A sneak peak ahead

I'm excited because at the weekend a package turned up that I'd been anticipating for a while. There were about 50 Tony Gwynn cards inside and 23 of them were ones I didn't yet have. The cards are mainly from the 1980s, and I've decided that next week's blog posts will have a theme. Next week will be Eighties Week here on Point 394.

In the purchase were two pin badges. I haven't decided yet whether to blog about them because they're badges, and I'm trying to keep the focus of the blog on baseball cards. Maybe when I run out of cards to blog about, I'll move on to them.

In the meantime I'm not going to let a post go by without including at least one card. This was one of the few cards from the 90s in the joblot that I didn't already have and it's another "last card in the set".

Card Number 475: DonRuss, 1996; #550

This checklist at the end of the set lists itself on the checklist but doesn't mention Tony.

Checklists don't tend to be included in sets any more. In this case DonRuss used the checklist to highlight Tony's 1000th career run. However, I would query that date. 

According to Baseball Reference, Tony didn't score a run on 7th May that year. It was the final game in a series where the Padres were swept convincingly by the Giants. Tony picked up a run the following day in the first game of a series against the Dodgers. 

I've reached a point where I just don't trust the facts I read on baseball cards any more.

There's a picture of Tony on the back as a watermark behind the checklist as well. 

One of the great things about checklists is finding names of otherwise forgotten baseball players that stick out for some reason. Like the onomatopoeic Eric Plunk (#479), or the player who could be perennially lonely, Duane Singleton (#549). It's not always a good idea to look these guys up though. I did that recently with Chuck Knoblauch (#536) only to find he has had an unhappy life after baseball. It's best to let them live on as eye-catching names on a checklist.

Total: 475 cards