Card Size: 4" x 6"
Description: For the fifth 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. Medford Food Company was in the third year of its sponsorship of the set. Size-wise, the cards lost an eighth of an inch with this set, settling into the 4" x 6" size that has been used for each team-issued photo card set produced by the Phillies as of this writing.
I always thought this was one of the weakest of the team issued sets from the 1990s, and it's a shame since the 1993 squad is really the only team from the 1990s worth remembering. Some of the cards suffer from strange cropping, dark backgrounds and/or blurry photos.
How Distributed: As originally detailed in this post from March 2013, the original 35-card set was available for sale at Veterans Stadium through at least early August. A five-card update set was available for sale at some point during the second half of the season. A second 36-card set was sold at the ballpark late in the season which included a Bobby Thigpen card and four photo variations of players included within the original 35-card set. This second set would have been sold at The Vet at some point after Thigpen's acquisition from the White Sox on August 10th.
Complete First Update Checklist (Unnumbered, presented here alphabetically with uniform number and position from the front of cards):
Manager (1): Fregosi
Coaches (6): Bowa, Menke, Podres, Roberts, Ryan, Vukovich
Set Composition: The original 35-card set includes the entire 25-man opening day roster and adds cards for Kyle Abbott and Ruben Amaro. Amaro would be called up in mid-June, but Abbott would spend the entire season pitching in the minors. The four players added to the first update set first appeared with the Phillies between mid-May and early July, with Kevin Stocker being the newest member of the bunch having been recalled on July 7th.
Omissions: Early season roster additions who could have made an appearance in the first update set include Mark Davis, Doug Lindsey, Tim Mauser and Joe Millette. All spent time with the club prior to Stocker's debut. Joining the club prior to Thigpen's acquisition, but omitted from the second update set was Paul Fletcher, but he pitched in just one game. September additions left out entirely were Tony Longmire, Donn Pall, Kevin Foster and Brad Brink.
Variations/Rarities: Comments on earlier posts and e-mails from fellow collectors have led me to the six cards listed below, which I'm calling Non-Set Variations. How and why these cards were created and issued is still unknown to me, although it's possible the Mike Schmidt card was created for the Annual Phillies ALS Charity Event, held on August 2nd. Then again, the card comes with a printed black facsimile autograph, so it's doubtful it would have been created for Schmidt to add his actual signature.
I always thought this was one of the weakest of the team issued sets from the 1990s, and it's a shame since the 1993 squad is really the only team from the 1990s worth remembering. Some of the cards suffer from strange cropping, dark backgrounds and/or blurry photos.
How Distributed: As originally detailed in this post from March 2013, the original 35-card set was available for sale at Veterans Stadium through at least early August. A five-card update set was available for sale at some point during the second half of the season. A second 36-card set was sold at the ballpark late in the season which included a Bobby Thigpen card and four photo variations of players included within the original 35-card set. This second set would have been sold at The Vet at some point after Thigpen's acquisition from the White Sox on August 10th.
Complete Set Checklist (Unnumbered, presented here alphabetically with uniform number and position from the front of cards):
1. Kyle Abbott (#37 - LHP) 2. Ruben Amaro (#33 - OF) 3. Larry Andersen (#47 - RHP) 4. Bob Ayrault (#53 - RHP) 5. Kim Batiste (#5 - INF) 6. Juan Bell (#24 - INF) 7. Larry Bowa (#2 - Third Base Coach) 8. Wes Chamberlain (#44 - OF) 9. Darren Daulton (#10 - C) 10. Jose DeLeon (#50 - RHP) 11. Mariano Duncan (#7 - INF) 12. Lenny Dykstra (#4 - OF) | 13. Jim Eisenreich (#8 - OF) 14. Jim Fregosi (#11 - MG) 15. Tyler Green (#28 - RHP) 16. Tommy Greene (#49 - RHP) 17. Dave Hollins (#15 - INF) 18. Pete Incaviglia (#22 - OF) 19. Danny Jackson (#27 - LHP) 20. Ricky Jordan (#17 - 1B) 21. John Kruk (#29 - 1B-OF) 22. Denis Menke (#14 - Hitting Instructor) 23. Mickey Morandini (#12 - INF) 24. Terry Mulholland (#45 - LHP) | 25. Johnny Podres (#46 - Pitching Coach) 26. Todd Pratt (#23 - C) 27. Ben Rivera (#34 - RHP) 28. Mel Roberts (#26 - First Base Coach) 29. Mike Ryan (#9 - Bullpen Coach) 30. Curt Schilling (#38 - RHP) 31. Milt Thompson (#25 - OF) 32. John Vukovich (#18 - Dugout Assistant) 33. David West (#40 - LHP) 34. Mitch Williams (#99 - LHP) 35. Phillie Phanatic |
| 1. Jeff Manto (#30 - INF-C) 2. Roger Mason (#48 - RHP) 3. Kevin Stocker (#19 - INF) | 4. Mike Williams (#41 - RHP) 5. 1993 Phillies All-Stars |
Complete Second Update Checklist (Unnumbered, presented here alphabetically with uniform number and position from the front of cards):
| 1. Darren Daulton (dugout background) 2. Tommy Greene (dugout background) 3. Mickey Morandini (dugout background) | 4. Bobby Thigpen (#37 - RHP) 5. Mitch Williams (bright background) |
One and Only Phillies Baseball Card (0): N/A
First Appearance in Phillies Team Issued Set (13): Bell, DeLeon, Eisenreich, Green, Incaviglia, Jackson, Manto, Mason, Pratt, Stocker, Thigpen, West, Mike Williams
Returning Players in Phillies Team Issued Set (23): Abbott, Amaro, Andersen, Ayrault, Batiste, Chamberlain, Daulton (x 2), Duncan, Dykstra, Greene (x 2), Hollins, Jordan, Kruk, Morandini (x 2), Mulholland, Rivera, Schilling, Thompson, Mitch Williams (x 2)
Returning Players in Phillies Team Issued Set (23): Abbott, Amaro, Andersen, Ayrault, Batiste, Chamberlain, Daulton (x 2), Duncan, Dykstra, Greene (x 2), Hollins, Jordan, Kruk, Morandini (x 2), Mulholland, Rivera, Schilling, Thompson, Mitch Williams (x 2)
Manager (1): Fregosi
Coaches (6): Bowa, Menke, Podres, Roberts, Ryan, Vukovich
Phillie Phanatic (1): The Phanatic is shown walking on the field with the green and black Veterans Stadium outfield wall behind him.
Broadcasters (0): N/A
Other Cards (1): 1993 Phillies All-Stars, featuring Mulholland, Daulton, Fregosi, Kruk and Hollins.
Other Cards (1): 1993 Phillies All-Stars, featuring Mulholland, Daulton, Fregosi, Kruk and Hollins.
As mentioned above, the second update set only included one new player - Bobby Thigpen. The reliever was acquired from the White Sox on August 10th in exchange for Jose DeLeon.
Omissions: Early season roster additions who could have made an appearance in the first update set include Mark Davis, Doug Lindsey, Tim Mauser and Joe Millette. All spent time with the club prior to Stocker's debut. Joining the club prior to Thigpen's acquisition, but omitted from the second update set was Paul Fletcher, but he pitched in just one game. September additions left out entirely were Tony Longmire, Donn Pall, Kevin Foster and Brad Brink.
Dale Murphy was released by the Phillies on April 3, 1993. I originally thought the Davis and Mauser cards would have been created for the ALS event, but Davis was released on July 2nd and Mauser was traded to the Padres for Mason on July 3rd, a month before the cards would have been needed had both players still been with the team.
| Non-Set Cards 1. Mark Davis 2. Tim Mauser 3. Dale Murphy | 4. Dickie Noles (Blue Cross Blue Shield logo on back) 5. Mike Schmidt (with black facsimile autograph) 6. Kevin Stocker (running) |
Also See: 1993 Topps Phillies; 1993 Medford Phillies Variations (March 2013) and Update (April 2013)
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.