Tony's Project70 cameo appearance

I'm bending my own rules here about cameo appearances on cards, but I have some good reasons. 

Card Number 679: Topps Project70, 2021; #61

This is a card of Fernando Tatis, Jr. But I'm including it anyway, for obvious reasons if you look at the card.

This card was designed by Keith Shore in a homage to Tony's Topps card from 1986.

And Tony is featured in Keith's artwork, looking on from Heaven as Fernando tears up records for the Padres. (He was the fastest Padre to reach 200 hits a couple of days ago, and one of the fastest players ever to reach 50 home runs.)

It's a bit of a sentimental depiction and I'm in two minds about it really. It's less intrusive than the 'Master and Apprentice' card from the Topps Gallery insert set in 2020, which paired Fernando and Tony, and was anachronistic on a number of levels. But I'm not sure whether it's particularly respectful of Tony's memory to reduce him to a 'spirit in the sky' onlooker.

There is a short biography of Keith Shore on the generic-looking back. Keith is a popular baseball card artist, and that's reflected in the demand for this card, which had a print run of 9,884. That's well over three times as many sold compared to the Project70 card of Tony by Mimsbandz that I blogged about yesterday. I think partly that reflects the popularity of Fernando Tatis, Jr as well. 

So, although this is a 'cameo card', it's a bit different to cameo cards where Tony is in a photo of another player. He has been deliberately included in the artwork, so I'm counting this as a card in the collection, even though, technically, it probably isn't really a Tony Gwynn card.

Total: 679 cards

Sharing the Spotlight - with Fernando in the Gallery

This card came via Andrew T in the UK collectors Facebook group. Andrew offered me first dibs on it and I said yes. 

Card Number 573: Topps Gallery, 2020; #MA7

There were 10 cards in this "Master & Apprentice" insert series in Topps Gallery.

Fernando Tatis Jr has really made the headlines in the last year or so, and his rookie cards have been very popular. In fact, as a Padres collector, the chase for rookie cards featuring "El Nino" made Padres cards more expensive than usual recently, and slightly harder to get. Suddenly people wanted the Padres in box breaks. What is this popularity thing? 

The 'Master & Apprentice' phrase feels a bit Star Wars-ey to me. And that is a slight niggle about this card. As far as I know El Nino never actually met Mr Padre, or was coached by him. (One of Tony's students at San Diego State was Stephen Strasburg, the 2019 World Series MVP!)

Another discrepancy is that the players have been painted with Petco Park in the background. Now, while Tony did go to Petco Park after he retired, he never played at the Stadium. For his entire career the Padres played their home games at the Jack Murphy Stadium (most recently known as the SDCCU Stadium), which is apparently being demolished right now. (Bang goes my plan of a pilgrimage there when the pandemic is over!)

But apart from that anachronism, it's clear why Topps paired Tony and Fernando on this card - they are both exemplary hitters. Fernando is a great batsman and despite the nonsense last season about him having to apologise after hitting a grand slam when Texas were already trailing in a game, he's clearly one of the most exciting players in a currently very exciting Padres team. So, a worthy young player to share a card with Tony.

I didn't know until reading this card that Fernando's batting average in his rookie year was higher than Tony's. Whether it will be a similar "springboard" to batting titles and an eventual place in the Hall of Fame is impossible to know right now. Hopefully he has a long and mega-successful career ahead of him, particularly in Padres colours, but these things are totally unpredictable. Whatever happens, Fernando will always be remembered as a contributor to the "Slam Diego" grand slam streak of 2020 that really lit up the season.

Topps have included the artist's name on this card. On his website John Giancaspro says he was six years old when he first saw a DonRuss Diamond Kings card and realised he wanted to be a sports artist. John uses photos as a base for his art, which is fairly common on these kinds of "illustrated" cards. He started doing portraits when he worked as a bat-boy or the New York Mets in 1991-92 - there's a fun photo album on his website - and he also designed some cards for the Diamond Kings series in 2012.

I like learning about the artists whose drawings of Tony Gwynn feature on baseball cards, so Topps get a bonus point from me for including the artist's name like this. 

Total: 573 cards - this is the 27th card in the collection released in 2020.