FFF - Sharing the Spotlight with Rickey and Griffey and Steve and Brett

Day three of the Fabulous Fleer Fortnight and today's theme is Tony sharing cards with other players.

Card Number 926: Fleer, 1994; #711

Tony poses with Brett Butler from the Dodgers on the front. 

This isn't the first card I've blogged where Tony is sharing the spotlight with Brett (read about the other one here).

Brett and Tony are the "Batmen" according to the cardback. 

Surely with a surname like Butler, the cardback writer should have made a reference to Alfred to keep in with the Batman theme?

Card number 927: Fleer All Star Game insert, 1995; #7

Breaking with convention and showing the back of the card first. Because that's the side with Tony on.

Technically the front of a card is the obverse. Ken Griffey Jr is on the obverse. He looks a bit worried in this photo as he tracks the flight of a baseball with his eyes. Where is that going to drop?

The Fleer set in 1995 was the most 90s card set of the 90s. These cards are positively boring in comparison. 

Card Number 928: Fleer Ultra Double Trouble insert, 1997; #19

I am pretty sure this is Fuji's ultimate base card of the 90s. 

Tony and Rickey played together in 1996 and for the first half of 1997 before Rickey got traded to Anaheim. They also were both on the Padres roster in 2001, Tony's final season before he retired.

The cardback has some trademark Fleer weird comments. It's hard to decide which player has the strangest description. (Have your say in the comments!)

Junior Circuit? Someone on the Fleer staff doesn't like the American League.

HOWEVER, 19 bonus points for this card for being card #19! Was that intentional? I hope so!

Card Number 929: Fleer Ultra Double Trouble insert, 1998; #12DT

Another 'Double Trouble' insert series. This time the cards are shiny!

One comment on the design of this card - if you had no idea who was who, would you know which player was Steve and which player was Tony based on the positioning of their names?

Steve Finley played in centre field for the Padres for four seasons from 1995, including 159 appearances in 1998, which is when this card was released and was the season the Padres last made it to the World Series. In the close season after the World Series he was traded to the Diamondbacks. 

The back is equally confusing design-wise. It looks like there are write-ups of Tony and Steve but in fact it's one write-up split over two columns. At least the names line up with the correct player.

Come back tomorrow as the Fabulous Fleer Fortnight continues!

Total: 929 cards

One Card Only - Dynagon!

Today's one card only is for Richard (YoRicha) because I know how much he loves Pacific cards.

Card Number 880: Pacific Dynagon Diamond, 1999; #19

This was one of 20 cards in an insert series in Pacific's flagship set in 1999.

It's bright shiny green foil with a whirly swirly background. 

This card gets 19 bonus points for being the 19th card in the set. Pacific were one of the card companies that paid close attention to card numbering. Another reason why the card hobby was poorer when they ceased trading.

The background of this card does make it feel like a baseball is flying straight at your face! Best read it quick!

Total: 880 cards

Leader of the Team

Card Number 743: Fleer Team Leaders, 1992; #7

This was another one of the half dozen cards from Jeff that arrived on Tuesday. It's green. It's got a bit of foil on it. It's really nice. (I find green cards really attractive for some reason.)

These cards were inserted into Fleer's rack packs at a rate of one per pack. Tony is making a catch on the warning track. Somebody's not getting a home run!

On the back, Tony is described as "Primre Padre" - I've not seen Spanish on a Fleer card before! (Although it's a bit weird because it means 'First Father' if translated literally. Maybe they would have been better with "Jefe de Equipo".) 

In the write up, he is described as a "franchise player", which Fleer claim is a term that is "used in baseball lingo". (It feels like they should have added "Honest it is! No, really!")

Reading cardbacks like this from halfway through Tony's career are always slightly overshadowed by knowing what came next. He was already an all-time Padres leader in a number of statistics, but there was so much more to come. Another four batting titles. A string of seasons posting over .350. Eight more All Star Games. The .394 season.

Also in this write up there is a really lovely turn of phrase when whoever wrote this managed to go poetic, rhyming 'nation' and 'rotation'. 

For this post, I've paired this card up with one that arrived in the parcel from France a few weeks back. 

Card Number 744: Fleer Team Leaders, 1994; #27

These inserts could be found at a ratio of one in every six packs. The front is a good example of how computer aided design changed the look of baseball cards in the early to mid-90s, with two photos and the logo arranged artfully on an orange and teal background. So nineties!

On the back, Tony's hitting is described as pillaging. 

My inner number-nerd let out a slight "Squee!" when I saw Tony's strike-out total for the 1993 season. How many players strike out to match their shirt number!

Total: 744 cards

Modern Monday - slightly anachronistic All Star

This is a card freshly pulled from a Topps 2021 Series 2 pack, and sent to me by Gawain. He has sent me a brand new card two weeks running now!

Card Number 737: Topps 35th Anniversary All-Star, 2021; #86AS2

This is a really nice looking card, using the template of the All Star cards in the set that Topps released in 1986. There are a few things that trip the Anachronism Klaxon, though!

The obvious thing that sets off the klaxon is that Tony didn't have an All Star card in the 1986 set. He had one at bat in the 1985 game but wasn't deemed worthy of a card. 

That uniform is wrong for a card in 1986 as well. The Padres ditched the classic brown, yellow and orange after the 1984 World Series and went to white pinstripes. 

And then there's the back...

Topps have put Tony's stats from 1994 on the back of this card that replicates the 1986 card design. It's odd, even by Topps's standards for doing odd things. Yes, that was an amazing year in terms of Tony's achievements - this blog is called "point 394" because of that season - but why highlight that season on this card? Who knows? Like the Almighty, Topps moves in mysterious ways far beyond the understanding of mere collectors. 

However, this is a really nice looking card and I can tune out the klaxon. It is also particularly noteworthy because it is the 19th card from 2021 to make it into my collection. 19 is a very special number around here. Thank you Gawain for sending me this card!

Total: 737 cards 

Feel the Love(ro)

VJ Lovero was a talented sports photographer from Los Angeles. He shot 39 photos that appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated in his career. He was also the team photographer for the Angels, and the Anaheim Mighty Ducks in NHL. 

Besides working for Sports Illustrated, his agency of sports photographers became the sole provider of images for Upper Deck. Lovero was actually the photographer who took the seminal photo of Ken Griffey Jr, which was the very first card in the very first Upper Deck set. So it's not surprising that he had his own insert series in Upper Deck's flagship product one year. The photos are quirky, capturing unexpected angles of baseball stars on and off the field.

At the age of 40, Lovero was given a diagnosis of terminal cancer and a prognosis of six months to live. He continued working, including covering the Angel's victory in the World Series in 2002. In January 2004 he died, aged 44.

Card Number 729: Upper Deck VJ Lovero Collection, 1996; #VJ19

I almost think they had 19 cards in this insert set just so they could give Tony the #19 card. 19 bonus points for the numbering !

As he is an educator, I expect this card might be one of Fuji's favourites!

Tony often went to schools and other places of education as guest speaker. According to the cardback this was a high school in San Diego. The writing on the chalkboard behind him is about verb tenses, so I think this would be an English classroom.

On the back, Lovero explains why he has chosen this photo. He seemed to have a very high regard for Tony. They were about the same age and it's possible they may have played baseball against each other as kids. I presume Lovero played - he has an award named after him in the Tustin Western Little League, which is given annually to the player that "exemplifies the high standards of play at TWLL through sportsmanship, citizenship, and hard work".

Although, having said all that, the photo of Tony throwing on the back has caught him in a very awkward-looking moment!

Total: 729 cards

Cereal freebies: Part 2

A sequel to yesterday's blog post about Post Cereal cards. Today we look at cards produced a few years earlier by a rival company - Quaker Oats. (I realise I have done these in the wrong chronological order. Oh well.)

I was surprised to learn that the Quaker Oats Company was not founded by Quakers. The founders just adopted the name because the Quaker sect had a good reputation for honesty and purity. The Quaker in their logo isn't based on a particular Quaker in the current design, but originally he was sort of based on William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania. 

Like Post, Quaker gave baseball cards away in their cereal. Unlike, Post, they got Topps to print the cards.

Card Number 691: Quaker Chewy Granola Bars, 1986; #7

Wait, is a granola bar a breakfast cereal... ah, close enough.

Tony looks a bit downbeat in this photo. At least the Quaker mascot looks cheerful. Because this card was produced by Topps it was fully licensed, so the SD logo on Tony's had didn't need to be airbrushed off. 

On the back these were proclaimed as the 1st Annual Collectors' Edition. It was actually a one and done because a second series was not released.

You can almost tell this card is produced by Topps just by looking at the factoids. This card was in packs of chewy granola bars in 1986, but the factoids only run up to 1984 and the first two are from 1981! (And why lead with those when Tony had played in a World Series in 1984! Topps's approach to factoids in the 1980s was downright bizarre.)

Card Number 692: Cap'n Crunch, 1989; #5

Yes, the Quaker company also make Cap'n Crunch.

Cap'n Crunch's Wikipedia entry has a very entertaining section about the product's marketing, including the complex naval world of the Cap'n and his crew, which I think is mainly one dog. We never had this cereal in the UK, so it's not something that's part of my cultural landscape seascape. 

I'm disappointed that the Cap'n didn't appear on the front of this card with Tony. Or anywhere on this card. I'm also disappointed that the prominent #19 on the front is not actually the card number. (Booo, Capn'n Crunch! Booooooo!)

The factoids on the back are more up-to-date than the Granola Bars card, but that list looks like a cut, paste and change the numbers job. (Were people able to do cut'n'paste in 1989?)

A batting average of .313 is quite low to win a batting title (1988) and is 25 points lower than Tony's career average. He certainly scored a lot higher in other seasons and didn't win the title. 

I've put these cards in the same binder page as my five cards issued by the Post company as a mini set of cereal cards. There are also some more 'food issue' cards to share with you in future posts. But for now, I hope you had a good breakfast and have a great day.

Total: 692 cards

Much travelled minis

Back in November (I think), my friend Gawain bought a job lot of cards for me on eBay and sent them to his US shipping address. It was one of those lots that cost pennies in the USA but shipping it over would have cost a fortune in fees. And so they sat in Gawain's mailbox until he had enough stuff there to ship it all to the UK and they arrived last week.

I had actually forgotten all about it until Gawain started sending me photos of the cards.

The cards are mainly oddballs, promo cards and "food issues" - cards that are easy to obtain in America but harder to find over here. Well over half the bundle were new cards to the collection - in fact there were 19 new cards, which feels wonderfully symbolic. That also takes me over another century mark.

I thought I'd start with a couple of odd-sized cards, for fun.

Card Number 686: Topps Major League Leaders, 1987; #35

I am nostalgically fond of the 1987 Topps design with the wooden border, and I'm glad Topps used it on this set of smaller sized cards. The front is very different to Tony's base card in the Topps flagship set because you can actually see his face!

The back looks similar to other Major League Leaders cards. In 1986 Tony had the most hits and tied for the most runs but was only third in batting average.

One other thing I noticed is that the two line stats box has his stats for the previous season and for "life" not "career". I wonder when Topps stopped using "life" in this way.

Card Number 687: Topps Mini, 1989; #36

Another "mini" card - this is listed on Trading Card Database as "Topps UK Mini", but when I blogged about the card from the previous year's set I just called it "Topps Mini".

When I blogged previously about a mini card issued in the UK, I mentioned buying a packet of similar sized NFL cards in a shop while on a school trip in 1986. I didn't realise until much later that Topps had tried to sell baseball cards here in the 1980s as well.

There was a boom in interest in American sports in the 80s - in school we all knew who The Refrigerator was and that he played for the Chicago Bears. I doubt anyone actually watched any NFL. Maybe the Superbowl was on TV back then. If so, it was niche viewing, not the hyped event it is nowadays.

The UK minis rarely appear for sale in the UK Facebook groups. In fact, I have only ever found them for sale 'in the wild' once - at a collector's fair with lots of cigarette card sellers and stamp dealers. If this was sourced in the UK originally, then it has crossed the Atlantic twice!

On the back of this much-travelled card, there is a panel explaining baseball terms - I think these would have been quite helpful for UK consumers back in the 80s.

There is also a cartoon, of a teacher at a blackboard to illustrate the 'school' that Tony part-owned. I think Fuji, who is an educator, might like this!

Total: 687 cards

Chromatised Numbers Game

Topps seems to have got into the habit of re-releasing every single range as a "Chrome" version. I already had the 'Numbers Game' insert from Topps Update 2020 and through the UK collectors group on Facebook, I have now got the Chrome version as well. A big thank you to Wilhelm for sending me this.

Card Number 620: Topps Chrome Update Numbers Game insert, 2020; #NGC-15

The blue shine on this is due to how it scanned. The bottom right corner was orange on the non-Chrome release. 

The back is the same as the non-Chrome release except that the title and the square with the number in are both yellow on this release.

Back in December, when I reviewed the regular version of this card, I said it feels like a missed opportunity that Topps didn't align the card numbering with the retired numbers they were celebrating. 

Also, as Fuji pointed out in the comments last time, for a card celebrating a player's number, why don't they show the number on his uniform? This is one of those rare occasions where Topps used a photo that showed Tony's face. Topps have used so many photos of Tony's back in the past, and then on this card where that would make sense, they choose not to.

Still, it's a nice shiny card. Wilhelm also included a bonus card in the envelope, which I will blog tomorrow!

Total: 620 cards

Questing for gemstones

A couple of Upper Deck cards from my recent eBay trove today. First up, another Starquest card to add to my sub-collection.

Card Number 602: Upper Deck Collector's Choice Starquest, 1998; #65

I present what is becoming the usual double-scan of a foil-heavy card. First the flatbed scan.

Then the overhead scan.

It's rare that a foil-tastic card like this has readable text on it when scanned on the flatbed, but this one does. I initially thought I had this Starquest card and was quite surprised when it arrived and I checked my collection and found I didn't have it.

On the back we have some uniquely curated stats relating to Tony's batting performance in specific scenarios. A bit of work has gone into this cardback factoid. I'd give it some bonus points but the hyphenation of short words triggers me slightly, so points would be dinged for that and that means the card comes out honours even.

There's only one year in the stats box, but that's OK. 1997 was the last year that Tony won a batting title - so it's perhaps not surprising he led the league in batting averages when runners were in scoring position and when the bases were loaded. His 119 RBI was a career high, by some margin. It was the only time he topped 100 ribbies, and 1997 accounted for just over ten per cent of the runs he batted in over his entire career.

And just because it's fun to see cards in context, here are the three Starquest cards from 1998.

Card Number 603: Upper Deck Gold Reserve 24 Karat Gems, 2000; #K14

That's not how you spell carat.

Another shiny card. Another brace of scans.

Gold Reserve was a set with 300 base cards that were versions of the regular Upper Deck flagship set, with the words 'Gold Reserve' printed on them. This caused me some considerable confusion back in June 2020.

However, the insert cards were different to the flagship set, so this card was only available in Gold Reserve. Although the players depicted were "24-Karat Gems", there were only 15 cards in the set. (This annoys me. It's a set called 24-Karat Gems - why not pick 24 players?)

The write up on the back is succinct, refreshingly free of hyperbole, and printed in one of the worst faux-handwriting fonts ever used on the back of a baseball card. 

Upper Deck have also stuck a #19 on the front and back of the card, with no context or explanation. It's on Tony's armband on the front, but otherwise it looks like they just decided to add it because they felt they had to add something. On the back it balances the tiny Padres logo, so I suppose that's something. 

Total: 603 cards

One card only - headless Tony and #53

The previous three posts have all featured cards I received from Jason, who I initially chatted to when he showed off his collection of all 20 Tony Gwynn cards from Topps' Project 2020 endeavour. After he had sent me those three cards, Jason asked if I wanted to buy a spare Project 2020 card he had available. 

As I only had one Project 2020 card already, I quite happily said yes, and it arrived in the post yesterday. I haven't bothered including the outer sleeve as it's the same as the one I scanned previously. And this time I went straight to careful sticker-peeling and popped open the mag holder so I could put the card directly on the scanner.

Card Number 584: Topps Project 2020, 2020; #161

The card designs of all the Project 2020 cards took Tony's 1983 rookie card as it's base. Card #161 in the project was designed by Ermsy, and his take on the rookie card design was to remove Tony's head. I'm not really bothered by that because one of my frequent complaints about Tony's rookie card is that you can't see his face and his most prominent feature in the photo is his backside. I know other people love it, and that's fine. But I just don't.

The back of the card is plain, and has a blurb about the Project and about the artist. This isn't really a 'card' as it's printed on 3mm foamboard. I think it would be quite fun if Topps introduced these designs as insert series in future sets printed on actual cardboard.

This card had a print run of 5,543, which is quite a lot lower than the print run for the other card I own, which was designed by Efdot. That was #94 in the series at the absolute apex of the interest in Project 2020. If sales were plotted on a bell curve, this card by Ermsy was on the way back down! It's also the 33rd card released in 2020 in my collection.

Seeing this reworked image of Tony's rookie card reminded me of another thing that has bugged me about the card, and that is Tony's uniform number in the photo.

It has always been a mystery to me why he was shown wearing a number in the 50s, which looked like number 53. I have seen pictures from Tony's debut where he is quite clearly wearing number 19 - he was given that number and wore it consistently for his entire career. So that really made me wonder when this photo was taken.

I didn't find an easy answer on Google, and I went through a number of options. Maybe Topps had a photo of the wrong player - that has been known to happen. Except nobody wore 53 in 1982, and that's clearly a 1982 uniform, and none of Tony's team-mates looked like him. Another possibility was that it was a minor league picture, especially given the background. There was no way that was Jack Murphy Stadium; I've seen enough pictures to know it wasn't taken there.

I did read a story somewhere that Tony was involved in a Padres photoshoot while he was still a student at San Diego State, but I doubt he would have been running the bases in a random photoshoot and it seemed very unlikely Topps would use that. Plus that would have been in 1980 or 1981 and the uniform would have been slightly different.

Jason runs Dugout Classics in Scotland, billed as "The largest collection of vintage and throwback jerseys this side of the Atlantic", so I thought he might be the chap to ask about the number. He quickly sent me a link to a fascinating story about the restoration of this very jersey, which reveals the truth about this photo.

Tony was allocated #53 in Padres Spring Training in 1982 held at the Desert Sun Stadium in Yuma, Arizona. The guide for the Spring Training has Tony listed in a footnote - there is a picture here. This would be after Tony's successful 1981 season with Walla Walla and Amarillo, and before he went out to Hawaii to play for the Islanders. 

When he was brought up to the Major Leagues in July 1982, Tony was given the number 19 jersey. At some point Topps compiled their checklist for the 1983 season and would have noted San Diego's hot rookie and allocated him card #482. Then they needed a photo, and presumably the only one they had on file would have been this one from Spring Training.

I really want to thank Jason for offering me this card and also for helping me discover why Tony isn't wearing #19 on his rookie card. I had been pondering it for ages and now the mystery is solved!

Total: 584 cards

There are three packages in transit from North America as I write this. But unless one or more of them arrives tomorrow, there's going to be a little break in blogging!

Hanging with the rookie class

It's the day before Christmas Eve and in our house we call that Christmas Eve Eve.

I've been thinking a bit about the future of this blog. It started back in May as a 'lockdown project' and I have posted every day since then. I wasn't anticipating it being a daily blog as I had less then 200 Tony Gwynn cards when I started. I imagined I would blog the cards I had and then blog more when I acquired them. However, I have been blessed by some great contacts who have supplied me literally hundreds of cards between them.

At this point in time, though, I am actually nearing the end of my unblogged cards, and so I think in January I will be heading into 'occasional blogging' mode, as and when I add new cards to the collection. I have a few other bits and pieces related to Tony Gwynn that could feature. And I have toyed with the idea of a virtual "Frankenset", which might be fun. 

However, as I said, I am finishing up the collection of unblogged cards, and have two cards here that have a similar theme.

Card Number 549: Upper Deck Pros & Prospects, 2000; #78

This card set had 192 cards in it, and 47 of them were serial numbered cards of rookies. It was released at the end of the season.

On the back, Upper Deck opted for the confusing 'put the player's uniform number where you would expect to see the card number' design choice. There are also some issues with the kerning in some lines - ah, the wonders of justified text!

Other companies released sets that covered similar ground to Pros and Prospects. Including, Leaf...

Card Number 550: Leaf Rookies and Stars, 2001; #19

Leaf were a bit more obvious about what the set was about than Upper Deck. Again, the setlist was heavy on rookies - 148 out of the 300 base cards were rookie cards.

The airbrushing effect at the bottom of the card makes Tony look like he is skipping.

There's an orange tone on the cardback. And another entry in my collection of cardback descriptions of Tony: "A field general at the plate". It also decribes Tony as being "on deck" for the Hall of Fame.

Leaf also get 19 bonus points for having this as card #19 in their set!

Total: 550 cards

Modern Monday - got your number

This card from the recently released Topps Update set came all the way from Plymouth, Massachusetts, via eBay. Then, after I'd bought it and while it was somewhere in the postal system, Marc from the UK Facebook collectors group asked me if I had it. The lesson? Wait and see what turns up in the group!

Card Number 547: Topps Update Numbers Game insert, 2020; #NG-15

The theme of this insert set are the various numbers retired by clubs. 

If that picture on the front looks familiar, it might be because it appeared on an insert card in Topps Chrome Update in 2019.

On the back there is a little write up about Tony's career.

I have one quibble with this insert series - why didn't Topps try to align the card numbers with the retired numbers? NG-19 in the series is Ernie Banks, who wore #14. They gave Derek Jeter's card the number NG-22, but his uniform number was #2, while NG-2 is a card for Ryne Sandberg, who wore #23.

Yesterday I talked about how I felt Topps's licensing monopoly had rendered the company lazy. This is the kind of thing I mean. I realise it might not always be possible to number all the cards exactly aligned to the shirt numbers of the players. But Topps could have done that with a lot of them. 

Total: 547 cards

Back to 1987 (and some Tony Gwynn cards this time!)

I decided these cards were too nice to just tack on to the end of yesterday's blog post, which was already quite long. I hope you agree that it was worth the wait.

Card Number 516: Fleer Award Winners, 1987; #19

This is from one of Fleer's small sets that were sold in packets that look like playing cards. Tony has card number 19, which might just be a fluke as these cards were usually numbered in the alphabetical order of players' surnames.

It is also a very rare baseball card with a photo of Tony sans headgear. He is almost always depicted with a cap or batting helmet on.

What is really quite funny about this card is that is commemorates Tony winning a fielding award, with a picture of him holding a bat! 

Tony had won his first of five Gold Glove Awards in 1986 - fielding was something he really worked on when he broke through into the major leagues and his hard work paid off.

The cardback is unremarkable. Cards from these sets generally had boring cardbacks.

Card Number 517: Fleer Limited Edition, 1987; #19

See, this would have been an ideal photo to put on a card about winning a fielding award!

This looks really nice in the card page next to Tony's Limited Edition card from 1986.

It's another dull cardback.

Card Number 518: Fleer Baseball All Stars, 1987; #20

I have a thing for cards with red borders. Also note the photo on this card marks a trifecta of headgear in the post - sans, cap, helmet.

Given that this set was players who were All Stars, I think Fleer could have done something on the cardback about the All Star Game.

I've also noticed that it says "Fleer Limited Edition" on the cardback. The packaging was actually branded as Fleer Limited Edition Baseball All Stars on the box the cards came in.

The cards from these Fleer sets released in the 1980s are high quality compared to the cards released as part of the main sets. The photography is always fairly good, with a lot of posed portraits. I now have nine of these cards in a nine-pocket page and they look great together considering they are 33 years old!

Total:518 cards