Set Type: Primary
Card dimensions: 2½” x 3½”
Additional Information: Distributed in two-card packs with the purchase of an Extra Value Meal at Philadelphia-area McDonald’s locations during the month of July. The design of the cards is very similar to that used by Upper Deck in its 2004 Upper Deck Diamond Collection set. According to SCD, which lists the set as “2004 McDonald’s Philadelphia Phillies” in the 2011 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards, Upper Deck reportedly printed 170,000 of each card. Beckett lists the set as “2004 Phillies McDonald’s.”
| 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 |
Jim Thome Placido Polanco Jimmy Rollins David Bell Bobby Abreu Pat Burrell Marlon Byrd Mike Lieberthal Kevin Millwood Randy Wolf Vicente Padilla Eric Milton Brett Myers Billy Wagner Tim Worrell Rheal Cormier Roberto Hernandez Ryan Madson Amaury Telemaco Tomas Perez Shawn Wooten Doug Glanville Ricky Ledee Jason Michaels Todd Pratt Larry Bowa (manager) Citizens Bank Park (set checklist on back) |
14,000 Phillies 
It took me a while to collect this set. I think I put on at least 5 pounds, and acquired a third of the 170k Ricky Ledee cards in the process. Bowa’s posture while “conversing” with an umpire on his card always made me laugh…
Thankfully — at least in terms of arterial health — I was able to purchase a complete set off of eBay shortly after the cards came out. I always liked the Bowa card as well. There should be more cards of managers animatedly arguing with umpires as they are the closest thing we get to action shots of them.
I was living on the West Coast when this set came out. My brother put on the weight for me an gave me his cards, but he was missing a few cards. It ended up being cheaper to buy a full set on eBay, and later I added an uncut sheet as well. (But I told him I just completed his partial set….)
I wish McDonald’s or some other retailer/restaurant would do another Phillies team set again. This is the last one, I believe, that has come out, following in the great tradition of the 1979 and 1980 BK and 1981 Coke sets. Any others I’m not recalling right now? (Not general MLB sets like the Atlantic set from the 1990s, but solely Phillies focused.)
I’d like to see that again as well. Before posting this checklist, I made a mental note to mention in my commentary section that this set reminded me of the ’79 & ’80 BK sets, but somewhere along the way that thought was forgotten.