1983 Phillies - The Missing Links

1983 Topps Traded #72T, 1983 TCMA Portland Beavers #22 and 1983 Fleer #564

The 1983 Phillies, the Wheeze Kids, surprised everyone and made it all the way to the World Series, only to be defeated in five games by the Orioles.  When reviewing the team's roster from that year, and the baseball cards available for 44 members of the team, I was a little surprised there's only one new addition to the Missing Links list.

There are just four members of the 1983 Phillies squad with little to no Phillies cardboard representation.  And one of them has never appeared on a Phillies baseball card.

3 Cards or More
40 Players

2 Cards

1984 Tastykake Phillies

Larry Milbourne (41 games in 1983) - 1983 Tastykake Phillies #18 and 1983 Topps Traded #72T
Tony Ghelfi (3 games in 1983) - 1984 Tastykake Phillies #19 and 1985 Tastykake Phillies #17

Local product Milbourne was purchased from the Indians by the Phillies in December 1982.  During his short time with the club, he hit just .242 serving as Joe Morgan's primary back-up at second base.  The Phils sold him to the Yankees in mid-July, but he still received a Phillies card in the 1983 Topps Traded set.  (I'm still trying to track down a 1983 Tastykake Phillies set at a reasonable price.)

Ghelfi was drafted by the Phillies in 1980 and his three-game appearance in 1983 wasn't enough to merit him a standard issue baseball card.  Fortunately for him, and Phillies baseball card collectors, his status as a pitching prospect earned him inclusion in both the 1984 and 1985 Phillies Tastykake sets.  I created a custom card for Ghelfi using his pictures from the team's 1984 Yearbook and his 1984 Tastykake card.

0 Cards
Alejandro Sanchez (15 games from 1982-1983)
Steve Comer (3 games in 1983)

Comer was released by the Mariners in April, and signed by the Phillies in June 1983.  He pitched in three games for the club, his first being an emergency start in the second game of a double header against the Padres in late August.  He appeared in two games in relief in the Phillies last two regular season games in October.  I've never even seen a picture of Comer in a Phillies uniform.

Past Missing Link Posts

1980 Phillies - Orlando Isales and Don McCormack

1981 Phillies - Jerry Reed

1982 Phillies - Stan Bahnsen and Alejandro Sanchez

1990 Phillies - Louie Meadows

1991 Phillies - Dave LaPoint

1992 Phillies - Darrin Chapin and Mickey Weston

1993 Phillies - None

1994 Phillies - Tom Edens and Bob Wells

1995 Phillies - Jim Deshaies, Kevin Elster, Omar Olivares, Chuck Ricci and Dennis Springer

1996 Phillies - Glenn Dishman, Bronson Heflin, Manny Martinez and Rafael Quirico

1997 Phillies - Rob Butler and Mike Robertson

1998 Phillies - Robert Dodd and Matt Whiteside

1999 Phillies - Joel Bennett, Domingo Cedeno, Joe Grahe and Torey Lovullo

2000 Phillies - Clemente Alvarez, Kirk Bullinger, Mark Holzemer and Bryan Ward

1983 Topps Phillies - The Missing Links

1983 Topps #PR5 Darren Daulton

I've always been fascinated by the player selection in the "Big 3" baseball card sets of the early '80s. I spent hours upon hours in my bedroom on 12th Street sorting and resorting each year's Topps, Fleer and Donruss sets to figure out who was in the Fleer set, but not in the Topps set. I would get annoyed when I would figure out that a certain player had a Donruss baseball card in a given year but he did not have a Topps card. Even worse was when a player had been completely omitted from all 3 major sets.

I've been following along with the Ultimate Baseball Card Set blog as its proprietor tackled the 1981 and 1982 sets and he's now moved on to the 1983 sets. The purpose of the blog's project is to create the ultimate baseball card set for a given year by keeping one card per player, per year, starting with the Topps set as the cornerstone and then building from there. I love this idea, and each post has been a fascinating read so far.

By my unofficial tally, the Phillies had 13 players in 1983 who played at least a game with the team but did not appear in the 1983 Topps set - see my checklist below. A few years ago, I set about remedying this horrible oversight by making cards for these players using either pictures from other sets or from the team's Yearbooks, and I've included a few of my favorites here. (I've previously featured the Sixto Lezcano card from this series.)

1983 Topps #PR11 Juan Samuel

Former Orioles manager Juan Samuel made his Major League debut in August 1983, and the highly touted prospect appeared in 18 games for the NL Champs. He'd have to wait until the 1984 Topps Traded and Fleer sets for his first cards as a Phillie. I created this '83 Topps card using Sammy's picture from the 1984 Phillies Yearbook and the close-up picture is borrowed from his '84 Fleer card.

Darren Daulton made his debut in September 1983 as a late season call-up when rosters were expanded. He appeared in just 2 games with the Phils that year, and he didn't make it back to the Big Leagues until 1985. His '83 Topps card that should have been was created using his picture from the team's '83 Yearbook (the big picture) and the '84 Yearbook (the little picture).

1983 Topps #PR6 Tony Ghelfi

Finally, right-handed pitcher Tony Ghelfi started just 3 games for the '83 Phils in September. He had baseball cards in a few regional and minor league sets, but he never appeared within a major card release. For 9 seasons (1980-1989), he bounced around the Phillies', Indians' and Padres' organizations, never once making it back to the Majors following his September 1983 cup of coffee. I created his '83 Topps card using Ghelfi's shot from the '84 Phillies Yearbook (big picture) and his card from the team's 1984 Tastykake team issue.

1983 Topps - The Phillies Room Complete Collection: PR1 Larry Andersen, PR2 Don Carman, PR3 Steve Comer, PR4 Tim Corcoran, PR5 Darren Daulton, PR6 Tony Ghelfi, PR7 Kevin Gross, PR8 Charles Hudson, PR9 Steve Jeltz, PR10 Sixto Lezcano, PR11 Juan Samuel, PR12 Alejandro Sanchez, PR13 Jeff Stone