1991 Medford Phillies

I updated this post here in October 2020 and this original post is now outdated.

 
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 celebrating the the team's two recent no-hitters and Dale Murphy's 2,000 career hit.

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.

Complete Standard Checklist (35):  The cards are unnumbered, but I've presented them below ordered by uniform number.

2 - Larry Bowa CO 3 - Dale Murphy 4 - Lenny Dykstra 6 - Wally Backman 8 - Charlie Hayes 9 - Von Hayes 10 - Darren Daulton 11 - Sil Campusano 12 - Mickey Morandini 13 - Roger McDowell 14 - Denis Menke CO 15 - Dave Hollins 17 - Ricky Jordan 18 - John Vukovich CO 21 - Dickie Thon 22 - Hal Lanier CO 23 - Randy Ready 24 - Darrin Fletcher

25 - Steve Lake 29 - John Kruk 30 - Joe Boever 31 - Wes Chamberlain 33 - John Morris 34 - Danny Cox 35 - Darrel Akerfelds 37 - Rod Booker 38 - Pat Combs 40 - Andy Ashby 43 - Ken Howell 45 - Terry Mulholland 46 - Johnny Podres CO 48 - Jason Grimsley 49 - Tommy Greene 52 - Tim Mauser 54 - Jose DeJesus

Complete Update Checklist (11):

Dale Murphy HL Terry Mulholland HL Tommy Greene HL 11 - Jim Fregosi MG 26 - Ron Jones 28 - Mitch Williams

39 - Wally Ritchie 47 - Bruce Ruffin 50 - Steve Searcy 55 - Jim Lindeman Phillie Phanatic

One and Done (0)
First Appearances (9):  Backman, Chamberlain, Cox, Fletcher, Lindeman, Mauser, Morris, Searcy, Williams
Returning Players (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

The First Appearance designation is for players who have never before appeared within a Phillies team issued set.  These players may have already appeared on other Phillies baseball cards.

Manager (1):  Fregosi.  I find it strange that all the coaches received cards in the first set, but the manager at the beginning of the season (Nick Leyva) was omitted.  Leyva was fired on April 23rd, so my guess is that this 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.
Coaches (5):  Bowa, Lanier, Menke, Podres, Vukovich
Phillie Phanatic (1):  The Phanatic is shown posing while sitting on his ATV.
Broadcasters (0)
Commemorative Cards (3):  Greene, Mulholland, Murphy

Mulholland's card celebrates his no-hitter from August 15, 1990, while Green's celebrates his no-hitter from May 23, 1991.  Murphy's card commemorates his 2,000th hit on May 29, 1991.

Variations/Rarities:  As Rick points out in his comment below, the Phillies issued the following cards at the annual ALS fund raising event (Phillies Phestival) for former Phillies signing autographs at the event.

Harry Anderson Gene Garber Maje McDonnell

Ron Reed Eddie Sawyer Curt Simmons

Also See:  Scrapbook Sunday - August 12, 1991
Trivia:  The Beckett database omits the update series and only lists the 35 cards from the base set.  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 Kruk.
Resources:  Beckett.com; Phillies collector Rick (@rickphils)

1960 Topps Phillies

1960 Topps #264, #130, #17

I never gave much thought to the 1960 Topps set until Topps released its 2009 Heritage set borrowing the design from its 49-year-old predecessor.  I only recently realized how innovative the set truly is, especially in light of the lifeless set (in my opinion) that would follow in 1961.  Topps was rolling out the subsets in earnest now, including Sport Magazine Rookie Stars, manager cards, team cards, multi-player cards, Topps All-Star Rookies, World Series cards, floating head coaches cards, and Sport Magazine All-Stars.

1960 Topps #103, #302, #366

The Set
Number of cards in the set:  Similar to the prior year, there are 572 cards in a complete set.
My very brief thoughts on the set:  It's horizontal.  This was the first time Topps had used a horizontal design for its entire base set since 1955, and (to date) it's also the last time.  The design features a full color portrait next to a black and white posed action shot.  In a way, it's kind of like the 1994 Upper Deck set's hip father.
Notable competition:  Leaf released a 144-card set, it's first baseball card release since 1948.  And Fleer released a 79-card set of Baseball Greats.

1960 Topps #226 and #466

1960 Phillies
Record and finish:  The team's 59-95 finish landed them in the basement of the National League for the second year in a row.
Key players:  Robin Roberts was 12-16 with a 4.02 ERA and closer Turk Farrell was 10-6 with a team leading 11 saves.  Tony Taylor, acquired from the Cubs in May, led the team with a .287 average.  Pancho Herrera hit 17 home runs with 71 RBIS, but he also set a National League record (at the time) with 136 strikeouts.  New Phillies Johnny Callison (.260 in 99 games) and Art Mahaffey (7-3 with a 2.31 ERA) also showed some promise.
Key events:  As famously reported, manager Eddie Sawyer quit after the Phillies dropped their first game of the season against the Reds, quipping, "I'm 49 years old and I want to live to be 50."  Coach Andy Cohen took over for the second game, and the Phillies hired Gene Mauch to manage the third game through the remainder of the season.  Mauch definitely would see his share of heartache during his tenure as Phillies manager.  Curt Simmons was released by the team in May only to be signed by the Cardinals a few days later.

1960 Phillies in 1960 Topps

1960 Topps #264 (Back)

Cards needed for a complete team set:  There are 35 Phillies cards in a complete 1960 Topps Phillies team set.  For a master set of Phillies Topps cards from 1951 through 1960, we're up to 208 cards.
Who’s in:  40 players suited up for the 1960 Phillies, and 30 of them are featured as Phillies in the 1960 Topps set.  The remaining five cards consist of a team card, a coaches card, a card for manager Sawyer, and cards for Sparky Anderson and Valmy Thomas who did not play for the Phillies in 1960.
Who’s out:  Regular shortstop Ruben Amaro was featured in the 1959 set, but he's not in the 1960 set.  The only other notable omission is pitcher Chris Short, who appeared in 42 games with the team.  Short would have to wait until 1967 for his rookie card as, I'm guessing, he just never signed a contract with Topps.  It would have also been nice to see a card for rookie Bobby Wine, who made it into four games in 1960.
Phillies on other teams:  Regular second baseman Taylor (#294) and catcher Cal Neeman (#337) were acquired from the Cubs in May for Ed Bouchee and Don Cardwell.  While center fielder Tony Gonzalez (#518) and third baseman Lee Walls (#506) were acquired from the Reds in June for Harry Anderson, Wally Post and Fred Hopke.  Future Red Sox manager Joe Morgan appears on card #229 with the Athletics.  He was purchased from the Atheltics by the Braves in August 1959 and then shipped back to the Braves in April 1960.  In June 1960, the Braves traded him to the Phillies for Al Dark.  The Phils kept him for a few months before selling him to the Indians in August.
What’s he doing here:  I don't know the timing of when Topps released each series of its baseball cards in 1960, so I'm guessing they didn't have enough time to update the Phillies manager card to Mauch in time for card #226.
Cards that never were candidates: Mauch, Taylor, Amaro, Short and Wine.
Favorite Phillies card:  None of the player cards really stand out, so I'll go with the Dallas Green rookie card as my favorite.  Green pitched in 23 games (starting 10), going 3-6 with a 4.10 in his rookie season. The coaches' floating heads card is a close runner-up.

1960 Topps #34, #138, #451

Other Stuff
Recycled:  Topps used this design for its 2009 Topps Heritage set - the first Heritage set since 2001 that I did not attempt to collect.  A year before, Topps used the 1960 Topps All-Star Rookies subset design for its insert set, 2008 Topps 50th Anniversary All-Rookie Team.
Blogs/Websites:  He's been quiet recently, but fellow Phillies fan Jim from Downington runs a blog detailing his "ramblings" on 1960s Baseball.
Did You Know?:  We've seen examples of this here and there so far with the Topps Phillies cards, but there are two Phillies cards in the 1960 set where Topps doesn't even try to cover up the fact the player is appearing is his previous team's uniform - Callison appears in his White Sox uniform and Ted Lepcio appears as a Tiger.

2009 Topps Heritage #334, #415, #563

1951 Bowman #184 Eddie Sawyer MG

1950 World Series Game 4 - October 7

Yankees 5, Phillies 2

Rookie pitcher Whitey Ford allowed just two unearned runs to a lethargic Phillies offense as the Yankees completed the World Series sweep and won their 13th World Championship. The Phillies countered with rookie starting pitcher Bob Miller who retired just one batter in the 1st inning before being replaced with Jim Konstanty.

The Phillies scored their only two runs of the game when Yankees left fielder Gene Woodling dropped a 9th inning fly ball from Andy Seminick, allowing Puddin' Head Jones and pinch-runner Ken Johnson to score. Following the sweep, Phillies manager Eddie Sawyer remarked the team "played only fair baseball."

The Phils would have to wait another 26 years until they reached the Postseason again, and their fans would have to wait exactly 30 years for the franchise to win its next World Series game - accomplished in Game 1 of the 1980 World Series.

When the 2009 Phillies take to the new Yankee Stadium field tomorrow night, they'll be looking to do something their beloved counterparts couldn't do 59 years ago. Win.