Tuesday Twins - Upper Deck retrospective

In 2009, Upper Deck released a mammoth card set celebrating their 20 years in the card industry. The 2,500 cards in the set covered baseball, NFL and college football, world events, US Presidents and other world leaders, basketball, ice hockey, space launches, golf, and more. This is the card set to collect if you want pictures of the Pope and cards about the constitutional right of all Americans to burn the American flag. (Yes, really!) It is an eclectic mix. Here's the checklist!

Upper Deck released five cards on each subject in a row, using the same photo on the cards. Tony actually has four runs of cards, twenty in all, in the set. Each run featured a different photo, but in the runs, they had the same photo. Which brings us on to today's 'twins'.

Card Number 345: Upper Deck 20th Anniversary, 2009; #1579

This card is from the third mini-series of Tony Gwynn cards in the set. It commemorates Tony and Cal Ripken Jr being honoured by MLB head honcho Bud Selig during the 2001 All Star Game. 

Six years later Tony and Cal would share the induction ceremony to the National Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. It doesn't say that on the cardback, though.

Card Number 346: Upper Deck 20th Anniversary, 2009; #1580

The next card in the set, and to date, the highest set number on a Tony Gwynn card I own.

This card is about Tony retiring.

There really isn't a lot to say about this card. I can add "consistently exceptional hitter" to my list of things that were said about Tony on the backs of baseball cards. (It feels like an oxymoron because if he was consistently something then how could it have also been exceptional? It's a nice phrase though.)

Total: 346/394