Modern Monday - shiny Donruss

Card number 837: DonRuss "Tony Gwynn Tribute", 2015; #2

I've already blogged about four fifths of this shiny little insert set. The fifth and final shiny card is about Tony's induction in the Hall of Fame.

This is the first of these cards that I have scanned using the overhead scanner, which properly captures it's sheer shininess!

If you've ever watched the video of Tony getting the call to say he was in the Hall of Fame, you can see how much it meant to him, and how nervous he was. According to He Left His Heart in San Diego, Tony thought he might not have done enough in his career to get elected. He is quite obviously overcome by emotion when he actually takes the call.

Card Number 838: DonRuss Optic, 2017; #164

'Optic' is the Panini-era DonRuss version of Chrome. Although this comes as a standalone set, it's basically the same cards as the regular DonRuss set with a shiny coating. 

There is also an Optic logo on the front and a different card number on the back. They chose an interesting vignette from Tony's career for the factoid. 

Tony had a good season in 1994. In addition to his post-war record batting average, he also nabbed the winning run in the All-Star Game. It was the first time the National League won the game after six defeats on a row. You can watch Tony's game-winning slide on YouTube - it starts at 4 minutes, 52 seconds on this video!

Panini get a bit of stick for their unlicensed baseball cards issued under various 'zombie brands', but their cards are a decent level of quality and their attention to detail in terms of factoids is very good as well. It's nice to read about something a bit different on a cardback!

Total: 838 cards

Triple Tuesday - three cards that look the same from DonRuss

These are cards from 2018. DonRuss is now part of the Panini stable of brands. This means more recent DonRuss cards feature players but aren't allowed to mention the teams for whom they play.

I'm not sure about the logic of including retired players in their base sets, but it seems to be a more common practice now. I'm not complaining. It's more cards for the collection.

Card Number 48: DonRuss, 2018; #165 

Nothing hugely exciting about the front.

Bit of an odd blurb on the back, talking about Tony tasting World Series glory late on in his career.

But DonRuss weren't done with Tony in 2018.

Card Number 49: DonRuss, 2018; #165 (Short Print)

The difference on the front is that it just says 'Gwynn' instead of 'Tony Gwynn'.

The back has a black baseball top left, instead of white. Actually, I like the way they have done this to denote a short print. Makes it a lot easier to spot them if you pull them from a pack.

But DonRuss still weren't done.

Card Number 50: DonRuss Optic, 2018; #131

I'm not sure how well that has come out. Optic is the DonRuss equivalent of Topps Chrome. This is a very shiny version of the same card as the DonRuss flagship base cards.

The information on the back reads exactly the same as the flagship base cards as well. The card has a different number, Tony moving about 60 spots up the set order, and the Optic logo is in the middle.

That's your triple Tuesday!

Total: 50/394
We've hit the half century!