Finishing Fleer Fortnight in a Traditional way

Fleer Tradition was the company's retro range at the tail end of the 90s and across the cusp of the millennium. It sometimes combined a mix of fairly ordinary looking cards with vintage style parallels and sometimes just went for a full set of full-on retro designs. Some sets also had some well-designed subsets and insert sets. One of my favourite Tony Gwynn cards ever is a Fleer Tradition insert that I blogged about in my first month of blogging.

Card Number 954: Fleer Tradition, 1998; #250

An unusual - and fantastic! - photo on the front of this base card. Tony has a pen in his hand so he was presumably turning that shirt into an autographed shirt!

The use of the shirt for the backdrop on the cardback is very effective. I've not seen it done on many (if any) cards. It seems like the sort of design technique that should appear frequently because it's such a simple yet impactful idea. 

There is lots more colour in the stats box than is usually applied on a card, whihc makes it easier to read than the usual rows of tiny numbers. Plenty of thought went into the design of this card.

Card Number 955: Fleer Tradition, 1998; #315

There were 10 "Golden Memories" cards in the middle of the 600 card Fleer Tradition set in 1998. It's a shiny card that looks really special but is actually 'just' a base card. Trading Card Database has a note that these cards were inserted at a ratio of 1 in 6 packs, which probably makes them more common than regular base cards.

The back has a flamboyant cameo frame and a factoid about how Tony scored 4 hits in 5 at bats against Greg Maddux in a game in 1997. 

Greg famously reckoned Tony was the only player it was impossible to strike out. It's always worth a re-quote.

“Sometimes hitters can pick up differences in spin. They can identify pitches if there are different release points or if a curveball starts with an upward hump as it leaves the pitcher’s hand. 

But if a pitcher can change speeds, every hitter is helpless, limited by human vision. 

Except for that f---ing Tony Gwynn.”

Card Number 956: Fleer Tradition Update, 1999; #U-145

Fleer Tradition was so popular in the late 90s is merited an update series, which included some season highlights from that year.

I doubt any regular readers don't know that the 6th August 1999 was the date of Tony's 3000th hit. This is one of the first cards released commemorating it. 

What is really strange is that Tony was the first player in 20 years to reach the 3,000 hit mark. The next player to reach 3,000 hits was Wade Boggs on the 7th August 1999. The day after Tony reached that milestone!

Card Number 957: Fleer Tradition Dividends insert, 2000; #9

Sometimes when an insert series has an odd name like 'Dividends', I just assume it's because baseball companies were running out of words...

Red borders always make a card look good. However, the offset nature of the black and white photo is a little jarring.

The same photo appears on the back, except it's rendered in sepia.

Although the write up implies hits were inevitable when Tony made a plate appearance, they were relatively rare in the 2000 season because Tony made comparatively few plate appearances - just 140 compared to 446 in 1999.

Total: 957 cards

Back to (Shiny) Base - Bowman's Best

Back in the 90s, Bowman was Topps's other, unassuming brand. But as sets proliferated and shiny cards became highly prized, Bowman's Best offered collectors with magpie tendencies another premium band to get their fix of shininess. (And if the base cards weren't shiny enough there were also parallel refractors to be had!)

Card Number 864: Bowman's Best, 1994; #78

The red foil background on this card didn't scan very well, even using my overhead scanner. It's an aggressive looking photo of Tony. He looks cooler on the back.

Bowman cards are often a source of interesting cardback factoids. In tiny font this descriubes Tony as "A walking instructional video in the art and science of hitting." (That sounds a bit dull really.) Tony's other super skill is apparently that he "Ranks 11 on a scale of 10 in studiousness, work ethic and character." That makes him sound like Spinal Tap's special amplifier. 

If the "Special Skills" are a bit jokey, maybe the "Super Stats" will be better. The first one says that in the 10 preceding seasons he was never below 5th in the batting averages - that's a good stat. Then we have the arbitrary stat that in that 10-season selection his batting average was .332. That made him the top hitter in the Major Leagues, presumably among players who were also playing for those ten seasons.

Card Number 865: Bowman's Best, 1995; #21

Shiny silver on the front. The card looks like it should be textured but it isn't.

Plenty of matt silver on the back as well.

The super skills and super stats are both more sensible and more readable. Tony went on to beat Pete Rose's record for five-hit games, finishing his career with nine 5-hit games in total. 

See Tony's Bowman's Best card from 1996 here!

Card Number 866: Bowman's Best, 1997; #29

The swirls on this shiny card make it look like someone has added cartoon-style movement lines to Tony's swing. This is probably the most extreme example of bat-cropping in a card photo - practically the whole bat is out of the frame. There was an interesting cropping design choice for the photo on the back too.

The stats box separates Tony's career into five year chunks that really illustrates how his batting average improved as his career progressed. The most crucial stat in Tony's career is hidden in the account of his best ever season - he was just 2 hits off scoring .400 in the truncated 1994 season.

Annoyingly, I am missing Tony's Bowman's Best card from 1998. However, I have two from 1999 to make up for it.

Card Number 867: Bowman's Best, 1999; #57

Super stripy golden shininess on the front. Lots of stripes on the back as well.

And look! In the second photo, there's a batting donut. Time to check out Fuji's list of Tony Gwynn cards featuring batting donuts aaaaaaaand..... this isn't on Fuji's list. There are two other Bowman cards there though. Whoever picked the photos for Bowman liked donuts. 

The factoid is about Tony's performance against certain pitchers. His best record was against Greg Maddux, who has been quoted as saying

“Sometimes hitters can pick up differences in spin. They can identify pitches if there are different release points or if a curveball starts with an upward hump as it leaves the pitcher’s hand. But if a pitcher can change speeds, every hitter is helpless, limited by human vision. Except for that f---ing Tony Gwynn.”

By the end of his career, Tony had faced Maddux 107 times. Maddux didn't strike him out once. 

Tony had two cards in the 1999 set, appearing in the "Best Performers" subset as well. 

Card Number 868: Bowman's Best, 1999; #98

Stripy shininess again on the front. More stripes on the back and, wait, what's that? Another batting donut?

That's two pictures with donuts in the same set, with the pictures taken in different games judging by the uniforms. The picture lay-out guys at Bowman really loved their donuts!!

In the factoid, Bowman predicted Tony would be elected to the Hall of fame in his first year of eligibility. The prediction came true in 2007.

Total: 868 cards

Still a member of the Club

I don't personally open a lot of new product. Fortunately I know people who do. People like Gawain (Mr Cuban Baseball in the UK) who is my reliable source for brand new Tony Gwynn cards. Today's card arrived last week from the Cuban Museum in Surrey, and as ever, I'm hugely grateful. (I also want to say thanks to Marc who got in touch a few days after this card arrived to say he had a copy if I wanted it. I feel blessed to be on so many people's radar.)

Card Number 705: Topps Stadium Club, 2021; #24

I'm never going to criticise a picture of Tony in a brown Padres uniform. Particularly when it's a photo I haven't seen a whole bunch of times before. The Padres are back in brown now (and the uniforms look lovely), but I wish they would bring that colourway helmet back as well.

Some photo re-use on the back. This is a cropped version of the photo used on the 2020 Topps flagship short print card. 

That third sentence is worth scrutiny. The highest career average of any player in the "Expansion Era", which according to Topps started the year after Tony was born. Why not just say during his lifetime, eh? Basically, there was no better consistent hitter in the 20 years before Tony got drafted, during his 20 year career, or in the 20 years since he retired.

Greg Maddux famously swore about the fact he could never strike Tony out. I didn't realise Tony had a similar record against Pedro Martinez as well. (Although, to be honest, 139 plate appearances against both pitchers combined feels a bit low.)

With stats like this, thought, it's easy to see why Tony still has a place in the Stadium Club. Long may that continue.

Total: 705 cards

Great Ginter cards

I have been critical of the Allen & Ginter range from Topps previously on this blog. Like the other retro ranges that Topps produce, the cards can feel a bit tired. However, one of their inserts is up there as one of my favourite card designs ever - the Star Signs insert from 2019. Topps had a good year in 2019, insert-wise because here's another nice insert from the same year.

Card Number 635: Topps Allen & Ginter 'Ginter's Greats' insert, 2019; #GG13

Greatest ever to hold a bat and ball, says the tagline. No arguments with that.

There were 50 cards in this set of all-time greats. There's a lot to like in this picture, from the background with the heraldic crossed bats and baseball, through to the choice of image - Tony with his arms folded, concentrating on something. 

It has a great write up on the cardback too, recounting Tony's success against Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux. Does anyone want to suggest what word is replaced in the quote by [blanking]?

Topps were definitely playing a strong game with the cards featuring Tony in 2019. The base card is pretty nice too. But I really like this parallel version.

Card Number 636: Topps Allen & Ginter Gold Hot Box parallel, 2019; #77

I can't find a statistic for the frequency of 'hot boxes' but from looking at rip videos, all the base cards in a hot box had this gold foil filigree border. 

The border really enhances this product and I can imagine ripping a box and finding these cards as the ordinary 'base' cards would be pretty special.

The back is the same as the regular base card, with its pretentious writing out of the numbers using words. I can forgive the pretentiousness this time because the front is so nice.

I am slowly starting to appreciate Allen & Ginter a bit more. 2019 is fast becoming my favourite set because of this nice parallel and the high quality insert cards.

Total: 636 cards