Tony's Project70 cameo appearance

I'm bending my own rules here about cameo appearances on cards, but I have some good reasons. 

Card Number 679: Topps Project70, 2021; #61

This is a card of Fernando Tatis, Jr. But I'm including it anyway, for obvious reasons if you look at the card.

This card was designed by Keith Shore in a homage to Tony's Topps card from 1986.

And Tony is featured in Keith's artwork, looking on from Heaven as Fernando tears up records for the Padres. (He was the fastest Padre to reach 200 hits a couple of days ago, and one of the fastest players ever to reach 50 home runs.)

It's a bit of a sentimental depiction and I'm in two minds about it really. It's less intrusive than the 'Master and Apprentice' card from the Topps Gallery insert set in 2020, which paired Fernando and Tony, and was anachronistic on a number of levels. But I'm not sure whether it's particularly respectful of Tony's memory to reduce him to a 'spirit in the sky' onlooker.

There is a short biography of Keith Shore on the generic-looking back. Keith is a popular baseball card artist, and that's reflected in the demand for this card, which had a print run of 9,884. That's well over three times as many sold compared to the Project70 card of Tony by Mimsbandz that I blogged about yesterday. I think partly that reflects the popularity of Fernando Tatis, Jr as well. 

So, although this is a 'cameo card', it's a bit different to cameo cards where Tony is in a photo of another player. He has been deliberately included in the artwork, so I'm counting this as a card in the collection, even though, technically, it probably isn't really a Tony Gwynn card.

Total: 679 cards