2008 Philadelphia Phillies Photo Cards

Number of Cards:  39
Card Size:  4" x 6"

Description:  Full color action photos are featured over a gold tinted background.  The Citizens Bank Park logo makes an appearance on the card fronts for the second year in a row and Jimmy Rollins' card contains a golden logo marking his 2007 National League MVP win. 

The set features a blank-backed header card with a photo of Chase Utley fist bumping a young fan and the declaration that a portion of the proceeds received from the sale of the set would benefit The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.  (This was a nice gesture, and it's odd this is the first and last year - at least publicly - the Phillies have done this.)  The horizontal card backs feature biographical information and complete career statistics.

How Distributed:  The original 37-card set was available at Citizens Bank Park throughout the first half of season.  Given the inclusion of Rudy Seanez, acquired on March 31st, and Chris Snelling, recalled on April 12th, the set was likely not sold until late April.  Following the acquisition of Joe Blanton on August 3rd, cards of Blanton and J.A. Happ were inserted into the set.  The only way to add the two update cards was to purchase the complete set at the ballpark, which included all 37 cards found in the originally released set.

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

1. Header Card / Chase Utley 2. Mick Billmeyer (#17 - Catching Instructor)    3. Eric Bruntlett (#4 - INF-OF) 4. Pat Burrell (#5 - LF) 5. Clay Condrey (#55 - RHP) 6. Chris Coste (#27 - C) 7. Greg Dobbs (#19 - INF-OF) 8. Rich Dubee (#30 - Pitching Coach) 9. Chad Durbin (#37 - RHP) 10. Adam Eaton (#21 - RHP) 11. Pedro Feliz (#7 - 3B) 12. Tom Gordon (#45 - RHP) 13. Cole Hamels (#35 - LHP)

14. Ramon Henderson (#31 - Bullpen Coach)    15. Ryan Howard (#6 - 1B) 16. Geoff Jenkins (#10 - OF) 17. Kyle Kendrick (#38 - RHP) 18. Brad Lidge (#54 - RHP) 19. Davey Lopes (#15 - First Base Coach) 20. Ryan Mason (#63 - RHP) 21. Charlie Manuel (#41 - MG) 22. Jamie Moyer (#50 - LHP) 23. Brett Myers (#39 - RHP) 24. Jimmy Rollins (#11 - SS) 25. J.C. Romero (#16 - LHP) 26. Carlos Ruiz (#51 - C)

27. Rudy Seanez (#57 - RHP) 28. Steve Smith (#2 - Third Base Coach)    29. Chris Snelling (#9 - OF) 30. So Taguchi (#99 - OF) 31. Milt Thompson (#25 - Hitting Coach) 32. Chase Utley (#26 - 2B) 33. Shane Victorian (#8 - CF) 34. Jayson Werth (#28 - OF) 35. Jimy Williams (#22 - Bench Coach) 36. Phillies Broadcasters 37. Phillie Phanatic

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

1. Joe Blanton (#56 - RHP) 2. J.A. Happ (#43 - LHP)

One and Only Phillies Baseball Card (1):  Seanez

First Appearance in Phillies Photo Card Set (10):  Blanton, Bruntlett, Condrey, Durbin, Feliz, Jenkins, Happ, Kendrick, Lidge, Snelling, Taguchi
Returning Players in Phillies Photo Card Set (17):  Burrell, Coste, Dobbs, Eaton, Gordon, Hamels, Howard, Kendrick, Madson, Moyer, Myers, Rollins, Romero, Ruiz, Utley, Victorino, Werth

Manager (1):  Manuel
Coaches (7):  Billmeyer, Dubee, Henderson, Lopes, Smith, Thompson, Williams
Phillie Phanatic (1)
Broadcasters (1):  Tom McCarthy returned to the Phillies in 2008, and he's joined on this card by Gary Matthews, Chris Wheeler, Scott Franzke, Larry Andersen and Harry Kalas.

Phillies Prospects (1):  Features eight prospects on one card - Tom Barrett, Brad Brink, Steve DeAngelis, Ron Jones, Keith Miller, Brad Moore, Howard Nichols and Shane Turner.  DeAngelis and Nichols never played for the Phillies.
Other Cards (1):  Header Card with Utley

Set Composition:  The Phillies waited a week or so before creating the checklist for this set.  Both Wes Helms and Tim Lahey were on the opening day roster, with Helms lasting just one game and Lahey sticking around for four games.  Snelling was recalled on April 12th when Shane Victorino landed on the Disabled List, and he was active for all of seven games between then and April 19th.

J.A. Happ had a brief stint with the club the first week of July and the last week of July, and was up for good beginning September 1st.  Joe Blanton's inclusion makes sense, and if the Phillies had waited another week, they could have snuck Scott Eyre, acquired on August 7th, into the set as well.

Omissions:  Eyre is the clear omission, especially given his postseason role for the Phillies.  Mike Cervenak could have been included in an update set, as he was on the active roster for 48 games.  Matt Stairs was acquired too late in the season to be an option for the update set, but he would get a 2008-style photo card - see below.

Variations/Rarities:  Fellow collectors Steve and Rick clued me in to the existence of three more cards via comments to this set's original post, back in December 2014.  The Phillies created a card in this style for Stairs to sign at a February 2009 meet and greet.  There was also a late season Meet and Greet in the Hall of Fame Club with Minor League Pitcher of the Year Happ and Minor League Player of the Year, Lou Marson.  Happ is wearing a Lehigh Valley IronPigs jersey in this version.  All three of these rare photo cards have blank backs.

Non-Set Cards 1. J.A. Happ (Lehigh Valley IronPigs) 2. Lou Marson (Reading Phillies) 3. Matt Stairs

Resources:  The Trading Card Database; Phillies collectors Steve and Rick (@rickphils)

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

2007 Philadelphia Phillies Photo Cards / 2009 Philadelphia Phillies Photo Cards

2000-2022 Phillies Team-Issued Photo Cards Want List / Phillies Team Issued Sets Index Page