Toppeechee cards from the 80s

I was surprised when I first researched O-Pee-Chee cards that the name came from an Ojibwa word meaning 'robin' . The Ojibwe are Canada's second largest First Nations tribal people and a large number live in the USA as well. In Canada they tend to live in a large area that stretches from Quebec to British Columbia. 

In my ignorance, I just assumed it was a way of phonetically spelling 'Oh, peachy!' But, no, it has a much deeper meaning, and in terms of languages on baseball cards, it has to count as another one along with English, French, Spanish and Chinese characters. Technically, the Ojibwe people speak one of the Algonquian languages, but for the purpose of this blog, I'm just going to count it as Ojibwe. 

For most of the 1980s, O-Pee-Chee had a licence to reprint Topps cards. They often released smaller sets, added their logo on the front and changed the cardbacks so they had information in English and French. The cards were sold in Canada but seem to have travelled reasonable quickly to collectors in the USA.

I've blogged a few of these "Toppeechee" cards before - here is Tony's rookie card, and also his card from the 1986 set. Richard included a few more in his recent parcel, which I mentioned in the box opening video, and here I am, blogging about them today.

Card Number 762: O-Pee-Chee, 1985; #383

As I noted when I blogged about the Topps release of this card, Tony has a visible wad of chewing tobacco in his cheek. Tony started 'dipping' when he was in the minor leagues at Walla-Walla, and was never able to shake the habit although he apparently tried several times. This card foreshadows his early death from oral cancer. 

In terms of being bilingual, most stuff on the back is translated. However, this would not pass the requirements for translation in my workplace where everything has to be fully bilingual.

Card Number 763: O-Pee-Chee, 1987; #198

This is my favourite ever Topps set (for sentimental reasons!) and the Topps version of this card was the very first card on this blog.

Even though this is my favourite card set, this is one of the worst photos of Tony ever used by Topps on a card. And that is a very low bar to clear!

The back is very crisply printed. The 'On this Date' factoid is also in French as 'Une Date Memorable'.

Card Number 764: O-Pee-Chee, 1988; #360

There is something about the way Tony's stance perfectly frames whoever that person is sat in the dug out that makes me chuckle every time I see it. Tony's pinstripes look absolutely pristine in this photo as well.

The little baseballs in the background make the top of the cardback a bit hard to read, but it's a nice design. 

I am pretty sure I have pointed out Topps's obsession with recycling factoids about Tony's minor league achievements on their cardbacks. On this card they don't mention that Tony was batting champion the previous season, with an outstanding .370 batting average - the highest so far in his career. Instead, we learn about how Tony won the MVP in the Northwest League in 1981, in both English and French.

From 1989 O-Pee-Chee started releasing the full Topps sets complete with the Topps logo on the front and bilingual cardbacks. They did that for three years, then started releasing their own flagship sets. In 1994 they released their last set of Major League Baseball cards. Since then the brand has been through a few different owners and now is licensed out to other companies for use when releasing trading cards. 

Total: 764 cards

Tuesday Twins - photo edition

When I looked through the cards that Richard sent me recently, two cards matched so much I instantly thought, 'That's a twins post!'

Card Number 760: Topps All-Star Collector's Edition, 1985; #29

This was the first time Tony was included in these sets of glossy cards that were mailed to collectors who sent in tokens. I have previously blogged some of his cards from these sets that were issued in later years.

That yellow shirt was history in 1985. After reaching the World Series in 1984, the Padres revealed an all new look for the following season - white pinstripes at home and grey pinstripes for the road uniforms. The background of this photo makes me wonder if is was taken at a Spring Training game in 1984. Topps used photos taken at Spring Training on some cards.

The back of this card is very dull. The glossy photo on the front is supposed to make up for having nothing to look at on the back.

The other card this matches also has a dull cardback.

Card Number 761: Topps Allen & Ginter, 2012; #205

Topps had been releasing Allen & Ginter sets since 2006 but I think this is the first time Tony appeared in one of the sets. He is also on an insert card from this set.

And, there it is, 27 years after Topps produced that glossy All-Star card, the same picture appears with a small filter applied to make it look more like it has been drawn.

And here is the back. This must have felt fun and quirky once, but I feel the novelty has worn off. 

This isn't the only time Topps re-used the photo. In 2013 they mocked up what an All-Star card from 1984 could have looked like. (At least the uniform would have been right on that card!)

Topps go through phases of using the same photos in several sets released around about the same time, so seeing this picture in sets released in successive years isn't that surprising. It's a nice photo, so I'm not complaining. It was just a bit odd getting two cards in the same parcel that were released so far apart and yet look so similar.

Total: 761 cards

Tony's first crowning

Tony has made several appearances as a DonRuss Diamond King. This was his first.

Card Number 619: DonRuss, 1985; #25

The Diamond Kings cards were the first 26 cards in the DonRuss set. There was one player depicted for each team (this was before the two expansions in 1993 and 1998). 

The artist was Dick Perez, who ended up painting four Diamond Kings portraits of Tony between 1985 and 1996. Here's another link to his gallery.

There is a fairly big write up on the back. I enjoyed the way DonRuss equated being selected for a Diamond King card with being voted onto the All Star team!

There is a reference to Tony's time at Las Vegas, where he started the 1983 season after his Major League debut in 1982, and subsequent wrist injury. He only played 17 games for Las Vegas, recording a .342 batting average from 73 at bats. After being called up he then had over 300 at bats for the Padres that season.

Reading these early cards is quite informative. A lot of this detail quickly got lost as Tony racked up batting titles, All Star appearances, and so on. It's a reminder that after his hot debut, Tony still had work to do to establish himself as a Major League player. 

This is the final card Tim sent me that was new to the collection. However, Tim also included a 1984 Fleer card that was an upgrade on the one I already had in my binder - so thanks for that Tim!

Total: 619 cards

80s week: Young Superstar, Big Hitter

Tony's cards from the 1980s, as he was breaking on to the scene, are a great resource for building a picture of him as a player before he became the legendary figure of "Mr Padre". It's weird to think that at one point he was a hot rising star. In a strange way the hitting machine of the 1990s with his powerful mature physique has eclipsed those early days. I find it hard to imagine him as a young man.

And yet here he is, heralded as a young superstar.

Card Number 495: Kay-Bee Young Superstars of Baseball, 1986; #17 

Like the Fleer cards I posted about yesterday, these cards were sold in self-contained sets of 33 cards. They were made by Topps and sold exclusively in K.B. Toy Shops. (The little toy soldier logo is really cute!) 

You can tell these were a high quality product for Topps at the time because there was a photo on the back and a write up that is actually about the player.

The way they describe Tony's college career is a bit misleading. He attended university on a basketball scholarship and was allowed to play baseball after one of his high school contemporaries with a baseball scholarship badgered the baseball team's coach into asking him to play, and even then initially the basketball coach said no.

Although this card was manufactured by Topps, I regard it as an 'oddball'. Our second card today is also a Topps card, but one they manufactured for a bakery.

Card Number 496: Drake's Big Hitters, 1985; #14

As the card says, this was the fifth series of Drake's cards. It was also the final one with Topps. The sets produced for Drake's after that were produced through Michael Schechter Associates (MSA), who created a lot of 'oddball' sets. 

There were 44 cards in this set, which were included in Drake's products.

The back just tweaks the cardback from the Topps regular sets, except with the addition of the Drake's logo by the upper right corner of the stats box and the addition of Drake's Bakeries to the boilerplate text underneath the box. However, compared to the regular Topps set this cardback is much more readable.

This is the regular Topps cardback from 1985 which must be a nightmare for people who are colourblind.

(I mean, red on green? Seriously?)

So, here we are, almost at the end of 80s week. I've decided it's going to be an 8-day week with a bonus card tomorrow as well.

Total: 496 cards

80s week: Topps glossy All Star cards

Back in the 80s Topps sold their cards in the traditional waxed paper packets with 15 cards in and also in larger cellophane-wrapped packets which had three stacks of cards sealed in blocks of 15 or 16 (depending on the year). The large cello-wrapped ones were called rack packs. They had a bonus glossy All Star card featuring players from the previous year's All-Star Game. That's where the cards in today's post came from.

The All Star cards were visible on the top of the pack, so it would be relatively easy to collect the set of them, if the store had the rack packs out on display.

Card Number 489: Topps Glossy All-Star, 1985; #6

Tony is depicted in his 1984 uniform on the front of this card. His card in the regular Topps set also depicted him in the same uniform. This picture will actually appear again on this blog on another card in the near future.

The card has discoloured. It should have a bright white border. I suspect it was left in the cellophane too long and discoloured along with the packaging. 

Tony was the lead-off batter in the 1984 All Star Game in Candlestick Park, San Francisco. Tony got 1 hit in 3 at bats. He also struck out once and stole a base. He was one of 7 players left on base during the game, which the National League won 3-1.

Card Number 490: Topps Glossy All-Star, 1987; #6

Tony had the same number All-Star card as two year's previously. Unlike Tony's Topps base card from 1987, on this card you can see his face and the full team logo on his uniform. 

The back of this card is as dull as the previous one shown.

The 1986 All-Star Game was played in the Astrodome in Houston. Tony was first in the batting line up again, but didn't get a hit in three at bats. His only statistic of note being a strike out. The American League team won 3-2.

As an aside, it was only when reading one of the exhibits at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, that I discovered the reason artificial grass is known as 'astroturf'. It's because it was first used in the Astrodome as real grass wouldn't grow on the field indoors.

I have another one of these cards - the 1989 series that was packaged with Topps cards in 1990. I've blogged about it here.

Total: 390 cards

80s week: Dynamite DonRuss designs

I feel a bit embarrassed to admit this, but for a long time I judged DonRuss on the quality of their ubiquitous late 80s cards, particularly the 1988 cards that are the cards most people would think of first when they hear the term "junk wax". But in the build up towards the saturation of the market, DonRuss had some very nice card designs that aren't as easy to track down (at least not here in the UK).

Of the two Tony Gwynn rookie cards I own, the DonRuss 1983 card is by far my favourite. It's even incorporated into the header of this blog. The 1984 card is still on my wants list. So, this post starts with Tony's DonRuss card from 1985.

Card Number 485: DonRuss, 1985; #63

It's a bunt card!

This is a photo taken in the 1984 season as the Padres switched to pinstripes in 1985. However the new arched lettering logo is on the card. I think the person sat in the dugout, perfectly framed between Tony's legs, is the Padres manager, Dick Williams.

DonRuss had the most consistent cardbacks of the 80s. It worked so they never really changed anything.

As I said yesterday when writing about the Fleer cards from this era, the factoids capture elements of Tony's career that are often forgotten. Most players who batted .263 in a World Series would have that as a 'permafact' on the back of their cards in perpetuity. However, compared to Tony's normal batting standards, that was disappointing.

Sometimes factoids trigger new questions as well. I wonder how Tony broke his wrist in 1983 - and was that the reason he had a stint in AAA in Las Vegas?

Card Number 486: DonRuss 1986; #112

This card design was re-used this year by Panini, who now own the DonRuss brands.

My guess here is that Tony is watching the pitcher. That was his top tip to batters - spend as much time as possible watching the pitcher before you go out to bat. He recommended watching their warm-up throws as well, to try and work out their release points.

The cardback mentions an ongoing wrist injury in 1985, but it's not clear if that's a holdover from the broken wrist in 1983.

Tony's DonRuss base card from 1987 has already featured on the blog, however, a couple of new cards that arrived in the recent package were from the same year.

Card Number 487: DonRuss Opening Day. 1987; #146

This was a 272-card factory set, which used the "tyre tread" design of the regular base cards with a grape colour instead of black. From my research, this Opening Day set predates Topps Opening Day sets by eight years.

Tony's longer hair is a very middle-of-the-80s look.

The cardback describes Tony as the "Padres' best hitter". Already his ability to consistently bat above .300 every season was being noted. That opening day game sounds like an epic battle.

One thing that stands out to me in the career performance box is Tony's very low number of strike outs. At this point in his career he was striking out once every 4.75 games. So if you wanted to see him strike out you would need to go and watch the Padres at least five times to give you the best statistical chance of seeing it.

Card Number 488: DonRuss Highlights, 1987; #12

The 'Highlights' series was a 56-card boxed set. The 'tyre tread' is over a royal blue background.

This is probably the wordiest DonRuss cardback from the 80s.

There's a mistake there - it says he collected over 20 hits, when it should probably say over 200 hits. Although to be fair, to collect over 200 hits, he would need to collect over 20 hits on the way. June was definitely a hot month for him. Those were some figures!

Total: 488 cards

80s week: Fabulous Fleer base cards

I have yet to acquire one of Tony's Fleer rookie cards, but the recent package that arrived helped me fill in some other gaps in my Fleer binder. (Literally. When I put the base cards in, I left gaps. That's normal, right?)

These cards are fascinating, because before Tony's rapid ascent to star status, he was still a kid newcomer who might make it big, or might not.

Card Number 482: Fleer, 1984, #301

This the end of an era in terms of Padres design ethos. The Swinging Friar was replaced in 1985  by the arched 'Padres' logo, and the yellow and brown were ditched in favour of a Yankees-style pinstripe.

Fleer had photos on their cardbacks in 1984. That was a cut above their competition.

The factoids on this early card were quickly consigned to history. Tony generated a huge amount of firsts, mosts, bests and awards in his career. So things like the Win Clark Award that he won in 1981 have long been forgotten. The award itself seems to have disappeared over the years because I can't find any current references to it on the Internet.

Card Number 483: Fleer, 1985; #34

Tony was still wearing brown and yellow on his 1985 card. Why waste a nice photo, eh?

On the back we have more early-career highlights including his first batting title.

Tony's 33 stolen bases is an indication of his opportunism and sheer speed at the beginning of his career. He was two decades early for "Moneyball", but with his capacity to get on base and steal 90 yards he would have been a perfect moneyball investment.

I already had Tony's Fleer base card from 1986 - and it's blogged here in this post from way back in May.

Card Number 484: Fleer, 1987; #416

Practice jersey photo!

The Padres retained brown batting helmets. The switch to blue with the orange SD logo would come at the beginning of the 90s. Tony has a deadpan expression in the photo, as if the photographer has interrupted an important practice session.

No photo on the cardback, but there is a graphic breakdown of where Tony tended to hit the ball.

In the book Tony's Gwynn's Total Baseball Player, Tony talks about the difference between being a contact hitter and a power hitter. As a contact hitter, he tried to make sure his bat travelled across the entirety of the plate when he swung, aiming to hit the ball towards the back of the plate giving you more time to react and place the ball where you want it. 

He also claimed to have "extended" his strike zone to hit balls higher and lower, which he was able to do because he had that fraction longer to hit the ball than a power hitter who was trying to hit the ball at the front of the plate. That level of detail isn't shown in the graphic on the back of this card, which seems to indicate a small area of hitting success within the strike zone.

Total: 484 cards

Mission complete: Card Number 394

I started this blog on 9 May (which would have been Tony's 60th birthday). At that point I had 195 Tony Gwynn cards in my collection. I honestly expected to blog them all and then wait and update this blog as and when I acquired new ones.

However, there was no hiatus. After 152 daily blog posts, today is the day when I reach my target.

I have achieved this with the incredible support of the UK collecting community in various groups on Facebook. People have made cards available for sale or trade, several people have just sent me cards for the cost of postage or for no money at all. I have tried to thank people along the way as I have featured the cards on the blog. I am particularly indebted to Gawain who has sourced me over 250 cards since the blog was launched.

Other people, like Jeff and Bill, have even sent me free cards all the way from America. I have really appreciated the support from Fuji, who I think has commented on every post. 

Finally, my wife, Cathy, has let me disappear off to write blog posts and has always been interested to see what is in the numerous little packages that have arrived in the post. Her comments on some of the cards have sometimes been the best summaries I could publish.

I've saved this card for this target-reaching post because I love it.

Card Number 394: Topps, 1985; #717 (All Star Card)

This is Tony at the start of his career, fresh from a World series outing, rocking that classic early 80s San Diego colour combination. And yet, even though the uniform is so recognisable, this card is timeless. The blue sky behind him and the sunlight casting a shadow from his cap brim onto his face help to render this image iconic. He's looking down the lens of the camera, bat shouldered ready to swing. 

This is Tony Gwynn. All Star.

On the back you can see that nobody came close to his batting average in the National League that year. (Don Mattingly posted .343 in the American League).

That was an explosive April in 1984. No wonder he was an All Star.

Total: 394/394

So, what next...?

Well, I actually passed the 394-card target some time ago and I have been adding new cards in small quantities all through the life of this blog, so I'm going to keep going and posting until I have no new cards left to post. I may take a short break though from time-to-time depending on how things are going in my world beyond the blog! See you tomorrow!

Sharing the Spotlight 2

An occasional series where Tony shares a baseball card with another player. Today, it's his younger brother, Chris.

Card Number 119: Upper Deck, 1992; #83 ("Bloodlines" insert)
A genuinely nice family photo. I hope it really was taken in a ballpark at dusk, and that's not just a backdrop.

Chris Gwynn had a respectable Major League Baseball career with the Dodgers, the Royals, the Dodgers again, and then finishing up playing alongside Tony at the Padres. He was originally drafted by the Angels, but opted for a college degree instead and then was drafted by the Dodgers. Although this card is from the 1992 Upper Deck set, he had actually been traded to the Royals for the 1992 season.

The cardback kind of hints at Chris's understudy role. When he got to the Padres he was a pinch hitter making occasional forays onto the field. He did have one honour that Tony never achieved - a silver medal from the 1984 Olympics, held in his home city of Los Angeles. It was the first time baseball had been played in the Olympics, and the USA lost the final to Japan.

He played his final Major League Baseball game in September 1996, in the last regular game of the season. He came in as a pinch hitter in the top of the 11th inning and hit a double that brought two team-mates home and won the game. That meant the Padres won their second ever National League West pennant. It was the last at bat of his ten year career in the majors.

Chris, of course, had some baseball cards in his own right. Recently, Jasper sent me this Upper Deck card from 1994 with Chris in the Royals uniform.

Ironically, Chris was released by the Royals at the end of the 1993 season and returned to the Dodgers, signed as a free agent, for the 1994 season. So he is in the 'wrong' uniform again on this card. He is being impeded in the photo there by Tim Hulett, who was the third baseman for the Baltimore Orioles in 1993.

The cardback has a batting cage photo.

Speaking of cardbacks, I've noted before how Chris has been mentioned on the backs of Tony's cards. Way back in 1985, Topps decided that Chris's appearance in the 1984 Olympics would be of more interest to card collectors than mentioning Tony's first national league batting title.

In 1991 DonRuss added Chris to their list of factoids on Tony's base card. Chris had been playing for five seasons by then.

And then of course, in 1992, they got to share the front of the card as part of the Upper Deck "Bloodlines" insert series.

Total: 119/394

Topps of the 80s

I haven't decided to do this blog in any kind of order, but I have decided to try and group cards  according to some logic. So this post is going to be Tony Gwynn's Topps base cards in my collection up to the 1989 set. I want to say thank you to Bill in New Mexico for sending me a couple of these.

The 1983 Topps card is Tony's rookie card, which I have already blogged about.

I don't have a copy of Tony's 1984 Topps card.

So that brings us to...

Card Number 5: Topps 1985, #660

I recently read a blog post on one of my favourite card blogs, Night Owl Cards, about how many players had a better third year card than a rookie card. This is definitely a better picture of Tony than the one he had on his 1983 card, with one caveat. Night Owl mentioned the chewing wad in his cheek and how it links to his untimely death. (Tony died of cancer of the salivary gland. His family sued the tobacco industry after his death. There's a write up in Sports Illustrated here - TW, it's graphic in its description of the damage caused by cancer.)

Still as a card, there's a lot to love about it. The name and team name are in the club's colours, matching Tony's hat perfectly, and the logo is the Swinging Friar, still my absolute favourite Padres logo.

The back of the card shows Topps 'eclectic' (or 'weird') approach to factoids.

Of note, in 1984, Tony played in the World Series, the first time the Padres ever reached it. Tony hit .351 in the season and led the league. Could have mentioned either of those. Instead, the Topps factoid is about his brother, Chris, playing in the Olympics.

Card Number 6: Topps 1986, #10

Not much to say about this, except for the second year in a row, Topps decided not to show a picture of Tony doing the thing he was most famous for, i.e. batting. I'm not keen on the 1986 Topps design with its chunky team names across the top of the card. At least the picture confirms that Tony was a leftie.

The back is equally unremarkable. The Talkin' Baseball cartoon is cute.

Tony's Topps 1987 card is the very first card profiled on this blog. It shows him in action. Sort of.

Card Number 7: Topps 1988, #360

Tony at the bat! And I think it's a much nicer card lay-out than 1986.

Again, Topps factoid staff make an odd choice. The league leader in hits and batting average in 1987, and they mention his minor league MVP award from 1981. I guess they are assuming people will read the stats for themselves and work it out.

However, there's a nice mention of the Padres scout Cliff Ditto. 1981 was Cliff's twelfth and final year working for the Padres before moving to the Expos organisation where he signed pitching machine Randy Johnson. Imagine being the guy who signed Tony Gwynn and Randy Johnson. If that's not enough, his brother-in-law was hall-of-famer Dodgers player Duke Snider.

Card Number 8: Topps 1989, #570

Back to something more like a portrait, here. It's a nice simple card design, though.

No factoids on the back, just a month-by-month record of his 1988 season. It looks like Tony was on the DL in May, which might be why he played 24 fewer games than in 1987.

Total: 8/394