The Phillies Room: 2009 Philadelphia Phillies Photo Cards

Number of Cards: 41
Card Size: 4" x 6"

Description: The Phillies went with black borders for the first time ever. The cards have a very basic design featuring the team logo and the player's number, name and position in a digital font. Other than the 2008 World Champions card, which is my all-time favorite card from a team-issued set, there's no indication the Phillies had won the World Championship in 2008 on the cards themselves. 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 the season. Following the signing of Pedro Martinez on July 15th and the acquisition of Cliff Lee and Ben Francisco on July 29th, cards of Martinez, Lee and Francisco, along with back-up catcher Paul Bako, were inserted into the set. With the addition of these four cards to the updated set, five cards available from the original set were removed - the 2008 World Champions card, along with the cards for Chris Coste, Tim Gradoville, Geoff Jenkins and Ronny Paulino. Jenkins and Paulino had been released prior to the start of the season and Coste was claimed off waivers by the Astros on July 10th.

Complete Set Checklist (Unnumbered, presented here alphabetically with uniform number and position):

1. 2008 World Champions
2. Mick Billmeyer (#17 - Bullpen Coach)
3. Joe Blanton (#56 - RHP)
4. Eric Bruntlett (#4 - INF/OF)
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. Scott Eyre (#47 - LHP)
11. Pedro Feliz (#7 - 3B)
12. Tim Gradoville (#60 - Bullpen Catcher)
13. Cole Hamels (#35 - LHP)

14. J.A. Happ (#43 - LHP)
15. Ryan Howard (#6 - 1B)
16. Raul Ibanez (#29 - LF)
17. Geoff Jenkins (#10 - OF)
18. Brad Lidge (#54 - RHP)
19. Davey Lopes (#15 - First Base Coach)
20. Pete Mackanin (#45 - Bench Coach)
21. Ryan Madson (#46 - RHP)
22. Charlie Manuel (#41 - Manager)
23. Jamie Moyer (#50 - LHP)
24. Brett Myers (#39 - RHP)
25. Chan Ho Park (#61 - RHP)

26. Ronny Paulino (#23 - C)
27. Sam Perlozzo (#2 - Third Base Coach)
28. Jimmy Rollins (#11 - SS)
29. J.C. Romero (#16 - LHP)
30. Carlos Ruiz (#51 - C)
31. Matt Stairs (#12 - OF)
32. Milt Thompson (#25 - Hitting Coach)
33. Chase Utley (#26 - 2B)
34. Shane Victorino (#8 - CF)
35. Jayson Werth (#28 - RF)
36. Phillie Phanatic
37. Phillies Broadcasters

Complete Update Checklist (Unnumbered, presented here alphabetically with uniform number and position):

1. Paul Bako (#23 - C)
2. Ben Francisco (#10 - OF)

3. Cliff Lee (#34 - LHP)
4. Pedro Martinez (#45 - RHP)

One and Only Phillies Baseball Card (1): Bako

First Appearance in Phillies Photo Card Set (8): Eyre, Francisco, Ibanez, Lee, Martinez, Park, Paulino, Stairs
Returning Players in Phillies Photo Card Set (21): Blanton, Bruntlett, Condrey, Coste, Dobbs, Durbin, Feliz, Hamels, Happ, Howard, Jenkins, Lidge, Madson, Moyer, Myers, Rollins, Romero, Ruiz, Utley, Victorino, Werth

Paul Bako wrapped up his 12-year career playing 44 games with the Phillies in 2009. His card in this set is his sole Phillies baseball card. Paulino was traded on March 27th to the Giants for Jack Taschner, and never appeared in a game for the Phillies. He has a second Phillies card in the 2009 Topps Heritage set.

Manager (1): Manuel
Coaches (7): Billmeyer, Dubee, Gradoville, Lopes, Mackanin, Perlozzo, Thompson

Phillie Phanatic (1): The Phanatic is shown atop the dugout is his alternate day-game uniform.

Broadcasters (1): Harry Kalas, who passed away on April 13, 2009, is joined on this card by Tom McCarthey, Gary Matthews, Chris Wheeler, Larry Andersen and Scott Franzke.
Commemorative Cards (1): 2008 World Champions

The 2008 World Champions card (see below) features manager Charlie Manuel along with the team's main stars (minus Pat Burrell who had departed during the offseason) decked out in tuxedos with red bow ties flanking the World Series trophy.

Set Composition: The Phillies created the first 37-card checklist a few days before the start of the regular season, accounting for the cards in the set for Paulino and Jenkins. Miguel Cairo and Taschner, both on the opening day roster, got left out of the original set and the update set. J.C. Romero started the season on the Restricted List, but he's in the set as well.

Omissions: The Phillies could have included a few more update cards, in addition to the four players who were added late in the season to the set. Cairo and Taschner would have been in the set had the Phillies waited until early April to create the checklist. Kyle Kendrick, John Mayberry, Jr., Sergio Escalona and Tyler Walker all spent sufficient enough time on the roster to merit cards as well. Escalona spent quite a bit of time going back and forth between Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley, as the lefty pitcher was with the team in six different stints.

Variations/Rarities: I'm going to separate the known rarities into two different groups - non-set cards and cards with a 2009 National League Champions logo on the back. 14,000 Phillies featured a post many years ago containing a Jayson Werth card I had never seen before, and I've never seen since. The card was distributed to kids participating in the team's annual Home Run Derby competition and contains a purple facsimile autograph and the Home Run Derby logo. The card uses a different photo than Werth's regular team issued card.

As pointed out in a comment from Steve F. in an earlier post, a card was issued for Placido Polanco in the style of the 2009 team-issued set. Polanco was signed as a free agent on December 3rd. Finally, fellow collector and invaluable resource Rick added a comment to this set's original post with a number of other rarities available - clipped and shown below. Roy Halladay received his first Phillies baseball card in the style of this set, as the future Hall of Famer had signed with the Phillies on December 16, 2009.

Other than the Halladay card, which is an original, the cards featuring the 2009 National League Champions logo on the back use the same photos as the cards found in the set sold at the ballpark.

Non-Set Cards
1. Kyle Drabek (#4 - Reading Phillies)
2. Lou Marson (#3 - C)
3. Placido Polanco (#27 - blank back)
4. Brian Schneider (#23 - blank back)
5. Michael Taylor (#40 - Reading Phillies)
6. Jayson Werth (#28 - Home Run Derby)

National League Champions
1. Chad Durbin (#37 - RHP)
2. Roy Halladay (#34 - RHP)
3. Cole Hamels (#35 - LHP)
4. J.A. Happ (#43 - LHP)
5. Brad Lidge (#54 - RHP)
6. Ryan Madson (#46 - RHP)
7. Jimmy Rollins (#11 - SS)

Also See: Here's my original post from August 31, 2009, covering the discovery of the updated team issued set.

Resources: The Trading Card Database; Phillies collector 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.