One card only to launch 80s Week

Tony Gwynn's 1984 Topps card has been a gaping hole in my collection for ages, and probably the card I most wanted to acquire. It's an iconic set template, and it's from the season the Padres reached the World Series for the first time in their history. As soon as I decided on doing an 80s week here on the blog with my newly acquired cards from the 80s, I knew this would be the card to launch the week. 

As ever with cards, there's always the possibility of discovering a new tangent of interest, and this was certainly true for me.

Card Number 481: Topps, 1984; #251

Being totally objective, the photo on the front is a bit odd, although a bit better than the one on Tony's rookie card. The portrait photo more than makes up for it, though.

And on the back we get the Swinging Friar team logo. It was the last season the Padres used that logo, after 25 years of service. 

I've never seen the term "twinbill sweep" before. It's referring to a double header against the Cincinatti Reds where the Padres won both games, 11-4 and 6-2. August 6th would prove to be an auspicious day for hits in Tony's life, of course. Both his 2000th and 3000th hits came on August 6th (in 1993 and 1999).

But that wasn't the thing that really caught my eye about the cardback. It was the career record that included a stint in Las Vegas in 1983. I knew about Tony's progression through the various leagues from Walla Walla to Amarillo to Hawaii. But I didn't know, or hadn't remembered, that he had a brief stint back in AAA in 1983. 

That seems to get dropped off Tony's career stats later on, even if they keep his minor league stats on the cardback. It is included on his card for 1985, but from 1986 onwards Topps only included his major league totals. DonRuss never included his minor league totals, not even on his rookie card in 1983, while Fleer kept references to his minor league appearances in their stats boxes until 1993 - but never once mention Las Vegas. 

Clearly he was too good for the Pacific Coast League though, with 25 hits in just 17 games and a batting average of .342. No wonder he was back in the bigs in 1984!

Total: 481 cards