Another take on leather

Wood and leather. The two main materials that symbolise baseball. For every card insert series focusing about lumber, there are cards focusing on leather. And even some sets that focus on both.

Card Number 606: Fleer Ultra Prime Leather (Gold Medallion), 1996; #16

It's hard to tell from, but the little gold circle above 'Tony' is a foil stamped medallion. This is a parallel 'gold medallion' version of this card.

The cardback follow up on the leather theme and talks about Tony's defensive game. 

Truthfully, by 1996 his fielding prowess wasn't as great as early in his career. Unlike Tony's batting, which improved in the second decade he was playing, Tony never won another fielding title after 1991. 

In his book Tony Gwynn's Total Baseball Player, there is a chapter called 'In Search of the Golden Glove' (p.89ff). The first piece of advice Tony offers is to always pick a glove you feel comfortable wearing, as he believes that "Feeling comfortable is the key to success in any sport."

Tony's advice can be summarised as:

• Pick a glove you feel comfortable in
• Use a big glove in the outfield (easier on ground balls)
• If you can, catch fly balls two-handed, so you can close your other hand over the top of the ball in the glove and make sure it doesn't pop back out
• Look after your glove
• Break in yout glove in practice, not a game
• While breaking in your glove, form it to create a pocket - that makes it easier to catch and quickly locate the ball with your throwing hand

It's a very short chapter, but there you have it - advice from a five time Golden Glove winner.

Total: 606 cards