A brace of Bazookas

Bazooka is a funny word. It's an odd name for a bubblegum brand, given its military meaning. Bazooka gum first appeared on the market in 1947, so it feels like there must be a link to the weapon. I suppose a soldier blows things up with a bazooka and a gum-chewer could blow something up too - a bubble. 

As a side-note, my local post office has just started selling packets of Bazooka gum, complete with Bazooka Joe comic strips inside. No baseball comics yet, though.

Card Number 778: Topps Bazooka, 1988; #9

These cards were available in boxes of specially marked Bazooka gum, which was a Topps brand of confectionary. There were 22 cards to collect.

This design is mediocre even for a card from the 1980s. However, true to form, Topps managed to find a photo where Tony's face was obscured and his name is barely legible.

The back is simple, but looks more interesting than the front. There's even space for a relevant factoid that isn't about Tony's minor league achievements from many years previously. (Unlike Topps's regular cards issued around the same time.)

Card Number 779: Topps Bazooka, 1990; #6

Design-wise this is a much better effort from Topps.

It's an interesting photo, with Tony absent-mindedly prepping his bat while watching something else - probably another player at the plate. Also, cards with red borders always look good, 

The cardback is in the same Bazooka brand colour scheme. Tony had added two batting titles since the card that was issued in 1988!

If you want to fill in the gaps in this gum-based post, then you can read about the 1989 Bazooka card here!

Total: 779 cards

Shining Star from a box of Bazooka gum

According to Baseballcardpedia, this range of cards were shipped at the rate of one per box of Bazooka gum. That seems the exact opposite to Topps normal cards, which had a ratio of lots of cards to one stick of gum.

Card Number 704: Topps Bazooka, 1989; #13

Although this is billed as a starter set, no other Bazooka branded cards were released that year. It was just the 22 cards that were inserted into boxes of gum.

The cardback is fairly standard - stats box, factoid and some bio data.

I like the Bazooka logo used as a watermark behind the stats box. That livens up the cardback a surprising amount.

This concludes the contents of the eBay package. Next up, a card that is brand, brand new.

Total: 704 cards

Taking a look at Bazooka!

Bazooka Gum was a Topps brand of gum launched after the second world war. As you'd expect there were trading cards linked to the gum. There are actually three eras of Bazooka cards - the 1960s, the mid-90s, and a short run from 2003-2006. More recently Bazooka has been an insert series in Topps Heritage and also been variant cardback for Allen & Ginter mini cards.

These cards featuring Tony are from the second era of Bazooka cards, the 1990s. 

Card Number 229: Topps Bazooka, 1995; #30

Although Bazooka was a cheaper card range aimed at kids, this is a really nice card.

The back is some kind of game called Play Ball. It looks fun.

That's a fairly in-depth statistical background for a kids' range. It reveals that in Tony's most memorable batting season, he did better against right-handed pitchers than left-handed pitchers. I hadn't seen that stat anywhere else, which kind of shows why it's important to collect all the cards! 

It doesn't say what the ratings in the little blue box are based on. Why was Tony's throwing rated an 8? (And out of what?) I suspect these are fairly meaningless numbers that had something to do with the game.

I've read a few theories about why Topps Kids undersold in 1992, and one of them was that it had no parallels. Younger collectors may have felt they weren't getting as good a product as adults were getting. Topps made up for that in Bazooka with a few different parallel versions of their cards.

Card Number 230: Topps Bazooka Red Hot Parallel, 1995; #RH-6

In addition to the slightly apocalyptic red background, this parallel had Tony's name in gold foil on the front.

The cardback has more red in the colour scheme and the wheel contains different parameters. Tony is less likely to strike out with this card! (If that's how the game works!)

Card Number 231: Topps Bazooka, 1996; #124

Having the bat with Tony's name on makes this card look a bit more like a card for kids.

There's another kind of game on the back as well. But the main attraction is a cartoon of Bazooka Joe who is sporting an eyepatch for some reason. 

Bazooka Joe was character who appeared in little comic panels on pieces of Bazooka gum. The other things to feature on gum wrappers were 'fortunes'. There's also one on this card - at the bottom, upside down - which is a baseball prediction about Tony Gwynn. According to this on 4 August 1996 Tony would appear in his 79th game in a row without striking out, thus acquiring a new National League record. 

I don't believe in spoilers so I'll leave it up to anyone reading this to find out if it happened.

Total: 231/394