1980 Philadelphia Phillies Photo Cards

Number of Cards:  38
Card Size:  3 1/4" x 5 1/2"

Description:  As was the case with all Phillies team-issued photo cards issued since 1970, these cards feature a black and white photo with the players' name below.  The backs of the cards are blank and there's no indication on the cards themselves they're from 1980.  Some of the cards contain blue facsimile autographs, as noted on the checklist below.  One way to tell if the photo card is from 1980 is the fact that these are the only photo cards from this era on which the majority of the players' names aren't all in capital letters.  I've listed below those few cards on which the player's name is in all capitals.  (Thanks to Phillies collector Rick and his scanned checklist shown here.)

How Distributed:  The cards were handed out to fans individually and supplied to the players in order to reply to fan mail or honor autograph requests.  I could be wrong, but I don't believe these cards were ever available in complete set form.

I'm theorizing that the cards with the players' names in capital letters were issued later in the season, as Ramon Aviles, Dan Larson and Bob Walk were not on the opening day roster and all made their 1980 debuts in late April or May.  Nino Espinosa and Warren Brusstar are the outliers here as those pitchers made their 1980 debuts in July and their names on their cards use upper and lower case letters.  Brusstar, who started the season on the disabled list and first pitched for the Phillies on July 13th, is the latest player to appear in a game in 1980 and appear on one of these photo cards.

Complete Standard Checklist (Unnumbered, presented here alphabetically): 

1. Luis Aguayo 2. Ruben Amaro CO 3. Ramon Aviles (capitals) 4. Bob Boone  5. Larry Bowa 6. Warren Brusstar 7. Steve Carlton 8. Larry Christenson 9. Billy DeMars CO (auto) 10. Lee Elia CO (auto) 11. Nino Espinosa 12. Dallas Green MG (auto)           13. Greg Gross

14. Lerrin LaGrow (auto) 15. Dan Larson (capitals) 16. Randy Lerch  17. Greg Luzinski 18. Garry Maddox (auto) 19. Bake McBride (auto) 20. Tug McGraw (auto) 21. Keith Moreland (auto) 22. Scott Munninghoff 23. Dickie Noles (auto) 24. Ron Reed 25. Pete Rose (batting, auto) 26. Pete Rose (portrait, auto, capitals)

27. Dick Ruthven (auto) 28. Mike Ryan CO 29. Kevin Saucier 30. Mike Schmidt 31. Lonnie Smith (auto)   32. Herm Starrette CO (auto) 33. Manny Trillo 34. Del Unser 35. George Vukovich 36. John Vukovich 37. Bob Walk (capitals) 38. Bobby Wine CO

One and Only Phillies Baseball Card (3):  LaGrow, Larson, Munninghoff

First Appearance in Phillies Team Issued Set (4):  Aguayo, Moreland, G. Vukovich, Walk
Returning Players in Phillies Team Issued Set (24):  Aviles, Boone, Bowa, Brusstar, Carlton, Christenson, Espinosa, Gross, Lerch, Luzinski, Maddox, McBride, McGraw, Noles, Reed, Rose (2), Ruthven, Saucier, Schmidt, Smith, Trillo, Unser, J. Vukovich

Manager (1):  Green
Coaches (6):  Amaro, DeMars, Elia, Ryan, Starrette, Wine

Surprises:  Not to sound like too much of a weirdo, but the seven-year-old me would have loved to have added Scott Munninghoff's card to my collection.  He was one of those guys who was in the prospect section of the yearbook and no one in my little circle of young Phillies fans had any idea who he was.  Munninghoff made the team's opening day roster, appeared in four games, and was sent back to Oklahoma City in early May where he'd stay the rest of the season.

Omissions:  The entire opening day roster, every coach and manager Dallas Green all received cards.  Every player to have suited up for the Phillies in 1980 prior to September also received cards, with Espinosa and Brusstar, as noted above, being the latest additions.  The Phillies had 9 September additions to their roster who understandably did not receive photo cards:  Jay Loviglio, Marty Bystrom, Bob Dernier, Tim McCarver, Orlando Isales, Mark Davis, Sparky Lyle, Don McCormack and Ozzie Virgil.

Variations/Rarities:  Rose appeared on two different versions of photo cards in 1980, no doubt due to high autograph request demands.  Phillies collector Rick sent me a scan of his checklist for this set cluing me in to the fact that cards for Bake McBride and Dickie Noles can be found both with and without facsimile autographs.  A few years back, I also added Lerrin LaGrow and Keith Moreland cards to my collection without facsimile autographs.  Also, fellow collector Steve indicates there could be a Nino Espinosa variation card available and for the sake of completeness, I've added it here too.

Finally, while not part of the team-issued set, there is a 1980 black and white photo card of the Phillie Phanatic issued by Harrison/Erickson and this card is roughly the same size as the rest of the 1980 set.

No Facsimile Autograph       1. Lerrin LaGrow 2. Bake McBride 3. Keith Moreland 4. Dickie Noles

Mystery Variation?  1. Nino Espinosa

Harrison/Erickson   1. Phillie Phanatic

Resources:  The Trading Card Database; Beckett.com; Phillies collectors Steve and Rick (@rickphils).

It was only through the awesome photos provided at The Trading Card Database for this set I was able to originally identify these cards as being from 1980.  Collector Dave Sosidka uploaded the checklist and scans of all cards to the database back in 2011.  However, The Trading Card Database entry for this set omits the card for Munninghoff and the portrait version of Rose's card.

The Beckett database entry for this set lists the set as "Phillies Postcards" and omits the cards for Garry Maddox, Noles, John Vukovich and the second Rose card.

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

1979 Phillies Team-Issued Photo Cards / 1981 Phillies Team-Issued Photo Cards

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

Series Preview - Phillies at Tigers: July 23rd to July 24th

1971 Topps #138

1971 Topps #39

Tuesday 7:10 and Wednesday 1:10
Comerica Park - Detroit, MI

Phillies 52-48, 3rd place in the N.L. East, 7 1/2 games behind the Braves
Tigers 30-65, 5th place in the A.L. Central, 29 games behind the Twins

Phillies Probables:  Aaron Nola (8-2, 3.77), Vince Velasquez (2-5, 4.87)
Tigers Probables:  Matthew Boyd (6-8, 4.13), Jordan Zimmermann (0-7, 7.51)

At the Ballpark:  With the purchase of a special theme ticket, a pair of Tigers "Ugly Christmas socks" could be yours on Tuesday night.  If I'm not mistaken, this is the Phillies first trip to Detroit since May 2016 when the pitching probables were also Nola and Velasquez along with Jeremy Hellickson.

Phillies Leaders
Average:  Cesar Hernandez - .280
Runs:  J.T. Realmuto - 58
Home Runs:  Rhys Hoskins - 21
RBIs:  Bryce Harper - 70
Stolen Bases:  Jean Segura - 7

Wins:  Jake Arrieta and Aaron Nola - 8
ERA:  Aaron Nola - 3.77

Strikeouts:  Aaron Nola - 138
Saves:  Hector Neris - 18

Tigers Leaders
Average:  Nicholas Castellanos - .284
Runs:  Nicholas Castellanos - 56
Home Runs:  Brandon Dixon - 12
RBIs:  Brandon Dixon - 38
Stolen Bases:  Niko Goodrum - 11

Wins:  Matthew Boyd - 6
ERA:  Spencer Turnbull - 3.65

Strikeouts:  Matthew Boyd - 160
Saves:  Shane Greene - 22

1980 Phillies - The Missing Links

1980 Burger King Phillies #8, 1981 TCMA Oklahoma City 89ers #8 and #13 and 1980 Topps #624

I've been struggling to finish off my 2001 Topps Phillies post.  Every time I sit down to work on it, I'm reminded how much I really don't want to travel back to that year even it is just for the purpose of writing about the Phillies that appeared within the 2001 Topps baseball card set.

So I'm going to take a small break from the Topps Phillies posts and travel backwards with my Missing Links posts instead.  I've already completed Missing Links posts for 1990 through 2000, and now I'll turn my attention to those unfortunate Phillies who received little to no cardboard recognition during their stint in red pinstripes between 1980 and 1989.

A quick note about this particular post - I don't have the 1980 Phillies Postcards set, nor have I ever actually seen the set for sale.  I'm relying on the 34-card checklist available in the Beckett database for this post.  And as you'll soon see, the obscure regional set is a must-have for obtaining the only Phillies cards of three Phillies pitchers from 1980.

3 Cards or More
31 Players

2 Cards
**John Vukovich (153 games from 1970-1971, 1976-1977 and 1979-1981) - 1980 Burger King Phillies #8 and 1981 Fleer #22
Mark Davis (11 games in 1980 and 1981, 25 games in 1993) - 1982 Topps #231 and 1993 Ultra #437

Of course, Vukovich has over a dozen cards featuring him as a Phillies coach, but there were only two cards issued of him during his playing career as a Phillie.  Davis had to wait for his second stint with the club before he received a solo Phillies card.

1981 Topps #526 and 1982 Topps #231

1 Card

Lerrin LaGrow (25 games in 1980) - 1980 Phillies Postcards #14

Dan Larson (21 games from 1978-1981) - 1980 Phillies Postcards #15

Jay Loviglio (16 games in 1980) - 1981 Topps #526
Scott Munninghoff (4 games in 1980) - 1980 Phillies Postcards #21

It amazes me that Larson bounced around the Phillies organization for four seasons.  I honestly thought he had appeared in a few games in 1980 and that was it.  Larson appeared in a career-high 32 games with the 1977 Astros and was awarded with his one and only Topps card within that year's set.

LaGrow put together a 10-year career primarily as a relief pitcher, although he did lose 19 games as a starting pitcher for the Tigers in 1974.  His Topps card featured at the top of this post was the last card issued of him during his playing days, and I created a Phillies "card that never was" to celebrate LaGrow's 25 games with the Phils in 1980.

0 Cards
Orlando Isales (3 games in 1980)
Don McCormack (5 games from 1980-1981)

Only two players from the team's first World Championship year have been completely omitted from the Phillies baseball card universe.  Isales had toiled in the Phillies minor league system since 1975 when he was promoted to the team as a September call-up.  Overall, he went 2 for 5 in his Phillies career over three games.  He was the team's starting right fielder for the final regular season game in Montreal.

McCormack was another September call-up, although he didn't make his debut until September 30th.  With the Phils up 14-2 against the Cubs, catcher Keith Moreland was pulled from the game in the 9th and McCormack replaced him for an inning.  His only big league start came on the final game of the 1981 season.  Following his playing days, McCormack managed in the Phillies minor league system from 1988 through 1995.

**UPDATE (6/19/15) - I know now that Vukovich had additional Phillies baseball cards in the 1971, 1980 and 1981 Phillies Photocards sets.

1980 Topps #PR7 Lerrin LaGrow

Dan over at The Other World is starting an ambitious project to collect several subsets of cards for each player appearing with the Phillies during their championship seasons of 1980 and 2008. The parameters of his project are laid out here. Dan's project reminded me of a similar project I started at some point last year.

I decided it would be cool to create a poster containing cards of every Phillie from the decade of the '80s. These were the guys I remember growing up with - from the major stars (Schmidt, Carlton, Rose) to the complete unknowns (Adduci, Fireovid, Munninghoff). Of the 179 players to have donned a Phillies uniform during the decade, a lot of these guys never had a Phillies card.

Such was the case for Lerrin LaGrow. Lerrin played the last 25 games of his 10-year career with the Phillies in 1980. Signed as free agent in January 1980, he made the Phils' opening day roster as a right-handed middle reliever. On paper, his Phillies stats don't look that bad (0-2 with a 4.15 ERA), but the team released him in July. He appeared in the 1980 Topps set (#624) as a Dodger, but thanks to his picture from the 1980 Phillies Yearbook and an ambitious Phillies fan, he finally has a Phillies card.