Return to 80s Week - DonRuss Tuesday Twins

The first card in today's 'twins' post is probably the least exciting twin featured on this blog. Apologies. 

Card Number 884: DonRuss (factory set), 1987; #64

This was in the recent bundle of cards that Richard sent me. It's the factory set version of Tony's 1987 base card. The way you can tell is by turning it over - the cardback is oriented the other way. Here is a comparison of the two cardbacks with the fronts facing up. 

Yes, I know it's a boring variation. But it's still a variation. And the card is a still a really solid, classic design from the 80s. Can you ever have enough of that tyre tread pattern?

Card Number 885: DonRuss Baseball's Best, 1989; #42

This was another 'factory set', with 336 cards in the DonRuss template for 1989. However, this is different to Tony's base card in the regular set.

You get more of Tony on this card. The photo on his regular base card is more closely cropped. The DonRuss card template in 1989 isn't one that anyone ever raves about. It's probably the least memorable card template ever released by the company. 

The back is totally different to the regular flagship product as well. 

Total: 885 cards

Tuesday Twins - lookalikey Leafs

In the 1980s Leaf was DonRuss's imprint for the Canadian market. Leaf cards were near-identical 'twins' of DonRuss cards.

Card Number 839: :Leaf, 1986; #41

Tony is watching his team-mates batting to try and suss out the pitcher's arsenal of throws. His look of concentration here would translate into a tendency to swing and make contact with the first pitch he faced when he went up to the plate. 

The back of the card also follows the DonRuss template, but with some French on there for the bilingual Canadian market.

There is mention of a wrist injury in 1985 that hampered Tony's attempt to defend his 1984 batting title. DonRuss / Leaf liked to mention this wider context to explain the figures. Tony had quite the list of injuries catalogued on their cardbacks. 

Card Number 840: Leaf, 1987; #235

The famous "tyre tread" design got reused North of the border.

This card illustrates something called "poor centering". This is very common in cards from the 80s.

The cardback doesn't have all the same information at the DonRuss cards because of the space needed for the French translation. Some of the career highlights carried over from one year's card to the next. It's always interesting to see what they dropped and what they felt was worth repeating.

Total: 840 cards

I am very busy at the moment so will be taking a short break from blogging. I hope to be back in action before the end of the month!

Miniaturised classic card designs

A few card companies have produced smaller sized baseball cards. These are often referred to as 'Minis'. But Fleer went fancy with their titles and called their smaller cards 'Classic Miniatures'. (Oooh, there's posh!)

Card Number 782: Fleer Classic Miniatures, 1986; #69

This 120-card set was sold as a complete box set. The design uses the same frame and colour scheme as the regular-sized flagship set. They use a different photo though.

The cardback has the same lay-out as the flagship set, including the factoids. 

That franchise record for a hitting streak didn't last long. Benito Santiago beat it in his debut season in 1987, when he recorded a hit in 34 consecutive games. 

Card Number 783: Fleer Classic Miniatures, 1987; #50

Again, this smaller card copies the design template of the flagship set. The photo is unusual because there are very few cards that show Tony without a helmet or a cap on. 

The cardback is the same as the flagship set, complete with a 'hitting guide' compiled by "pro scouts". (Or so they claimed.)

Still, it's a neat little graphic to see on a neat little card.

Total: 783 cards

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

Lets gloss over the dullness

I'm on to the last remnants of the most recent joblot of cards from eBay. I think all the cards I've posted from this parcel have been 'oddities' in some way and these are no different.

If you have ever opened a junk wax era packet of Topps cards you will have found some little promotional cards that you could collect and send away for more cards. These mailaway cards were advertised as "glossy", and, while they definitely had a slight shine to them, they just weren't very interesting.

Card Number 701: Topps All-Star Collector's Edition, 1987; #2

I am fairly certain this photo was taken at the same time as the All Star card in the flagship set for 1987. Compare the background and also Tony's right sleeve with the white undershirt sticking out.

The back is very boring.

These cards could be bought in six small units or ordered as one big set of sixty. It does make me wonder if some of those sets were more popular than others if kids couldn't afford the full set in one go.

Card Number 702: Topps All-Star Collector's Edition, 1988; #38

This is another familiar-looking photo, but I can't find the card it reminds me of. It's possible that I just have a lot of cards where Tony looks like this.

The back is equally as dull.

Card Number 703: Topps All-Star Collector's Edition, 1989; #58

Again, this is a deja vu photo. It's very similar to the photo used on Tony's base card in 1988.

However, I think this might be from a different game because the fans in the background look different and there also seems to be different equipment on the bench of the dug-out in the background.

All I can say about the cardback is at least Topps varied the colours they used each year.

I wonder what the kids who sent off their pocket money and tokens to Topps thought of these cards when they arrived in the mail. I hope they felt they were getting their money's worth. The photos are nice and big, but the cardbacks are beyond boring.

Total: 703 cards

Karefully Kut Kraft (Kard #700)

In terms of milestone cards on this blog, this is probably the kookiest.

Card Number 700: Kraft Home Plate Heroes, 1987; #44

This card was originally part of food packaging - most likely a famous Mac'n'Cheese packet. The original Kraft Dinner, as serenaded by Barenaked Ladies in their song, If I Had a Million Dollars. Back in 1987, someone very carefully cut along the dotted lines and voila, created a baseball card!

This card image was licensed from the Player's Association rather than Major League Baseball, through Michael Schechter Associates, who specialised in this sort of promotional material. The lack of a Major League Baseball licence explains why Tony's hat is heavily airbrushed. 

The cardback is... well, it would have been the inside of the box.

I think that scan might be upside down. How coud you tell?

Kraft printed two players on each box, but mixed and matched them a bit, so pairings exist of Tony with a few other players, including George Brett from the Royals and Jim Rice from the Red Sox. I'm sure someone is trying to collect all the different pairings of all the cards. There are 122 listed on Trading Card Database. 

So, although you would know which players you were getting when you picked up the box, it wouldn't be as easy as just looking for two players you didn't already have. You might end up having to buy a dupe of one player to get the other one you didn't already have. That was a bit of marketing kunning from Kraft, there.

As you have probably guessed, I am a fan of oddball cards like these. In one way they recapture the essential essence of trading cards - even down to being part of the packaging that would usually get thrown away. (The first cigarette cards were printed on the cardboard stiffeners inserted to prevent the packets from getting crushed. How many ended up in the bin?) Great care has been taken to preserve something that is quite literally garbage. One person's trash is another's treasure... quite literally. 

For comparison purposes here are the other milestone cards on my blog.

#100 - DonRuss "Tony Gwynn Tribute", 2015; #4 (June 2020)

#200 - Topps, 2000; #468 (July 2020)

#300 - Pinnacle. 1996; #336 (August 2020)

#394 (my blogging target) - Topps, 1985 All Star Card; #717 (October 2020)

#400 - Pacific Invincible Seismic Force (running photo variant), 1999; #16 (October 2020)

#500 - Topps Rookie of the Week, 2006; #22 (November 2020)

#600 - Topps Power Boosters, 1996; #1 (February 2021)

Total: 700 cards

Store exclusives part 2 - Woolworths

After posting my first post in the series on store exclusives yesterday, I discovered Fuji had blogged about store exclusives last week! But he's going to get a surprise in this post...

Woolworth's was a very popular store when I was kid. Known as "Woolies" in the UK, they were famous for having a large pick'n'mix confectionary display. In a lot of places, Woolies was one of the bigger shops and the only place to buy records and CDs, kid's clothing and toys, as well as a range of hardware items. 

Many stores also had cafes and when I was very little my Mum used to take me to the big Woolies in the centre of Birmingham, where we lived. That's one of my earliest memories. I must have been about three years old. I can remember the cafe with its yellow formica tables, and eating sausage, chips and beans, which was a typical offering on a kids' menu at the very end of the 1970s. 

Because it was a ubiquitous high street name in the UK, I remember being surprised to find that it started in America. The British company was independent from 1982, and outlasted its American parent company by about a decade. It was quite a big story when the company closed down all its UK stores around time of the recession of 2008, as it left a big hole in many town centres, particularly in smaller towns across the UK.

Like some other stores, Woolworth - the American one - sold exclusive card sets. I have acquired two cards from them. One has the Woolworth branding on it, but the other is just branded as Topps.

Card Number 695: Topps (Woolworth) Baseball Highlights, 1987; #16

No reference to Woolworth on the front - but this is listed as a Woolworth set on Trading Card Database

I think this photo is of Tony sat in a dug out, which would explain the nondescript wall behind him. On the back is a highlight, in a very bright yellow and purple colour combination.

That's a genuiniely interesting stat on the back. Tony had the most hits and tied for the most runs in the 1986 season, but didn't win the batting title. The comparison of his batting average to on-base percentage shows he didn't take many walks. Tony liked to swing - often on the first pitch - so popped up and ground out fairly regularly. 

As an aside, the packaging for this card set says it was printed in Ireland, as were quite a few other Topps products at the time. This means this card was printed in Europe, shipped to the USA, and now it has travelled all the way back across the Atlantic Ocean to Wales!

Card Number 696: Woolworth Baseball Highlights, 1988; #12

Woolworth had their branding front and centre on this card.

Tony is swinging in the photo. The back has Tony's second batting title as a highlight.

56 stolen bases in a season is an incredible feat. I've said this before, but Tony's ability to get on base and steal an extra 90 yards would have made him the perfect Moneyball player when Moneyball came along.

Topps and Woolworth partnered on exclusive sets for three more years after these ones, but Tony did not feature in those sets. So, that make these two Woolworth cards a "complete run" of Tony's cards. 

The series on store exclusives continues tomorrow!

Total: 696 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

Lenticular fun with more Sportflics

I am blogging through a small parcel of cards I bought off eBay. Said parcel spent its time winging its way to me, and in the meantime I received an envelope of cards from Tim, which included two Sportflics cards. I knew one of the cards in the eBay purchase was a Sportflics card so I mentally added it to the pile of dupes in the lot, thinking it was bound to be one of the ones I received from Tim. But when it arrived, it was from a different series of Sportflics cards released the year after the ones Tim sent to me.

Card Number 629: Sportflics, 1987; #31

Lenticular cards don't like scanners. And scanners don't like lenticular cards.

There are three pictures in the lenticular array. Tony swinging...

... Tony in his batting stance ...

...and a portrait.

This time around, Sportflics added in a little portrait photo on the back of the card. 

There are apparently two versions of this card - one with a copyright notice saying 1986, and the other version saying copyright 1987. This is the 1986 version. It's not the sort of variation that makes much difference in terms of monetary value of the card.

Sportflics carried on producing these lenticular cards until 1990, so there are a few more featuring Tony from later series. Maybe one day I'll master the art of photographing them.

Total: 629 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

Back to 1987 (and a story of set completion)

This story starts when I was 10 years old (and just about to turn 11) and my parents took me and my brother to Florida. We went to Walt Disney World. We went to the Everglades. We went to Thomas Edison's House. We learned that Americans had donuts for breakfast (!) 

And we bought baseball cards. Topps Baseball 1987 to be precise. 

I've always loved that set and would often look at the stack of cards we brought home. Over the years I added to that stack as I found 1987 cards in joblots and so on. A few years ago I bought a large number off Facebook Marketplace, and I've been filling in my remaining cards ever since.

My completion story started about 10 days ago when Brian from the UK baseball card collectors Facebook group, advertised a stack of Topps cards from 1984. I like the design of the 1984 cards but they are a bit thin on the ground in the UK. They date from just before the junk wax explosion, which really took off at the end of the 80s. 

Brian described the cards as a 'starter' stack and it only took me a few minutes to decide that I would like them. He then asked if there was anything else I collected. I said Tony Gwynn and he sent me a picture of Tony's base card from 1987 - the first card I ever featured on this blog! I explained how I had been collecting the 1987 cards since, well, 1987, and how I was one card away from completing the set.

He asked which card that was, and I told him it was Pete Rose's card, number 200 in the set. Then Brian sent me a picture of the card and said he would include it!

He also then messaged me a few hours later with another card featuring Tony that I didn't have, and offered to include it in the package too - that was the All Star card of Tony and Albert Belle that I blogged about a week ago.

The cards arrived securely packed inside a Kellogg's Pop Tarts box (not shown).

And here's Pete!

It's got a wax stain or gum stain on the back - authenticity!

There is a connection between Pete Rose and Tony Gwynn. On the night Tony Gwynn made his debut, Pete Rose was playing first base for the Phillies. Tony's first hit was a double so he ran right past Pete and onto second. But Tony's second hit that night was a single and after he reached first base, Pete shook his hand and said "Don't go catching me up all in one night!" 

But here's the twist in my collecting tale. After a couple of days celebrating completing the set, including telling my mum all about it when we had one of our regular phone chats, I started to put the set into card pages. And then I discovered somewhere I had made a mistake. The set wasn't complete! I was still missing one card - #486, Otis Nixon. 

I put an appeal out on the Facebook group and Brian said he also had a copy of Otis's card and would send it to me. (I was able to help him out with some dupe 1987 cards for his set-build in return.) A few days later an envelope plopped through the letterbox, and inside was Otis.

I don't have a story to connect Otis with Tony Gwynn. And I don't have any Topps cards of Tony from 1987 to blog. But I do have some cards from 1987 that haven't featured on the blog yet. This has been a super-long post, so I'm going to wait and post them tomorrow.

In the meantime I'm still feeling incredibly happy to have completed this set 33 years after that family holiday!

Total: 515 cards (none added to the total today!)