Tuesday Twins from Upper Deck sets

Card Number 1037: Upper Deck Victory, 1999; #339

This is one of those cards where I had the parallel a long time before I acquired the base version. In fact, when I blogged the parallel version I bemoaned the fact I didn't have the base card!

Personally, I feel that is almost a perfect baseball card. I like posed photos where you can actually see what a player looks like. The simple framing and unobtrusive logo give this a high class, timeless feel. 

The cardback is also elegantly laid out, with a bit about the Qualcomm Stadium (as Jack Murphy Stadium was known in 1999) and a bit about Tony. The truncated stats box is fine when there is so much other detail to include. 

The prediction that Tony would reach 3,000 hits in 1999 proved true. The idea that he might reach 3,500 hits turned out to be optimistic. However, it does show how well Tony was hitting in the tail end of the 90s that it was considered a possibility, however remote. 

Card Number 1038: Upper Deck SP 'Superbafoil', 1995; #105

As if SP cards weren't difficult enough to scan anyway, here is the shiny 'superbafoil' version. Unlike the dark blue foil triangle on the regular SP card, this card has a triangle that looks silvery in real life but scans in a fractal ice-blue colour.

A bonus of showing this parallel card is showing the fistbump photo on the back again.

Looking through the roster of the 1994 team, I think the player fistbumping Tony is Bip Roberts. That's a deduction I've based on the mystery fistbumper's complexion,  jawline and ear. Bip was a second baseman so would be reasonably close to Tony when he was in the outfield. If only he had a number on his wristband like Tony did!

I'd be interested to hear what readers think about this. Is it a Bip-Bump? Or could it be someone else? Make your suggestions in the comments!

Total: 1038 cards

Back to base: SP in the late 90s

A short run of base cards from the Upper Deck SP ranges. These days "SP" means "Short print". I've previously tried to discover what 'SP' meant when Upper Deck was using it, but haven't had any joy. The cards were a premium range for Upper Deck, which means some are printed on foil board... on both sides! That's fancy, and annoying to scan. 

Anyway, enough preamble, let's get back to base!

Card Number 1029: Upper Deck SP, 1996; #160

This is one of the cards that's printed on foilboard on both sides, so I had to use the overhead scanner twice for it. There's also double photo use on the front, although the head and shoulders photo is placed oddly in line with Tony's backside in the main photo.

The foilboard on the back gives the plastic coated outfield wall in the background an authentic sheen.

The write up amusingly describes Tony's sequence of batting title wins as a "habit". That's some habit!

Card Number 1030: Upper Deck SP, 1997; #155

This card has a shiny front and a matt back. The rather odd silver wedge on the left hand side gives this card an odd vibe. For some reason it reminds of the sets that card companies put out aiming at kids, like Triple Play or Fun Pack. 

This set has the head and shoulders photo on the back. It's a really good photo that has appeared on some other cards - like one of the Collector's Choice cards in this post.

The description is less amusing than the previous year, almost mundane in comparison.

Card Number 1031: Upper Deck SPx, 1999; #44

There were several different 'SP' sets in 1999, including SP Authentic, which was the new name for the main SP set. SPx was another range in the SP stable, with the first sets including holograms as chase cards  although there weren't any in the 1999 set.

This base card has a big embossed foil panel on it. And a design that reminds me of Meccano.

Having two photos on the back is less impressive when one of them is the same one that appeared on the front of the card, and is being used like a watermark.

This time it's the batting average above .300 that's "routine". Tony's run of batting titles had come to an end in 1998. But he did get to play in the World Series, and, as the card notes, he passed the 1000 mark for runs batted in. 

Total: 1031 cards

Holograms before the holidays (and 900 cards!)

A new milestone and a couple of fun holograms to help us get there.

Card Number 899: Upper Deck SP Special FX, 1996; #40

Holograms are fun to scan. And by fun, I mean, they never look like they do in real life... anyway, here is the flatbed scan.

And here is the overhead scan that captures a bit more of the foil sheen of the card front. But captures less of the hologram. 

And here is the back. For some reason the way the card blurb starts "As usual..." made me chuckle. Like, it was just so boring talking about how Tony kept winning batting titles, man.

There are a couple of unusual stats in there - including the date of Tony's first career grand slam on 22nd August 1995. He scored that relatively late in his career and added two more to his career total before he retired. Data visualisation tends to earn cards bonus points and the two little baseball park diagrams there defnitely count on that score!

Card Number 900: Upper Deck SPx Gold, 1996; #49

Die-cut, gold parallel and a hologram? A worthy milestone card!

Again, we start with the flatbed. The hologram scanned an eerie blue colour.

The overhead scan worked much better - even picking up the colours in the hologram. The gold really stands out on this scan as well.

The back is quite nicely set out as well. Although I would ding it a point for hyphenating "batting". There's another injury to add to the 'cardback injuries' list as well - a "nagging foot injury".

The cardback mentions a game-winning homer on 5th June. It was against the Cardinals. The Padres won 6-4. They then lost the next 8 games straight. They only had 9 wins from 28 games the entire month of June that year. They still won the NL West that season, before losing in the first series of the post-season... to the Cardinals!

I feel like 900 cards is a really good place to pause the blog for just a short while. Christmas is coming up and I will be spending time with family, so I will bid you adieu until the New Year. Blogging will resume in January, all being well. Until then, I hope everyone stays safe and has a lovely festive season.

Total: 900 cards! 

Legend becomes legendary

Another post of Upper Deck cards in Upper Deck Week. 

Card Number 822: Upper Deck Legends, 2000; #54

In 1999, this range was known as Upper Deck Century Legends. Tony had two cards in that set - #49 and #54.

In 2000, this set was all foil cards.

The back is basic, as befits a base card (even in a high end set like this where a 5 card pack cost $4.99).

The following year, the Legends set dispensed with the foil. Personally I think these look better.

Card Number 823: Upper Deck Legenda, 2001; #79

Tony looks like he is enjoying himself in the photo on the front.

The back is even more basic than the preceding year.

As I have Tony's cards from the 1999 set that was also (sort of ) a Legends set, these two cards complete the run of Tony's Legends base cards. But Upper Deck wasn't done with the 'legend' tag.

Card Number 824: Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts, 2005; #81

This was yet another spin-off from Upper Deck's SP range.

Considering this is a 'filler' card in a range that was mainly about hunting relic cards, this is exquisite. 

By the time this range came out, Tony had retired. The back has one line of stats with his final career figures. There is a nice touch in Upper Deck giving Tony card #81, as '81 was the year he was drafted.  

The main thing this card provokes in me is regret that Upper Deck no longer do baseball cards. The design on this is striking and very attractive. It's a great combination of photo and card lay-out. The baseball card hobby has been much poorer since Upper Deck got forced out of it. 

Total: 824 cards

Tuesday Twins - seen in previous guises

The recent influx of cards into my collection has included quite a few parallel versions of cards that have featured already on the blog. Here are a few more from the various Upper Deck ranges. I've included links to where the other version was blogged.

Card Number 818: Upper Deck Collector's Choice Special Edition Silver Signature, 1995; #160

Base version was #354 on the blog.

Special Edition was Upper Deck's third release in its Collector's Choice Range, after Series 1 and Series 2. Like the rest of the cards in the range, parallel versions with silver foil and gold foil signatures were released. The gold foil signatures were a lot rarer. The 'Special Edition' logo (top right) was recolourised for this silver signature release. Ironically, the silver signature scans black!

The back has a photo that is definitely in the top ten photos of Tony on a cardback. You can almost hear him saying "Heeeyyyyy, you guys!"

If every parallel had a photo that good on it, I would have a lot more appreciation for parallels.

Card Number 819: Upper Deck UD Choice Starquest (Green), 1999; #SQ8

Base version was #129 here

Green shiny card! Lovely. 

UD Choice was Upper Deck's late 90s rebrand for Collector's Choice. It lasted for one year and was replaced the following year by the MVP range.

Every pack of UD Choice cards had one Starquest card in it. The base cards were blue. The green versions were inserted at a rate of 1 in 8 packets. There were also red versions inserted 1 in 23 packets and gold versions sequentially numbered to 100. 

The dull cardback is made up for by the shininess of the front. The sleeve logo of the Swinging Friar is quite prominent in the cropped version of the photo on the cardback. 

Card Number 820: Upper Deck Special F/X, 1998; #9

According to Baseballcardpedia, this set "partially-parallels 150 cards from the 1998 Upper Deck set". I blogged the regular version back in September (#745).

Aside from being shiny holofoil, this card doesn't have the little logo denoting 'Ken Griffey's Hot List' that is on the regular card. The presentation marks the first time the Padres played at Edison field in Anaheim. The Angels player presenting the award is Eddie Murray.

Apart from the set number, the back is exactly the same as the regular release.

Card Number 821: Upper Deck SP (die-cut), 1994; #130

Base version was #316 on the blog.

In addition to all 200 cards in the inaugural SP set being holofoil, there were die-cut parallels inserted at a rate of 1 in every pack. It's not the most imagintaive die-cut, with just a chunk taken out of the top of the card. This is an overhead scan. If you want to see how dark this would look on a flatbed scan, then that's what I used when I blogged the normal version of this card. 

SP went for the minimalist approach on the card back. The photo has been cropped so tightly the base path Tony is running on isn't visible. 

And that's the Tuesday Twins for today! 

Total: 821 cards

One Card Only - foundational SPx

Card Number 595: Upper Deck SPx Foundations, 2001; #F11

Some cards just speak for themselves!

(This is the kind of card that makes me glad I have an overhead scanner! The flatbed did it no justice.)

Great cardback write up. Succinct summary and bullet points!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Total: 595 cards

Upper Deck SP randoms

At the turn of the Millennium the SP ranges proliferated with lots of little sets appearing that were usually quite heavy in relics and autographs. 

Card Number 324: Upper Deck SPX, 2001; #76

SPX was the new name for the SP base range.

I will award a bonus point for having the set name and year on the front. Also it's got a nice use of the number 19 as a design feature. 

On the back it says that Tony is "looking to put up big numbers" in the 2001 season. In actuality he barely played due to injuries. The stats box on the back shows how his number of games and at bats had really dropped off during the 2000 season. There was to be no swansong in this, his final season playing. 

Card Number 325: Upper Deck SP Game Bat Edition, 2001; #77

As you can probably work out from the set title, this range contained lots of bat relic cards. There was also another range called SP Game Bat Milestone Edition, which also had bat relics. I have one of those and blogged about it back in June.

The only quibble I'd have with this card design is the placing of the number 19 makes it look like the card number rather than Tony's number being incorporated in the design.

The back is dull although the sketched outline of a baseball field is something a little bit different.

The write up says Tony is "probably" the greatest Padres player ever. It feels like the writer was hedging his bets there. 

Card Number 326: Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts, 2002; #81

The clue is again in the set title - lots of swatches in this set, which only featured retired players. Tony had just retired so got a card in the set.

 

The sepia tone was used throughout the set. Some of the photos of genuine old-timers may well have only been available in sepia. 

Even the cardback is sepia!

That's a great line to start the summary - "Gwynn energized San Diego's offense"! There's a one line stat summary, which makes sense once a player has retired.

That's it for my folder of SP cards!

Total: 326/394

Upper Deck SP Authentic

After a few years of releasing cards branded as SP, Upper Deck rebranded the range as SP Authentic. Presumably, to differentiate it from all those pirate SP brands out there. 

Card Number 320: Upper Deck SP Authentic, 1998; #170

Upper Deck went back to foilboard for the picture in this range, which is why it doesn't look great on the scan.

The back is just a massive stats box with a big section of black space. 

They did mention Tony's career-high 119 runs batted in the previous season. He never approached that number again, or broke 100 RBI for a second time. 

Card Number 321: Upper Deck SP Authentic, 1999; #70

Despite the sepia look this card looks fresher than the 1998 card. 

The card number is hard to read on the back, but otherwise this is a vast improvement on the big black stats box and blank space on the card from the previous season.

The cardback also notes Tony achieving his 1000th career RBI, something that was mentioned on his Fleer Ultra card in 1999 as well. The stats box is missing a couple of years, which is really strange. I guess the designer could only fit 15 lines of season stats in the box.

Card Number 322: Upper Deck SP Authentic, 2000; #74

The blue tint on the card offsets the blue Padres uniform really well. 

Tony has an odd expression in the cameo photo on the back. The write up uses the word "hence" which is a bit formal for a cardback career summary. It's a truncated stats box, which normally I don't like, but after seeing what they did with the full stats box, and how they then did a stats box that missed two years out, this feels like a lesser evil. 

Card Number 323: Upper Deck SP Authentic 2001; #76

This card arrived last week from Andy in the Baseball Cards UK Facebook group. The flecks on it are part of the design not dust on my scanner flatbed, honest!

At first glance I thought the positions on the left was a height chart!

They repeat the photo on the back as a watermark behind the text and truncated stats box. 

Even more SP cards tomorrow!

Total: 323/394

Upper Deck SP

I've featured an SP card on the blog before along with the revelation that 'SP' didn't actually stand for anything in particular. It was a publishing name for Upper Deck that covered other sports besides baseball. Over the years it spawned offshoot ranges as well.

Card Number 316: Upper Deck SP, 1994; 130

Relaxed Tony!

This is a foilboard base card. It didn't scan well. However, it indicates the quality level that Upper Deck were aiming for with this 200-card set.

The back has a minimalist look. Big photo. Small stats box. Two line factoid.

Card Number 317: Upper Deck SP, 1995; #105

Upper Deck dropped the foilboard effect for base cards in 1995, opting instead for a large foil arrowhead pointing, in this case, at the player's hip. This isn't as charming a photo as the previous year's bench shot. 

Fistbump photo on the back!

Slightly confusing factoid there. Because the 1994 season ended early due to the player's strike, what the statto has done is take the end of the 1993 season and add that onto the 1994 season. Tony was hot at the end of 1993 so his batting average in those games combined with the games in the foreshortened season he hit .394 gives him an even higher average. 

Does that shed any light on the great 'What if?' question that overshadows the .394 achievement? What if Tony had batted the whole season? Would he have broken .400? It looks from this that he had been very consistent from a certain point in the 1993 season, but if that stat is true then he was just peaking on the bell curve and maybe even marginally declining from the absolute height of his batting powers. 

Upper Deck released another SP range in 1995 - SP Championship!

Card Number 318: Upper Deck SP Championship, 1995; #90

Tony signing stuff photo!

The Championship Series was marked by a gold blob on the front. Seeing a photi like this on a card makes me wonder whether someone has that signed flag somewhere at home. Maybe tucked into a drawer. or possible even in a little frame in a study or fan cave! I wonder if they know their flag has appeared on a baseball card. I hope it's treasured, wherever it is.

The cardback has gone in a different design direction to the regular SP range.

Tony is holding two bats in the photo on the back. It's as if the photographer caught him while he was clearing up after batting practice. The double line spacing reminds me of typing essays for uni. The colloquial use of "tops" instead of "top" is a bit jarring. 

This is the second year in a row that Tony's record is compared to Stan Musial. On this card we get another possible answer to the 'What if?' question - in the 30 games before the season stopped, Tony was batting at .433. If he had kept up that intensity then he would have cleared .400 if the season had reached September. So, now the question is, could he have kept up that intensity?

Card Number 319: Upper Deck SP Championship, 1995; #88 

Every team had one player who was also selected for a Major League Profile card in this set as well.

No idea what the hyphen is about. 

The back is related to the Padres performances in the post-season. It was the SP Championship series after all. At this point in their history, the Padres post-season results for their entire history fitted comfortably on the back of a baseball card.

Something I learned today - the Padres were the first National League team to lose the first two games of a divisional championship game and win the series. Looking at the season results from 1993 and 1994 shows how Tony was mired in an underperforming team, even while he was winning batting titles and setting the modern record for batting average. 

More SP cards tomorrow!

Total: 319/394