Upper Deck SP Authentic

After a few years of releasing cards branded as SP, Upper Deck rebranded the range as SP Authentic. Presumably, to differentiate it from all those pirate SP brands out there. 

Card Number 320: Upper Deck SP Authentic, 1998; #170

Upper Deck went back to foilboard for the picture in this range, which is why it doesn't look great on the scan.

The back is just a massive stats box with a big section of black space. 

They did mention Tony's career-high 119 runs batted in the previous season. He never approached that number again, or broke 100 RBI for a second time. 

Card Number 321: Upper Deck SP Authentic, 1999; #70

Despite the sepia look this card looks fresher than the 1998 card. 

The card number is hard to read on the back, but otherwise this is a vast improvement on the big black stats box and blank space on the card from the previous season.

The cardback also notes Tony achieving his 1000th career RBI, something that was mentioned on his Fleer Ultra card in 1999 as well. The stats box is missing a couple of years, which is really strange. I guess the designer could only fit 15 lines of season stats in the box.

Card Number 322: Upper Deck SP Authentic, 2000; #74

The blue tint on the card offsets the blue Padres uniform really well. 

Tony has an odd expression in the cameo photo on the back. The write up uses the word "hence" which is a bit formal for a cardback career summary. It's a truncated stats box, which normally I don't like, but after seeing what they did with the full stats box, and how they then did a stats box that missed two years out, this feels like a lesser evil. 

Card Number 323: Upper Deck SP Authentic 2001; #76

This card arrived last week from Andy in the Baseball Cards UK Facebook group. The flecks on it are part of the design not dust on my scanner flatbed, honest!

At first glance I thought the positions on the left was a height chart!

They repeat the photo on the back as a watermark behind the text and truncated stats box. 

Even more SP cards tomorrow!

Total: 323/394