Crown time part 2

The thing about kings and queens is that as soon as one dies or abdicates, the next person in line instantly becomes king or queen. There is always a monarch. That's a change that nobody had experienced in the UK for 70 years but now everyone is having to get used to it fast. 

After yesterday's tenuous link between the monarchy and baseball cards, here's another card that is roughly keeping in with the theme of crowns.

Card Number 1044: Fleer Ultra - Gold Medallion Edition, 1998; #216G

Rather than being an insert set, the ten cards of players given a "Season Crown" were included as a subset within the main set. This is the parallel 'gold medallion' version of the card. (Yet again, I seem to have the parallel and not the normal base card.)     

The design of this card would fit into my much smaller collection of 'cards with a giant baseball motif. I like it as a design choice. 

Tony won what would turn out to be his final batting title in 1997, with over 200 hits.

I'm awarding this card a bonus point for adding 'G' to the card number to show that it's a parallel. Fleer often showed kindness like this to collectors.

Total: 1044 cards

Crown time

I'm starting yet another blog post apologising for an interruption in blogging. Everything here in the UK is dominated by the death of Queen Elizabeth II last week, and the installation of her first-born son as the new King. Plus I've been on holiday. 

However, with some new cards incoming, I feel I ought to blog some of the cards I have scanned and waiting! So here are some cards that roughly fit with the current big news story, as they have little crowns printed on them.

Card Number 1042: Pacific, 1994; #525

This was Pacific's second season producing cards and the first year they added the 'Crown Collection' logo to their cards. Later the company developed the Crown Collection idea into an actual set (one card included here). Unlike the 1993 set, this card didn't include Spanish field positions on the front of the card. 

It did, however, include Spanish on the back in the very limited text. This is one of the first regular base cards to include a photo on the back that was almost the same size as on the front. The information is minimal as a result. 

Card Number 1043: Pacific, 1996; #184

There are two crowns on the front of this card - one in the top right and one behind Tony's name. All are stamped in foil. Pacific really loved their foil in the mid 1990s, especially on their insert cards. (NB - the insert card I linked to had a crucial error in the Spanish text.)

There is also a crown on the back of the card, along with a fizzy-edged cameo portrait that looks like a flying saucer is hovering over Tony's right shoulder!

The bilingual write up on the back notes that Tony made just two errors in 135 games, which is as admirable a stat as his batting achievements. Although he didn't win a Gold Glove after 1991, his concentration in the outfield was as disciplined as his approach to batting. 

Total: 1043 cards
 

Breakfast baseball bonus

Topps has produced a few promotional issues for other companies over the years. This one is unusual because it celebrates the Topps company even though it was a giveaway in breakfast cereal. 

Card Number 1041: Post 50 Years of Topps, 2001; #17

I mean, it's a free card, you don't expect to see the player's face in the photo do you?

Topps's trademark rubbish photography aside, the other quirk is placing the Padres logo on Tony's foot as if he's balancing a soccer ball there. A small soccer ball, like the "mini Mitres" I remember from school. 

(OK, that might need an explanation. When I was in high school in the late 80s to early 90s, the soccer ball company called Mitre brought out smaller versions of their balls that were supposed to be used for training purposes. They were also, probably intentionally, the perfect size for carrying round in a schoolbag which meant my gang of friends could play soccer during the lunchtime break with something resembling a proper soccer ball. I didn't have a mini Mitre myself. The kids who did were the gods of the playground.)

The most interesting thing about this cardback is the ribbon around the baseball and Tony's facsimile signature... which I think I'm right in saying is what he used on his very first contract with Topps when he was a teenager. It also appears on his Bowman cards from 1998 and 1999. 

It feels like the era of free cards in random products is over. This is probably one of the last times baseball cards appeared in boxes of breakfast cereal. (You can see the advert promoting the giveaway on TCDb.) This card is therefore a real throwback and the last hurrah of the late 90s overproduction era.

Total: 1041 cards

Nothing sketchy about this card

This was another card in the envelope that arrived from Casey in California recently. It's from another one of those random Skybox ranges as the Fleer company flirted with bankruptcy and was releasing all sorts of different sets trying to find one that would capture the imagination (and cash) of collectors. 

Card Number 1040: Skybox Dugout Axcess, 1998; #126

It's a"7th inning sketch", like the 7th inning stretch, geddit?

Unlike other card sets that featured artistic renditions of players, this card has had the art effect switched on in a very early version of PhotoShop, which was only 10 years old in 1998.

There is a great factoid on the back about Tony flying to watch his son, Tony Jr, in a basketball game. Like his dad, Tony Jr later swapped basketball for baseball and had his own major league career starting about ten years after this card was printed. (Here are some Tony Gwynn Jr baseball cards.)

Dugout Axcess was a 'one shot' for Skybox. Fleer was taken over the following year and the Skybox brand disappeared along with the sets. There were three cards of Tony in the set - I've blogged the other two here - and he also makes a cameo appearance on Ken Caminiti's card, which is one I will have to try and track down some day...

In the meantime, thank you Casey for filling this gap in my collection.

Total: 1040 cards