Saturday, March 10, 2018

Oversized in My Collection: 1992 Phillies Team-Issued Photo Cards (Medford)

Dad and I had Sunday season tickets to the Phillies for a few years when I was in high school.  The plan covered all of the Sunday home games at the Vet, and we got them in the 200-level.  I think for the first year we were on the third base side, then after that we were on the first base side.  Things were more affordable back then -- I think the tickets were something like $12 each, so two tickets to all 13 Sunday home games were only about $300 total.  Even accounting for inflation (prices have risen about 75% since 1992), that would only buy about 7 tickets at a comparable level today (they're about $70 each if you buy from the Phillies box office) instead of the 26 tickets we got back then.

I think we had the tickets for four years, 1989-1992, but I can't be certain.  I'm sure we didn't buy them in 1993, since I was graduating high school and going to college, we wouldn't be able to use them all.  For 1990-1992, we bought the Phillies team-issued set of photo cards (I'm pretty sure that's what they called them), which are these oversized baseball cards.

I've featured some of the 1990 and 1991 cards before (here and here for 1990, and here and here for 1991), in a few posts.  If you compare, they were typically action shots in 1990 and 1991, and the Phillies opted for studio shots in 1992.  I never went in for Studio or similar, but I guess it was around that time that Studio debuted, and the Phils hopped on the bandwagon.
Tommy Greene.
Wally Ritchie.
Tommy Greene didn't have a long career, pitching in the bigs between 1989 and 1997, primarily as a starter, with a career record of 38-25.  Almost all of those years were in Philly, with brief stints with the Braves and Astros.  His best year that we had the season tickets was 1991, going 13-7, and his best year overall was 1993, when he had the best record on the team at 16-4 (Curt Schilling had as many wins, at 16-7).  Greene went 1-1 in the NLCS and had a no-decision in the World Series.  He pitched a no-hitter in 1991, which was commemorated on one of the 1991 photo cards (I guess there was an update set?).

Relief pitcher Wally Ritchie had a brief career in the majors, pitching with the Phillies in 1987 and 1988, and again in 1991 and 1992.  He pitched 147 big-league games total, finishing 47 of them.  His career record is 6-5 with 4 saves, and a 3.14 ERA.
Dale Sveum.
Mariano Duncan.
Here are two guys I remember on other teams.  Since I spent so much time with the 1987 Topps set, I remember Dale Sveum's first regular card, with the Brewers.  He had showed up in 1986 traded/rookie/update sets before that, and I may have seen him in 1986 Fleer Update.  Sveum was only with the Phils briefly, playing in 54 games before being traded to the White Sox.

I think of Mariano Duncan as part of the 1990 championship Reds.  He played with the Phillies, though, for all of 1992 through 1994, and part of 1995.  He was one of several Phillies who hit well in the 1993 World Series, batting .345 in all 6 games.  He won his second World Series, other than 1990 with the Reds, in 1996 with the Yankees.
Wes Chamberlain.
Ruben Amaro.
Wes Chamberlain played 1990 through 1995 with the Phillies and then the Red Sox.  He was a hyped rookie at the time, I think, but never really played a full season.  His most games played was in his rookie year of 1991, with 101, and second-most was in 1993, with 96.  He posted decent numbers for only playing about 60% of the time, with 50 and 45 RBI, and in 1993 he batted .282.

Ruben Amaro is more famous as general manager of the Phillies than as a player, but he played in the majors between 1991 and 1998, mostly with the Phillies but also with the Angels and the Indians.  He took over as general manager right after the 2008 World Series win, and they returned to lose the World Series to the Yankees in 2009, and then won two more NL East titles in 2010 and 2011.  He was fired after the 2015 season.
Terry Mulholland.
Darren Daulton.
Terry Mulholland and Darren Daulton were two mainstays of those early '90s Phillies.  Mulholland was one of the better starting pitchers, going 13-11 in 1992 with a 3.81 ERA.  The recently deceased Darren Daulton was the Phillies' All-Star catcher of the era, and was a popular guy.  He batted .217 in the Phils' losing effort in the 1993 World Series, but had another chance, winning in 1997 with Jim Leyland and the Marlins.
Mickey Morandini.
John Kruk.
I've featured an autographed card of Mickey Morandini before.  I'm from before the days of the card companies getting the cards autographed for you, so my old autographed cards were all cards that Dad and I had autographed in front of us at card shows.  Many of the Phillies would show up at the local card shows, and one day we got Morandini.  John Kruk was one of the Phillies' power hitters during their early 90s postseason run, and was 3rd on the team in 1992 in RBI behind Daulton and third baseman Dave Hollins, and he was 4th on the team in 1993 in RBI behind Daulton, Hollins, and Pete Incaviglia.  Kruk has been a sportscaster for many years since retirement, with ESPN for a long time, and more recently with Comcast.

I've been featuring oversized cards for the past many Saturdays, but I think I've run out.  I think I'll perhaps start featuring mini cards instead.  Thanks for reading!

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