Crown time

I'm starting yet another blog post apologising for an interruption in blogging. Everything here in the UK is dominated by the death of Queen Elizabeth II last week, and the installation of her first-born son as the new King. Plus I've been on holiday. 

However, with some new cards incoming, I feel I ought to blog some of the cards I have scanned and waiting! So here are some cards that roughly fit with the current big news story, as they have little crowns printed on them.

Card Number 1042: Pacific, 1994; #525

This was Pacific's second season producing cards and the first year they added the 'Crown Collection' logo to their cards. Later the company developed the Crown Collection idea into an actual set (one card included here). Unlike the 1993 set, this card didn't include Spanish field positions on the front of the card. 

It did, however, include Spanish on the back in the very limited text. This is one of the first regular base cards to include a photo on the back that was almost the same size as on the front. The information is minimal as a result. 

Card Number 1043: Pacific, 1996; #184

There are two crowns on the front of this card - one in the top right and one behind Tony's name. All are stamped in foil. Pacific really loved their foil in the mid 1990s, especially on their insert cards. (NB - the insert card I linked to had a crucial error in the Spanish text.)

There is also a crown on the back of the card, along with a fizzy-edged cameo portrait that looks like a flying saucer is hovering over Tony's right shoulder!

The bilingual write up on the back notes that Tony made just two errors in 135 games, which is as admirable a stat as his batting achievements. Although he didn't win a Gold Glove after 1991, his concentration in the outfield was as disciplined as his approach to batting. 

Total: 1043 cards
 

One Card Only - shredded foil on a Pacific Prism

Card Number 960: Pacific Prisms, 1996; #P-61

Unusually for Pacific, this set doesn't have the set name on it, just the Crown Collection logo. These cards were sold in packs of 2 - one Prism and a bonus card.

The foil effect looks like the card has been clawed by a big cat. It's an eye-catching design that looks very different to Prism cards released in other years.

The cardback is bilingual because Pacific specifically targeted the Spanish-speaking market.

There's no real reason for the card number to have a P in front of it. All the other cards shipped with Prism cards had different letter codes in front of the numbers depending what small set they were from. Having a P in front of the numbers on the main cards in the set makes is feel like a whole set made up of inserts!

Total: 960 cards

One Card Only - another crown

Way back in June 2020, I blogged about a card that I really liked, a die-cut Pacific Crown Royale card. It had a special provenance because it was in a repack of baseball cards I bought at the Hall of Fame. 

Well, anyway, that card has been joined by another die-cut crown card now.

Card Number 910: Pacific Crown Royale, 1999; #119

Compared with the other die-cut crown, this is muted and under-stated. 

On the back we get a potrait and a brief paragraph with some salient stats. Tony had a decent year in 1997, hit a milestone in 1998, and they even managed to squeeze in a mention of his opening day performance in 1999.

I also love cards that I learn something from - I did not know that the Padres opened the 1999 season in Monterey. It's inconceivable now that the first competitive games after an appearance in the World Series would be staged in another country!

Total: 910 cards

Feeling Invincible in 2022

I realise it has been several weeks since I last blogged some cards. I have had my evenings occupied with other things so have neglected this a little. However, here we are in 2022. I have added a few cards to the collection while the blog has been on hiatus, so the number of cards waiting to be blogged has increased. (And I feel the pressure!)

I hope to get back to blogging regularly before the month is out. Meanwhile, here are some "Invincible" cards because we want to feel positive about the new year and invincibility is just positivity set to maximum!

Card Number 901: Pacific Invincible, 1998; #139

I like these cards with their little acetate windows of clarity. This one is really shiny, so this is an overhead scan of the front. 

And a bilingual back! Because it's printed on acetate, the image of Tony is reversed out. 

Card Number 902: Pacific Invincible Reyes del Diamante, 2000; #25

A variant on the phrase 'Diamond King'. I'm surprised DonRuss let Pacific get away with that!

There were 30 Kings of the Diamond in this insert series, and a further 20 Diamond Aces who were all pitchers. Although they look like playing cards, they all have the same value so would be rubbish for actually playing card games. 

The back is done to look like a playing card. Apart from the tell-tale player name!

And that's the first post of 2022 done. I will be back blogging regularly soon!

Total: 902 cards

One Card Only - Dynagon!

Today's one card only is for Richard (YoRicha) because I know how much he loves Pacific cards.

Card Number 880: Pacific Dynagon Diamond, 1999; #19

This was one of 20 cards in an insert series in Pacific's flagship set in 1999.

It's bright shiny green foil with a whirly swirly background. 

This card gets 19 bonus points for being the 19th card in the set. Pacific were one of the card companies that paid close attention to card numbering. Another reason why the card hobby was poorer when they ceased trading.

The background of this card does make it feel like a baseball is flying straight at your face! Best read it quick!

Total: 880 cards

Tuesday Twin - Parallel Paramount

I had an unexpected suprise in the post last week, a small box of cards from Gawain that had been in a job lot he bought, and that he sent on to me. While most of the cards were ones I had, there were some I didn't have, including one that I almost passed by as I looked through them. The moral is always keep one's eyes peeled for parallels!

Card Number 863: Pacific Paramount Gold, 1999; #203

The gold foil doesn't show up that well on the scan, but it looks great in my binder next to the regular version which has silver foil on (and that I blogged about over a year ago!)

I don't know what the frequency of gold parallels was, but I have discovered that Tony was on both the packets and the box the packets came in!

I like stats in columns instead of rows. I find them a lot easier to read, so this card gets a bonus point for that!

Total: 863 cards

One Card Only - Dial-a-Stat

I was away from the blog longer than I thought I would be. Sorry about that.

Back in September Jay sent me an Upper Deck card that featured in a Sunday 'One Card Only' post. A couple of weeks back he messaged me to ask if I wanted the Tony Gwynn card from an insert set he had bought. Like me, he is a player collector and he wanted the Roger Clemens card from this set. So, it helps him to be able to move on other cards, and it helps me because this is the sort of thing that never crops up over here in the UK.

Card Number 841: Pacific Prism Dial-A-Stat, 2000; #8

This has a wheel on it that spins. As it spins it reveals Tony's top ten batting averages during his career though a hole in the card. The default setting is his batting average for 1994. We all know what his average was that year, don't we!

When the wheel is set to 1994, the image of Tony printed in the reverse of the wheel is aligned with the rest of the back of the card.

Of course, such a device could be left untouched. But that's not really how I function as a collector.

The ten years work around in order, starting with Tony's tenth best average in 1986

Then 1989

Then it jumps a decade to 1999

Back to Tony's first ever batting title

Then to 1996

At which point the wheel is halfway round and the card back looks quite weird.

Contuinuing on we get to 1993

1995

A brief return to the 80s, with Tony's highest average from that decade

Before Tony's second highest ever average in the last year he won a batting title

And then the wheel has gone full circle back to 1994 and .394.

It really stands out to me how Tony's batting averages improved in the second part of his career. Tony won the batting title in 1988 and that doesn't even feature here. Instead there are six seasons from the 1990s and four of the five highest career totals are from that decade.

There were 10 dial-a-stat cards to collect as inserts in the Prism range, which was one of several sets released by Pacific in 2000. The main inserts were various coloured shiny cards known as Prisms. Of course, Tony features in thos inserts. He was also the player featured on the packets of Prism cards as well.  

Thanks again Jay, for sending me this. Good luck with the Clemens PC!

Total: 841 cards

Tuesday Twins - Pacific variations from 1999

Here are some cards that have already been on the blog. Sort of.

Card Number 775: Pacific, 1999 (batting photo); #368

In 1999, Pacific messed with the heads of collectors by having cards with the same number and different photos in their flagship set. I've previously blogged the portrait version of this card. 

Last time I blogged about this I noted the quirkiness of the factoid on the back - about Tony hitting his 2,900th hit in the preceding season. That would be eclipsed in 1999 by his 3000th hit!

I really like the shade of blue on that cardback.

Card Number 776: Pacific Aurora, 1999; #SAMPLE

This is a sample card given away to promote the Aurora range. The front looks like the regular card... at first glance.

But when they are next to each other in the binder they look quite different.

It's a bit like a spot the difference picture. The background colour has changed. Background Tony is bigger. Foreground Tony has moved further away. 

And in case of any doubt, the cardback has SAMPLE written across it.

And, now a bonus third Pacific card from 1999!

Card Number 777: Pacific Private Stock, 1999; #7

Different card companies have different 'giveaway' design tics. One of Pacific's giveaways was outlining players with a glowing aura. It's really evident on this card.

The free-floating logo behind Tony's knees feels like an on-screen graphic from a highlights show.

The cardback is committed to presenting all the detail of a particular game - Tony's eighth game where he recorded five hits.

In addition to the box score from the game in question, there is a well-arranged stats column that puts Tony's figures for 1998 into context against his career figures. I would award an extra bonus point for that if I was scoring this card. 

1999 was a busy year for Pacific. I have 21 Tony Gwynn cards issued by Pacific in 1999 and there are even more yet to be added to the collection!

Total: 777 cards

Eat cake by the ocean

Well, that's what the Padres hoped to be doing this year. It feels less and less likely to happen.

But talking of the ocean, here's a couple of Pacific cards from the last year the Padres got to the World Series.

Card Number 732: Pacific Crown Collection, 1998; #427

Somehow this card design manages to look both fancy and still very clean. The logo and player name are in gold foil. 

Pacific's USP was targeting Spanish-speaking collectors. They also included the English translation on the back. That didn't leave much room for any stats. Somehow they managed to fit everything in, including Tony posing with one of his bats. 

The orange background locates this firmly in the late 1990s. As ever, Pacific get a bonus point for putting the detail of the set name in the little circle with the card number. It's a great help to collectors like me over two decades later!

Card Number 733: Pacific Aurora, 1998; #191

Such a green card!

The 1990s was the decade when PhotoShop became a thing and this card design is almost Photoshopped to death. I appreciate the halo around Tony's head in the top right image. 

Also, you may have noticed this just says San Diego on the front. It repeats that on the back. The Aurora range was only licensed by the Player's Association so they didn't include franchise names. I presume Pacific had a license from MLB to print a limited number of sets, or perhaps there was a stipulation in their contract that they could only produce Spanish language sets - and this is just in English. 

There is a trivia question on the back about how many seasons Tony recorded more than 200 hits. To save readers from craning their necks, here's the answer.

Tony didn't record a 200-hit season after 1997 so that answer (5) is still the correct answer. 

The photo on the back is quite similar to the one on the back of the Topps Stars card I blogged about yesterday. Serious cardback photos must have been the fashion in 1998!

Total: 733 cards

Spotting sports in Spanish

Welcome to May! Time for a trip to the ocean!

Card Number 662: Pacific Crown Collection Hometown of the Players, 1996; #HP3

A slightly odd subject for an insert series as there are no pictures on the card of Long Beach or San Diego, both the places named on the cardback.

I suspect this insert series was mainly done to use up the excess amounts of gold foil that Pacific had lying around. 

The cardback is in English and Spanish, which was Pacific's USP at the time. O-Pee-Chee had French on their cards. Pacific had Spanish. One day I would like to find a Tony Gwynn card in another language again.

My Spanish isn't great. In fact it's bordering on nonexistent. But I spotted a mistake here in the Spanish text, unless "en futbol americano" was Spanish for basketball. A quick check confirmed it's a different sport entirely - can you guess what it is? (I was the first boring nerd who reads cardbacks to report this on Trading Card Database where it's now listed as an error!)

Card Number 663, Pacific Aurora Pennant Fever, 2000; #16

"Pennant fever" gives me an earworm of this song from The Muppet Treasure Island.

The Padres were nowhere near a pennant in 2000. Two years after reaching the World Series they finished 5th in the National League West with a losing average of .469 and 21 games behind the Giants who won the division with an 11 game margin.

In terms of winning games, that 5th place average was actually an improvement on 1999's performance when the Padres' final average was .457 and they were 26 games behind the winning team, the Diamondbacks. The Padres finished fourth in 1999 because the Rockies were monumentally poor and managed to be even worse than them. 

The cardback doesn't give any indication why Tony would have pennant fever and qualify as part of this insert set. My conclusion is that Pacific liked including cards of Tony Gwynn in all their sets and insert series whether the theme was relevant or not. Tony had links with the company and did some promotional work for them so they weren't going to leave him out.

Total: 663 cards 

Set lasers to cut!

 A theme post featuring two cards with holes in.

Card Number 650: Topps Stadium Club Prime Cuts, 1996; #PC-4

Topps used the same technology as in their Topps Laser set from the same year for this 8 card insert series in Stadium Club.

The photo shows Tony's brief mid-nineties flirtation with a beard.

The white lines around the solid gold 'CUTS' are all holes through the card.... as you can see from the back view.

Tony is cleanshaven in the photo on the back. I find it slightly amusing that this juxtaposition happens on a card along the theme of 'cuts'.

These cards are 'Prime Cuts' and the stats on the back are 'Prime Numbers', except none of them are actually prime numbers in the proper mathematical sense.

Yet again, the sheer paucity of strike outs in Tony's career is remarkable. I've not seen a strike out to at bat ratio on a cardback before, but card companies should have included it more often. In 1995, Tony struck out once every 35 at bats. If he had 5 at bats in a game that would be one strike out every seven games.

The only confusing stat on the back is the batting title one. They are trying to say that Tony won his sixth National League batting title, but it looks like they are saying he was sixth in the batting tables. However, I'm not going to quibble too much with that, given how good this stats box is overall. 

Card Number 651: Pacific Aurora On Deck Laser Cuts, 1998; #14

A couple of years after the Stadium Club Prime Cuts card, Pacific lasered bits out of these insert sets from their Aurora set.

The card front is a rather glorious mish-mash of photoshop elements and the cut out 'rings' in the centre of the card. There is some gold foil applied as well for good measure.

The back has a big picture of Tony and a tiny write up underneath the lasered out section.

I have grown to love Pacific cards. True, they are gaudy and the designers never seemed to know when to stop adding stuff, but that is part of the charm. Plus they were absolutely brilliant at including the years and set names in those little circles with the card number on. It makes them so easy to identify and for that reason alone, I could forgive any excess in the design.

Aurora cards were one of the sets Pacific produced without a licence initially, which is why it just says San Diego on the card. However, this was before companies with licences got really protective about the official MLB team logos and icons, which is why the logos on Tony's shirt and helmet haven't been airbrushed out of the photo on the front. Those dark days of airbrushed jerseys were coming. 

Total: 651 cards

Card companies collaboration in 1995

One of the fun things in cardblogging is trying to find certain cards on Trading Card Database, specifically Pacific cards that don't seem to exist. However, despite the Pacific crown logo and the words Pacific on the back, this card wasn't a Pacific card. It was a National Packtime card, and is an artefact of a very troubled time in both baseball and the baseball card hobby.

Card Number 633: National Packtime (Pacific), 1995; #15

The player's strike that curtailed the 1994 baseball season and meant there was no World Series had caused a lot of anger among fans of the sport. The proliferation of baseball cards and the saturation of the market had led to a collapse in baseball card values. One solution to this was for all six licensed companies collaborating to produce promotional packs of baseball cards to encourage people to keep collecting.

National Packtime was a set of 18 cards, with each company contributing 3 cards to the pack. According to BaseballCardPedia, the promotional packs were available in exchange for 28 baseball card wrappers from any of the manufacturers. 

As can be expected, some retailers cut corners and just used cards from their main ranges with the National Packtime logo added. Pacific actually created new cards, so this Tony Gwynn card was exclusive to the National Packtime sets. Having said that, it's not a hugely exciting picture on the card.

The back is a bit jazzy and is bilingual - a common feature on Pacific cards in the mid-90s. Pacific's target market was the Spanish speaking community.

That second-placed finish in 1993 with a .358 batting average would have won Tony a National League batting title in six of the other seasons he was playing.

Whatever happens in the current card-collecting bubble (and, personally, I think we are likely to see a crunch fairly soon), it's very unlikely that such a collaboration would take place again. Unlike in 1995, there is only one company with a license from Major League Baseball to print baseball cards - Topps, who are the sole survivor from the six companies who participated in the National Packtime collaboration.

Total: 633 cards