluxe remastered format, available in cool looking mono and stereo box sets. The reviews of the new CDs make me extremely anxious to hear the songs in all their remastered glory. Today is also the release date for the new The Beatles: Rock Band video game, which is forcing me to ask Santa for a Wii for Christmas. (Santa - If you're reading this blog, I'd like a Wii and some late-'50s Phillies cards. Thanks.)

Why Sal Fasano?: I recently put on an old Sal’s Pals t-shirt (see picture), which led Doug to ask, “Is that your Beatles shirt?” My 2-year-old is familiar with the Beatles as a result of the recent introduction of Yellow Submarine into his DVD library. He made the honest mistake of thinking the image on the t-shirt was one of the Beatles. If you've seen Yellow Submarine before, you can appreciate it’s something a toddler would enjoy. His favorite songs are currently the title track and "All Together Now." My son seems to be musically inclined (the proud father says), and it brings me great joy to see the Beatles have entered into his world. In any event, Sal Fasano and the Beatles are now permanently linked in my mind.

Bonus Quiz: What's the Beatles connection to the time this post was published?