80s Wednesday - a couple of 80s oddballs

Here's a trip back almost four decades to when baseball cards started to proliferate in '88...

Card Number 966: Nestle, 1988; #40

I seriously doubt Nestle needs any introduction. They are one of the biggest food conglomerates in the world. The company has also been the target of a decades-long boycott due to the way it markets baby milk formula in the developing world. (I'm relieved to say that my acquisition of this card was not linked to the purchase of any Nestle products - although originally it would have been.)

The card itself is semi-licensed with a strange airbrushing job removing the Padres logo from Tony's cap. Unlike modern cards in the twilight zone of player licensing, this card includes the franchise name.

This card was produced by oddball card producer Michael Schechter Associates (also known as MSA) and printed in Canada. It has a comprehensive write up on the cardback compared to most oddballs. 

Card Number 967: KayBee Superstars of Baseball, 1988; #13

I've done a brief explanation of the KayBee Toys company on the blog before. I still love their little soldier in the logo. 

These cards were produced by Topps. When I came to wite this post I had a moment of deja vu. A quick look through my Topps folder and I realised why.

Topps re-used this photo in 2009 in their Legends of the Game insert series. The print is darker, but that is clearly the same photo.

A couple of years later, Topps used a cropped version of the photo for the Golden Greats insert card in 2012. (In fact, if you click on that link, you can see it was also used on a card from 2010 as well!)

It's unusual for the photo on an oddball card to reappear several years later, but I suppose this was in the Topps photo archive. It hadn't been used in an official Topps set and I doubt anyone at the company thought a random blogger would ever notice this.

Anyway, back to the card sold in Kay-Bee Toys and here's the back of the card sold in Kay-Bee Toys.

Although it has a photo on it, this doesn't have the impact of the Nestle card. June 1987 was a very hot month for Tony with an incredible average nearer to .500 than .400!

Total 967 cards

FFF - 80s Wednesday

A couple of Fleer Star Stickers from the 80s for your enjoyment today... kicking off with a spot the difference challenge.

Card Number 933: Fleer Star Stickers, 1986; #50

"Wait, Jon, did Fleer use that picture of Tony on the Star Sticker from 1987 as well?

"Well, reader, it looks likes they did. That's very observant of you! However, if you look closely you will see there are some teeny tiny differences."

They fixed the over-exposure on the second picture and Tony's smile is a fraction different. There is a minute difference in the electronic scoreboard on the edge of the balcony to the right of Tony as we look at him here. But those are obviously the same fans in the seats. These photos must have come off the same roll of film.

The back has some stats and some factoids. As usual, I will highlight how interesting the factoids on these early cards are. They were soon eclipsed by other achievements as the awards piled up. This has interesting stats from Tony's batting title winning season in 1984 and showed how he was setting club records already.

Card Number 934: Fleer Star Stickers, 1988; #123

The year before Fleer used grey borders on their flagship set, they tried it out in the Star Stickers set. The little stars around the border are cool, though.

The back just had a stats box and no factoids. Fleer did add in a "stat breakdown" at the bottom of the card, dividing up the stats according to day and night games, and games at home in Jack Murphy Stadium compared to games out on the road. 

From the looks of that breakdown, home games at night suited Tony!

Total: 934 cards

Return to 80s Week - Five Fleer cards from 1988

Fleer issued lots of small 44-card sets in the 1980s. Tony appeared in lots of them. 1988 was a particularly good year for both the sets and cards featuring Tony.

Card Number 886: Fleer Baseball's Best, 1988; #17

This set was divided into 'sluggers' and 'pitchers'. Tony was (obviously) a slugger.

The bright green and yellow of the border on the front is carried over onto the back, which is a little bit dull. But nobody bought these card sets to look at the backs. 

Card Number 887: Fleer Baseball's Exciting Stars, 1988; #17

This photo looks visually very similar to the one in the 'Baseball's Best' set. The Blue border with bold red stripe makes the card look quite different overall though.

The blue and red carry on over to the back of the card. This has pretty much the same information on it as the Baseball's Best card, but is marginally more interesting to look at.

Card number 888: Fleer Baseball's Hottest Stars, 1988; #15

Its stands to reason that if you are one of baseball's most exciting stars then you will be one of baseball's hottest stars too.

Tony is taking off for first base in this photo. That background looks very similar to the two previous cards in this post. 

The yellow and red border brings the heat to this card -suitable for one of baseball's hottest stars.

The cardback swaps the order of the white and pink stripes on the back of the Exciting Stars card - almost exactly! Just to mix things up, they also moved the biodata.

Card Number 889: Fleer League Leaders, 1988; #16

This says "League Leaders '88" but it featured the players who led the leagues in 1987.

A change of scenery for this card set, with Tony standing in front of the grottiest concrete wall backdrop imaginable. The paltry number of fans behind him seem uninterested in the game. This is one of those rare cards where closer cropping would have made the photo look a whole heap better. At least to remove the buttcheek of whoever is sitting on that plastic folding chair in the background.  

The back is pink and white again on the back, with some of blue-on-blue stripes from the front as well.

And finally...

Card Number 890: Fleer Record Setters, 1988; #17

As with the League Leaders, this set features players that set records in the previous season.

A real change of scenery this time, with Tony in the outfield!

The back has a big red bar and  grey stripes on the stats box for a change as well. 

And that's this blogpost's fifth and final Fleer card from 1988!

Total: 890 cards

Running through the 1988 Star set part 3

The final cards in the Star set to finish off this run-through.

Card Number 851: Star Tony Gwynn "Padre Hitman", 1988; #9

This is the third 'career highlights' card, and the third with a huge amount of text on the back. This one has a brief intro then talks about what Tony did in the 1985 season.

That's a great stat in the final line - 4 errors in 355 fielding actions. No wonder he picked up five gold gloves in his career.

Card Number 852: Star Tony Gwynn "Padre Hitman", 1988; #10

Yet again, Star decided to use a landscape-oriented photo and did nothing about the orientation of the logo. To add to the quirkiness, this time they rotated the template the opposite way round to the way they rotated it on the other card with a landscape photo. 

The cardback is more about Tony as a person rather than summarising his career. 

There isn't much in there that is news to me, except for him being named San Diego Professional Athlete of the Year twice. Back when San Diego had NFL and NBA teams, there would be some competition for that.

And so, on to the final card in the set...

Card Number 853: Star Tony Gwynn "Padre Hitman", 1988; #11

This card is slightly damaged. Maybe one day I will replace it.

What did the future hold for Tony way back in, wait, hang on, part way through 1987?

I mean, that's what the first sentence implies when it talks about Tony's "current" average. This explains why the stats on his Major League Stats card only went up to 1986. So, this set from 1988, was put together in 1987, only included stats up to 1986, and had a copyright notice saying 1984. Gotta love an oddball set!

However, their comment about Tony having one of the brightest futures in baseball was prescient. While this set was being compiled, Tony was on his way to picking up his second batting title. He would, of course, go on to win many more!

Total: 853 cards

Running through the 1988 Star set part 2

On with the oddball set that I started blogging about yesterday.

Card Number 847: Star Tony Gwynn "Padre Hitman", 1988; #5

So far this set has had minor league stats, major league stats, post-season stats... it's time for All-Star stats!

Definite bonus point for including where the All-Star games took place in the stats box on the back. That's extra data often isn't included. 

Card Number 848: Star Tony Gwynn "Padre Hitman", 1988; #6

A slightly different approach to stats - basically Tony's best stats in a season and in an individual game up to this point. This is always a more interesting set of stats and rarely done by card companies.

At this point in his career, Tony had yet to record a five-hit game. He had stolen five bases in one game, though, at the end of September 1985 in Houston.

Card Number 849: Star Tony Gwynn "Padre Hitman", 1988; #7

And abruptly, the cardbacks shift from stats boxes to mammoth blocks of text. Weirdly, these go back in time, starting with Tony's break out season in 1983 and going backwards to his minor league season in 1981.

There is a huge amount of information to unpack on this cardback. It serves as a very useful reminder of Tony's early career with details that have since been marginalised by all of Tony's achievements. (The story that he went off to Puerto Rico to play winter baseball and broke his wrist at the end of the 1982 season isn't usually talked about.)

Card Number 850: Star Tony Gwynn "Padre Hitman", 1988; #8

Although all the photos in this set seem to be from the same game, it doesn't seem to have been well attended judging by the empty seats in the background here. 

On the back we have another chunk of biography. This is all about Tony's achievements in 1984, including becoming the first Padres player to record 200 hits in a season.

Part 3 of this run-through tomorrow!

Total: 850 cards

Running through the 1988 Star set part 1

In the large parcel of cards that Richard sent me was an 11 card oddball set made by Star. As a card producer, Star normally stuck with minor league sets. In 1988 they issued 28 different sets related to minor leagues or minor league teams - everything from the Carolina League All-Stars to the Tampa Tarpons. If someone wants a Miami Marlins set from before the Miami Marlins became a Major League franchise, then there is a Star set of the minor league outfit from 1988.

Star also produced player-specific sets, with 29 different small sets released in 1988 alongside their minor league cards. Typically these sets had 11 cards in, with some players getting more than one set. Mark McGwire had three sets in 1988. Tony had one solo set and another set that he shared with Wade Boggs, both of them getting five cards each in the latter set.

According to Trading Card Database, this set was limited to a print run of 5000, with a glossy parallel set limited to 1000 of each card. I don't know if the set Richard sent me is the regular set or the glossy parallel. I suspect the regular because it doesn't seem very glossy. There were also 500 autogaphed versions of the first card in the set available - all serial numbered. This might have been one of the first time Tony's autographed cards were made available to collectors in a set.

Anyway, let's kick on and enjoy some shonky oddballness. I'm going to split the cards over the next couple of posts as well. 

Card Number 843: Star Tony Gwynn "Padre Hitman", 1988; #1

A couple of things to be aware of as we go through this set. Firstly, I think most of the photos were taken during the same game. Secondly, the production levels aren't high. These were sort of licensed cards but that's a home-drawn San Diego logo on the front. 

Spoilers! This first card in the series is a checklist. Have a read to anticipate what's coming up.

Also, even though this says Star '88 on the front and it's confirmed by TCDb as being released in 1988... nobody at Star bothered to update the copyright notice from whenever they last used this card template. It still says 1984.

Card Number 844: Star Tony Gwynn "Padre Hitman", 1988; #2

The series kicks off with a series of stats cards. Tony's minor league stats get profiled first.

I am reasonably certain they could have written 'Pacific Coast' next to Hawaii and Las Vegas. Often Tony's 17 games in Las Vegas in 1983 get forgotten. He was recovering from an injury and spent a few weeks getting back to full game fitness.

Card Number 845: Star Tony Gwynn "Padre Hitman", 1988; #3

I can see why Star would print this photo in landscape orientation. The catcher's hand reaching in forlornly just as Tony makes contact with the ball makes this image. However, not switching the template around so the fake logo is sideways is lackadaiscal design.

Even though this set was released in 1988, it only shows Tony's major league stats up to the 1986 season.

Card Number 846: Star Tony Gwynn "Padre Hitman", 1988; #4

Batting donut picture! Time to check Fuji's post of a dozen Tony Gwynn cards with batting donuts... and this one isn't one of Fuji's dozen! 

Tony had one season's worth of post-season stats to go on this card.

And on that statistically spartan note... I will bid you adieu. More of the set tomorrow.

Total: 846 cards

Oddballs in the key of R

Both these oddballs were produced by Topps and sold in little packs of 33 cards through specific retailers in 1988.

Card Number 805: Topps Revco League Leaders, 1988; #1

It's not the most exciting picture on the front. I think the Revco logo is meant to be a little shopping basket. There is a history of Revco in this blog post by Fuji from earlier this year. One thing I learned from that is the regional nature of these sets. If you didn't live near a Revco store then you couldn't buy these cards. 

Tony's stats in 1987 made him worthy of being the first card in the set. 

I am always learning new things from cardbacks. In this case, that Tony led the National League in hits in 1986, but didn't win the batting title. 

Card Number 806: Topps Rite-Aid Team MVPs, 1988; #11

Unlike Revco, I've actually been in a Rite-Aid. On one of my visits to America, I needed a sticking plaster and bought a box of them in a Rite-Aid store. I'm not sure why, but I ended up bringing them home and had Rite-Aid sticking plasters in my first aid box for years.

The photo on the front is very similar to the photo on the front of the Revco card. The dug out in the background looks the same. There is a fan in a blue baseball cap standing up near Tony's right shoulder and the same fan is in the crowd on the Revco card on the edge of the picture, possibly talking to another fan. 

The back of the Rite-Aid card is more boring than the Revco card. Tony was relegated to number 11 in this set. 

Based on those figures for 1987, we can work out that Tony was left on base, forced out or picked off 99 times during the season. 1987 was the career high point of Tony's base-stealing as well, with 56 successful steals. 

Rite-Aid had a major part to play in the baseball card hobby about a decade later, when the founder of Rite-Aid, Alex Grass, bought Fleer and ran it for six years from 1999-2005. Alex had retired from Rite-Aid by then, and ran Fleer with one of his sons, Roger. Unfortunately, Martin Grass, the son who took on running Rite-Aid after Alex retired, got arrested for an accounting scandal that almost destroyed the company and ended up in federal prison. Alex and Roger dclared Fleer bankrupt in 2005 and sold the company's intellectual property to Upper Deck.

Although both these card sets were printed by Topps, I still class them as oddballs because of their limited availability and the way they were supplied in small complete sets. 

Total: 806 cards

Collecting intersect - Panini Stickers

Before I collected baseball cards, I collected football stickers. By football, I mean soccer. I still have the first Panini sticker album - Football '85 - that I filled, in partnership with my little brother. It's quite tatty now, but it is 36 years old! In 1986 we completed the Fifa World Cup sticker album by Panini. We didn't collect the regular football stickers in 1986 or 1987, although I do have incomplete albums that I acquired off friends. 

Then in 1988, my brother and I collected the Football '88 stickers. They had bright yellow borders, in one of Panini's more exciting design templates. Those football albums by Panini in the mid-80s were the pinnacle of sticker collecting in my opinion. In addition to all the first division clubs, the albums included the second division teams and club badges, the teams in the Scottish Premier Division, and additional features. 

In Football 88 one bonus spread focussed on the celebrations of the Football League's centenary season. There was also a page of 'Second Division Heroes' with a few players from the second division clubs featured. Unfortunately, none of the players from the team my family supported, Shrewsbury Town, made the cut for that feature.

I had, of course, had my first encounter with baseball cards in 1987 (which I recorded in my diary!). But it was those Panini football stickers that started me off collecting this sort of thing. 

What I didn't know, however, was that Panini had produced baseball stickers in the 80s as well. It was a real surprise when I went carefully through the parcel that Richard sent me to find two stickers. And as I picked them up all those memories of collecting football stickers in my childhood came flooding back. 

Card Number 784: Panini Baseball 88 Stickers, 1988; #410

As with the football stickers, each team in Baseball '88 had a double page spread in the album with 12 player stickers, two stickers that made up a 'league leaders' image, a foil sticker of the team logo and another foil sticker depicting the uniform. 

The back is very plain. These were going in an album and the peeled backs would be going in the bin, so there was no point printing anything on them.

Tony isn't pictured on the Padres 'league leaders' stickers. But later on in the book were some action shots of various players in a 'Highlights' spread.

Card Number 785: Panini Baseball 88 Stickers, 1988; #437

It's not the most exciting photo, really. Although, there is a TV camera on a tripod in the background, which is a bit more interesting than the usual empty bench. 

The back is plain again. 

One day, maybe, I will pick up a Baseball '88 album and see what these stickers would look like if they had ever been stuck. Until then, I'm happy just reminiscing about my childhood collecting. 

Total: 785 cards