Modern Monday - Carolina Blue and a hallowed number of parallels

Breaking up the goodies that were in the parcel from France, Gawain messaged me the other day with a photo of a card he had picked up in a joblot and asked me if I had one of them yet. The answer was no, so he sent it to me. (Thank you, Gawain!)

Card Number 726: Panini Carolina Blue Prizm, 2021; #225

This card is insanely shiny and scans like an insanely shiny card does.

The base version of this card is a normal shiny silver colour. But Prizm cards are all about the parallels. I thought this was a Blue Prizm, but those are just one shade of blue. Then I found the Carolina Blue Prizms and there was the match!

Not only are there multiple different versions of blue Prizm cards, there are multiple different versions of lots of other colours too. There are a grand total of 42 parallels listed for this card, which is simply ridiculous, even though 42 is a pretty special number in baseball. And, of course, it's also the meaning to life, the universe and everything!

On the back there is a little write-up comparing Tony to other luminaries of the game and describes his "contact numbers" as "intriguing".

Panini's future in the card industry looks a bit shaky because they produce these cards on a license with the Player's Association, which has now signed an exclusive deal with another company starting in a couple of seasons. In the meantime, I'm sure Panini will be producing a plethora of parallels with every set.

Total: 726 cards

Score shows some heart

It's been a while since I last blogged about a Score card.

Card Number 607: Score Hobby Reserve Heart of the Order insert, 1997; #25

So, this gets a bit confusing. There were 18 'Heart of the Order' insert cards in Score Series 2 in 1997, and another 18 'Heart of the Order' in Score Hobby Reserve. According to Trading Card database, Hobby Reserve was "a hobby release that paralleled 1997 Score Series 2. Cards are slightly thicker than the Retail version and have white fronts with a "Hobby Reserve by Score" gold stamp." Hobby Reserve cards have 'HR' in front of the numbers.

The card shows Tony photoshopped over a virtually empty Jack Murphy Stadium. The arrangement makes it look like Tony is swinging in the top deck of the stadium. The red foil squiggle is a stylised ECG line with the word 'Heart' written above it. 

Tony's sleeve patch is the Jackie Robinson 50 years commemoration, so this is a photo from 1997 on a card issued in 1997.

On the back the stadium in the background has a lot more people in it. There's also a rare photo of Tony wearing glasses with regular lenses in.

It was easier to find these inserts in Hobby Reserve then in the Score Series 2. The ratios respectively were 1 in 15 packs for Hobby Reserve and 1 in 23 packs for Series 2. That meant you had mildly better odds of finding a card of Tony than for any of the players on the 18 cards inserted in Series 2... as long as you could find packs of Hobby Reserve to buy.

Total: 607 cards

It's Tradition

In a similar move to other card companies, Fleer brought out a retro range towards the end of the 90s. Fleer Tradition produced a normal-looking base set and then additional retro styles cards. Unlike Upper Deck, who borrowed freely from Topps templates, Fleer had a couple of their own retro designs they could use. 

Card Number 415: Fleer Tradition Vintage '63 (Insert), 1998; #52

This was Fleer's revitalisation of their 1963 design. There were 128 cards in this 'vintage' insert series, along with 600 base cards and multiple other inserts. This was the era of big card sets!

The photo is nicely centred on the Jackie Robinson 50th anniversary sleeve patch and Tony is autographing a shirt. The patch dates this to the 1997 season. 

The back is done in a similar retro style. I like the way the stats are set out. 

Card Number 416: Fleer Tradition, 1999; #43

Tony did bat flips too!

This is the base card in the set. The full bleed photo marks the set out as more high end.

There's an oddly positioned photo on the back with Tony looking awkward, and a huge stats box.

One thing I would say about Fleer cards at the end of the 90s - they included the year under the Fleer logo. That's very handy for collectors. 

Card Number 417: Fleer Tradition - Vintage '61 (Insert), 1999; #43

This time Fleer revived their own design from 1961 for the 50 card insert series. It's the same photo as the base card with Tony cut out and dropped on a plain background.

The back is arranged nicely. They aped the DonRuss tendency to include a player's full name. 

The write up notes that Tony was the closest active player to 3,000 hits - a milestone he would reach during the 1999 season.

Total: 417 cards

Never been peeled

The cards I'm blogging about today are from Topps Finest sets. They are heavy duty shiny cards that came with a thin layer of peelable plastic film over them to keep them pristine. 

There is something slightly sad about cards that have had a protective film on them for upwards of 20 years. They have never had that layer peeled away, and their true beauty admired, and now they never will. Because if you try and peel that protective layer away now it could rip away the top layer on the card and that's a risk not worth taking. 

And so, these cards have sat for decades, their lovely shininess forever dimmed and hidden behind the ignored words "PEEL AND REMOVE".

There's a metaphor for life in there, somewhere.

Card Number 373: Topps Finest, 1995; #196

Look, it even instructs the owner to peel and remove coating. That never happened.

The "Finest Moment" on the back is pretty noteworthy - 10 hits in 13 At Bats. That series was against the Phillies and was probably the highlight of a losing season where the Padres finished fourth out of four teams in the division. It was the season when Tony recorded a .394 batting average, of course, and those early season hits helped set him on his way. 

Card Number 374: Topps Total Bases, 1995; #12

In 1995 there were also inserts in Series 2 of the regular Topps flagship release that looked like Finest cards. Just to add to the confusion, Topps used the 'Finest' protective film on them. Andy M from the UK Baseball Card Collectors group on Facebook sent me this as he had been busting some junk wax era boxes, so this is a freshly opened 25 year-old unpeeled card.

The back lists the "Total Bases" that Tony reached with his hits in 1994. About half his bases came from singles, which is remarkable really as they only count as one base each compared to Home Runs which count as four bases.

Tony's Major League ranking in Total Bases matched his card number in the insert series. 

Card Number 375: Topps Finest, 1996; #61

All the cards in this set had different words written across them. Like Finest Gamers or Finest Intimidators. They were also given different colours of gold, silver or bronze. Card number 61 was a Sterling Bronze card. 

The peeling instructions are right over Tony's face.

On the back we get a quote from Tony. He rather simplifies things.

That is a strange stats box because it picks the best stat in his career, up to that point, but it doesn't say what year he achieved those bests. In order it has taken stats from 1986 (# games), 1986 (at bats), 1987 (runs), 1987 (hits - he would pass this total in 1997!), 1993 (doubles), 1987 (triples), 1986 (home runs - another total he surpassed in 1997), 1995 (RBI), and 1994 (batting average). 

Card Number 376: Topps Finest, 1998; #90

This has an odd ripple effect on the front. The peeling instructions now run vertically down the card instead of diagonally across it. 

The back has Tony looking directly at the camera while milling about with his team-mates. 

The write up manages to contradict itself in the first sentence saying that Tony's hitting ability "defies adjectives", after using the adjective "superhuman" to describe it.

That arm patch on the sleeve of the guy to Tony's left (as we look at him) is the Jackie Robinson 50th Anniversary patch worn in 1997. 

(I don't own the patch; photo just for illustrative purposes.)

Card Number 377: Topps Finest, 1999; #

The final unpeeled card of this post.

Topps were still using the offset vertical peeling instructions, but this time it still managed to go over Tony's face.

There's a slight 3-D effect on this card, but otherwise the design is quite plain.

There are two "Finest Moments" on the back - one from 1998 and one from his career. The obvious Finest Moment in 1998 was his home run in Yankee Stadium during the World Series, so kudos to Topps for picking something more obscure, and arguably more impressive.

I own some peeled Finest cards as well, but those can wait for another post.

Total: 377/394