Modern Monday - Opening Day legend

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I'm the guest on the Tea & Topps podcast tonight at 9pm (GMT) talking about my Tony Gwynn collection. The live broadcast will be on YouTube, Twitch and Facebook. Details here.  

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Glenn, who sent me the Topps mini I blogged last week, followed it up with another couple of cards including a freshly pulled card from Topps Opening Day 2021 that was released to coincide with the start of the season. It also provides me with an opportunity for a theme post - the theme being "Legend" cards.

Card Number 641: Topps Opening Day Legends of Baseball, 2021; #LOB-18

I am a little bit disappointed that Tony had card number 18. So close!

This is a nice, fresh-looking card design that isn't reliant on a retro template or a reprint of an old card. It actually feels 'new' and is the first card from 2021 that made me feel that way.

The back has a great statistic comparing Tony's strike out rate with modern players. Fans rarely saw Tony strike out - I've commented before how, on average, you would have to go to five games before you saw him struck out.

I saw a statistic last week that said for the first time ever the number of strike outs had passed the number of hits. I think strike outs have increased because there is a massive emphasis on belting home runs. The "Slam Diego" streak last year is part of that trend. It's very exciting when it comes off, but a batter who is swinging for the fences is more likely to miss, or leave pitches that could be hit into infield play, thereby getting strikes called more often.  

As I said, the theme of this card matches another card I had waiting in my 'to blog' folder.

Card Number 642: Topps Legends of the Game insert, 2009; #LG-TG

This card is a very dark green. That's not a scanning problem. It's how it looks.

The numbering of these cards is odd. There were 50 cards in the set. half were numbered 1-25, and the other half had letters instead of numbers, like this one.

There is also an error on the cardback. Top left it says Tony made his debut in 1981. He was drafted in 1981. He made his Major League debut in 1982. 

The timeline imagery is quite cool and continus across the other cards in the set. That's a pretty neat little detail. Otherwise the big factoid box repeats the story of how Tony was drafted for the Padres and the Clippers on the same day. No matter how many times I read that, I find it incredible. 

Thanks again to Glenn for sending me the Legends of Baseball card that opened this post. It's the 5th card released in 2021 that I have added to the collection.

Total: 642 cards

Tuesday Twins - another Upper Deck retrospective

In 2009 Upper Deck released a massive 2,500-card set celebrating their 20th anniversary producing trading cards. It's a series of cards depicting sports stars and historical events. Tony actually had several cards in the set - I've blogged about two of them previously.

Card Number 634: Upper Deck 20th Anniversary, 2009; #641

This card is about Tony recording his MLB modern-day record batting average of .394. It uses a different photo of Tony to the other cards I've blogged, but the lay-out is the same.

The way Upper Deck structured this set was to use the same photo for a mini-run of cards, in this case there is a five card run (#641-645), so at some point there may well be some more cards that look like this on the blog!

Total: 634 cards

Champions! (My 300th blog post)

I like marking milestones on my blog. This is my 300th blog post since starting on 9th May last year. I thought I'd celebrate by blogging my first card with a picture of Tony as a basketball player.

Card Number 630: Upper Deck Goodwin's Champions, 2013; #101

Most photos I've seen of Tony playing college basketball he is wearing a white jersey. The blue top he's wearing in this photo doesn't seem to say Aztecs on it, so I don't know the provenance of this photo.

However, it's worth recounting that Tony attended university in San Diego on a basketball scholarship and wasn't allowed to play baseball in his first year. He still holds the San Diego State University record for assists. And when he graduated, Tony was drafted by both the Padres and the local NBA franchise, the San Diego Clippers (now the Los Angeles Clippers). Several people who contributed to the book He Left Hs Heart in San Diego opine that Tony preferred basketball as a sport to watch. He regularly watched the Indiana Pacers, as his family often spent a lot of time in Indianapolis in the winter.

None of this is mentioned on the cardback.

In the eight years since this card was printed, Tony has dropped to 20th on the all-time ranking for career hits. He was overtaken by Derek Jeter, who reached number 6 in the rankings before retiring, and Albert Pujols, who needs less than 100 hits this season to climb to 9th in the all time rankings.

One reason why Upper Deck printed this card with a photo of Tony posing with a basketball is because it was a neat way to get around the lack of licensing. A few years previously, Upper Deck reacted to Topps buying sole licensing rights to Major League Baseball by printing cards anyway. They thought they could do that with the rights granted by the Major League Baseball Players Association, but then Topps sued them for using MLB logos and team names.

One of the cards in the middle of this legal tussle would have been from the first Goodwin's Champions set released in 2009.

Card Number 631: Upper Deck Goodwin's Champions, 2009; #135

This retro card set is printed on old-fashioned card stock. This is very noticeable when the card is turned over.

The alignment of factoid and one-line stat box earn this card a bonus point. If a card mentions a particular year, it makes perfect sense to just show that year's stats. 

There are five lines of boilerplate legalese at the bottom of the card and the logos of two licensing organisations - the MLBPA and the Cooperstown Collection, which I think sells rights to retired players who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. All that wasn't enough to protect Upper Deck from getting sued, however. They haven't released a baseball set since. The later Goodwin's Champion sets have included leading sportsmen and women from a range of sports, with a few baseball players included.

Total: 631 cards

Tuesday Twins - Upper Deck retrospective

In 2009, Upper Deck released a mammoth card set celebrating their 20 years in the card industry. The 2,500 cards in the set covered baseball, NFL and college football, world events, US Presidents and other world leaders, basketball, ice hockey, space launches, golf, and more. This is the card set to collect if you want pictures of the Pope and cards about the constitutional right of all Americans to burn the American flag. (Yes, really!) It is an eclectic mix. Here's the checklist!

Upper Deck released five cards on each subject in a row, using the same photo on the cards. Tony actually has four runs of cards, twenty in all, in the set. Each run featured a different photo, but in the runs, they had the same photo. Which brings us on to today's 'twins'.

Card Number 345: Upper Deck 20th Anniversary, 2009; #1579

This card is from the third mini-series of Tony Gwynn cards in the set. It commemorates Tony and Cal Ripken Jr being honoured by MLB head honcho Bud Selig during the 2001 All Star Game. 

Six years later Tony and Cal would share the induction ceremony to the National Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. It doesn't say that on the cardback, though.

Card Number 346: Upper Deck 20th Anniversary, 2009; #1580

The next card in the set, and to date, the highest set number on a Tony Gwynn card I own.

This card is about Tony retiring.

There really isn't a lot to say about this card. I can add "consistently exceptional hitter" to my list of things that were said about Tony on the backs of baseball cards. (It feels like an oxymoron because if he was consistently something then how could it have also been exceptional? It's a nice phrase though.)

Total: 346/394