Some little things for St David's Day

It's St David's Day, celebrating the patron saint of Wales. David was a monk, preacher and reputed miracle-worker who lived in the 6th century. His earliest biography dates from the 11th Century. Much of that is apocryphal, but I really like one of the, perhaps legendary, tales about him. 

Towards the end of his life, David gave some final instructions to his followers and friends and told them to "Do ye the little things in life" as a way of demonstrating they remained faithful to their religious beliefs. It's a phrase I find inspiring because it's often doing the little things that show how much we respect and care for people.

So in honour of St David, here are some "little things", that came in the big parcel of items that Richard (YoRicha) sent me several months back. They are stickers not cards, but they count here as cards! (Although they are about a quarter of the size of a regular baseball card.)

Red Foley stickers were included in the Red Foley Best Baseball Book Ever that was published for several years in the late 80s and early 90s. The books had spaces to stick the stickers in. These stickers don't seem to never got stuck into a book.

Card Number 976: Red Foley, 1992; #44

There's no sticker back to show. Not even a number on the little bit of paper.

There were only 130 stickers included with the book so it's pretty cool that Tony was on two of them.

Card Number 977: Red Foley, 1992; #116

That photo might look really familiar. I am reasonably certain that's a photo from the All Star game in 1991. Mainly because of this Upper Deck card.

The guy in the yellow backwards baseball cap is in the background of both cards. I hope whoever he is he knows he was on a baseball card and a baseball sticker!

Tony got two stickers the next year as well!

Card Number 978: Red Foley, 1993; #38

Tony is adjusting his gloves in the photo that also looks quite familiar, although I can't quite place it. Dug-out pictures are fairly common, after all. 

And just to make it fun and confusing, Tony had the #116 sticker for the second successive year.

Card Number 979: Red Foley, 1993; #116

This is the same uniform and virtually the same pose as sticker #44 the previous year. It's a different background though, and Tony has sleeves on.

As a bonus Richard also included a little cameo picture cut from the cover of one of the Red Foley books.

I could have probably dated that photo by the colour of the batting helmet and the Van Dyck moustache and beard, but instead I used Google image search to locate it in the top right corner of the cover of the 1988 sticker book. Ironically, Tony wasn't on any of the stickers inside the book in 1988!

I really appreciate these little things from Richard - and thanks also for faithfully commenting on the blog along with other regular commenters. Your encouragement keeps me going!

Total: 979 cards (and stickers!)

First Five in the Fabulous Fleer Fortnight

I have a lot of Fleer cards to blog and so I decided to do a theme week... then I thought about it and I thought a Fleer Fortnight was more apt. And it would help me 'clear the Fleer'. So this is the first post of my Fabulous Fleer Fortnight!

This first post will feature five cards from the special Tony Gwynn commemorative set - an insert series in Fleer Ultra in 1992. I have gradually acquired eleven of the twelve cards in this set. Here are cards numbered 1, 4, 5, 8 and the two mailaway cards. (I blogged those in August 2020, nearly 700 cards ago!)

Card Number 920: Fleer Ultra Tony Gwynn Commemorative Series, 1992; #2

That's a nice picture of Tony in the proper vintage Padres colours from when he first broke into the team. It looks familar though... Back in July last year I noticed that Topps were using a photo that originally appeared on one of these cards in the commemorative set, on the Archives insert in Series 1 of their flagship set. This photo really looks like the photo used by Topps on their 2021 Stadium Club card.

It was only when I compared the two I realised it wasn't eactly the same photo. Tony is wearing exactly the same gear, but that is a different bat. The dug-out in the background is also different, but I wouldn't put it past Topps to alter that anyway.

There is a decent chunk of biography on the back of the card.

I doubt that Tony really went to college thinking he would "play a little baseball" as well. The way his fellow alumnus Bobby Meacham tells it in He Left His Heart in San Diego, Tony was reluctant to approach his basketball coach to ask about playing baseball. 

Card Number 921: Fleer Ultra Tony Gwynn Commemorative Series, 1992; #3

Outfield photo!

Another chapter of "Big T's" biography on the back. (Big T? Really?)

This chunk of Tony's life concludes by mentioning the broken wrist he sustained in the Puerto Rican league in the winter of 1982-3. It was his right wrist. He had already broken his left wrist during the regular season! 

I do think it's testament to how much Tony loved playing baseball that after a very successful season in the minor leagues he would head off to Peurto Rico to play even more baseball. 

Card Number 922: Fleer Ultra Tony Gwynn Commemorative Series, 1992; #6

This card shows Tony posing with a silver slugger award and a golden glove!

Tony's golden gloves don't get mentioend very often - perhaps that's because he didn't in any in the latter half of his career. His batting titles were evenly split between the first ten years and last ten years that he played. The golden gloves were all early career awards.

Some of his fielding achievements are mentioned in the biography on the back.

As an aside, this is why I roll my eyes when people suggest Fernando Tatis Jr is a better player than Tony Gwynn. Brilliant though he is, Tatis is never going to win five gold gloves in his career. I will predict that now.

Card Number 923: Fleer Ultra Tony Gwynn Commemorative Series, 1992; #9

A baserunning photo. Fleer were trying to show all aspects of Tony's game in this set.

Tony was a multi-sport man. He was a basketball player good enough to be offered an NBA contract. He was a keen fisherman and golfer. I don't know if he ever boxed, but he's putting up his fists on the back of this card. 

Tony's commitment to playing baseball possibly cost him a batting title in 1991. If he had limited his appearances and maintained that .360 average, he would have won it by a margin. (Julio Franco won the batting crown with an average of .341 that season.)

Card Number 924: Fleer Ultra Tony Gwynn Commemorative Series, 1992; #10

These photos on the last card were bang up to date at the time,as the Padres had just switched out their brown accoutrements for blue. 

Tony looks contemplative in the photo on the back. 

This is the second card in a row where Kirby Puckett is mentioned on the back. There is also a mention of his wife and children. His son is referred to as 'Anthony II' instead of junior. 

You may have noticed that the card I am missing from this set is card number 7! Do you have one lying around at home in a random old card box, not really doing anything? Could you help me complete this insert series? I would great appreciate it!

Total: 924 cards

Play your cards right

Some oddball cards today. And I mean, literally, some oddball cards today.

Card Number 907: US Playing Card Company Baseball Major League All-Stars, 1990; #NNO (Jack of Diamonds)

Yes, this is from a set of playing cards with colour pictures of baseball players on. This is a very intriguing photo. My guess is that Tony is scrutinising the play while doing some stretches in the on deck area.

The back is a boring card back. It has to be if anyone is going to actually play cards using this set.  I've played a lot of card games in my time - whist, canasta, pinochle. Novelty card sets don't tend to get used for games in my experience. However, judging by the playwear, this card was used in a few hands of some card games.

Card Number 908: US Playing Card Company Major League Baseball Aces, 1992; #NNO (3 of Diamonds)

Tony is still in the diamond suit in this deck, but seems to have been demoted from one of the face cards to a lowly number. 

This photo has been cropped to chop off Tony's feet and the end of his bat. I know that might annoy one of my regular readers!

The back looks more stylish than the cardbacks from the deck released in 1990.

And a bonus "card".

Card Number 909: Cartwright's Aces, 1992-3; #9

This was from a 12-card series issued with the short-lived Cartwright's Journal of Baseball Collectibles, which included trading cards in each issue. The Journal lasted for five issues in 1992 and 1993 and somehow released 9 card series, many with parallels. There is more information in this Wrigley Wax blog post.

The card is rather nicely done.

Despite the playing card imagery in the word 'aces' and the design of the set logo on the back, this isn't actually a playing card.

There is a minimal write up on the back. 

Something that stands out to me is there is no licensing information on this card at all. That's also true of the US Playing Card Company cards as well - but they were licensed and had the relevant logos on the box containing the cards. I suspect Cartwright's didn't have an agreement in place otherwise there would have been some very small print on the card. 

Total: 909 cards

A classic howler

Classic cards were ostensibly part of a trivia game, which always strikes me as a bit of a ruse to get around licensing agreements. Like all cards they evolved quickly in the early 90s, although they never really lost that flimsy card game feel.

Card Number 812: Classic Baseball, 1992; #61

Design note: It's the 90s. Let's stretch the year across the width of the card! This kind of kerning is a mark of a card being designed on a computer. 

I would argue this photo is quintessential early 1990s Tony Gwynn. Helmet and shades, watching the trajectory of a ball he has just belted up into the sunny sky, wearing the grey Padres road uniform that always looks a bit like pyjamas. The bright orange wrist guards match the orange in the San Diego name on his shirt. 

The back is a change for Classic cards. Gone are the old ropey-looking cheap card backs. Note the extended kerning for Tony's name again. Justified text! Plus, five questions for you to test your knowledge.

Over time, I have grown fonder of one line stats boxes. I also think it's incredibly cool that Tony only struck out 19 times in the season - what with that being his shirt number!

Card Number 813: Classic Baseball, 1993; #T41

This card was one of the 99 that came in the actual Classic game.

The photo in 1993 was not as good as the previous year. Tony's bat is occluding a background person's face in almost comical style. 

The back has one line of stats and five more questions to answer. Plus a major howler - instead of the Padres logo there is the Angels logo!

This error hadn't been previously noted on Trading Card Database. I've reported it now!

Total: 813 cards

Sharing the (oddball) Spotlight

I have a few cards that feature another player alongside Tony. Here are a couple of examples of Tony sharing the spotlight on 'oddball' issues.

Card Number 771: French's, 1992; #16

These cards were a giveaway linked to French's Mustard. This condiment debuted at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904, and is still sold today. Each card in this set featured two top players. Tony shared his card with Joe Carter, who was playing for the Blue Jays at that time. 

Joe was born in March 1960, almost two months before Tony arrived in the world. He was in the 1981 draft with Tony and was selected by the Cubs. After a spell with the Indians he played alongside Tony at the Padres before being part of the deal with the Blue Jays that brought Fred McGriff and Tony Fernandez to San Diego. Roberto Alomar also moved to Toronto with Joe in that deal.

That move worked out better for Joe and Roberto as both of them won back-to-back World Series titles with the Blue Jays - the first one was the year this card was given away with French's Mustard, 1992.

Depsite being the same age as Tony, Joe retired in 1998. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2003, which was the first year he was eligible for entry. Being a first year inductee is yet another thing he has in common with Tony. 

There is a short write up about each player on the cardback. 

Design-wise, I like this card for several reasons. I like cards that are green. I also like the bat and ball drawings in the background of the cardback. The photos are quite small so the player's features aren't very easy to make out. But this is still a nice card featuring two Hall of Famers.

Card 772: Classic Blue, 1990 (NL Hit Kings); #87 

Are Classic cards really 'oddballs'? I think they kind of are.

There are two versions of this card. This one that says NL Hit Kings on the front, and another version that says Clark / Gwynn on the front. Trading Card Database lists this version as 87b.

That's Will Clark next to Tony. "Will the Thrill" made his major league debut for the Giants in 1986. Before that he was in the USA baseball team at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, part of the squad that included Tony's brother, Chris, and several other players who later had major league careers. In 1994 Will moved to the Rangers, and after five seasons in Arlington, had brief stints with the Orioles and Cardinals before retiring. He is on the Giants Wall of Fame and the Giants have announced plans to retire his shirt number (#22) in 2022.

This photo is slightly awkward because Will is looking at the camera and Tony isn't. Given the logos of other baseball clubs on the wall behind them (the Brewers and Phillies logos are visible) I conclude this was taken at an All Star Game with the players getting papped by multiple photographers (or at least two!) at the same time. 

Classic cards were marketed as board games rather than baseball cards - which seems to have been a clever way of subverting licensing arrangements -  so along with a few stats, there are trivia questions to ask as part of the game on the back of the card.

The stats compare Will and Tony's seasons in 1989. Will was .003 behind Tony in batting average so not far off winning the batting title! He had seven fewer hits than Tony but also had fewer At Bats, possible because he drew more walks. A mathematician could probably work out what the true differential of .003 would be in terms of hits. Maths isn't my strongpoint, but it feels like he was literally just a couple of hits away from taking the title. 

The other thing I noticed from the stats comparison is that Will struck out over three times as often as Tony did - 103 strike outs to Tony's 30. The mind-boggling bit of that is that Tony only struck out 30 times in 158 games. I often bring this up, but on average you would have had to go to six games in 1989 to be guaranteed seeing him strike out. It always astonishes me how rarely he struck out.  

Total: 772 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

One Card Only - PG rating

I might need to explain the post title for any readers based outside the UK. Basically, 'PG' means 'Parental Guidance' and it's used for films that might have a few scary scenes in, so parents should be aware of that before letting their kids watch the movie. 

There's no parental guidance needed for this post though, as the PG in question is Proctor & Gamble, a huge multinational corporation that mainly produces chemical products from cleaning products to shampoo. In 1992 they also produced some promotional baseball cards in partnership with Score.

Card Number 725: Score Proctor & Gamble All-Stars, 1992; #16

There were 18 cards in this set, featuring all the players in the starting line-ups for the 1992 All Star Game. Sets were received in return for proofs of purchase from Proctor & Gamble products (which included Pringles back in 1992 so if snacking was more of a priority than cleaning, then the mailaway was still achievable!). Score printed 2,000,000 sets (according to Baseballcardpedia) and I'm guessing most were claimed.

The back has a stats box and some information about Tony's contributions to the All-Star Game. There's also an endorsement from the then Cardinals manager, Joe Torre.

This card should probably be classed as an 'oddball' but it was produced by a fully licensed card manufacturer in the era when lots of companies could legitimately produce cards. It has the Proctor & Gamble logos on either side, so acts as a historical marker to a time when baseball cards were so popular just about every company wanted to use them to help shift their products.

The 1990s were an exciting time for Proctor & Gamble as the company became one of the first victims of a chain-email hoax. The email revived an old rumour that the corporation's profits went to the Church of Satan. This was compounded by claims that the company's main logo included Satanist imagery, which was part of the deal struck with Satan to ensure the company's success. Whoah, maybe there is a PG element to this post after all!

It turned out this hoax was started by a competitor trying to encourage a boycott of Proctor & Gamble products by earnest (and slightly gullible) Christians. This persistent rumour led to a multi-million dollar pay-out for Proctor & Gamble in 2007 against a competing company whose representatives had repeated the claims.

I remember reading an amusing book by someone who grew up in a fundamentalist Christian home where he wrote about his parents believing the rumour about Proctor & Gamble and throwing away all the products made by the company. It makes me wonder how many sets of baseball cards might have ended up in the trash by people worried about being contaminated by evil. 

Fortunately this particular card has survived the purges caused by the hoax and now has a safe and loving home in my collection.

Total: 725 cards

A trio of Topps parallels

Today I'm going to be blogging cards that have been on this blog before in a different guise. These three parallels came in the recent parcel from France. 

Card Number 716: Topps Gold (Winner), 1992; #270

Tony's name and the word 'Winner' are in embossed gold foil on the front, which differentiates this from the normal Topps Gold card. 

The 'Winner cards' were sent out in return for "runs" collected on 'Match the Stats' game cards inserted in packs. Unfortunately it was apparently easy to cheat and use a torch to reveal the answers on the game cards, so Topps were inundated with redemptions. Topps printed 'Winner' on the cards they sent out because they wanted to preserve the rarity value of the Topps Gold cards that were randomly inserted in packs. According to Baseballcardpedia, these 'Winner' cards are a lot more common than the pack-pulled cards.

There's a nice variation on the cardback with the Topps Gold logo watermarked behind the stats box. This was the last year Topps did a plain stats box on the back.

Tony's son mentioned on the back, was, of course, Tony Gwynn Jr, who went on to have a Major League Baseball career himself. 

Card Number 717: Topps Gold, 1994; #620

There is a little Topps Gold logo top left and Tony's name is printed in gold foil. These cards were parallels inserted into lucky packets. 

There is no difference in the cardback from the regular base card. The factoid is about Tony joining various baseball legends in achieving four five-hit games in a season. He is the only one of those players to have played in anything approaching the modern era.

Card Number 718: Topps Opening Day, 1998; #1

Topps went silver for their Opening Day set in 1998.

Tony was #1 in the flagship set, so it's not a surprise that he was also #1 in the Opening Day set as well. It's still cool that he was on the first card in the set, though. There's also a silver foil stamp celebrating Opening Day.

The back is exactly the same as the base card, even down to it's hard-to-locate set number!

I feel there is enough variation in all three cards to keep these parallels interesting. I now need to add them into my Topps binder, which may result in me moving a few cards around accomodate them. But that's a nice problem to have!

Total: 718 cards

Cereal freebies: Part 1

These"oddball" cards by Post arrived in the post from Gawain last week. 

Post is a massive cereal company - currently the third largest in the world. C.W. Post who founded the company spent time at the sanatorium run by John Harvey Kellogg and was inspired to develop his own breakfast cereal. The first cereal sold by Post was Grape Nuts, one of the few America brands readily available in the UK. I always think it's the most misleading brekfast cereal, as it contains neither grapes nor nuts, and is more like eating shards of concrete rather than food. Still, to each their own. 

For several years in the early 90s, the Post company included baseball cards as giveaways in their cereal. (They'd actually first done this in the early 1960s as well.) I've previously blogged cards of Tony that Post produced in 1990(#413) and in 1991(#46).

Card Number 688: Post Cereal, 1992; #26

These cards were licensed by the Major League Baseball Player's Association (MLBPA) rather than Major League Baseball, so the logos and team names have been rather skillfully erased from the photos of Tony. These cards were printed by Michael Schechter Associates (MSA) who arranged print runs of promotional baseball cards for a lot of companies back in the 1980s and 90s.

The back is a fairly solid design, with a photo of Tony and a decent stats box.

Major League Baseball was less protective of franchise names in the early 90s so even though the Padres name and logo have been removed from the photos, the word 'Padres' appears on the front and back of the card. 

Card Number 689: Post Cereal, 1993; #8

Wonky scan! Sorry.

A bunt photo! 

Tony was quite happy to bunt when necessary. He devotes a section in his book Tony Gwynn's Total Baseball Player to "The Art of Bunting". Tony felt it gave opponents something else to worry about, causing the infield to shift and opening up holes a batter could punch a ball through. Tony went on to list the five type of bunt - can you name all five? Answers at the bottom of the post!

This is a nice looking card, with a black border similar to the Pinnacle cards issued in the same year. The back has dispensed with the big stats box and has added a little write-up, which mentions his option to play in the NBA with the Clippers.

Somehow in this joblot of oddball cards I managed a complete run of the three Post Cereal cards that I didn't have already.

Card Number 690: Post Cereals, 1994; #13

Another slightly wonky scan. My bad!

This design looks like the love-child of a DonRuss card and a Fleer Ultra card. It is very green. The designer has also gone for a fancier logo for the set - this is part of the "Post 94 Collection".

The back really emphasises the write up at the expense of the stats. There's some slightly confusing syntax in the first sentence, though. The Padres were playing the Rockies when Tony recorded his 2000th career hit, but it wasn't his 2000th career hit against the Rockies. (Who were in their debut season in the Major Leagues!)

For two years in a row the cardback write-up predicted Tony's eventual election to the Hall of Fame. 

Come back tomorrow for Cereal freebies: Part 2!

Total:690 cards

Answer: According to Tony, the five types of bunt were: The Sacrifice; The Drag; The Push; The Slug; and The Swinging Bunt. - Tony Gwynn's Total Baseball Player pp 49-53.

Black bordered All Star

Black bordered cards always look classy.

Card Number 671: Fleer (All Star Card), 1992; #2

There were 24 All Star cards to collect as inserts in the main Fleer set in 1992.

There is a long, sober summary of Tony's career to date on the back.

A couple of things stand out from that. One is how close Tony was to winning the batting title in 1991. Also his base-stealing exploits are often overlooked, but two seasons with more that 40 stolen bags, and stealing five in one game are aspects of his career that are worth being reminded about.

Total: 671 cards

Bonus note: I was going to title this post as 'Bordered in Black', but then I remembered there is a creepy short story by Larry Niven called that. Someone has uploaded it onto Scribd.