Upper Deck SP randoms

At the turn of the Millennium the SP ranges proliferated with lots of little sets appearing that were usually quite heavy in relics and autographs. 

Card Number 324: Upper Deck SPX, 2001; #76

SPX was the new name for the SP base range.

I will award a bonus point for having the set name and year on the front. Also it's got a nice use of the number 19 as a design feature. 

On the back it says that Tony is "looking to put up big numbers" in the 2001 season. In actuality he barely played due to injuries. The stats box on the back shows how his number of games and at bats had really dropped off during the 2000 season. There was to be no swansong in this, his final season playing. 

Card Number 325: Upper Deck SP Game Bat Edition, 2001; #77

As you can probably work out from the set title, this range contained lots of bat relic cards. There was also another range called SP Game Bat Milestone Edition, which also had bat relics. I have one of those and blogged about it back in June.

The only quibble I'd have with this card design is the placing of the number 19 makes it look like the card number rather than Tony's number being incorporated in the design.

The back is dull although the sketched outline of a baseball field is something a little bit different.

The write up says Tony is "probably" the greatest Padres player ever. It feels like the writer was hedging his bets there. 

Card Number 326: Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts, 2002; #81

The clue is again in the set title - lots of swatches in this set, which only featured retired players. Tony had just retired so got a card in the set.

 

The sepia tone was used throughout the set. Some of the photos of genuine old-timers may well have only been available in sepia. 

Even the cardback is sepia!

That's a great line to start the summary - "Gwynn energized San Diego's offense"! There's a one line stat summary, which makes sense once a player has retired.

That's it for my folder of SP cards!

Total: 326/394