1991 Medford Philadelphia Phillies Photo Cards

Number of Cards:  46
Card Size:  4 1/8" x 6"
Description:  For the third year in a row, the card fronts feature an action 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.  Medford Food Company took over sponsorship of the set in 1991, and they'd sponsor the set for the next two years.

How Distributed:  The original 35-card base set was available for sale at Veterans Stadium throughout the 1991 season.  Details vary as to how the 11-card update series was originally distributed.  The 2001 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards describes two updates being issued.  The first update being the three card highlight set featuring white bordered cards for Tommy Greene, Terry Mulholland and Dale Murphy.  Mulholland's card celebrates his no-hitter from August 15, 1990, while Greene's celebrates his no-hitter from May 23, 1991.  Murphy's card commemorates his 2,000th hit on May 29, 1991.

The second update, according to the Catalog, contained eight cards and featured new manager Jim Fregosi, the Phillie Phanatic and six new Phillies players.  I have no recollection of purchasing two separate update sets at the Vet during the 1991 season, but my memory is admittedly starting to get a bit foggy.  The second update would not have been released before July 15th, the day Steve Searcy was acquired from the Tigers, and not after July 31st, the day Mike Hartley was acquired from the Dodgers.  Searcy is in the set while Hartley is not. 

Complete Standard Checklist (Unnumbered, presented here alphabetically with uniform number from the front of cards): 

1. Darrel Akerfelds (#35) 2. Andy Ashby (#40) 3. Wally Backman (#6)         4. Joe Boever (#30) 5. Rod Booker (#37) 6. Larry Bowa CO (#2) 7. Sil Campusano (#11) 8. Wes Chamberlain (#31)           9. Pat Combs (#38) 10. Danny Cox (#34)      11. Darren Daulton (#10) 12. Jose DeJesus (#54)

13. Lenny Dykstra (#4)    14. Darrin Fletcher (#24) 15. Tommy Greene (#49) 16. Jason Grimsley (#48) 17. Charlie Hayes (#8) 18. Von Hayes (#9) 19. Dave Hollins (#15) 20. Ken Howell (#43) 21. Ricky Jordan (#17) 22. John Kruk (#29) 23. Steve Lake (#25) 24. Hal Lanier CO (#22)

25. Tim Mauser (#52) 26. Roger McDowell (#13) 27. Denis Menke CO (#14) 28. Mickey Morandini (#12) 29. John Morris (#33) 30. Terry Mulholland (#45) 31. Dale Murphy (#3) 32. Johnny Podres CO (#46) 33. Randy Ready (#23) 34. Dickie Thon (#21) 35. John Vukovich CO (#18)

Complete Update Checklist, 2nd Version: 

1. Jim Fregosi MG (#11)           2. Ron Jones (#26) 3. Jim Lindeman (#55) 4. Wally Ritchie (#39)

5. Bruce Ruffin (#47) 6. Steve Searcy (#50) 7. Mitch Williams (#28) 8. Tommy Greene - No-Hitter

9. Terry Mulholland - No-Hitter 10. Dale Murphy - 2,000th Hit 11. Phillie Phanatic

One and Only Phillies Baseball Card (0)

First Appearance in Phillies Team Issued Set (9):  Backman, Chamberlain, Cox, Fletcher, Lindeman, Mauser, Morris, Searcy, Williams
Returning Players in Phillies Team Issued Set (27):  Akerfelds, Ashby, Boever, Booker, Campusano, Combs, Daulton, DeJesus, Dykstra, Greene, Grimsley, C. Hayes, V. Hayes, Hollins, Howell, Jones, Jordan, Kruk, Lake, McDowell, Morandini, Mulholland, Murphy, Ready, Ritchie, Ruffin, Thon

Jim Lindeman's uniform number is listed as #55, which is the number he wore during spring training.  He switched to #19 before the season started, taking the number most recently occupied before him by John Kruk.  Sil Campusano attended spring training wearing #11 and started the season on the disabled list.  When Fregosi was hired and took #11, Campusano switched to #16, the former number of departed manager Nick Leyva.

Manager (1):  Fregosi
Coaches (5):  Bowa, Lanier, Menke, Podres, Vukovich

Phillie Phanatic (1):  The Phanatic is shown posing while sitting on his ATV.
Broadcasters (0):  If a broadcaster card had been issued at the start of the season, it would have featured future manager Fregosi as he had recently joined the broadcast team.
Commemorative Cards (3):  Greene, Mulholland, Murphy

Surprises:  I find it strange all the coaches received cards in the first set, but the manager at the beginning of the season (Leyva) was omitted.  Leyva was fired on April 23rd, so my guess is the original 35-card set wasn't finalized until after his departure.  Or the first series originally contained 36 cards and the Leyva card was pulled after his firing.

Omissions:  Every Phillies player from opening day through July 31st has a card in this set except for Dave LaPoint, Rick Schu and Amalio Carreno.  LaPoint made the opening day roster but was released on April 23rd, the same day Leyva was dismissed.  Schu had a brief reunion with his original club, and he was on the active roster between May 28th and June 19th.  He was brought back up on August 28th and stayed with the team the rest of the season.  Carreno was recalled on July 2nd and sent back down on July 15th.  Ken Howell and Steve Ontiveros both spent the entire season on the disabled list and while Howell received a card in the set, Ontiveros did not.

Variations/Rarities:  As fellow collector Rick pointed out in a comment to the original post for this set, six additional cards were issued for former Phillies who were guests at the annual ALS Phillies Phestival.  These cards have only a red Phillies logo and a 1991 copyright on the backs, with no Medford logo. 

ALS Autograph Party      1. Harry Anderson           2. Gene Garber

3. Maje McDonnell CO           4. Ron Reed

5. Eddie Sawyer MG 6. Curt Simmons

Also See:  Scrapbook Sunday - August 12, 1991. Resources:  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 learned (if any) over the past six years. 1990 Phillies Photo Cards / 1992 Medford Phillies Photo Cards 1980-1999 Phillies Team-Issued Photo Cards Want List / Phillies Team Issued Sets Index Page