Tony's insights on Jeff

This cameo card was a bonus in the recent joblot of cards I bought off eBay. I knew there were two ProFiles cards in the lot and I banked on at least one of them being one of the ones where Tony offered an opinion on another player.

Card Number 710: Topps Profiles by Tony Gwynn, 1996; #NL-01

There were 20 cards in this insert series. This card features Jeff Bagwell. I blogged about another card from the series back in June.

It's super-shiny, so I used the overhead scanner. There wasn't enough light in the room so I tinkered with some settings and the resulting scan is a bit grainy. But you can get the idea.

So, what did Tony think about Jeff Bagwell...?

One thing that I've noticed with Tony's take on hitting is that he always used to say that a hitter needed to find their stance, swing, rhythm and then stick with it - here he talks about Jeff finding continuity. Except of course, Tony was happy to change things in his own batting. That's how he earned the nickname 'Captain Video' in the early stage of his career, because his wife, Alicia, would tape his games and he would watch and re-watch his at bats to see what he could have done differently. He also changed his preferred bat on the advice of Ted Williams in the early 90s, setting him up for his four latter batting titles.

So, there was continuity, and also scope for change. Which is kind of what he says here about Jeff's approach to hitting. 

And, speaking of Ted Williams, there's a card tomorrow featuring him.

Total: 710 cards

Tony's insights on Dante

When Marc was offering me various insert cards recently, he mentioned he had one of the inserts on my secret hitlist of cards I wanted. It leaves me in a slight quandary because it's a card featuring another player, but with a cameo from Tony. What elevates this above cameos which I don't count in the collection is that the insert set is called Profiles by Tony Gwynn. 

If your name is in the insert set then it counts as one of your cards, right?

Card Number 685: Topps Profiles by Tony Gwynn, 1996; #NL-11

Tony profiled 20 players in the National League in the Topps 1996 set. Meanwhile Kirby Puckett profiled 20 players in the American League. National League player number 11 was Dante Bichette.

I had my overhead scanner out, so this card really pops in all its shiny glory. (I'm not even going to show you the flatbed scan. It was terrible.)

Dante led the National League in home runs and RBI the season before this card came out, so was a very suitable choice for Tony to profile in this insert series. Tony's insight on the back skirts around the issue that when he was playing for the Rockies, Dante played half his games in Denver and benefited from hitting in the rarefied air. 

Tony manages to tactfully avoid casting shade on him for that, and actually makes the point that the benefit of playing in Denver is outweighed by putting a player into a 'can't win' situation with regards to their batting. 

I didn't know before researching this post, but Dante was one of the first players to turn out for the Rockies in their inaugural season, and he hit the first home run in their franchise history. He still holds a number of batting records for them. I also learned that his first name is actually Alphonse. Nowadays, of course, he's also famous for being the father of Bo Bichette who is currently playing for the Toronto Blue Jays. There's a nice similarity there with Tony, who also had a son who played Major League Baseball. 

Now I have one of these cards, I want to get the other 19, to see if Tony is as diplomatic about all the other players he profiles. I'm sure he was!

Total: 685 cards