One Card Only - another crown

Way back in June 2020, I blogged about a card that I really liked, a die-cut Pacific Crown Royale card. It had a special provenance because it was in a repack of baseball cards I bought at the Hall of Fame. 

Well, anyway, that card has been joined by another die-cut crown card now.

Card Number 910: Pacific Crown Royale, 1999; #119

Compared with the other die-cut crown, this is muted and under-stated. 

On the back we get a potrait and a brief paragraph with some salient stats. Tony had a decent year in 1997, hit a milestone in 1998, and they even managed to squeeze in a mention of his opening day performance in 1999.

I also love cards that I learn something from - I did not know that the Padres opened the 1999 season in Monterey. It's inconceivable now that the first competitive games after an appearance in the World Series would be staged in another country!

Total: 910 cards

Flaming great

There are some tales to tell around this card. I bought it in an eBay mix-up where I thought I could combine postage on singles from the same seller but couldn't. This was the first card of several that I planned to buy and I ended up just buying this one. 

But what a card to buy by mistake!

Card Number 599: Pacific Crown Royale Pivotal Players, 1999; #21

I showed this card to Cathy when it arrived and she said "That doesn't look very safe!" Well, maybe not, but it looks amazing. Although anyone who has run across Pacific cards from the late 90s would expect a Pacific insert series to be both visually appealing and utterly over the top.

There were 25 players selected as 'Pivotal Players' in this insert series. They all got a background of flames reaching to the heavens. 

The flames are toned down slightly on the back. I like this photo of Tony jogging onto the field with his glove at the ready. 

The factoid is about how Tony helped the Padres reach the 1984 World Series. This card set was released the year after the Padres had reached their second World Series, in 1998.

Another reason to like Pacific cards is the helpful way they include a notation about exactly which card set this is from. In the yellow circle around the number are all the details needed to find this beauty on Trading Card Database. More card companies should do this.

The tale of this card wasn't over after I accidentally bought it. It was getting shipped across the Atlantic and such journeys do take a while. However, this card may have gone via mainland Europe if the shipping label is anything to go by.

Instead of saying UK, it was addressed to the Czech Republic. Over the last year or so I have become more involved with the campaign for Wales to be an independent country and I have sometimes written 'Republic of Cymru' on the back of parcels - mainly as a joke to people in England. I can confirm it's not on my eBay address though! 

What's extra-weird is the shipping note inside clearly lists my address as UK, not Czech Republic. The rest of my address was right. And it got here eventually, which is the important thing!

Total: 599 cards. Tomorrow's post will be another milestone!

Three cards to complete a Pacific quintet

Here are three more cards released by Pacific in 1999. 

Card Number 540: Pacific Invincible Sandlot Heroes insert, 1999; #17

I mentioned yesterday that Pacific had a penchant for photoshopping cards. Invincible was the product where they did it most often.

As with Tony's card in the regular Pacific release, this card was released with two different card fronts. There were 20 cards in the insert series, but all had two versions, meaning it was actually a 40-card set!

The alternative photo version of this card was of Tony at the plate. 

The posed photo on the back is a rare picture of Tony sans headgear. The cardback is bilingual with Spanish given priority.

I prefer "Heroes del Diamante" to "Sandlot Heroes". It definitely sounds better.

Card Number 541: Pacific Crown Collection, 1999; #242

Crown Collection was Pacific's main product aimed at Spanish speakers. The base card isn't particularly exciting.

The back picks an arbitrary batting average (.320) as a noteworthy data point, and also shows how close he was to his 500th double. (He ended up hitting 543 in his career.)

Card Number 542: Pacific Crown Royale Pillars of the Game insert, 1999; #20

Crown Royale cards were die-cut into a crown shape. I blogged about the 2000 version back in June. There were 25 cards in this insert series.

It's shiny and colourful, and, let's be honest, gaudy. 

There's a bit of history on the back. I've noticed how card companies often decided to summarise college careers and being drafted on cardbacks, instead of more contemporary achievements. This card was released 18 years after Tony was drafted, but that's what they chose to talk about.

Total: 542 cards 

One card only: Heavy is the head that wears the Crown Royale

Sundays are days when I profile one card. This one has a bit of a story to it as it's one of the few where I really remember the circumstances of buying it.

In the shop at the National Baseball Museum and Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, they sell packs of assorted baseball cards from every baseball team. They are repacks, and there's no way of knowing what you're getting, except you can see the card on the top. Today's card was on the top and I knew as soon as I saw it that I would have to buy the pack of cards.

Card Number 84: Pacific Crown Royale, 2000; #120

It's a die-cut card in the shape of a crown. The amount of gold foil on this card is huge, but it's not just whanged on there for it's own sake. It's arranged nicely to ensure the crown design is golden. You can see why this stood out on the card racks.

I've said before that I think the baseball card hobby is poorer without Pacific. This kind of thing is what I'm talking about. On a holiday when I bought loads of baseball cards, this is the one I remember buying!

This card was issued in Tony's penultimate season. He had recorded over 3,000 hits by this point. The 2000 season was problematic for him as he had knee surgery. He managed to record over .300 in both 2000 and 2001, although he played very few games those seasons. His final tally of 19 seasons averaging over .300 meant he was still 4 seasons behind Ty Cobb, who is mentioned on the card here.

Another little personal story about this card is that when I went to scan it I found there were actually two cards in the sleeve. They had adhered together. I had always thought it was a double thickness card, but actually it was two regular thickness cards. That was a nice little bonus that livened up the tedious job of scanning my cards!

Total: 84/394