Modern Monday - crowned a Diamond King again

Another 2022 release, this time from Ryan in the UK collectors group on Facebook. Cheers, Ryan!

Card Number 1027: Panini Diamond Kings, 2022; #12

The painted effect on the card is pretty standard fare from Diamond Kings, with less blue in the design than last year.  

The back is a bit dull, but it has a baseball diamond in the background. Nice touch!

There's a quote from Tony on the back with a nugget of wisdom for aspiring hitters. I'm not convinced it's actually helpful!

Panini's use of these zombie brands is under threat from new licensing deals, and it's unlikely Diamond Kings will continue for many more seasons. So enjoy them while you can!

Total: 1027 cards.

Modern Monday - pristine!

This card arrived in the mail from Mark B - thank you so much, Mark! I've been a bit slack on collecting the 2022 issues. This is the first card from this particular range produced by Topps, which has been revived this year for the first time since 2005. 

Card Number 1026: Topps Pristine, 2022; #69

I'm not going to comment on the card number. 

It's a shiny front, with a photo that looks quite familiar. However, I can't find it on another card in my Topps binder. The 'TP' logo is a bit twee. 

Topps are pulling a Panini-esque stunt on the back and re-using the photo. There is also a quote in the write up from Joe Girardi. I'd like to do a list sometime of all the quotes about Tony that have been included on cardbacks. 

There are two particular things about this cardback that annoy me. Firstly, it includes Tony's weight - at the maximum top end of the range. He was not 225lbs his whole career. Secondly, the card has a picture of Tony fielding, and the write up is about his batting prowess. No mention of the five gold gloves he won for fielding!

Would it be so hard to align the photo to the activity in the write up?

I'm probably just grouchy because we are at the tail end of a heatwave here in Wales (don't laugh!) but I don't want to appear an ingrate. So a massive 'Diolch yn fawr' to Mark for sending me this really great card and helping me fill another gap in my collection.

Total: 1026 cards

Happy birthday Mr Padre (redux)

Two years ago I started this blog on what would have been Tony Gwynn's 60th birthday. My plan then was to collect and blog about 394 different Tony Gwynn baseball cards. Now, two years and over 500 blog posts later, there are over 1,000 different Tony Gwynn cards chronicled on this blog. 

The first card I posted was from the Topps set in 1987. I chose that card because the first baseball cards I ever bought, while on a childhood holiday to America in 1987, were from that set. The card has a terrible photo of Tony on it where he has no visible distinguishing features.

Two years later, and I have a chance to revisit those cards from 1987 with the most recent card to arrive in my collection. Marc sent me the card (thanks, Marc!) and it arrived towards the end of April. The card is from the most recent Topps flagship set where the company are marking the 35th anniversary of the release of the set in 1987. That makes me feel a bit old, thinking that me buying those cards in Florida was 35 years ago!

Card Number 1009: Topps 1987 Throwback, 2022; #T87-57

Unlike the card from the 1987 set, at least Tony's face is visible in this photo. It would have looked better with the 1987 style logo. The photo is also from the 90s rather than from 1987. It's all setting off the anachronism klaxon!

Topps really bodged the back as well. It looks like the back of a card from 1987, but the designer only included a selection of years on the back. Given that Tony was active in 1987, they only needed to include the years from 1982 to 1986. They would have had space for a factoid then!

Even though the card has limitations, it felt like a nice way of marking the anniversary of my blog, and, of course, celebrating what would have been Tony's 62nd birthday!

Total: 1009 cards

Brand new for 2022

40 seasons after Tony made his debut for the Padres, he is still featuring on cards printed by Topps. And 40 seasons on, Topps are celebrating him making it to the big leagues. This is the first card printed in 2022 to land in my collection and it came via Michael in the UK collectors group on Facebook - cheers Michael!

Card Number 985: Topps Welcome to the Show insert, 2022; #WTTS-41

If that card looks familiar, it's because Topps used it last year on their 1986 tribute inserts (which I blogged about amost exactly a year ago).

Topps cleaned up the photo a bit. The white line around Tony makes it much more visually impactful and they haven't cropped it as closely this year. While this is the early 80s uniform, looking at it, Tony looks a bit older than I would expect him to look like in a photo from that era.

The back is a reasonable summary of what Tony got up to before playing in the Major Leagues. I haven't double-checked the stats that Topps are using but they look right.

I know I haven't blogged for a couple of weeks. I was away on holiday - which you can read about on my personal blog if you want - and then have been busy with work. I hope to get back into blogging regularly next week!

Total: 985 cards