Best Big Game Face Century Legend

Today's selection of Upper Deck cards are all from my most recent eBay purchase. (Yes, I'm still working through it.) And, as ever, when I'm blogging about Upper Deck baseball cards, I've thought to myself, "I miss Upper Deck baseball cards".

Card Number 666: Upper Deck Pros and Prospects Best in the Bigs, 2000; #B2

Tony is waiting to see if he should run in this photo. He looks like he is tracking a flyball with his eyes. Photos like this, with an open body stance, are quite rare on cards, but it offers a good look at the team uniform with the word Padres emblazoned on his chest.

Although... this card is another example where the photo doesn't match the theme. On the back Tony is described as a "hitting machine", but the photo shows him on base without a bat.

The write-up feels like it's in the vein of a Skybox cardback. The reference to Halley's comet is completely irrelevant, especially as that comet is a regular occurrence, reappearing every 75 to 76 years. I remember going out into my back garden and looking at it with my dad, mum and brother back in 1986, and my dad saying that maybe I would be lucky and see it twice in my lifetime. If I'm still here, I'll be 86 when it comes back.

There's also another use of the word 'torrid', which is used in a different way here in the UK where is has more negative connotations. I've mentioned this before when I encountered it on a Topps insert card from 1995.

(Also, a brief note on numbers - this is card #666 on my blog. 666 of course is the Biblical 'Number of the Beast'. Sadly, or fortunately, I couldn't find any cards with a 'beastly' theme in my small handful of cards waiting to be blogged.)

Card Number 667: Upper Deck Century Legends, 1999; #49

I have blogged a card from this set before.

The first 50 cards in this set were of the players that Upper Deck decreed were the greatest players of the century. Tony was ranked 49th out of 50 and got card #49. Because most of the players were from the era before colour photography was common, Upper Deck printed all the photos in the first 50 cards in black and white. I think the result looks quite classy.

The back includes a massive stats box and a packed little write up where Tony is compared to his hitting hero, Ted Williams, and early Hall of Famers Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner. One day I might list all the players Tony gets compared against on cardbacks.

The cardback also mentions how close Tony was to getting his 3000th career hit.

Card Number 668: Upper Deck Faces of the Game insert, 2000; #F10

I like portrait cards, although they don't always come off. This looks like a "catalogue pose".

I'm sure I could caption this with something cheeky, but it's quite a nice photo.

The cardback is a bit boring. The comment that "Gwynn was born to play baseball" ignores that he almost didn't and could have been a basketballer instead.

After being trailed on the card from 1999, this cardback mentions Tony joining the 3000-hit club. It feels like reading the story of Tony's career having cards talking about that milestone one after the other like this.

Total: 668 cards