Tuesday, November 11, 2014

1995 Phillies Team Issue

I updated this post here in November 2023 and this original post is now outdated.
 

Number of Cards:  36
Card Size:  4" x 6"
Description:  For the seventh and final year, 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.  At the time, I considered it a major step forward that the set's designer had actually modified the appearance of the backs of the cards.
How Distributed:  The original 36-card set was available for sale at Veterans Stadium throughout the season.  Unless I've completely missed it, there was no update set issued, marking the first time since 1986 that no new cards were issued later in the season.

Complete Standard Checklist:  The cards are unnumbered, but I've presented them below ordered by uniform number.
  • 2 - Larry Bowa CO
  • 4 - Lenny Dykstra
  • 5 - Gary Varsho
  • 7 - Mariano Duncan
  • 8 - Jim Eisenreich
  • 9 - Mike Ryan CO
  • 10 - Darren Daulton
  • 11 - Jim Fregosi MG
  • 12 - Mickey Morandini
  • 13 - Charlie Hayes
  • 14 - Denis Menke CO
  • 15 - Dave Hollins
  • 16 - Tony Longmire
  • 17 - Dave Gallagher
  • 18 - John Vukovich CO
  • 19 - Kevin Stocker
  • 23 - Randy Ready
  • 25 - Gregg Jefferies
  • 26 - Mel Roberts CO
  • 27 - Lenny Webster
  • 28 - Tyler Green
  • 33 - Gene Harris
  • 35 - Bobby Munoz
  • 37 - Norm Charlton
  • 38 - Curt Schilling
  • 39 - Kyle Abbott
  • 40 - David West
  • 42 - Toby Borland
  • 45 - Michael Mimbs
  • 46 - Johnny Podres CO
  • 48 - Paul Quantrill
  • 51 - Heathcliff Slocumb
  • 52 - Ricky Bottalico
  • 1 - Richie Ashburn HOF
  • 20 - Mike Schmidt HOF
  • Phillies Team
One and Done (0)
First Appearances (7):  Bottalico, Gallagher, Harris, Jefferies, Mimbs, Varsho, Webster
Returning Players (19):  Abbott, Borland, Charlton, Daulton, Duncan, Dykstra, Eisenreich, Green, Hayes, Hollins, Longmire, Morandini, Munoz, Quantrill, Ready, Schilling, Slocumb, Stocker, West

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 (0)
Broadcasters (0)
Commemorative Cards (2):  Ashburn, Schmidt
Other Cards (1):  Team card

Ashburn and Schmidt were both inducted into the Hall of Fame on July 30th.  The backs of their cards indicate their Hall of Famer status and list career highlights.

Variations/Rarities:  I'm not aware of any variations or rarities to be found connected to this set.  As confirmed by Rick's comment, no other variations exist other than the issuance of a few of the cards containing facsimile autographs.

Update (1/25/20):  Rick added a Larry Andersen photo card to his collection with a 1995 copyright date, the same photo as Andersen's 1994 photo card and this quote on the back:  "You're only young once, but you can be immature forever."  Andersen spent the 1995 season as the pitching coach for the Reading Phillies.

Also See:  1995 Topps Phillies - featuring a list of the 92 players (including replacement players) in camp with the Phillies during spring training 1995.  Similar to what they did in 1994, Mellon PSFS (a local Philadelphia based bank) sponsored a 25 card set handed out to all kids 14 and under at the June 17th game.  As this is also a team-issued set, I'd like to eventually put together a post for these cards as well.  (H/T to Phillies SGA for the date of the giveaway.)
Trivia:  The Beckett.com database doesn't list this set at all.  The 2001 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards lists this set, and the listing contains the same 36 cards as in the checklist above.  The same photo of coach Mike Ryan is used in the 1994 and 1995 team issued sets.

2 comments:

@Rickphils said...

The only variations are the facsimile auto versions that were sent out for some players. No extension set came out.

Jim said...

Thanks Rick. I added a sentence to the Variations/Rarities bit.