Monday Mixer Time Again

Here's a Monday Mixer of totally unconnected cards from my collection. Because sometimes when life is less organised it can be more fun. Same with collecting.

Card Number 85: Fleer E-Motion XL, 1996; #277
This was a weird card set from the Fleer / Skybox company in the mid-90s. I have a few of these cards for other Padres players. The basic premise is that every player illustrates an emotion. Tony's emotion is "relaxed".

It might just be me, but I don't think he looks relaxed. He looks like he's about to club the catcher.

He doesn't look like he's relaxed in the photo on the back photo either. If anything he looks like he's about to exert himself throwing the ball or something.

Is "relaxed" even an emotion? I understand it is a state of mind, but is that the same thing? There is also no explanation on this card as to why he illustrated being relaxed. But while it's a very odd selection, he did get off lightly. One of his team-mates, Fernando Valenzuela, had the word "wily" written next to him, which isn't very complimentary.

In fact, I went and found the relevant page in my Padres binder and here's the list of players' cards that I have, and their designated E-Motions.

• Fernando Valenzuela - "wily"
• Jody Reed - "joyful"
• Steve Finley - "surprised"
• Wally Joyner - "calm"
• Ken Caminiti - "solid"
• Brad Ausmus - "springing"

Fleer were really reaching with those last two "emotions".

Card Number 86: Panini Prizm, 2015; #168
Allan from the Baseball Card UK Facebook groups sent me this. I really appreciate his kindness. However, Panini Prizm are hard cards to love.

They are shiny, but they scan grey. Panini airbrush off the logos because they don't have a license with MLB. However, the need to circumvent the licensing does make me smile sometimes, like in the blurb on the cardback.

"Playing against the Bronx squad"? Seriously, what? I know a few Yankees fans and even they would find that drop-dead hilarious.

And now for a moment I like to call "Jon's utterly torturous personal links to Tony Gwynn, part 1"- the cardback notes that Tony clocked his home run at Yankee Stadium in the World Series off pitcher David Wells. In September 2004, I went to watch the Padres play the Giants at Petco Park, and David Wells was the starting pitcher for the Padres that night.

(The Padres won that game 4-3 in the 10th inning, in case you needed to know the score. I had decided I would follow the fortunes of whoever won that night. On such small winning margins are life decisions made.)

Card Number 87: Upper Deck, 1994; #279
This was from the Homefield Advantage series of insert cards in the Upper Deck 1994 set.  It's not particularly interesting as a card design, with the diagram of the field taking up most of the space.

The back is about the ballpark and how well the Padres have done when playing at home (or not).

Tony never played at the Padres new stadium, Petco Park, which opened for the 2004 season. However, the player's entrance to Petco Park is 19, Tony Gwynn Way. Tony was also the first manager to stand in the 'home' dug out, as his San Diego State team that he was coaching played the first competitive baseball game in the new ballpark. The attendance that evening set a new record for collegiate baseball.

Jack Murphy Stadium was also the home of the San Diego Chargers American Football team until they relocated to Los Angeles in 2016. It is now the home of the San Diego State University American Football team, the 'Aztecs'. I like the cardback factoid about the ground being invaded by a skunk. A better factoid is that it is the only sports stadium to host the Superbowl and the World Series in the same year (1998).

There's your Monday Mixer. I hope you enjoyed it.

Total 87/394