Crown time part 2

The thing about kings and queens is that as soon as one dies or abdicates, the next person in line instantly becomes king or queen. There is always a monarch. That's a change that nobody had experienced in the UK for 70 years but now everyone is having to get used to it fast. 

After yesterday's tenuous link between the monarchy and baseball cards, here's another card that is roughly keeping in with the theme of crowns.

Card Number 1044: Fleer Ultra - Gold Medallion Edition, 1998; #216G

Rather than being an insert set, the ten cards of players given a "Season Crown" were included as a subset within the main set. This is the parallel 'gold medallion' version of the card. (Yet again, I seem to have the parallel and not the normal base card.)     

The design of this card would fit into my much smaller collection of 'cards with a giant baseball motif. I like it as a design choice. 

Tony won what would turn out to be his final batting title in 1997, with over 200 hits.

I'm awarding this card a bonus point for adding 'G' to the card number to show that it's a parallel. Fleer often showed kindness like this to collectors.

Total: 1044 cards

Nothing sketchy about this card

This was another card in the envelope that arrived from Casey in California recently. It's from another one of those random Skybox ranges as the Fleer company flirted with bankruptcy and was releasing all sorts of different sets trying to find one that would capture the imagination (and cash) of collectors. 

Card Number 1040: Skybox Dugout Axcess, 1998; #126

It's a"7th inning sketch", like the 7th inning stretch, geddit?

Unlike other card sets that featured artistic renditions of players, this card has had the art effect switched on in a very early version of PhotoShop, which was only 10 years old in 1998.

There is a great factoid on the back about Tony flying to watch his son, Tony Jr, in a basketball game. Like his dad, Tony Jr later swapped basketball for baseball and had his own major league career starting about ten years after this card was printed. (Here are some Tony Gwynn Jr baseball cards.)

Dugout Axcess was a 'one shot' for Skybox. Fleer was taken over the following year and the Skybox brand disappeared along with the sets. There were three cards of Tony in the set - I've blogged the other two here - and he also makes a cameo appearance on Ken Caminiti's card, which is one I will have to try and track down some day...

In the meantime, thank you Casey for filling this gap in my collection.

Total: 1040 cards

Upper Decks bits and bobbleheads

Upper Deck's fun range, known as 'Collector's Choice' had a few gimmicky things like bobbleheads and various competition giveaways. Let's start with the second 'bobblehead' to feature on this blog and then go back in time to see some other bits and bobs...

Card Number 1021: Upper Deck Collector's Choice "push out", 1998; #23

I have some of the little bobblehead cards from 1999 (including one that has been pushed out), but I didn't realise that Upper Deck made these inserts in 1998 as well until Glenn sent me this a couple of weeks back. 

Upper Deck made sure Tony had his game face on for this bobblehead. It was only when I realised that Tony's disembodied head was in a batting helmet, that I realised the 1999 version is meant to show Tony fielding!

On the back are the intructions on how to assemble the bobblehead for display. 

These bobbleheads were in Series 2 of the Collector's Choice set and only appeared in 1 in 3 packs.

Upper Deck sometimes included odd things in their regular sets as well. In 1996, collectors had the chance of winning a shiny foil card.

Card number 1022: Upper Deck Predictors Redemption, 1996; #R57

There were 60 cards that could be exchanged for instant win cards found inside Upper Deck packs. 

For some reason I haven't got an overhead scan of this card in my folders, so this dirty desktop scan will have to do. Some of the marks on this card are dust and fluff on the scanner surface.

The back is relatively plain, but neatly laid out. The write up begins with Tony's incredibly low strike out rate. 88 times in 5 years!

This card arrived in a small box of cards from Gawain way back in November 2021. Six months later - thank you, Gawain!

Card Number 1023: Upper Deck Collector's Choice You Crash the Deck game piece, 1994; #unnumbered

You Crash the Deck (later Game) was a scratch off and win redemption thing that ran in Collector's Choice (with some adpatations) for several years.

There were 15 different varieties of this "game piece" each featuring two players. Tony shared the spotlight on this with Andres Galarraga from the Rockies.

This card sized 'game piece' folds out to reveal a large number of scratch off areas. The most important one is the one saying whether it's a winning card. That is the only bit that has been scratched off. 

And on the back are the huge list of terms and conditions in a tiny font.

Why were Canadians set a relatively simple maths question? I presume there is some rule about giveaway competitions that meant there has to be a quiz question. Otherwise that's just weird!

Total: 1023 cards

Among the rookies with Upper Deck

Today's post features three cards released by Upper Deck in 1998.

Card Number 1013: Upper Deck, 1998; #619

The Upper Deck set in '98 was released in three tranches - Series 1, Series 2, and the third series was known as the 'rookie series'. Although it had some players who were well past being rookies. Some of those players got put in a subset called 'Eminent Prestige' (which was apparently "unintentionally shortprinted"!). 

It's very shiny so I used the overhead scanner on the front. The way the subset name goes across Tony's legs make it look like he's kneeling down instead of just starting his run towards first base. 

The back has a truncated stats box, that includes the previous ten years and doesn't give full career totals. That's a tad unusual. The photo on the back looks like a posed photo - considering this was a subset about eminent players, it might have been a better choice to include it on the front. 

The ragged-edged blue background and swirling circles firmly root this card in the late 90s.

The Rookie series started numbering at 540, so I think Upper Deck made a deliberate choice to have Tony Gwynn at number 619 in the series. They get a bonus point for their attention to detail!

Card Number 1014: Upper Deck, 1998; #AS19

This card was also from the rookie (third) series of the Upper Deck flagship set - this time an insert card. It's another shiny card, so it got the overhead scan. I'm not overjoyed by these scans but at least you can see all the details of the card including the jade green colour of the foil. (The flatbed captures none of it.)

The design is reminiscent of a fancy security pass giving Tony access to the field for the All Star Game. Tony was a perennial selection for All-Star teams throughout the 90s, and he featured in his last All-Star Game after the season this set was released - although he was unable to play. Instead he helped his hero Ted Williams throw the ceremonial first pitch. 

With some characteristic attention to detail. Upper Deck gave Tony card number 19 in the 30-strong insert series. That's nineteen bonus points for this card!

Card Number 1015: Upper Deck UD3, 1998; #180

This card range has one of the most horrible numbering systems ever. Basically the same cards appear three times with different finishes and all have different numbers. I'm not sure what the design is meant to be on the front. It looks like a steampunk TV. (Was steampunk a thing in 1998?) There were numbered die-cuts produced as inserts in the set, so the card has been desinged with the die-cutting process in mind.

On the back is the numbering. This card set could be compiled in three different ways. I am going off the set number because that's the one that makes sent. None of the numbers have a 19 in them. (Boo!)

This was the second year that Upper Deck produced UD3. It shouldn't surprise anyone to hear it was also the last year that Upper Deck produced UD3. Sometimes card companies just get a bit too clever for their own good. 

Total: 1015 cards

Celebrating the Upper Dec(k)ade

To celebrate their tenth anniversary, Upper Deck released some special baseball cards that have one of my favourite things on the back - pictures of other baseball cards!

Card Number 990: Upper Deck 10th Anniversary Preview, 1998; #55

These shiny inserts appeared in the 1998 Upper Deck flagship set. Design-wise, they ape the design of Upper Deck's first set released in 1989.

On the back is a write-up about what a great batter Tony is, linked to a card that Upper Deck released in 1992, which was notable for being the first Upper Deck insert card with a full-bleed photo design. 

The card was in an insert series supposedly curated by Ted Williams - I blogged about it here.

Card Number 991: Upper Deck 10th Anniversary Team (Double), 1999; #X8

I received this card back in January from Riley in Nashville - thanks Riley! The X in the card numbering is the Roman Numeral for 10!

This insert series featured players who were active during the Upper Deck era, and the team selection was made through a popular ballot.

Upper Deck produced four different versions of their 10th Anniversary Team insert cards - there was a regular version, this version that was called a 'double' and numbered to 4,000, a 'triple' version numbered to 100 and a 'home run' version that had a print run of 1! All the versions are numbered X8 and it's only the serial numbering that really differentiates this from the vanilla version. The triples have silver foil stamps on the front. There are no reference pictures on Trading Card Database, but I imagine the home run versions had gold stamps on the front.

On the back is one of my favourite Upper Deck cards, featuring Tony fishing!

I blogged about that card showing Tony fishing way back in August 2020! The serial number is big and bold. I can't think of a meaningful link between Tony and the number 497.

Upper Deck had a hobby-changing impact when the first cards landed in 1989. I've written a bit about how the "UD asteroid" wiped out the cardboard dinosaurs that had ruled the hobby in the 1980s. By the end of the 1990s, the other card companies were no longer playing catch up. Almost all of Upper Deck's innovations became standard across the industry - from foil stamps, to parallels, to relic cards, to autographed cards inserted in packs. Even now, a couple of decades later, it feels really fitting to celebrate the decade of innovation that Upper Deck brought to the world of baseball cards. 

Total: 991 cards

Going Elite!

Shiny cards that don't scan as good as they look in hand! Welcome to the world of Elite cards by DonRuss...

Card Number 980: DonRuss Elite, 1996; #72

There were 12 of these inserts in the DonRuss flagship set numbered from 60 to 72. These numbers followed on from previous 12-card sets since the first set of Elite cards in the 1991 set. Elite were reasonably rare, with 1 card in every 75 packs in series 1 and 1 in every 40 packs in series 2 of DonRuss cards. But card #72 only appeared in series 2. 

It's not very visible on the scan, but this card has a shiny border all around the card. Tony is jogging the bases in the photo with an apocalyptic mid-90s sky behind him.

A couple of things of note on the card back. Firstly, the card number is written out in full, 15 years before Topps started doing that sort of nonsense on Allen & Ginter cards. (But even Topps don't write out the card number in full!)

Secondly, these cards were numbered out of 10,000. There's always something a bit special about a numbered card, even when it's a five digit limited run. This particular one is #509 - I can't think of anything particularly special about that number. 

Card Number 981: DonRuss Elite, 1998; #9

by 1998, DonRuss was issuing 'Elite' as a standalone high end set of 150 shiny cards. This card is so shiny it was a real rascal to scan. 

Despite the shininess, and the price tag on packs to match, this is quite a boring card. The back isn't much better. I ding points for partial stats boxes. Ding!

Card Number 982: DonRuss Elite, 2001; #24

Another shiny card that doesn't scan to it's full potential.

The font for Tony's name and the title on the stats box has to be one of the schmanciest serif fonts ever used on a baseball card. It's pure font luxury.

This was from Tony's final season where he was probably an onlooker from the bench more often than he would have liked - so that's a fitting photo on the cardback there. 

Total: 982 cards

Some older Gold Label cards

I selected today's cards with Fuji and YoRicha in  mind, because they said they liked the Gold Label cards that I posted at the beginning of the week. All these cards are slightly pearlescent so I used the overhead scanner on them. The results are a bit flakey, but at least the design is visible. 

Card Number 968: Topps Gold label, 1998; #14

Awkward photo juxtaposition ahoy!

Seriously, that photo arrangement makes it look like Tony is kneecapping his larger self.

These 'cards' are printed on quite thick plasticky card - much thicker than usual card stock. The material they are printed on contributes to the sheen on the card. It also warps slightly. 

The candid photo on the back should have a thought bubble saying "Huh!?" next to it. 

Right, okay, back on Tuesday I questioned what Topps was doing by discounting the 1994 season and the .394 batting average that everyone associates with Tony on their modern Gold Label cards. Back in 1998, Topps didn't have an issue with Tony hitting .394 in a season that was shortened by strike action. Here they have it as his career best batting average. They also explain how they calculated the 'average season' using 'at bats' rather than the number of games. That makes more sense and just adds to my suspicion that the company's employees knew what they were doing back in the late 90s compared to the people working there now. 

I have one of the books mentioned in the factoid - Tony Gwynn's Total Baseball Player. One day I hope to get hold of The Art of Hitting as well. 

Card Number 969: Topps Gold Label Class 1, 1999; #6

Topps introduced the class system to the range in 1999 and the shine on the cards was even more iridescent.

That fielding photo looks really familiar, but I don't think it was on a Topps card.

On the back there is another cameo portrait of Tony with a quizzical expression. 

The factoid about Tony's loyalty doesn't mention that apparently other top players were annoyed with him for staying with the Padres because it was dragging down the market value of all the other players. (Did that really happen? Now it's all part of the mythos.)

For those taking notes, the career best batting average on this card is .394. Also, a bonus point for this card having the class number on the back (by the team logo) - which makes it a lot easier for people like me trying to work out which cardback is which!

Card Number 970: Topps Gold Label Class 2, 1999; #6

One of the photos has been changed on the front, along with the team logo behind Tony.

The cardback is virtually identical apart from the class number.

Card Number 971: Topps Gold Label Class 2, 2000; #11

In this year's set the class is printed on the front of the card, etched into the foil.

That photo on the back is from the photoshoot that Topps used on some of their tribute cards in the 2000 flagship set, except this time, Tony isn't looking straight down the camera lens.

So a couple of things about this cardback. Firstly, the important career batting average high point stat is correct! Secondly, a factoid about walks! This is a really rare topic for factoids, because although Tony drew a fair few walks (as is obvious by the factoid!), generally he made contact at the plate. Except when opponents opted not to pitch at all! 

I always love learning something new from a card - so kudos to Topps for this!

Total: 971 cards

Leaf cards from a World Series year

In 1998, Tony led the Padres to the World Series against the Yankees. Here are a couple of Leaf cards from that season.

Card Number 958: Leaf, 1998; #11

This might be a base card, but Leaf went all out on their base cards for their 50th year anniversary, including a foil stamp, bevelled edges on the frame and very clean lettering. 

The design of the cardback is similarly classy, with a single season stats box and biodata arranged the way you would expect to see it on a premium card. 

Card Number 959: Leaf, 1998; #166

Tony's second card in the set had a black and white crowd scene as a background. Based on the caps and hats being worn by everyone, it looks like it might be a baseball crowd in 1949, the first year that Leaf produced baseball cards. 

The write up on the back is about Tony equalling pre-war records or setting records for the modern era. Personally I don't think it's productive to compare Tony's records to Honus Wagner or Rogers Hornsby because, like all sports with a long history, baseball has changed significantly. But if there is one thing that cardback writers liked to do, it was to compare Tony's achievements with long-dead legends of the game. 

Although it wasn't his highest ever batting average, a good case could be made that Tony's absulute career peak was in 1997. Across a full season he hit .372 and, as the cardback attests, he set his own personal records for home runs and RBI. It was the only season he broke three figures on RBI. He also led the league in total hits, with 220 across 149 games. Among those hits, Tony set a personal best for doubles in 1997, which helped him reach his second best slugging percentage in his career. His 'Total Bases' was 324, also a high point of his 20 seasons in the major leagues.

Total: 959 cards

Finishing Fleer Fortnight in a Traditional way

Fleer Tradition was the company's retro range at the tail end of the 90s and across the cusp of the millennium. It sometimes combined a mix of fairly ordinary looking cards with vintage style parallels and sometimes just went for a full set of full-on retro designs. Some sets also had some well-designed subsets and insert sets. One of my favourite Tony Gwynn cards ever is a Fleer Tradition insert that I blogged about in my first month of blogging.

Card Number 954: Fleer Tradition, 1998; #250

An unusual - and fantastic! - photo on the front of this base card. Tony has a pen in his hand so he was presumably turning that shirt into an autographed shirt!

The use of the shirt for the backdrop on the cardback is very effective. I've not seen it done on many (if any) cards. It seems like the sort of design technique that should appear frequently because it's such a simple yet impactful idea. 

There is lots more colour in the stats box than is usually applied on a card, whihc makes it easier to read than the usual rows of tiny numbers. Plenty of thought went into the design of this card.

Card Number 955: Fleer Tradition, 1998; #315

There were 10 "Golden Memories" cards in the middle of the 600 card Fleer Tradition set in 1998. It's a shiny card that looks really special but is actually 'just' a base card. Trading Card Database has a note that these cards were inserted at a ratio of 1 in 6 packs, which probably makes them more common than regular base cards.

The back has a flamboyant cameo frame and a factoid about how Tony scored 4 hits in 5 at bats against Greg Maddux in a game in 1997. 

Greg famously reckoned Tony was the only player it was impossible to strike out. It's always worth a re-quote.

“Sometimes hitters can pick up differences in spin. They can identify pitches if there are different release points or if a curveball starts with an upward hump as it leaves the pitcher’s hand. 

But if a pitcher can change speeds, every hitter is helpless, limited by human vision. 

Except for that f---ing Tony Gwynn.”

Card Number 956: Fleer Tradition Update, 1999; #U-145

Fleer Tradition was so popular in the late 90s is merited an update series, which included some season highlights from that year.

I doubt any regular readers don't know that the 6th August 1999 was the date of Tony's 3000th hit. This is one of the first cards released commemorating it. 

What is really strange is that Tony was the first player in 20 years to reach the 3,000 hit mark. The next player to reach 3,000 hits was Wade Boggs on the 7th August 1999. The day after Tony reached that milestone!

Card Number 957: Fleer Tradition Dividends insert, 2000; #9

Sometimes when an insert series has an odd name like 'Dividends', I just assume it's because baseball companies were running out of words...

Red borders always make a card look good. However, the offset nature of the black and white photo is a little jarring.

The same photo appears on the back, except it's rendered in sepia.

Although the write up implies hits were inevitable when Tony made a plate appearance, they were relatively rare in the 2000 season because Tony made comparatively few plate appearances - just 140 compared to 446 in 1999.

Total: 957 cards

Friday Flair in Fleer Fortnight

Flair was Fleer's high brow range of cards for much of the 90s. I've accumulated a few in the collection and here are some that haven't appeared on the blog previously.

When I previously blogged about Flair cards, I posted the card from 1993 and the card from 1995, but didn't have the card from 1994. So, let's set that right.

Card Number 938: Fleer Flair, 1994; #436

This card is everything you might expect from a premium card in the mid-90s. Full bleed picture, gold foil tints, elaborate swirly fonts. It's also everything you would expect from a Fleer card in the mid-90s. Confusing juxtaposition of photos, cropped off feet...

There is a full photo background on the back, with a Topps-esque shot half showing Tony's face and with his butt pointing towards the camera! However, it is unusual to have an action shot with Tony wearing his trademark wraparound shades.

For the first few years that Fleer produced Flair, they were relatively uncomplicated sets. Then towards the end of the 90s they started getting more complex, with parallels, rebrands and strange numbering systems.

Card Number 939 Fleer Flair Gold version, 1996; #174

In 1996, every Flair base card came in either a silver version or a gold version. The silver versions had gold lettering, and the gold versions has silver lettering. The cards were all shiny, using the Fleer 'etched foil' approach that gave the cards a gritty sort of surface feel. 

As with other Flair sets, this card has a composited image of pictures of Tony on the front.

Despite the abundant use of photoshop on the card, the designers left the grass stain on Tony's knee. 

There are two photos on the back as well, and a huge stats box.

After 1996, Flair was rebranded as Flair Showcase. That was when things started to get weird with the brand. In 1998 Flair Showcase was released as a 'tiered product' with four different versions of each card released, numbered from Row 3 to Row 0, with 3 being the most common and 0 the most scarce. Furthermore, each row was divided into 30-card sections, which were also of unequal scarcity. It's all very complicated. Even Baseballcardpedia has difficulty explaining it.

Card Number 940: Fleer Flair Showcase (Flair), 1998; #Section 2 Row 3, Seat 19

I'm going to count this as a #19 card! Row 3 means it was the most common version of Tony's cards in the set.

This was a really difficult card to scan. This was captured using my overhead scanner and is slightly over-exposed.The line on it is in the etched foil coating.

At least when they made an unnecessarily complicated set, Fleer had the decency to add the word 'Flair' under the set name so collectors could instantly tell which bit of the set the card was from. Although, they could have been more original and used a different word than Flair, which was the brand!

The cardback looks a bit, well, creepy, to be honest. It's the combination of the colours and Tony's hyper-focussed facial expression.

The word 'showtime' on the back indicates which subsection this card is from. "Flair Showtime Flair Showtime" are the most commonly occuring cards in the set. You were more likely to get more than one of these cards in a packet than none at all (if I've worked out the ratios on Baseballcardpedia correctly).

Card Number 941: Fleer Flair Showcase (Style), 1998; #Section 2, Row 2, Seat 19

Another #19 card. Or the same one? These 'Row 2' cards were the second most common cards in the set.

This card looks better. There is a big 'e' on the red advertising hoarding behind Tony. It looks really familiar but I don't think it's the e in Budweiser. It might be the e from the word Coke. 

It's the same photo on the back. The entire background has been wiped but because the whole picture hasn't been tinted blue, it's less freaky looking. 

This card is in the Showstopper division of row 2 cards. Again, that makes it one of the most common of the Row 2 cards, with these cards appearing at a rate of 1 every 2 packs.

I don't have the rarer Flair Showcase cards from 1998. But Flair continued their weird numbering system the following year, although there were only 3 rows. (They dispensed with row 0.) They also dropped the number of subdivisions across each row down to 3. The reduction in complexity may be an indicator the range was having problems so it's no surprise that Flair went on hiatus after the 1999 set before being brought back in 2002 for a new run.

Card Number 942: Fleer Flair Showcase (Power), 1999; #Row 3, Seat 9

The 'power' cards are the most common version of the card - this is in the 'Showtime' subdivision, which was the most common subdivision, making it one of the most common cards in the set overall. 

Fleer seemed to like having a picture of Tony running towards the camera on the cardback as they used a picture of him like that for the second year running. 

The green bar for the factoid is very prominent. It's a good factoid too, retelling the story of Tony's draft day when he was also offered a place with the Clippers in the NBA.

That's all the flair I have available to blog at the moment. At some point I will have to go a-hunting for rare flair to share.

Total: 942 cards