2013 oddities courtesy of Glenn

Last week Glenn sent me a little envelope with a couple of oddities from 2013. That year is right in the lull caused by the Topps monopoly squeezing other card companies out of the baseball market at the end of the noughties, and the recent resurgence in baseball card popularity that started in about 2019. There aren't many Tony Gwynn cards from that period so I was surprised when Glenn sent me pictures of two cards I didn't yet have from the same year. 

Card Number 914: Topps Archives 1969 mini-stickers, 2013; #69S-GBRS

The card number is weird. 69S stands for 1969 sticker, because they replicate the 1969 Topps card design. Tony is the G in GBRS. He shares this card-sized sticker sheet with Wade Boggs (B), Cal Ripken Jr (R) and Ryne Sandberg (S).

Tony easily has the best photo on the front. Wade looks annoyed. Cal looks sleepy. Ryne looks tense and confused.

The photo of Tony seems to come from the photo-shoot that yielded pictures used on his Topps glossy all-star card in 1986 and the Baseball Champions Superstar sticker in the same year. The guy in the yellow shirt behind him seems to have a large number 18 on his back. That's not a contemporary Padres shirt as far as I can tell, so I have no idea who that guy is.

The back is dull, even for a sticker back. 

Card Number 915: Panini Cooperstown Colgan's Chips, 2013; #unnumbered

This is the first round 'card' in my collection. It's unnumbered, but there are 165 listed on Trading Card Database.

The photo of Tony isn't the most flattering. He looks to me like he is trying to suppress a laugh.

This is from Panini's 'Cooperstown' range that they issued through an agreement with the Baseball Hall of Fame. It's the range that had a card that just featured Tony's spikes. 

In 2013 Panini were feeling their way into the unlicensed card market, wary of triggering a lawsuit from the aggressively protective Topps, and also trying to hit on a formula for cards that people would want. This set was issued the year before Panini resurrected the DonRuss brand when they were also still trying to get the Prizm brand right. So this round card was part of a process where Panini threw a lot of things at the wall and hoped something would stick.

Despite being a retro-tastic tribute to gum cards issued a century before, these inserts were a one shot that they didn't try repeating in the following year's Cooperstown set.

The Cooperstown set of 2013 is noteworthy in that it had autographed inserts, including cards autographed by Tony. Those would have been some of the last cards that he signed before his untimely death. One day I might be lucky enough to add one to the collection.

A big thank you to Glenn for checking whether I had these weird cards. Much appreciated, Glenn!

Total: 915 cards

Hall of Famer - 14 years early

In 2007 Tony Gwynn was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, in the first year he was eligible for the ballot. However, two card companies made an early case for his election, fourteen years previously.

Card Number 734: Leaf Heading for the Hall insert, 1993; #2

I really like the logo for this insert series with the little road heading towards a line drawing of the Hall of Fame. There are some sparkles under his name as well. 

The back is outstanding. Leaf had fantastic cardbacks in their 1993 set and this insert series is no different. The combination of the picture of the National Baseball Museum that houses the Hall of Fame, a map of the area and a mocked up plaque shows some exceptional care from the designers.

Here's what the actual plaque looks like, of course!

On that map you can see Lake Otsuga. Nobody ever really mentions Lake Otsuga when they talk about Cooperstown. This is a photo of it that is also my desktop background so I see it every time I write blog posts!

My wife Cathy and I spent two nights in Cooperstown on our road trip in 2016. I would happily say that the day in Museum and Hall of Fame was one of the best days of my life so far. It probably makes the top 3! 

There was an exhibit in the museum about the player's strike in 1994 that cut the season short. That was the season when Tony was tantalisingly close to breaking .400. (Which is why this blog is called .394!)  That exhibit has one of Tony's shirts from the 1994 season in it.

I also met another very famous celebrity from San Diego!

Anyway,. that's enough about the wonderful experience of going to the National Museum and Hall of Fame. Let's get back to baseball cards. Pinnacle were also considering future contenders for Cooperstown back in 1993...

Card Number 735: Pinnacle Cooperstown Card insert, 1993; #20

One day I am going to count up how many cards I have of Tony in this pose, preparing to sprint to first base, with his discarded bat disappearing off the edge of the card.

There's no map on the back, just another photo in his familiar anticipatory batting stance. 

Pinnacle felt Tony was "well on his way to Cooperstown". He added another four batting titles before he finally got there. 

It feels like both these card companies recognised Tony's greatness well before he retired and was officially inducted into the Hall of Fame. That is a genuine indication of his ability and attitude at the height of his career.

Total: 735 cards 

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