Fact-check Friday

Yesterday marked the 21st anniversary of Tony Gwynn's 3000th hit. Yesterday. Here are a couple of cards that got the details wrong.

Card Number 248: Fleer Impact, 2000; #MF35

Remember Fleer Impact? It was a one season card range with low production values. The MF numbering refers to players they regarded as Mighty Fine in '99. Rhyming insert sets are fine by me, and I'm relieved that's what they were referring to when they used the initials MF.

In fairness, it's a good looking card.

But see if you can see the problem on the back. (Hint: they got distracted by nines!)

Yes, they got the date wrong. Tony made his 3000th hit on the 6th August, not the 9th August. 

It's a real shame, because this is otherwise a mighty fine card. 

Sidebar: Back in the 80s I used to go with my Dad to watch Shrewsbury Town FC play in the old Second Division of the Football League. (That's the highest level Shrewsbury have ever played.) In the 1985-6 season there was an advertising hoarding opposite where we sat for a road safety campaign that said 'Stay Alive in '85!' In the January, they updated the sign to read, 'Stay Alive in '86!' Even at the age of 10 that jarred with me. I have every reason to suspect that if Fleer Impact had lasted more than one season we would have seen cards saying 'Mighty Fine in '00' the next year!

Fleer were only three days out and their card only had the one mistake. Unlike the next card in this post...

Card Number 249: Topps Update Chrome, 2016; #3000C-12

This is a really lovely card to look at. It's super-shiny and it scans incredibly well!

Tony is in the 3000 Hits Club. When did he join this elite group? Let's have a look...

Topps must have been fact-checking their dates against their collection of Fleer Impact insert cards because they got the date wrong too! They also moved his poor mom back a generation and called her his grandma. That's two strikes, Topps!

Neither of these factual errors were recorded on the Trading Card Database, but they have been noted on there now!

Total: 249/394

Monday Mixer - Forgotten Fleer

Around the turn of the century, Fleer produced several short-lived card sets. Today's Monday mixer features three of them that many people have probably forgotten all about.

Fleer's influence in the baseball card hobby is huge. It was a lawsuit brought by Fleer that broke the Topps monopoly in 1981. But the card company struggled as the hobby expanded. In 1992 Fleer were bought by Marvel Entertainment Group (MEG). In 1995, MEG bought the Skybox card company and merged it with Fleer to form Fleer/Skybox.

Then in 1996, MEG went bust, and in the sell-off of assets, Fleer/Skybox were eventually bought by Alex and Roger Grass. Alex was the founder of the Rite Aid chain of drugstores, and Roger was one of his sons. In 2005, Fleer/Skybox suspended its trading operations and everything went up for auction. Upper Deck bought the brand name and issued Fleer cards for a couple of years, but the brand has been on hiatus since 2007.

The cards today come from after the Marvel ownership when the company was trying to establish some new ranges. None of them stuck.

Card Number 176: Fleer Impact, 2000; #36

Fleer Impact was a one-season wonder, with 200 cards in the set. It has nice framing on the card front, even though it's not very impactful as a design.

The back is similarly devoid of impact. The stats box only runs from 1990, which is arbitrary. Personally, I think you should either have a full stats box, or have a small stats box. There isn't much point having one that only shows half a career.

Card Number 177: Fleer Futures, 2001; #55
This card has a glitter coating on the front.

It's ironic that Tony got a card in a set called "Futures" in 2001, which would prove to be his final season. It's also ironic that a set called "Futures" didn't have a future, as it was only produced for the one season. There were 220 cards in the set.

There's a splash of turquoise on the back, although technically I think this counts as a 'teal and orange' combination, the ubiquitous Hollywood effect.

There is a real mix of fonts on the back as well, including what looked at first glance to be the team name in the font used on the Grand Theft Auto games. (It's not that font; I checked.)

There were black parallels to this card. I think they had glitter too. Tony had at least one insert card as well, but sadly I don't have a copy to show you.

Card Number 178: Fleer Triple Crown, 2001; #220

This was another short-lived range, although it lasted for 2 seasons, so twice as long as Impact and Futures. This was the first season it was available and as it was Tony's final season, he didn't have a card in the 2002 release.

The cardback is another one dominated by a large, yet incomplete, box of statistics. And, yes, as far as I can tell that is literally a picture of baseline dirt at the bottom of the card.

The one thing all three card-sets have in common is that Tony only had one base card during the entire, very short, lifetime of each range. So in a way today's post is showing you Tony's complete card run in these forgotten Fleer releases.

Total: 178/394