Modern Monday - shiny Donruss

Card number 837: DonRuss "Tony Gwynn Tribute", 2015; #2

I've already blogged about four fifths of this shiny little insert set. The fifth and final shiny card is about Tony's induction in the Hall of Fame.

This is the first of these cards that I have scanned using the overhead scanner, which properly captures it's sheer shininess!

If you've ever watched the video of Tony getting the call to say he was in the Hall of Fame, you can see how much it meant to him, and how nervous he was. According to He Left His Heart in San Diego, Tony thought he might not have done enough in his career to get elected. He is quite obviously overcome by emotion when he actually takes the call.

Card Number 838: DonRuss Optic, 2017; #164

'Optic' is the Panini-era DonRuss version of Chrome. Although this comes as a standalone set, it's basically the same cards as the regular DonRuss set with a shiny coating. 

There is also an Optic logo on the front and a different card number on the back. They chose an interesting vignette from Tony's career for the factoid. 

Tony had a good season in 1994. In addition to his post-war record batting average, he also nabbed the winning run in the All-Star Game. It was the first time the National League won the game after six defeats on a row. You can watch Tony's game-winning slide on YouTube - it starts at 4 minutes, 52 seconds on this video!

Panini get a bit of stick for their unlicensed baseball cards issued under various 'zombie brands', but their cards are a decent level of quality and their attention to detail in terms of factoids is very good as well. It's nice to read about something a bit different on a cardback!

Total: 838 cards

The beginning of the new era of Diamond Kings

After writing yesterday about how Panini have sort of kept the DonRuss brand going, today's post features cards from the Diamond Kings range. Panini now issue this as a brand in its own right, but "Diamond Kings" started out in the DonRuss base sets of the 1980s. The first 26 cards in the DonRuss flagship sets were illustrated portraits of baseball stars - one from each team. I have previously blogged several of these that feature Tony.

When Panini were trying to find a winning formula for their unlicensed baseball cards, they gave the Pinnacle brand a go in 2013, but that seemed to fall a bit flat. Panini released cards under the DonRuss brand in 2014 and that must have worked well enough for Panini to continue releasing "DonRuss" cards. In 2015, they built on the cachet of DonRuss and launched Diamond Kings as a standalone set. It has been released every year since.

Card Number 646: Panini Diamond Kings, 2015; #133

This is from the first year of the Diamond Kings. There isn't an artist credited with this picture, so I imagine it's been done by a Panini staff designer using photoshop rather than creating art from scratch.

The back has a great entry for my collection of descriptions off cardbacks: "San Diego's beloved batting wizard."

The uncredited broadcaster quoted on the back as saying that Tony "could hit .320 with a broom" is Sean Salisbury, the former NFL quarterback turned journalist who was working for Yahoo Sports at the time of Tony's death. (He is quoted in this article on the NBC San Diego website.) It seems strange that the cardback compiler would use the quote with such a vague accreditation. 

Like Gwynn, Sean Salisbury was born in Long Beach, although he grew up in Escondido near San Diego. He is three years younger than Tony, having been born in 1963, and played for the San Diego Chargers among other teams. His career would have overlapped with Tony's quite a bit and he obviously knew Tony as in the rest of that quote he says Tony made an impact on his family. 

Another interesting fact about Sean Salisbury is that he was an advisor on Adam Sandler's remake of the movie Mean Machine, and taught Sandler what he needed to do to portray a quarterback. However, despite all that, Sean missed out his chance to have his name appear on the back of this baseball card, which would have added to the very small number of trading cards he appeared on during his career. Trading Card Database only lists 37 cards for him.

Card Number 647: Panini Diamond Kings DK Originals, 2017; #DO-24

What's more fun than an unlicensed base card? An unlicensed insert card.

The portrait photo on this has scary eyes!

There isn't really much to say about this card. It's one of those ones to have in the collection because it's a Tony Gwynn card, rather than because it had any particularly exciting features. 

Tony's scary eyes are on the back too, along with a quote from Tony where he credits Ted Williams with helping him improve his batting. The flowery description is reserved for Ted who is described as "another sweet-swinging Californian." 

Otherwise, this card is almost the pictorial definition of unremarkable. 

Total: 647 cards

Modern Monday - recent(ish) DonRuss base

I was scrolling through Facebook and noticed a post that Andy M had made in the Baseball Cards UK group about a mystery box he had purchased and was opening. Now I am a fan of mystery packs and repacks and am always interested at what tips up in them. (I regularly read Sportscards from the Dollar Store to get my fix of repacks. I would have no money if I lived in North America.)

Andy seemed a bit disappointed with the contents of the box, which he laid out for everyone to see. It was a mix of packs and one "hit" card. Most of the packs were quite recent. One of them really caught my eye and I left a comment asking if it had survived the opening. 

Can you guess why?

This is the 2015 DonRuss 'hobby' packet. And that's Tony on the front!

Andy might have been a bit surprised anyone was interested in the packet. He  replied that it was still in reasonable condition. He then asked if I had the Tony Gwynn base card from that year, because there had been one in the pack.

Long story short, I didn't have that card, but now I do! (And yes, Andy also sent me the packet.)

Card Number 328: DonRuss, 2015; #193

Panini era DonRuss cards don't have licensing, and it's easy to dismiss them. However, in recent years the only company with a licence has repeatedly put out horrible flagship sets. The design of this card is lovely in comparison.

In 2015 they designed the cardbacks to look like classic 80s DonRuss cards, right down to the use of the player's full name. (Jeff at Wax Pack Wonders will appreciate this! He's done a whole series on the names on DonRuss cards.) One difference from the 80s cards is the addition of Sr. after Tony's name. Tony Jr, who was born in the 80s, has subsequently had a career and cards of his own.

By now you probably know my feelings about stats boxes - everything or one line is OK. This is a great summary stats box. Those are Tony's totals. The little write up notes that Tony wasn't a power hitter but that he earned 97.6% of the vote for the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. 

There's a story in He Left His Heart in San Diego, that Tony felt that he wouldn't be voted in to the hall on the first ballot. A couple of years ago the Padres posted the video of him getting the call to welcome him to the Hall after the votes have been processed. He got very emotional. I felt emotional watching it too.

I've got a few more recent DonRuss cards. These have arrived in various lots.

Card Number 329: DonRuss, 2017; #190

To date, this is the only card from 2017 in my collection of Tony Gwynn cards!

It's noticeable again, that for an unlicensed card where they have had to photoshop out any references to the Padres, this card still manages to get a lot right. It is a lovely bordered card - compare it to the 2017 Topps design which is the absolute nadir of their cards in the last decade, and you can see how nice it is. This looks timeless. Those Topps cards look terribly dated now, just three years later!

The back is nothing special. The write up is a vignette from the All Star Game in 1994 when Tony scored a run in dramatic fashion.

One way that Panini get around not having a Major League Baseball licence is through linking up with the Major League Baseball Players Association and the National Hall of Fame and Museum. The Hall of Fame has some rights to sell images. I think it may be a condition of being inducted into the Hall that they can sign licensing agreements using a player's name and image.

Card Number 330: DonRuss, 2018; #258

This is the third card in a row that takes care to show the back of Tony's shirt with his name and number. That's all they can show!

The lines across the card are a deliberate homage to the design of the DonRuss set from 1984. Just so collectors aren't confused into thinking this is a card from '84, they've included the '18 on the front as well. (Bonus Point for the year on the front!)

The back is black and white again. Note the phrase "Professional Batting Totals". They're not mentioning the words "Major" or "League".

Technically, though, Tony was a "professional" when he was playing in the minor leagues at Walla Walla, Amarillo, and for the Hawaii Islanders. Should they have added his statistics in? He really lit up the minor leagues so all those figures would get a very healthy bump if they were included.

I have posted some other modern DonRuss cards on the blog previously. Here are some more cards from 2018, and some from 2020! There also was a special Tribute series in the 2015 set and one of them was the 100th card featured on this blog.

Total: 330/394