Sunday, September 10, 2023

1994 Philadelphia Phillies Photo Cards


Number of Cards:  46
Card Size:  4" x 6"

Description:  For the sixth year in a row, 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.  The card backs also feature the club's 1993 N.L. Champions logo.  From this point forward (as of this writing), the Phillies team issued sets have been sponsor-less.  Medford Food Company sponsored its third and final set in 1993.

How Distributed:  The original 36-card set was available for sale at Veterans Stadium throughout the season.  A ten-card update series was produced and sold at the ballpark in the second half of the season, before the player's strike ended the season prematurely on August 11th.  The update series is fairly difficult to track down.  I attended a few games at the Vet that July, adding the set to my collection.  The Phillies played on only 19 days following the All-Star break and before the strike, meaning the set was on sale for only a short time.

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

1. Larry Andersen (#47 - RHP)
2. Kim Batiste (#5 - INF)
3. Larry Bowa (#2 - Third Base Coach)     
4. Wes Chamberlain (#44 - OF)
5. Norm Charlton (#37 - LHP)
6. Darren Daulton (#10 - C)
7. Mariano Duncan (#7 - INF)
8. Lenny Dykstra (#4 - OF)
9. Jim Eisenreich (#8 - OF)
10. Jim Fregosi (#11 - MG)
11. Tyler Green (#28 - RHP)
12. Tommy Greene (#49 - RHP)       
13. Dave Hollins (#15 - INF)
14. Pete Incaviglia (#22 - OF)
15. Danny Jackson (#27 - LHP)
16. Doug Jones (#23 - RHP)*
17. Ricky Jordan (#17 - 1B)
18. Jeff Juden (#43 - RHP)
19. John Kruk (#29 - 1B)
20. Tony Longmire (#16 - OF)
21. Roger Mason (#48 - RHP)
22. Denis Menke (#14 - Hitting Instructor)     
23. Mickey Morandini (#12 - INF)
24. Bobby Munoz (#35 - RHP)
25. Johnny Podres (#46 - Pitching Coach)
26. Todd Pratt (#6 - Catcher)
27. Ben Rivera (#34 - RHP)
28. Mel Roberts (#26 - First Base Coach)
29. Mike Ryan (#9 - Bullpen Coach)
30. Curt Schilling (#38 - RHP)
31. Heathcliff Slocumb (#51 - RHP)
32. Kevin Stocker (#19 - INF)
33. Milt Thompson (#25 - OF)
34. John Vukovich (#18 - Dugout Assistant)     
35. David West (#40 - LHP)
36. Mike Williams (#41 - RHP)

Complete Update Checklist (Unnumbered, presented here alphabetically with uniform number and position from the front of cards):
1. Toby Borland (#42 - RHP)     
2. Andy Carter (#50 - LHP)
3. Billy Hatcher (#3 - OF)
4. Mike Lieberthal (#24 - C)
5. Tom Marsh (#21 - OF)
6. Paul Quantrill (#48 - RHP)       
7. Randy Ready (#31 - INF)
8. Fernando Valenzuela (#33 - LHP)     
9. Phillie Phanatic
10. 1994 Phillies All-Stars

One and Only Phillies Baseball Card (1):  Carter
First Appearance in Phillies Team Issued Set (12):  Borland, Charlton, Hatcher, Jones, Juden, Lieberthal, Longmire, Marsh, Munoz, Quantrill, Slocumb, Valenzuela
Returning Players in Phillies Team Issued Set (24):  Andersen, Batiste, Chamberlain, Daulton, Duncan, Dykstra, Eisenreich, Green, Greene, Hollins, Incaviglia, Jackson, Jordan, Kruk, Mason, Morandini, Pratt, Ready, Rivera, Schilling, Stocker, Thompson, West, Williams

*The Jones card in the original 36-card set erroneously lists his date of birth of January 2, 1972.  This was corrected with a second Jones card (with an identical photo) issued with the update set.

Andy Carter's only Phillies baseball card can be found within the update set.  

Manager (1):  Fregosi
Coaches (6):  Bowa, Menke, Podres, Roberts, Ryan, Vukovich
Phillie Phanatic (1):  The Phanatic is shown atop the Phillies dugout, wearing his blue hat which was briefly introduced at certain home games during the 1994 season.
Broadcasters (0):  N/A
Other Cards (1):  1994 Phillies All-Stars, featuring Vukovich, Fregosi, Podres, Dykstra, Jones, Jackson and Duncan.

Set Composition:  The entire 25-man opening day roster made it into the set, with the exception of outfielder Tom Marsh, who didn't get a card until the update set was released.  Also appearing in the original set were John Kruk, Norm Charlton, Wes Chamberlain and Larry Andersen, who all began the season on the Disabled List.  Charlton would miss the entire season.  The oft-injured Tyler Green got a card too, but he spent the entire season with the Triple-A Red Barons.

The eight players included in the update set were added to the roster between opening day (Marsh) and June 29th (Mike Lieberthal), meaning the update set was likely released shortly after the All-Star break.  Fernando Valenzuela looks as if he was asked to put on a uniform for the sole purpose of letting the Phillies take pictures.

Omissions:  Shawn Boskie, who pitched in 18 games for the Phillies in 1994, is the big omission here.  Boskie was added too late for inclusion in the original set, as the Phillies acquired him from the Cubs on April 12th for Kevin Foster.  He could have been added to the update set, as he was with the club and active up until his trade to the Mariners on July 21st.  Boskie was included within the Mellon Bank Phillies SGA set, given away to all kids attending the June 26th game.  There are four other players who appeared with the Phillies during the strike-shortened season who didn't get team-issued photo cards:  Tom Quinlan, on the roster for 45 days in May and June, Bob Wells, Ricky Bottalico and Tom Edens, who was acquired from the Astros a few weeks before the end of the season.

Variations/Rarities:
  In the comments to the original post for this set, fellow Phillies collector Rick  pointed out the following non-set cards/variations.  Rick also adds some of the popular players (including John Kruk) had cards issued including a facsimile autograph.

1. Dick Allen (with 1994 copyright)
2. Doug Jones (corrected birthday of 6/24/57)

Trivia:
  The Beckett database lists the set as "1994 Phillies Medford" even though Medford Food Company was not the sponsor of this set.  The listing also omits the ten card update set.  The set's listing in the 2001 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards lists the set as "1994 Phillies Photocards" and includes only the base 36 cards.
Resources:  Beckett.com; Phillies collector Rick (@rickphils)

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


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