(Re)Introducing the Phillies Missing Links Project

1982 Donruss #89

Just like most baseball card bloggers out there, I have my share of unfinished projects and posts that have been lingering in my draft folder for many moons.  I want to finish off the 2013 and 2014 Topps Phillies posts in my look at the Topps Phillies cards throughout the years and I'll soon need to polish off a 2015 Topps Phillies post once the Update series is released.  I spent much of last offseason publishing posts in an attempt to chronicle the various team issued photo card sets released by the Phillies since the 1950s.  I'd like to go back and do similar posts on other team issued sets released by the Phillies throughout the years.

I've also neglected to finish off my Missing Links series of posts that have taken a year by year look at those Phillies players who have never appeared on a Phillies baseball card (to my knowledge).  I've worked my way from 1980 up to 2000 and then the series stalled out.

In the back of my mind, I always wanted to put together a set of baseball cards to celebrate those players who suited up for the Phillies but didn't have a Phillies baseball card to their names.  This has always bothered me since in a perfect world, baseball cards exist for every player for each year they're active showing them with each team they've played for.  The Quarry Unlimited idea would have made me extremely happy as a younger collector, and it continues to thrill me today.

1983 Donruss #67

There were 179 players who appeared with the Phillies between 1980 and 1989 and 18 of those players (listed below) never appeared on a Phillies baseball card.  I'm going to attempt to right that wrong with a set of custom Phillies cards for each of those 18 players, and then I'll work my way through the decades of the 1990s and the 2000s.  If that goes well, maybe I'll work my way backwards and tackle the 1970s as well.  I envision this as a late-season insert within the 2015 Chachi set although completing the 1980s portion of the set may spill into 2016.

By necessity, I'm going to be fairly liberal with the photos I use.  I've never seen photos of Jim Kern or Renie Martin or Steve Comer in Phillies uniforms and I doubt I ever will.  I'd love to have the talent (or the time) to transform Jim Kern from a hairy Rangers pitcher to a less hairy Phillies pitcher, but that's just beyond me at this point.  So I could be using a picture of Kern from his time with the Reds, or there could be black and white photos in this series.  It won't be pretty, but for the time being the few of us who have always wanted a Salome Barojas Phillies baseball card will finally have one . . . or something close.

1980 Phillies - Orlando Isales and Don McCormack

1981 Phillies - Jerry Reed

1982 Phillies - Stan Bahnsen and Alejandro Sanchez

1983 Phillies - Steve Comer

1984 Phillies - Renie Martin, Jim Kern and Mike LaValliere

1985 Phillies - None

1986 Phillies - Tom Gorman and Jeff Bittiger

1987 Phillies - None

1988 Phillies - Salome Barojas, Bill Dawley, Al Pardo, Bill Scherrer and Bob Sebra
1989 Phillies - Gordon Dillard and Steve Stanicek