2021 Sportlots purchases part 9: Tony the Tiger

Previously: Quick summary and set wants; Big and small we have them all!; Better off Ted; A Tettle-ton of Froot Loops; Lucky Tiger Seven; Dizzying Deans, Sportlots has been Barry, Barry good to me; more Michigan? Marvelous!

One of the many reasons I'm glad I've evolved into a player collector over the years is how rewarding it can be to relive a favorite athlete's career through their cards. Tony Phillips is a guy I remember enjoying watching during my younger days, especially during his stint with the Tigers, and as I've repeated a number of times here, I've come to appreciate his game even more as I've gotten older.

One of his most defining characteristics was his versatility, and if you needed any evidence of that beyond, say, his Baseball-Reference page, pay attention as you scan through the cards I picked up from Sportlots below and witness the crazy number and combinations of positions listed on the fronts: OF comes up the most with 2B not too far behind, and you'll also see standards like SS, 3B, and LF. But don't forget SS/2B, 3B/OF, IF/DH, IF/OF, OF/2B, and OF/2B/3B! This guy played around 1/3 of his career in the outfield with most of the rest of his time spent in the middle infield and 3B, plus he could get on base (including walks) and score runs, and occasionally he even offered a bit of pop. Put him anywhere in the lineup and you're all set!

In the spirit of the late Keith Anthony Phillips' many facets, please enjoy this look at a huge variety of cards I added to his collection thanks to Sportlots:

We'll start all the way back the year I was born: 1983. Because the rules for such cards are goofy, the 1983 Topps Traded that kicks off this scan is generally not considered a RC, but an "XRC". Whatever, it's still his first Major League card and it shows him hitting in one of his 40 appearances in 1982. By the way, did you know he was actually drafted by Montreal #10 overall in the 1978 January secondary draft (way back when they had those), then traded to the Padres in 1980, and then to Oakland in 1981?

After that is a pair of '84s, including his Donruss RC (which gives me all three of them) and one of a bevy of food issues you've enjoyed this series: Topps' collaboration with Nestle. Tony can be seen smiling, as he often was, on his Fleer base from the following year.

The rest of the cards in this group are glossy/Tiffany versions of cards I already had the base versions of from 1987-89. They're difficult to discern from a scan like this and even sometimes in-hand so I try to remember to put them in penny sleeves to remind myself and avoid tossing them as dupes.

Now we're into the 90s stuff where we pretty much spend the rest of the post. The top row isn't too exciting with 1990's Donruss Best of the AL, Fleer Canadian, and Topps Traded Tiffany. Under that, though, we have 1992 Bowman and Topps Gold sandwiching two very nice inserts from the same year: Donruss's Diamond Kings and Leaf's Black Gold. The artwork for the DKs always looked amazing but I really like the brand's switch to the different card stock and foil accents here. Then from '93, in addition to Pacific Spanish, I added Phillips to my collection of that year's OG Finest set. I may be searching forever for affordable versions of the iconic Refractors, but otherwise I'm pretty much done with the set save for the biggest guys like Griffey/Gwynn/Maddux/Ripken.

1993's representatives include a Select Stat Leaders insert, Stadium Club Members Only parallel, and three different Topps flagship versions: Gold plus the Inaugural Marlins and Rockies cards. How did Phillips pile up 114 runs to lead the AL in 1992 on a team that went 75-87? It helped that he got on base at a .387 clip with an outstanding 114 walks, but just as importantly, the lineup was stacked with power, with Mickey Tettleton, Cecil Fielder, Lou Whitaker, Travis Fryman, and Rob Deer combining for 138 bombs and 438 RBI. Also, can we talk about how amazing that photo is from the Stadium Club card, with a throwback uni-bedecked Phillips defying gravity to turn two while Fryman looks on? Topps may whiff on the images they use in flagship, but Stadium Club never misses.

Anyway, it's time to move on to '94 with the super premium Flair, a very different O-Pee-Chee look (starring another smiling Tony!), and the first of a multi-year Pinnacle run that I still love to this day. I would have been excited enough with the debut of the Dufex Museum Collection parallel at the end of the scan, but I also tracked down Tony's Artist's Proof version. I don't think I can emphasize how tough the latter was to find back then, so they still feel special to me today when I can find them for a fairly reasonable $1 each.

We need 2/3 of this scan to finish up 1994, and that's mostly because of parallels. We start with Score's Gold Rush, then move on to the second year of UD's SP, plus its die-cut version, followed by the Members Only parallel of Stadium Club, an issue from the 50-card confusingly named Members Only boxed set, and finally, Topps Gold. It's kind of funny looking at the Score parallel and SP base and realizing they have pretty much the same kind of gold thing going on!

1994 was Tony's last season with the Tigers so some of the '95 cards start showing him with his next team, the Angels. While the Collector's Choice SE Silver Signature and first of two Finest cards in a row show him with Detroit, a Collector's Choice base from the "traded" section depicts him with California, just as the same subset has his former teammate Tettleton with the Rangers. Tony would bop a career-high 27 homers with the '95 Angels.

A graph of the increase in sets from the various manufacturers must have looked like a vertical line back then because this scan is all 1995 and it doesn't even cover everything from that year! Finest Series II captures Phillips with his new team while one of Fleer's goofiest designs uses a very similar photo, albeit with the Tigers, giving us a look at how consistent his hitting mechanics were. One of my favorite Leaf designs shows some batting action that serves as a reminder that Tony was a switch-hitter, further upping his versatility.

Inserts down the middle here include Score's return of the Gold Rush parallel along with Hall of Gold, an insert found in both series that focused on some of the bigger stars of the game. And SP's third year included another parallel, but instead of going the die-cut route, Upper Deck went with a shinier Silver foil on the left side of its insert that's also known as "Superbafoil". If you're still counting, there's another smilin' Tony!

The bottom row's first card reminds me that while the '96 version will forever be my favorite Sportflix product, '95's looked awesome too, and I'm quite happy with how Phillips' card scanned here. That's joined by another example of Stadium Club's Members Only boxed set (called "Members Only 50" this time), and Topps' foiltastic Cyberstats parallel, which attempts to extrapolate stats for the strike-shortened '94 season.

Ok, now we can finally finish up '95, with an Upper Deck trio. Tony looks like he's about to make some solid contact on his UD flagship and Electric Diamond parallels, and then we get one more happy moment with the Tigers thanks to the Special Edition product.

In contrast, 1996 can be summed up in the remaining six cards. Four of those happen to come from Fleer: the matted and embossed Emotion-XL, flagship and its Tiffany parallel, and a White Sox team set. I really like the way Fleer did the matte cards plus glossy versions in '96 and '97. Also, the White Sox come into play here as Tony spent '95 with the Angels, signed with Chicago the following January, then returned to the newly-named Anaheim franchise in '97. Speaking of the ChiSox, you get another issue with them thanks to a Finest subset that focuses on trades. Then, for the third straight year, Phillips made the Stadium Club boxed set, which again added the "50" to its name to denote the set size.

1997 makes up a perfect nine-card scan here. Both his Leaf base and the crazy Fractal Matrix version capture him back with the Angels, and I'm happy that with the Matrix Bronze card out of the way I just need to find a Die-Cut version. Pacific's offering that year isn't great in my book, but they came up with some solid designs pretty soon after. Both Score and its foiled up Showcase parallel feature Tony looking a bit alarmed about something mid-swing. He was perfect for Studio, especially one of the best versions of it, and proves that with another smile. Don't call the Ghostbusters--that Chrome card isn't nearly as haunted as it scanned. That year's Gallery is typically excellent, and it's a shame it's his only appearance in the product. And I love the big leg kick and pinstriped uni in Ultra's Gold Medallion version, which I'll remind everyone includes a different photo than the base, something that doesn't typically happen with a "parallel".

Here we have the last of the verticals and first of the horizontal cards. As often happens when there's a bunch of scanning involved I goofed up by flipping the two Y-axis cards, so Ultra's '98 Gold Medallion should have been first followed by 2000 MLB Showdown Unlimited, which captures Tony back with Oakland on his final mainstream card made during his career (which ended in 1999), along with the 1st Edition and a couple inserts.

The horizontal contingent opens with Phillips about to make a great play, back with Detroit, on a '94 UD Electric Diamond parallel. That's followed by '95's Collector's Choice Silver Signature and the high-end Flair. We won't be ending on cards with him as a Tiger, but this trio is still nice to see near the end of this evening's post.

Speaking of endings, here we are with the final scan, and boy does it start with a bang. I don't think I need to repeat how much I love 1995 Pinnacle and here I have both the Artist's Proof and Museum Collection versions. I already mentioned how tough the APs were back then, and I prefer that year's Dufex parallel above all other versions. The fact that he has a great horizontal action photo here is a big bonus.

As for the rest, Studio's credit card-themed set also represents 1995. Stadium Club's Team Stadium Club base subset, plus a Silver parallel, are from 1996. Like I said, Pacific did better after the '97 set that didn't do much for me, and the '98 set feels like a step in the right direction. Phillips spent 1998 with the Blue Jays and Mets, with whom he's seen on his '99 Fleer Tradition base and parallels, such as the red-foiled Warning Track parallel above, though it also mentions that Oakland signed him as a free agent. And fittingly, the final card here has him back with the franchise for whom he played the most games and seasons, Oakland. That would be Pacific's Omega product, also from '99, which comes with two images up front, one of which is used both in an inset photo and in a foiled area on the far right.

This haul of one of my favorite former Tigers gave his collection a huge bump, and I now own 242 different cards of Phillips, putting him at #15 among baseball players I have on TCDB, so hooray for a new milestone. I also became the undisputed #1 collector of Phillips cards on the site, something that's been happening more and more often as I continue to put my effort into collecting players few others chase:

Just as I'd hoped, it was fun not only strengthening one of my favorite PCs, but enjoying looking at some very cool brands and inserts at the same time, so I'm glad I unintentionally made Tony the last of the single-player posts in this series.

You can expect the final one, which some of you will be roaring about, fairly soon, but first I need to log and scan those cards, and I appear to have a couple envelopes heading to my mailbox in the near future, so I'm not exactly sure yet when you'll be seeing the finale. As for me, I'm happy to be putting away even more cards from this huge Sportlots purchase, freeing up a bit more room on my desk!