Gold medal photography

Card Number 684: Topps Update Golden Greats insert, 2012; GG-95

The first 75 cards in the Golden Greats insert series were inserted into Topps flagship Series 1 and 2. Cards 76-100 appeared in Topps Update in 2012.

This card might look familiar. Topps used that photo at least three times between 2009 and 2012 when this card came out. Here it is on the Legends of the Game insert from 2009.

And here it is again on the Legendary Lineage insert card from 2010.

I will have to find out if this image was used on a Topps card in 2011. I kind of hope it was. If not, three times in four years is pretty heavy use anyway. At least in 2012 the card had a 'golden' theme rather than a 'legendary' theme.

After the familiar photo on the front, the back is unique. It's a vignette from Tony's career about a 3-RBI walk-off double against the Dodgers. That happened on June 11, 1993 - so almost 28 years ago to the day!

Thanks again to Marc, for sending me this card.

Total: 684 cards

One card only - Gypsy gold from 2012

I had been feeling a little bit down recently but my mood was lifted last week when two fellow collectors contacted me separately on the same day to each show me a card and ask if I would like it. One of those people was Laura, the t-shirt designer who created the .394 t-shirt I am wearing in my bio pic to the right there (if you are looking at the web version of this rather than the mobile version!) 

Laura has created a few Padres-themed t-shirts, including a "Slam Diego" design, which I was wearing on Wednesday to watch the first game in the Padres' double-header against the Rockies, when Victor Caratini hit a grand slam! You can check out more of Laura's designs here.

Card Number 675: Topps Gypsy Queen gold frame parallel, 2012; #252

This card is numbered 252, like the base card, but there were actually only 100 cards given the 'gold frame' treatment.

I had wanted this card for a while because I wanted to talk about Topps re-using images on cards. I knew this card set used the image that had appeared on Tony's Topps card from 1988.

The Gypsy Queen version has been sharpened in photoshop, but the equipment in the dug-out and the people in the crowd are the same. 

I'd like to be able to claim that I spotted this all by myself, but actually it's because I saw the card designs next to each other in an image of an auction lot on eBay. I 'borrowed' that image as a reference and have kept it for several months waiting for the opportunity to use it.

That picture shows what the regular base card looks like. This is a 'gold frame' parallel, which means there is literally a gold card frame stuck on the front of the card in a decoupage style. It's hard to see on the scan but that gives the card added depth and makes a real nice effect.

Based on my research, I think the framed versions were included in the 'value packs' which contained 3 packs of Gypsy Queen cards and 3 framed parallels. The gold were the most common framed card. There were also blue-framed cards serially numbered to 599 cards, and black-framed cards that were released in a print run of one card each (known as 1/1s).

There were lots of variations in this set as well, so there are two variants of Tony's base card and two variants of the 'mini' version of his card. There don't seem to be any variants of the framed cards on Trading Card Database, but even so that adds up to a lot of different versions of this card for collectors to tray and track down. It's also a good illustration of the 'bloat' that has happened in terms of total cards released for a given player. 

The back of the card is sllightly dull in comparison. At least it wasn't complete gibberish like the cardback the previous year.

"He paced the NL..." is an odd phrase. Maybe the cardback writer felt "led" was a bit too boring a word to use on a boring cardback.

And now an added bonus. I said I had been feeling a bit despondent recently. When I opened the envelope and took the card out there was a little post-it note on it with a cheerful message. It really made my day!

I hope that however this blog post finds you, you find the time to look for rainbows when it rains.

Total: 675 cards

Accessing the Archives

Topps Archives first appeared between 2001 and 2005. It was branded Archives for the first couple of years of release then rejigged as 'All Time Fan Favourites' for the next three years. The 'ATFF' cards used Topps templates with different photos in them, a habit that Topps has continued to this day. I've already blogged about Tony's ATFF card from 2005, which reused the Topps 2000 template and kept the year 2000 on the front.

Archives then went on hiatus and returned in 2012 featuring players in classic card designs. That's the range that has continued up to this year, and will probably carry on. Tony's Archives card from 2020 was featured in a Modern Monday post at the end of September.

Card Number 456: Topps Archives, 2003; #106

Bizarrely, Topps decided to use their template from 2001 for this card released in 2003. That's an even shorter gap between a set release and a template being reused in an Archives set than the one in 2005 that used the template from 2000. Annoyingly, I don't have the original 2001 base card it's based on - I have two parallels and this, so that's three cards in this template without owning the actual base card.

Batting donut bonus point! Given that Tony is in a game uniform, I think this must be a closely cropped photo of him 'on deck' waiting for his turn at the plate. 

I feel there must be some kind of story behind the image on his wrist. Perhaps someone can shed some light on it.

(Is that meant to be a drawing of him?)

The back is laid out like the back of a card from 2001, including the Topps 50th celebration logo. The green strip up the side explains that it's an Archives card.

Card Number 457: Topps Archives, 2012; #660 (original cardback version)

This is a straight up reprint of Tony's card from 1985.  

The back is a slightly different colour, because it's printed on a much better card stock. There's also a little bit of blurb underneath.

Here's the back of the original card from 1985 for comparison. 

There weren't 660 cards in the 2012 Archives set. There were 241 cards in the base set and then the reprint inserts were just given the same card number as the original cards. There were two #160 and two #164 as a result, for example, besides the base card with that number as well. 

Card Number 458: Topps Archives 2013; #190

Tony got a card in the 1990 template with a different picture on the front. He's dropping his bat having hit the ball.

For reference, here's Tony's card from 1990.

The 2012 card is a better print. The photos look at first glance like they could be from the same game. But if so, then  it's an early photo for a 1990 card, anyway. The black letters RAK on the sleeve were worn in honour of the late Padres owner Ray Kroc, and appeared on uniforms from 1984 to 1986. 

That begs the question, was the photo on Tony's card in 1990 actually from 4 years previously? Knowing how slapdash Topps were with their photography, it wouldn't surprise me. It looks like a different bat handle though, in the original card, so maybe they're not from the same time period.

This is the cardback from the Archives set. It has the same fonts as the card from 1990.

Topps could have given Tony the number 19 card. But number 190 is reasonably close.

Card Number 459: Topps Archives 2014; #105

Topps didn't worry about trying to get a photo from anywhere near the right era for Tony's Archives card in 2014. This is a picture from towards the end of his career, set into the 1986 template.

 

There's a lot of love out there for the 1986 template with it's bold lettering for the team names. Personally, it doesn't do much for me. I have a sentimental fondness for the 1987 design, and the 1984 and 1985 card designs are both lovely, so this is one I don't really look at too much.

In the stats box Topps only included Tony's stats up to 1998 - an arbitrary cut off point. Maybe they went for how it looked, not expecting anyone to read the back. But it annoys me and I'm going to ding a point off this card for it. (Because I can be arbitrary too!)

I hope you enjoyed this visit to the Archives.

Total: 459 cards

 

Astrology and onomastics in Allen & Ginter

I've been dwelling in the 90s for my last few posts, so here are some more recent cards that have come my way.

Allen & Ginter (A&G) is a Topps brand of retro looking cards, which I quite like. They are a more expensive product and include a lot of retired stars in their sets every year, usually in their insert series based around a gimmick.

Card Number 35: Topps Allen & Ginter 2012; #WIN48
In 2012, the A&G gimmick was names. "What's in a Name?" they asked.

The field of studying names is called onomastics. "Anthony" derives from the Latin and could mean "Priceless". "Keith" is a Scottish name originally. There are places called Keith, one of which has a soccer team called Keith FC, and players playing for that team also called Keith. (Their current captain is Cameron Keith!) It's probably from Gaelic and could mean "wind" or "wood". "Gwynn" has a Welsh origin (Yay!) - the word 'gwyn' in Welsh means "White". (Gwin gwyn means white wine!)

A&G ignored all these possible names and focussed on his epithet, "senior". When he was playing, Tony was never known as Tony Gwynn Sr. A&G used it so they could write about his son, Anthony Keith Gwynn Jr, who has also had a respectable major league baseball career.

I admit I feel silly quibbling with what's written on the backs of baseball cards, but there is a lot that could be made out of a "priceless" wielder of "wood" when talking about a baseball player known for his batting! It's almost as if Topps had their stock of factoids pre-written and then had to somehow shoehorn them into the A&G theme.

Card Number 36: Topps Allen & Ginter 2019, #BSS42
In 2018, the gimmick was starsigns for the baseball stars. I can see the logic to that. I was sent this card recently by Allan who is part of the UK baseball collecting community on Facebook. Thanks, Allan!

This is an absolutely gorgeous card design.

The back is a lot more relevant than the 'What's in a Name?' card from 2012, although there are several attributes for Taurus that could be applied to Tony. 'Generous' - he was given the Branch Rickey Award in 1995, the Lou Gehrig Award in 1998 and the Roberto Clemente Award in 1999, all for his philanthropic work. 'Extremely focused' - his focus on hitting caused tensions with some of his team-mates. 'Prefers simplicity' - this is a common theme in the memories people share about him in He Left His Heart in San Diego. I guess you can't include everything on the back of a baseball card and loyalty was a great part of what made Tony Gwynn special.

Total: 36/394

The Hall of Fame - and the Panini Card Company's loophole

I've decided to mix it up as my first run of posts have all been about Topps cards. Today I'm going to show some much more recent cards that have been released by Panini, in conjunction with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

An ulterior motive for doing this is so that I can include this photo from outside the Hall of Fame when I visited Cooperstown in 2016.

I've blogged about visiting the Hall on my personal blog, but there are a couple of appropriate photos to include here.

I remember feeling quite emotional when I saw Tony's plaque in the Hall.

Tony was elected to the Hall of Fame the first year he was eligible, five years after he retired. He shared his induction with one other player, Cal Ripken Jr, with a record-breaking crowd of fans turning up to witness it.  The Padres posted a video last year of Tony getting the call from the head of the Museum in 2007 to welcome him to the Hall of Fame, and he is overcome with emotion. According to Tony's university team-mate, and longtime friend, Steve Sayles, Tony didn't think he would be a "first ballot selection"*.

Anyway, some baseball cards. Understanding the cards in this post means understanding a bit about licensing properties in modern card manufacture. Basically, Topps has an exclusive licence with Major League Baseball (MLB), so they are the only card manufacturer who can use the team logos and names. Panini's modern cards (which includes long-established brands like DonRuss, Score, Leaf and Pinnacle) are licensed from the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) so they show the player and usually give the city name, which isn't copyrighted. This works for San Diego or Boston, but isn't ideal for New York or Chicago where there are two baseball clubs.

Panini also airbrush the team names and logos off the players' shirts, helmets, caps and so on so they aren't infringing any copyright held by MLB. Some collectors don't value "no logo" / "logoless" cards as much, but sometimes the cards can be a bit creative.

Before Panini secured an agreement with the MLBPA they wanted to produce baseball cards. They found a licensing loophole and signed a contract with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and so could produce cards related to inductees in the Hall of Fame, which is where these cards come from. I don't know if the photos are from the Hall of Fame's massive images collection. If they were, this makes Panini's move even smarter.

Card Number 13: Panini Cooperstown Collection 2012, #110

I actually really like this card. I think the front design is aesthetically pleasing, while the back has a nice write up. I appreciate the description of Tony as a "baseball scientist". Although I query the use of the word "torrid" to describe his career batting average, and I'm not sure why they profiled his 1997 figures. But overall this is a solid card for a "no logo" print run.

Card Number 14: Panini Diamond Kings 2018, #P8

This is a much more recent card, from the 'Portraits' insert series in their 'Diamond Kings' product. 'Inserts' are special cards included in packs, usually at the rate of 1 or 2 per pack. There were only 15 'Portraits' produced in the series, all of players with similarly legendary status.

The card itself looks like a reproduction of an actual painting. The only slightly odd thing is the repetition of the portrait in the design on the back. By 2018, Panini had a contract with thd MLBPA, but this card carries the Hall of Fame logo on the back.

Card Number 15: Panini Diamond Kings 2018, #GS15

Another insert series in the same product - Panini Diamond Kings. This time it's the 'Gallery of Stars' and another attractive card where the image is repeated on the back. There were 18 cards in this insert series.

And finally in this post, the first in a small series I call "When is a Tony Gwynn card not really a Tony Gwynn card?"

Card Number 16: Panini Cooperstown Collection 2013, #7

That's right, when it's a card featuring his footwear and nothing else. The reverse of the card has a blurred photo of the Museum and Hall of Fame, which you may recognise from my photo at the top of the post.

In the grand tradition of odd factoids on the back of baseball cards, this one tells you all about Tony's basketball stats when he was playing for the Aztecs, the San Diego State University team, before a throwaway comment about swapping to baseball. There's also a nice bit about the Museum itself, including that it houses nearly 40,000 "three-dimensional items" by which I think it means things like game-used running spikes.

So, that was Panini's loophole for publishing cards when they didn't have a license. It provides a bit of variety in the collection at least.

Total: 16/394

*reference: He Left His Heart in San Diego, p.80