1996 Philadelphia Phillies Photo Cards

Number of Cards:  36
Card Size:  4" x 6"
Description:  The Phillies got wild and crazy with the design of their 1996 set, doing away with the red band and white lettering used since 1989 and instead using "scruffy" white lettering as described by the set's entry in the 2001 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards.  The card backs feature biographical information along with complete career statistics, and the 1996 All-Star Game logo.

How Distributed:  The original 36-card set was available for sale at Veterans Stadium throughout the season.  The Catalog notes the set was sold for $9, which seems high given that recent team-issued photo card sets have sold for $5.  For the second year in a row, there was no update set issued.

The Lee Tinsley card is a rarity as it actually features a photo of outfielder Glenn Murray.  The Phillies realized their error early in the season, pulling the Tinsley/Murray card from the set.  When I bought my photo card set in the summer of 1996 at the Vet, my set had only 35 cards and was missing the Tinsley/Murray card.  I finally tracked my copy of this card down in January 2020 after searching for it for over 23 years.  I've indicated below that the Tinsley/Murray card should be considered a short-print.

Complete Standard Checklist (Unnumbered, presented here alphabetically with uniform number on back of cards): 

1. Howard Battle (#34) 2. Mike Benjamin (#5) 3. Toby Borland (#42) 4. Ricky Bottalico (#52) 5. Larry Bowa CO (#2) 6. Dave Cash CO (#30) 7. Carlos Crawford (#54) 8. Darren Daulton (#10) 9. Lenny Dykstra (#4) 10. Jim Eisenreich (#8) 11. Sid Fernandez (#50) 12. Jim Fregosi MG (#11)

13. Steve Frey (#37) 14. Mike Grace (#44) 15. Tyler Green (#28) 16. Pete Incaviglia (#9) 17. Gregg Jefferies (#25) 18. Kevin Jordan (#23) 19. Dave Leiper (#43) 20. Mike Lieberthal (#24) 21. Denis Menke CO (#14) 22. Michael Mimbs (#47) 23. Mickey Morandini (#12)     24. Terry Mulholland (#45)

25. Johnny Podres CO (#46)         26 Joe Rigoli CO (#59) 27. Ken Ryan (#51) 28. Benito Santiago (#18) 29. Russ Springer (#33) 30. Kevin Stocker (#19) 31. Lee Tinsley SP (#26) 32. John Vukovich CO (#3) 33. Mark Whiten (#22) 34. Mike Williams (#41) 35. Todd Zeile (#27) 36. Phillie Phanatic

One and Only Phillies Baseball Card (4):  Benjamin, Crawford, Frey, Leiper

First Appearance in Phillies Team Issued Set (10):  Battle, Fernandez, Grace, Jordan, Ryan, Santiago, Springer, Tinsley, Whiten, Zeile
Returning Players in Phillies Team Issued Set (14):  Borland, Bottalico, Daulton, Dykstra, Eisenreich, Green, Incaviglia, Jefferies, Lieberthal, Mimbs, Morandini, Mulholland, Stocker, Williams

This is the only place to find Phillies cards for short-timers Benjamin, Crawford, Frey and Leiper.  The back of Frey's card indicates a uniform number of 37, but he had switched to 29 for the start of the regular season.

Manager (1):  Fregosi
Coaches (6):  Bowa, Cash, Menke, Podres, Rigoli, Vukovich
Phillie Phanatic (1):  The Phanatic returns to the set after a one year absence.
Broadcasters (0)
Commemorative Cards (0)

Surprises:  Every member of the opening day roster is in the set with the exception of Kevin Sefcik and Rich Hunter.  Also somewhat surprising is the Phillies had five players start the season on the disabled list and only two of them, Benjamin and Green, have cards in the set.  The other three players, Bobby Munoz, Curt Schilling and David West, do not.

Omissions:  Hunter, Murray and Munoz would eventually get cards (see below) but Sefcik, Schilling and West would not.  There are a ton of players who could have received update cards as 53 different players suited up for the 1996 Phillies.  If we just tally up those players on the active roster for 50 games or more, there could have been cards for Ron Blazier, Ruben Amaro Jr., Ricardo Jordan, David  Doster and J.R. Phillips.

Variations/Rarities:  When I originally ran this post almost six years ago, fellow collector Rick provided information on seven cards available outside the standard 36-card set.

ALS Autograph/Auction Party        1. Bobby Munoz (#35)  2. Glenn Murray (#56) 3. Ricky Otero (#15) 4. Jim Wright CO (#58)

Late Season Additions 1. Rich Hunter (#39) 2. Desi Relaford (#17) 3. Scott Rolen (#6)

The three players (Munoz, Murray and Otero) and interim coach Jim Wright were all active on June 20th, the date of the annual ALS Autograph/Auction Party in 1996.  Other players active that date that could have cards (maybe?) are Blazier, Doster, Jordan, Phillips, Schilling and Sefcik with West on the disabled list at the time.

Scott Rolen was recalled on August 1st and Desi Relaford was acquired from the Mariners that same day.  Hunter returned from the minors on August 10th.  I have copies of the Rolen and Otero cards in my collection and these are both printed on thicker card stock than the rest of the set.

Also See:  1996 Phillies - The Missing Links; 1996 Topps Phillies, includes recollections from the 1996 All-Star Game at the Vet.

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

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

1995 Philadelphia Phillies Photo Cards / 1997 Philadelphia Phillies Photo Cards

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

Phillies Photo Cards: The White Whales

1996 Phillies Team Issue #26

1989 Tastykake Phillies Update #11

As a lifelong Phillies baseball card collector, one of my favorite sets has always been the team-issued photo card sets.  These are oversized cards produced by the Phillies and sold at the ballpark annually for a reasonable price - $5 a set in recent years.  The sets feature players, coaches, the manager, occasionally the announcers and usually a card for the Phanatic.  The photography is consistently excellent and my favorite part of the set is it's usually where a number of short-time Phillies players receive their one and only Phillies baseball card appearance.

I began a project a few years' back to catalog and checklist these sets, and I've created a page to serve as a table of contents for all of the team-issued sets dating back to the 1950s.  When I started the project, I was confident I had every Phillies photo card issued since at least 1983 as I had diligently tracked down a set or two each year at the Vet or later, Citizens Bank Park. 

I was wrong.  I had nowhere near every card. 

Fellow collectors Rick and Steve, along with a few other helpful fans, educated me on the team's practice of issuing cards for their annual ALS Phestival, or producing cards solely for players to honor autograph requests, be it through the mail or at scheduled appearances.  There were late season update sets I didn't know existed and variations of cards featuring different photos.  The Phillies' marketing department has been haphazard in its approach to producing these cards over the years, so knowing what I know now, I'm on high alert for variations or the possibility of a new card appearing in seemingly random situations.  I have many White Whales listed in my want lists, particularly in my want list of Phillies photo cards issued since 2000.

I can go months or years without seeing any of these cards available for sale at shows or in eBay auctions, and then as was the case last week, I found two a few days apart.  In 1996, the Phillies issued a 36-card team set that included a card of new outfielder Lee Tinsley, but featuring a picture of another new outfielder, Glenn Murray.  The card was pulled from the set, and I when I bought my set mid-summer at the Vet, it wasn't included and I only had 35 cards.  I've searched for this card for years and then a few weeks ago, two separate auctions from different buyers popped up on eBay for the 36-card team-issued photo card set from 1996.  I finally have my Tinsley/Murray card.

In 1989, a 9-card update set was released featuring the many players the Phillies had added over the summer.  I've never seen the set sold together, and I've added individual cards from the set over the years with the John Kruk card eluding me.  I finally found it via an eBay auction shortly after the two 1996 sets were listed.  That's two cards down in a decades' long hunt, and I've listed below a few other White Whales.  If you have any of these, I'd be happy to give them a good home.

• 1996 Glenn Murray - Murray did ultimately receive his own card, issued late in the 1996 season.
• 1998 Yorkis Perez - I have the Jon Zuber and Mike Welch cards issued at the team's annual ALS Phestival, but I haven't found Perez's card yet.
• 2000 11-Card Update Set - I've never seen these cards for sale, either together or individually.  Travis Lee, Marlon Anderson, Omar Daal and Vicente Padilla are included in this set.
• 2001 7-Card Update Set - Features the only Phillies baseball card for Felipe Crespo.
• 2004 Lou Collier - A late season addition?  This is the only Phillies card for Collier.
• 2012 Broadcasters - From the first edition set, there's a broadcasters card in some sets, but most sets for sale don't include this card.

1996 Phillies Team Issue

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

 
Number of Cards:  36
Card Size:  4" x 6"
Description:  The Phillies got wild and crazy with the design of their 1996 set, doing away with the red band and white lettering used since 1989 and instead using "scruffy" white lettering as described by the set's entry in the 2001 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards.  The card backs feature biographical information along with complete career statistics, and the 1996 All-Star Game logo.

How Distributed:  The original 36-card set was available for sale at Veterans Stadium throughout the season.  The Catalog notes that the set was sold for $9, which seems high given that the 2014 set sold for $5.  For the second year in a row, there was no update set issued.

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

2 - Larry Bowa CO 3 - John Vukovich CO 4 - Lenny Dykstra 5 - Mike Benjamin 8 - Jim Eisenreich 9 - Pete Incaviglia 10 - Darren Daulton 11 - Jim Fregosi MG 12 - Mickey Morandini 14 - Denis Menke CO 18 - Benito Santiago 19 - Kevin Stocker 22 - Mark Whiten 23 - Kevin Jordan 24 - Mike Lieberthal 25 - Gregg Jefferies 26 - Lee Tinsley 27 - Todd Zeile

28 - Tyler Green 30 - Dave Cash CO 33 - Russ Springer 34 - Howard Battle 37 - Steve Frey 41 - Mike Williams 42 - Toby Borland 43 - Dave Leiper 44 - Mike Grace 45 - Terry Mulholland 46 - Johnny Podres CO 47 - Michael Mimbs 50 - Sid Fernandez 51 - Ken Ryan 52 - Ricky Bottalico 54 - Carlos Crawford 59 - Joe Rigoli CO Phillie Phanatic

One and Done (4):  Benjamin, Crawford, Frey, Leiper
First Appearances (10):  Battle, Fernandez, Grace, Jordan, Ryan, Santiago, Springer, Tinsley, Whiten, Zeile
Returning Players (14):  Borland, Bottalico, Daulton, Dykstra, Eisenreich, Green, Incaviglia, Jefferies, Lieberthal, Mimbs, Morandini, Mulholland, Stocker, Williams

This is the only place to find Phillies cards for short-timers Benjamin, Crawford, Frey and Leiper.  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, Cash, Menke, Podres, Rigoli, Vukovich
Phillie Phanatic (1):  The Phanatic returns to the set after a one year absence.
Broadcasters (0)
Commemorative Cards (0)

Variations/Rarities:  I'm not aware of any variations or rarities to be found connected to this set.  However . . . the Tinsley card has somehow eluded my collection for almost twenty years.  I'm convinced that the original set I purchased at the Vet was missing the Tinsley card, as I can't imagine somehow, for some strange reason, misplacing the card.

As an update to my Tinsley situation, please see Rick's comments to this post.  The Tinsley card was actually a card for fellow outfielder Glenn Murray, featuring his photo.  I'm wondering now if the Phillies pulled the card upon noticing the error, which would explain why the set I purchased didn't include the card.

The card was reissued later in the year with the same photo but correctly containing Murray's name.  Rick points out that the following cards were available at either the ALS fund raising event or they were made available to players to honor autograph requests.  Scott Rolen's number when he was first recalled was #6.

6 - Scott Rolen 15 - Ricky Otero 17 - Desi Relaford 35 - Bobby Munoz

39 - Rich Hunter 56 - Glenn Murray 58 - Jim Wright CO

Also See:  1996 Phillies - The Missing Links; 1996 Topps Phillies, includes recollections from the 1996 All-Star Game at the Vet.
Trivia:  The Beckett database lists the entire 36-card set.
Resources:  Beckett.com; Phillies collector Rick (@rickphils)