The Phillies Room: 1976 Phillies Team-Issued Photo Cards

Saturday, September 12, 2020

1976 Phillies Team-Issued Photo Cards

Number of Cards:  30
Card Size:  3 1/4" x 5 1/2"
Description:  As was the case with all Phillies photocards issued throughout the 1970s, these cards feature a black and white photo with the players' name below. The cards are unnumbered. In 1976, all photos feature hatless portraits of the players, coaches or manager, which makes them somewhat easy to identify. The backs of the cards are blank and there's no indication on the cards themselves that they're from 1976. Some of the cards contain blue facsimile autographs, as noted on the checklist below.

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 the cards were ever available in complete set form.

Complete Standard Checklist (Unnumbered, presented here alphabetically):

1. Dick Allen
2. Carroll Beringer CO
3. Bob Boone
4. Larry Bowa
5. Ollie Brown
6. Steve Carlton (auto)
7. Dave Cash
8. Larry Christenson
9. Billy DeMars CO
10. Gene Garber

11. Terry Harmon
12. Jay Johnstone (auto)
13. Jim Kaat (auto)
14. Jim Lonborg
15. Greg Luzinski (auto)
16. Garry Maddox
17. Jerry Martin
18. Tim McCarver
19. Tug McGraw
20. Johnny Oates

21. Danny Ozark MG
22. Ron Reed
23. Ray Rippelmeyer CO (auto)
24. Mike Schmidt
25. Ron Schueler
26. Tony Taylor (auto)
27. Bobby Tolan (auto)
28. Wayne Twitchell
29. Tom Underwood (auto)
30. Bobby Wine CO

One and Only Phillies Baseball Card (0)

First Appearance in Phillies Team Issued Set (3): Kaat, Reed, Tolan
Returning Players in Phillies Team Issued Set (22): Allen, Boone, Bowa, Brown, Carlton, Cash, Christenson, Garber, Harmon, Johnstone, Lonborg, Luzinski, Maddox, Martin, McCarver, McGraw, Oates, Schmidt, Schueler, Taylor, Twitchell, Underwood

Manager (1): Ozark
Coaches (4): Beringer, DeMars, Rippelmeyer, Wine
Phillie Phanatic (0)
Broadcasters (0)

Omissions: I had originally listed Hutton within this set's checklist, but it always struck me as odd that his photo was the sole card in the set featuring a player wearing a hat. I believe the listing at The Trading Card Database is incorrect and either Hutton wasn't included in the set or I haven't tracked down that card yet. The Database uses Hutton's 1975 photo card for its listing. Investigating the 1976 Phillies Photo Album, which includes contemporaneous photos as those used for the photo card set, Hutton is sporting a beard. Since Hutton appeared in 95 games for the Phillies in 1976 and he was on their opening day roster, there's a possibility a bearded and hatless Hutton card exists.

Other than Hutton, the set does a great job of including all players from the N.L. East Championship winning team. The Phillies featured only 32 different players in 1976 and this set includes 25 of them, with no notable omissions, again other than Hutton. In descending order of games played, the set omits Rick Bosetti (13 games), Fred Andrews (4 games), John Vukovich (4 games), Tim Blackwell (4 games), Bill Nahorodny (3 games) and Randy Lerch (1 game).

Variations/Rarities: I had originally listed a Jay Johnstone variation, featuring the outfielder kneeling, but I believe that's a 1975 variation so it will be listed with that set.

Also See: 1976 SSPC Phillies - Part One and Part Two; 1976 Isalay's/Sweet William Discs Phillies; 1976 Hostess Phillies; 1976 Oklahoma City 89ers Team Set

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

This set was originally featured in a post back in January 2015, 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 five years.