Tuesday Twins - seen in previous guises

The recent influx of cards into my collection has included quite a few parallel versions of cards that have featured already on the blog. Here are a few more from the various Upper Deck ranges. I've included links to where the other version was blogged.

Card Number 818: Upper Deck Collector's Choice Special Edition Silver Signature, 1995; #160

Base version was #354 on the blog.

Special Edition was Upper Deck's third release in its Collector's Choice Range, after Series 1 and Series 2. Like the rest of the cards in the range, parallel versions with silver foil and gold foil signatures were released. The gold foil signatures were a lot rarer. The 'Special Edition' logo (top right) was recolourised for this silver signature release. Ironically, the silver signature scans black!

The back has a photo that is definitely in the top ten photos of Tony on a cardback. You can almost hear him saying "Heeeyyyyy, you guys!"

If every parallel had a photo that good on it, I would have a lot more appreciation for parallels.

Card Number 819: Upper Deck UD Choice Starquest (Green), 1999; #SQ8

Base version was #129 here

Green shiny card! Lovely. 

UD Choice was Upper Deck's late 90s rebrand for Collector's Choice. It lasted for one year and was replaced the following year by the MVP range.

Every pack of UD Choice cards had one Starquest card in it. The base cards were blue. The green versions were inserted at a rate of 1 in 8 packets. There were also red versions inserted 1 in 23 packets and gold versions sequentially numbered to 100. 

The dull cardback is made up for by the shininess of the front. The sleeve logo of the Swinging Friar is quite prominent in the cropped version of the photo on the cardback. 

Card Number 820: Upper Deck Special F/X, 1998; #9

According to Baseballcardpedia, this set "partially-parallels 150 cards from the 1998 Upper Deck set". I blogged the regular version back in September (#745).

Aside from being shiny holofoil, this card doesn't have the little logo denoting 'Ken Griffey's Hot List' that is on the regular card. The presentation marks the first time the Padres played at Edison field in Anaheim. The Angels player presenting the award is Eddie Murray.

Apart from the set number, the back is exactly the same as the regular release.

Card Number 821: Upper Deck SP (die-cut), 1994; #130

Base version was #316 on the blog.

In addition to all 200 cards in the inaugural SP set being holofoil, there were die-cut parallels inserted at a rate of 1 in every pack. It's not the most imagintaive die-cut, with just a chunk taken out of the top of the card. This is an overhead scan. If you want to see how dark this would look on a flatbed scan, then that's what I used when I blogged the normal version of this card. 

SP went for the minimalist approach on the card back. The photo has been cropped so tightly the base path Tony is running on isn't visible. 

And that's the Tuesday Twins for today! 

Total: 821 cards

Sharing the Spotlight with Eddie Murray

This card was a challenge, but thanks to Google Image Search I was able to track down who was presenting Tony with a glass plaque, and why...

Card Number 745: Upper Deck, 1998; #15

Cards 9-18 in Upper Deck's flagship set were a subset called 'Ken Griffey's Hot List'.

Upper Deck went through a phase of using quirky photos on cards (Tony's base card in 1997 showed him with a fish!), but annoyingly there was nothing on the back of this card to explain what this presentation was about.

The Internet came to the rescue! I uploaded my scan to Google Image Search and found this picture is one that Getty Images has for sale. The complete blurb on the Getty website says:

12 Jun. 1997: Anaheim Angels Eddie Murray gives San Diego Padres Tony Gwynn a crystal plaque commemorating the Padres playing there [sic] first interleague game against the Angels at Edison Field of Anaheim. (Photo by John Cordes/Icon SMI/Corbis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

This image is for sale, so if I wanted to create my own card using this same picture, it would cost me $375. I'm not going to do that but it's nice to know I could if I wanted. 

"Steady Eddie", as Murray was known, spent 11 seasons at the Orioles before moving around several teams. 1997 was his final Major League season at the age of 41. He played most of the season for the Angels although he also played a handful of games with the Dodgers. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2003.

Althought the cardback doesn't mention Eddie, it does have a superb cardback factoid about Tony hitting an inside-the-park Grand Slam in June 1997.

The stats box is also a bit different, comparing Tony's stats in All Star Games, World Series, and so on.

Tony had multiple cards in the Upper Deck set in 1998. Here's a bonus one, which was in the envelope from Jeff that arrived earlier this week.

Card Number 746: Upper Deck, 1998; #458

Upper Echelon was a ten card subset in Series 2 of the Upper Deck flagship set. This has a factoid on the front - I'm presuming the 24 September was Tony's 67th and final multi-hit game of the 1997 season. But maybe it wasn't. The factoid is unclear. 

The back has a different photo to card #15 - this time it captures the retro Swinging Friar arm patch really nicely. There is also a visible blur on the bat as it's swung.

The factoid on the back of this card is also different to #15. Like the factoid on the front, it is also about Tony's haul of multi-hit games.

Tony played 145 games in 1997, so his 67 multi-hit games means he had more than one hit in almost half the games he played. He actually recorded 220 hits that season on his way to a .372 batting average, his second highest total in his career.

Total: 746 cards