1992 Medford Phillies

I updated this post here in August 2023 and this original post is now outdated.

 
Number of Cards:  46
Card Size:  4 1/8" x 6"
Description:  For the fourth 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 second year of its sponsorship of the set.

In the spring of 1992, the new Phillies uniform were kept top secret and they didn't make their public debut until opening day.  The cards in this set feature portraits of all players, coaches and the manager in their new uniforms, and (in my opinion) this is one of the nicer team issued sets released by the Phillies.

How Distributed:  The original 36-card base set was available for sale at Veterans Stadium throughout the 1992 season.  The ten card update set was available for sale late in the season.

Complete Standard Checklist (36):  The cards are unnumbered, but I've presented them below ordered by uniform number.

2 - Larry Bowa CO 3 - Dale Murphy 4 - Lenny Dykstra 5 - Kim Batiste 6 - Wally Backman 7 - Mariano Duncan 8 - Dale Sveum 10 - Darren Daulton 11 - Jim Fregosi MG 12 - Mickey Morandini 14 - Denis Menke CO 15 - Dave Hollins 18 - John Vukovich CO 19 - Jim Lindeman 24 - Steve Searcy 25 - Mike Ryan CO 26 - Mel Roberts CO 28 - Mitch Williams

29 - John Kruk 30 - Steve Lake 33 - Ruben Amaro 34 - Danny Cox 38 - Curt Schilling 39 - Wally Ritchie 40 - Andy Ashby 44 - Wes Chamberlain 45 - Terry Mulholland 46 - Johnny Podres CO 47 - Kyle Abbott 49 - Tommy Greene 50 - Barry Jones 51 - Cliff Brantley Phillie Phanatic Phillies Team Veterans Stadium Uniforms Through the Years

Complete Update Checklist (10):

9 - Tom Marsh 17 - Ricky Jordan 21 - Pat Combs 23 - Brad Brink 34 - Ben Rivera

35 - Don Robinson 42 - Mike Hartley 45 - Terry Mulholland 48 - Jeff Grotewold 55 - Bob Ayrault

One and Done (1):  Robinson
First Appearances (13):  Abbott, Amaro, Ayrault, Batiste, Brantley, Duncan, Grotewold, Hartley, Jones, Marsh, Rivera, Schilling, Sveum
Returning Players (21):  Ashby, Backman, Brink, Chamberlain, Combs, Cox, Daulton, Dykstra, Greene, Hollins, Jordan, Kruk, Lake, Lindeman, Morandini, Mulholland (two versions), Murphy, Ritchie, Searcy, Williams

Don Robinson's eight game stint with the Phillies to wrap up his 15-year career is commemorated with his sole Phillies baseball card in the update set.  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):  Like everyone else in the set, the Phanatic is posed in a studio setting, wearing his new uniform.
Broadcasters (0)
Commemorative Cards (0):  Uniforms Through the Years
Other Cards (2):  Phillies Team, Veterans Stadium

I've shown off the Uniforms Through the Years set in past posts (see the links below), and it's by far one of the coolest cards ever produced for the team issued sets.  Veterans Stadium gets its first card since the 1984 Tastykake Phillies set.

Variations/Rarities:  As Rick points out in his comment below, the Phillies issued the following cards at the annual ALS fund raising event (Phillies Phestival) for players and former players signing autographs.  Of particular interest to me are the cards of the four members of the 1992 squad who didn't have cards in the regular or update sets - Baller, Javier, Millette and Mike Williams.

Steve also commented that Maddox, Noles and Pratt cards are in his collection with a 1992 copyright.  These cards most likely also orginated from the ALS event.

Jay Baller - 1992 Phillies Stan Javier - 1992 Phillies Joe Millette - 1992 Phillies Todd Pratt - 1992 Phillies Mike Williams - 1992 Phillies Dick Allen - Phillies Alumni Steve Bedrosian - Phillies Alumni Dave Cash - Phillies Alumni Sparky Lyle - Phillies Alumni

Garry Maddox - Phillies Alumni Tug McGraw - Phillies Alumni Dickie Noles - Phillies Alumni Bobby Shantz - Phillies Alumni Joe Coleman, Jr. - Non-Phillie Joe Coleman, Sr. - Non-Phillie Joe Torre - Non-Phillie Elmer Valo - Philadelphia A's

Also See:  Scrapbook Sunday: April 7, 1992; Uniforms Through the Years
Trivia:  Mulholland appears twice in the set - once in the original 36-card set and again in the update set.  This of course is very odd and the additional card in the update set could have been used for Stan Javier, who had been acquired from the Dodgers on July 2nd.
Resources:  Beckett.com; Phillies collectors Rick (@rickphils) and Steve F.

Scrapbook Sunday: July 3, 1992

1993 Topps #712 Stan Javier

Not all trade deadlines have been as exciting as the past few years for the Phillies. Take 1992, for example. (No really, please take it.) Well before the deadline that year, the Phillies pulled the trigger on a less-than-blockbuster deal sending reliever Steve Searcy to the Dodgers for outfielder Stan Javier. The deal was necessitated by Lenny Dykstra's bum hamstring. The team wasn't going anywhere in July of '92, so I guess the deal was made because of a complete lack of depth at the AAA level. At the time of the deal, Javier was hitting below the Mendoza line, although he'd go 3 for 4 in his first game with the Phillies, against his former Dodger teammates.

Javier ended up doing a decent job for the Phils in the second half of the '92 season. In total, he appeared in 74 games for the team, hitting .261 in the process. He shifted over to left when Dykstra returned from the DL, knocking Mariano Duncan back to the infield, and he shifted back to center in mid-August when injuries finally ended Dykstra's season. Javier bounced around the league for 9 more years, finally calling it quits in 2001 after a 17-year career.

Searcy, who appeared in 28 games with the '91 and '92 Phils, never pitched for the Dodgers. He pitched in the Dodgers' system in '92 and in the Orioles system in '93 before calling it a career. The player to be named later shipped to the Dodgers was outfielder Julio Peguero. Peguero played in 14 games for the '92 Phils, hitting .222.