He's making a list, he's checking it twice

We are a week away from Christmas, and this song lyric has been in my head. So it seems an apt title for a blog post about Tony's appearances on checklists.

Some player collectors don't count checklists. That's their prerogative. I think they're missing out.

Card Number 894: Upper Deck, 1995; #Checklist 2 

This card takes me to 500 cards over my original target of 394 cards!

These shiny checklists were basically insert cards.

On the front there's a reference to Tony's famous batting average in 1994.

I enjoy reading the list of names on these checklists. Among all the really famous names are players who have been long-forgotten, like Chuck Carr and Pat Rapp. 

Card Number 895: DonRuss, 1994; #440

DonRuss used this checklist to commemorate Tony's reaching the 2000 hit milestone.

Some of the random forgotten players on here include Phil Leftwich and the frankly amazingly named Hipolito Pichardo!

Hipolito pitched 350 games in a ten year major league career for the Royals, Red Sox and Astros. He also had 103 baseball cards in his career, according to TCDB. Phil Leftwich had 39 cards, which is actually more than the number of games he pitched in the major leagues (34 games in 3 years for the Angels).

Card Number 896: DonRuss, 1993; #660

This is really a 'cameo card'. It's not about Tony per se - DonRuss put a photo of  different teams on their checklists. But Tony is in the photo walking behind Gary Sheffield. There seems to be a giant patting Gary on the head as well. That guy must be about 6 foot six.

The winners in the peculiar names category this time around are on the front - Chuck Crim and Scott Scudder both sound like low rent villains from a comic book. They're joined on the back by William Pennyfeather! But the name that really stood out on the back was Tony's brother, Chris Gwynn, who was #657 in the set.

I could count this in the number of Tony's cards where Chris gets a mention somewhere. Chris had 118 cards of his own, and may well have been mentioned on a similar number of Tony's cards. (That's another project when I run out of cards to blog!)

Total: 896 cards

Another addition to the family card binder

The other card from Brian, that I mentioned yesterday, was from the 1991 Topps set. If it looks pack fresh, that's because it is. Brian opened a box of packs to try and build the set.

Topps, 1991; #99 - Chris Gwynn

This was Chris's second Topps card. His Topps rookie card was the previous year. However he appeared in both the Fleer and Upper Deck sets in 1989, and in the Score Major League Baseball set in 1988. He shared a rookie card in the Fleer 1988 set with Peter Smith of the Braves. He also had some minor league cards around the same time, as he moved up and down from AAA to the Major Leagues for a couple of seasons. 

As can be seen from the stats on the back, 1990 was his breakthrough year and he played 101 games for the Dodgers, the team that he and his brothers went to watch when they were growing up.

This is the first card of Chris in Dodgers uniform that I have acquired. He soon moved to the Royals, and then finished his career with the Padres. His final season was in 1996, so his major league career was relatively brief. 

You'll see that Tony gets a mention on the cardback. This is several years after Chris first got a mention on the back of one of Tony's cards, back in 1985. 

Nine years in the Major Leagues is a decent career, even though Chris is eclipsed by his brother's achievements. Chris did have one honour that Tony never won - an Olympic silver medal. He represented Team USA at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. I imagine there are a very short list of sportsmen who competed at an Olympics in their home city and then went on to play professional support for their home city team as well.

Brotherly bonus card

Chris Gwynn, Tony's younger brother, was also a Major League Baseball player. He featured on a card with Tony shortly after making it to the majors, and of course had his own cards too. 

I recently purchased a joblot of random cards because there were several cards from the Leaf 1993 set, which I have toyed with trying to setbuild. It turned out all the Leaf cards were from the Update set (#450 and above). And as an added bonus, one of the Leaf cards was of Chris Gwynn!

I think Chris really looks like his older brother in the photo on the front.

The really nice thing about the Leaf set from 1993 are the cardbacks that include images of relevant landmarks and city-scapes. I presume this is somewhere in Kansas City.

Chris had a fraction of the number of baseball cards that Tony had. Although Chris mainly featured on base cards in common sets, I have only got two of his cards. I have probably got more cards of Tony that mention Chris on the back than cards of Chris!

Fleer makes some MVPs

Somewhere I have read a story about Tony Gwynn nervously waiting for the announcement of whether he had been inducted into the Hall of Fame, and saying that he wasn't going to get in because he never won the MVP Award. I can't remember where I read that. I have looked through He Left His Heart in San Diego a couple of times but can't find the reference, so I must have read it somewhere else, probably on the Internet somewhere. 

Anyway, Tony might never have won the MVP, but that didn't stop card companies from including him in MVP subsets.

Card Number 674: Fleer Baseball MVPs, 1989; #17

This card was sent to me by Michal. It took 2 weeks to travel the 30 miles from where Michal lives to where I live. I think I could have walked to pick it up and walked back home again quite easily in the time it took for the mail to get it to me.

This card is from one of the 44-card complete sets that Fleer produced. They seemed to produce a few of these sets every year in the late 80s. I have a couple of cards from other sets issues in 1989, and this card brings me up to 12 Tony Gwynn cards issued in sets like this overall. They have a nice quality glossy finish and the card stock is higher quality than the regular Fleer base cards.

The back is a bit dull, but it is nicely laid out.

The blurb has an oddly specific comment about ruining a pitcher's attempt at a no-hitter, which takes precedence over his batting title in 1988. There's also a mention of his brother Chris playing in the Major Leagues too. Chris had played 25 games for the Dodgers in the two previous seasons.

Fleer had given Chris Gwynn a rookie card in their 1988 set, which he shared with Peter Smith from the Braves. He also had a Score card in 1988 as a "rookie prospect". In 1989, Chris got a card to himself in the Fleer main set. He was also in the Upper Deck set that year, and was also still appearing in minor league sets. He didn't get a Topps card until 1990, although he was mentioned on the back of Tony's 1985 Topps card.

I have noted before how despite never winning the MVP Award, Tony appeared on a lot of MVP-related cards, mainly from DonRuss cards. Tony was in an MVP insert series in the 1994 DonRuss set, and in earlier sets too. That second link also includes some cards from the Upper Deck MVP brand sets.

Total: 674 cards

And another Tony Gwynn...

I'm reaching the end of my cards to blog, so thought I'd do something a bit different today. Here are some cards featuring Tony Gwynn's son, Anthony Keith Gwynn Jr, also known as Tony Gwynn Jr.

I recently watched the MLBTV documentary about Tony Gwynn (thanks to Daniel in Chicago who recorded it for me), and Tony Jr shares several stories in that, including how at college he went in to bat in his first game, went 0-4 and decided he would be known as Anthony Gwynn Jr for the rest of the year. Being Tony mark II was not easy, particularly as he was at San Diego State where his dad was a legend.

Tony Jr was drafted by the Brewers after college, playing for them for three seasons from 2006-2008. He then moved to the Padres for a couple of seasons before signing for the LA Dodgers. Tony Jr's uncle, Chris, had also played for the Dodgers, and it was the team Tony Jr's grandfather, dad and both his uncles supported. Chris Gwynn also played for the Padres, so Tony Jr was the third Gwynn to play for them. 

After a year out of the game, Tony Jr had a return to the Major Leagues in 2014 with the Phillies, playing 80 games for them. He was on the road with the Phillies when he got the news that his father had passed away.

I've got cards of Tony Jr playing for three of the Major League sides he represented.

Tony was still with the Brewers on this Upper Deck card in 2008.

He appeared on these three cards in Upper Deck's 2010 set. The "Season Biography" card mentions how he moved to San Diego in 2009.

His base card in 2010 shows him diving to make a catch. I think he really looks like his dad in that photo.

One the back, we get a note that this is an unlicensed baseball card. Topps had been given the monopoly, but Upper Deck went and put out this set anyway. Topps sued them and, to date, this remains the last baseball card set released by Upper Deck.

Tony was also on the team checklist, along with Chase Headley, who played for the Padres for 7 and a half seasons before moving to the Yankees, returning to San Diego for a final season in 2018.

The back of the checklist helpfully reminds everyone of a not very good Padres season.

By the time Topps released their 2012 set, Tony was with the Dodgers. In the photo he is just about to dive to try and reach base. 

The cardback mentions him diving to catch balls as a fielder.

Looking at his stats on that latter card, it's clear Tony Jr wasn't as attuned to hitting as his dad. He had an 8-year career in the Major Leagues, which would be considered very successful in other families. It does feel, however, that Tony Jr was always going to be playing in his dad's shadow.

Tony Jr now does a lot of media work in San Diego. He's a very watchable studio presence and seems very personable. Like the rest of the Gwynn family, he has done a lot to maintain his father's legacy, and he is a great ambassador for baseball.

I don't count any of these cards as "Tony Gwynn cards" for the purposes of my collection, but I do keep them as part of my collection. 

I'm taking a break tomorrow and plan to be back on Monday with another Modern Monday post. 

Some Upper Deck Inserts

Welcome to the weekend - here are a handful of Upper Deck inserts for you to enjoy.

Card Number 478: Upper Deck, 1997; #378

The Capture the Flag subset featured 18 different players who were involved in the post-season in 1996. They are heavily foiled so they scan badly.

Here's a photo that shows how it looks unscanned. Even the photo doesn't capture how shiny it is.

Variations of this card exist with a white background on the back, but this is the regular cardback.

In 1996, the Padres won only their second ever National League West divisional title. The season came down to a straight contest with the Dodgers in the final series of the regular season. Whoever won the series would win the division pennant. As the cardback says, Tony's 2 run single in the penultimate game of the series meant that the final game was effectively a championship decider.

The winning hit in that final game was actually made by Tony's brother, Chris Gwynn, who was a pinch hitter with the Padres for the final two seasons of his major league career. Chris made 100 plate appearances for the Padres in 1996, recording just 16 hits and a season batting average of .178. But he got the hit that mattered, to make the Padres champions of the NL West.

Card Number 479: Upper Deck Hitter's Club, 2000; #EP6

Tony was one of 10 players honoured as "Epic Performers" in this insert series in the small "Hitter's Club" set. I've already blogged about Tony's base card from the set.

It's another heavily foiled card. (Sorry, no photo this time.)

On the back, there's a reference to Tony's 3000th hit the previous season. This was also commemorated on another card in this set - the fourth in this anniversary blog post.

The one line of statistics is truly minimalist and only features six numbers. 

Card Number 480: Upper Deck, 1998; #136

This was one of 18 cards in a subset called Define the Game. The front and back feature a quote from Mike Chaldu, who is listed here as a copy editor for Baseball. What that means is, he was an employee of Upper Deck who wrote copy for baseball cards. 

The quote in it's entirety is: 

(Tony Gwynn) of: A man at the top of his profession. I've had the pleasure of watching Gwynn up close honing his craft. Want any further proof of "Mr Padre's" hitting prowess... ...How about the fact that he just completed his fifth straight season with an average above .350?

Mike Chaldu would have had the pleasure of watching Tony Gwynn honing his craft. Before he worked for Upper Deck he spent a year as assistant editor of the Padres Magazine in 1995. He was with Upper Deck for five years from 1996 - 2001 and also did some sports reporting for a local paper in San Diego during the time. (Helpfully he listed all of this is on his public LinkedIn page.)

Apart from the quote from an Upper Deck staffer, this card stands out as one of the brownest cards in my collection. I'm all for brown, being a Padres fan, but it doesn't really work as a base colour for a baseball card. It feels like Upper Deck were padding their set somewhat with these cards and they could have chosen a slightly better colour for them.

Total: 480 cards

We are into the 480s, number-wise, and tomorrow we start 80s Week!

Sharing the Spotlight 2

An occasional series where Tony shares a baseball card with another player. Today, it's his younger brother, Chris.

Card Number 119: Upper Deck, 1992; #83 ("Bloodlines" insert)
A genuinely nice family photo. I hope it really was taken in a ballpark at dusk, and that's not just a backdrop.

Chris Gwynn had a respectable Major League Baseball career with the Dodgers, the Royals, the Dodgers again, and then finishing up playing alongside Tony at the Padres. He was originally drafted by the Angels, but opted for a college degree instead and then was drafted by the Dodgers. Although this card is from the 1992 Upper Deck set, he had actually been traded to the Royals for the 1992 season.

The cardback kind of hints at Chris's understudy role. When he got to the Padres he was a pinch hitter making occasional forays onto the field. He did have one honour that Tony never achieved - a silver medal from the 1984 Olympics, held in his home city of Los Angeles. It was the first time baseball had been played in the Olympics, and the USA lost the final to Japan.

He played his final Major League Baseball game in September 1996, in the last regular game of the season. He came in as a pinch hitter in the top of the 11th inning and hit a double that brought two team-mates home and won the game. That meant the Padres won their second ever National League West pennant. It was the last at bat of his ten year career in the majors.

Chris, of course, had some baseball cards in his own right. Recently, Jasper sent me this Upper Deck card from 1994 with Chris in the Royals uniform.

Ironically, Chris was released by the Royals at the end of the 1993 season and returned to the Dodgers, signed as a free agent, for the 1994 season. So he is in the 'wrong' uniform again on this card. He is being impeded in the photo there by Tim Hulett, who was the third baseman for the Baltimore Orioles in 1993.

The cardback has a batting cage photo.

Speaking of cardbacks, I've noted before how Chris has been mentioned on the backs of Tony's cards. Way back in 1985, Topps decided that Chris's appearance in the 1984 Olympics would be of more interest to card collectors than mentioning Tony's first national league batting title.

In 1991 DonRuss added Chris to their list of factoids on Tony's base card. Chris had been playing for five seasons by then.

And then of course, in 1992, they got to share the front of the card as part of the Upper Deck "Bloodlines" insert series.

Total: 119/394