Back to Base - sweeping up the Leafs

It's autumn. There's no more apt time than to show some Leaf cards. I've been patchy in my posting about Leaf, unlike other card makes where I've shown all the base cards in order. Today's post is just posting the ones I've somehow missed up to now.

Card Number 445: Leaf, 1990; #154

In 1988, Leaf cards were just DonRuss reprints. I don't think there was a set in 1989. Then in 1990, Leaf came back with a bit of a bang. 

I've talked about the UD-boundary when the Upper Deck asteroid collided with the baseball card planet and basically wiped out the pre-existing fauna. The card sets that appear after that boundary soon take on the appearance of Upper Deck cards. This is one of the most obvious early transitional designs, with its white borders and a photo on the back.

Cardbacks from the time between Tony's first four and second four batting titles are always interesting because they capture a moment when his career could have gone either way. He could well have left the Padres due to the toxic atmosphere in the clubhouse towards him in 1990. He was yet to have his conversation with Ted Williams that would cause him to change his bat, and his batting. And his career batting average was lower in 1990, midway through his career, than ten years later when he retired. He went from second among active major leaguers in 1990 to breaching the all time top twenty - the only player to play after 1960 in that illustrious group.

I was curious who Tony was second to in 1990. I am relatively confident that the one player with a better career batting average than him at that point was Wade Boggs. Unlike Tony, Wade's batting average declined after 1990, with a few seasons below .300. His final career total when he retired in 1999 was a very respectable .328, which puts him 33rd on the all-time career average list.

Card Number 446: Leaf, 1997; #17

Fielding photo!

Just in case you wanted a batting photo, though, here is Tony in mid-swing in a full bleed photo on the back. Bonus point for having the year in the shiny foil set logo on the front.

There's a one year stats box and no room for any factoids. I'm a little bit disappointed this is card number 17 in the set instead of #19. So close!

Total: 446 cards