Card Number 61: Fleer Tradition, 2001; #13GR
The scan doesn't really do it justice. I can't really define what makes it so appealing. Maybe it's the way Tony's name follows the arch of the frame. All I know is that when I picked it up while going through a job lot, my first response was 'Wow!'
It has a nice, handsome card back too. There were 15 cards in the 'Grass Roots' insert series within the Fleer Tradition set. I'm not sure what the reference to 'Grass Roots's is about. The write up on the back offers no clues as to why they chose to call it 'Grass Roots'.
This was from Tony's final season and predicts Tony would finish with a higher lifetime batting average than Honus Wagner. When Tony retired, the Fleer cardback writers were proved correct as he finished with a career total of .338 with 19 seasons in a row posting over .300; two more seasons than Wagner.
It's interesting to speculate if Tony would have won even more batting titles and finished with an even higher career total, if he hadn't played so many games while carrying an injury. There were some seasons where he would have finished with a higher average if he hadn't played for the final few weeks of the season.
Fleer Tradition cards were an equivalent to Topps Heritage, but are sadly no longer produced. I'm just glad to have this lovely card in my collection.
Total: 61/394
I'll have to check my binder to see if I own this card. As for Fleer Tradition, I thought it was weird that they were able to pretty much steal the 1954 and 1956 Topps designs. Regardless... I love the 2001 Fleer Tradition set... because I'm such a huge fan of 1956 Topps.
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