Nothing sketchy about this card

This was another card in the envelope that arrived from Casey in California recently. It's from another one of those random Skybox ranges as the Fleer company flirted with bankruptcy and was releasing all sorts of different sets trying to find one that would capture the imagination (and cash) of collectors. 

Card Number 1040: Skybox Dugout Axcess, 1998; #126

It's a"7th inning sketch", like the 7th inning stretch, geddit?

Unlike other card sets that featured artistic renditions of players, this card has had the art effect switched on in a very early version of PhotoShop, which was only 10 years old in 1998.

There is a great factoid on the back about Tony flying to watch his son, Tony Jr, in a basketball game. Like his dad, Tony Jr later swapped basketball for baseball and had his own major league career starting about ten years after this card was printed. (Here are some Tony Gwynn Jr baseball cards.)

Dugout Axcess was a 'one shot' for Skybox. Fleer was taken over the following year and the Skybox brand disappeared along with the sets. There were three cards of Tony in the set - I've blogged the other two here - and he also makes a cameo appearance on Ken Caminiti's card, which is one I will have to try and track down some day...

In the meantime, thank you Casey for filling this gap in my collection.

Total: 1040 cards

Flying high with Skybox

Skybox and Fleer were merged together when Marvel acquired both companies and then stayed together after Marvel went bankrupt and sold off their trading card companies as a going concern. (That sentence is proof, if any were needed, that the 90s was a different time. Imagine Marvel going bankrupt now!) 

Anyway, as part of the Fleer family, it's fitting that some Skybox cards are squeezed into Fabulous Fleer Fortnight.

Card Number 951: Skybox Supernatural, 1999; #141

This has a metal sheen to it similar to the Skybox Metal Universe cards. It makes it a rascal to scan.

The awkward poise in the photo, combined with the finish and the colouration of this card, make me feel slightly uncomfortable. Tony is running, but it looks like he is jumping. His bat is flying off the card. It's all angular and weird, mainly because of the graphic design choices. 

The back is remarkably restrained for a Skybox card. An unfussy picture and a big stats box. The curves on the stats box are unusual.

Card Number 952: Skybox Thunder www.Batterz.com, 1999; #4

That web address is part of the name of this 10-card insert series insert series from Skybox Thunder. It's all fancy and cyberspacey because it was 1999 and the Internet was going to change the world! In case you think I'm joking, look there is a vintage web page header on the card front!

On the back we get a pure trademark Skybox weird cardback write-up that kicks off with plagiarising 'Ghetto Superstar' by Pras. 

There is also another reference to 'Death, taxes and Tony Gwynn batting over .300' being the only certainties in life! This one predates the Fleer Focus card from 2000 that I blogged about a couple of days ago. Not content with plagiarising popular songs, Fleer also reused their own weird descriptions!

One day, when I run out of new cards to blog I am going to do a 'Best of Skybox Weird Write-ups' post. I promise. (Remind me of this and hold me to my promise!) 

That batterz.com web address is long dead by the way. But continuing on the Internet theme...

Card Number 953: Skybox E-ticket, 2000; #9

Back in 2000 just about every word had an "e" attached to make it internetty. Also, check out the hand cursor icon. 

On the back is a slightly more restrained write up. There is also another long-dead website that a keen fan could surf to and look at more photos. How many more photos? It feels to me that if Fleer had lots of photos they wouldn't have used the same photo on the front as they did on the back. That pixellation effect doesn't fool me!

I love these late 90s nostalgic reminders of the innocent days of the Internet when it was all shiny and exciting and the thought of seeing more photos would persuade people to type a web address into their computer. Who would have predicted it would have ended up where we are now?

Total: 953 cards

Base Metals

Here's a 'back to base' post, as I have acquired a run of Tony's base cards from the Skybox range called 'Metal Universe'. These were once high end cards sold by the Fleer Skybox conglomerate. There are probably people who love these cards. I find Skybox cards are almost always off-kilter in some respect, usually odd word choices (like on this insert card!) and sometimes the overall concept is uncanny. 

Metal Universe cards are all super-shiny so I had to use my overhead scanner on them.

Card Number 903: Skybox Metal Universe, 1996; #235

How could you tell that this garish, shiny card with a weird image of Tony mashing milk out of a giant blue sponge ball was issued in the mid-90s? Apart from everything? This is compter-generated imagery from the 90s... on acid. 

The photo on the back is strangely old-fashioned. The unflattering comparison that came to my mind was Joey Tribbiani's explanation of "smell the fart acting". Tony looks mildly troubled by something. 

The interlocking gear teeth image at the bottom is part of the 'metal universe' theme. There are worse ways to waste space on the back of a baseball card. 

Card Number 904: Skybox Metal Universe, 1997; #219

I've over-exposed this scan slightly. But otherwise it just scans incoherently. Instead of making a dash for first base, Tony is running though a fantasy cave complex pursued by bats. I'd like to think the bats are because Tony was an extraordinary wielder of the baseball bat. But there could be a more mundane reason, like using up leftover graphics from a computer game.

There's a more natural photo on the back. The cardback design has a steampunk look. Props to them for giving Tony a number containing the number 19. (No bonus points though!)

Card Number 905: Skybox Metal Universe, 1998; #178

This is probably the nicest of the cards I'm showing in this post. The shiny front has Tony batting... on a sand dune... with the ocean in the background... and it looks very nice. Completely bizarre, but I'm always up for something a bit different. And this is a happy trigger for a digression.

Back in 2004, when I went on a road trip around California with my wife Cathy, we drove down Highway 1 all the way from San Francisco to San Diego, so photos of that Pacific coast bring back good memories. We went to Cardiff-by-the-Sea and sent postcards back to all our friends living in Cardiff. Because we like irony. 

Anyway, back to the card, and the cardback. Ho, boy! This would have looked five or six years out of date in 1998. That kind of graded background was from the beginning of the decade! And turquoise! That was the colour of 1993!

The stats boxes designed to look like a scoring chart are nicely done though. 

Card Number 906: Skybox Metal Universe, 1999; #47

A bonus scan this time to explain the difference the overhead scanner makes. First, here is the flatbed scan.

And here is the overhead scan. 

The rivet marks make this card look like it should be embossed. It's not embossed. Given their usual commitment to gimmicky stuff, this feels like a real missed opportunity for Skybox.

The rivets continue on to the back. It's an odd photo, with Tony looking frustrated. He looks like he is walking back to the dug out after a flyball was caught. I'd also ding this card a point for having unreadable stats information perpendicular to the card. 

And that's it for the Metal Universe. The range only lasted 4 years. There were cards released in 2000 with the brand name 'Metal', and that was the last hurrah for these shiny cards. The Metal cards in 2000 were also the end of cards being sold under the Skybox brand.

Total: 906 cards

See through Skybox becomes foil Fleer

I'm not really sure where to file E-X cards. Trading Card Database lists them as both Fleer and Skybox ranges, which was the same company at the time. I think they just flipped a coin to see which company name got stuck on the cards in a given year.

Card Number 807: Skybox E-X2001, 1998; #13

I am dinging this acetate card a point for having a year in the set name that isn't the year it was released. Hunting it down on TCDb was a pain!

There were 100 cards in this set. The scanner has picked up all the blue in the silvery streak on the left. The right hand side is clear, but a bit yellow with age. This is the acetate version of the warping that happens to chromatised cards. 

The back is as odd as any other acetate card. Because of the see-through nature, Tony's disembodied hand looks a bit spooky.

There is limited space to fit in a stats box, so they have gone for one season's worth of stats.

Card Number 808: Skybox E-X Century, 1999; #4

1999, the year when everyone referenced the end of the century...

There were 120 acetate cards in this set. The clear bits on this card have also gone slightly yellow.  Fleer/Skybox used a similar font to the one used for Tony's name on this card on a few other ranges around about this time.

Again, because the back is see-through. the reversed out printed shape becomes an odd block. The one year stats line is bent on a curve to fit into the shape. 

Card Number 809: Fleer E-X, 2000; #4

Tony was number 4 in this set for the second year running although this was now a Fleer range, not branded as Skybox. Fleer stopped using acetate for their E-X range and went for foiled shininess instead. The ribbon effect of the X in the background is pretty.

On the back they made it look like an acetate card by flipping the image of Tony complete with a mirrored San Diego across his chest. 

Even though there was no need to put the stats line on a fancy curve, Fleer went and did it anyway.

Total: 809 cards

Skybox wooden wordplay

I'm sure "wood" has the same euphemistic connotations in American English as it does in British English. In fact, I would imagine the other meaning is a transatlantic import back to the old continent. So, I can't believe the designers and writers at Skybox didn't know exactly what possible interpretation they were flirting with when they named this insert series.

Card Number 660: Skybox Metal Universe Boyz With the Wood insert, 1999; #8BW

OK, so they were probably going for a riff on the film title Boyz n the Hood that was released in 1991. But, this was eight years after that film and it really feels like every other punning name for an insert series had been taken so Skybox came up with this risque take.

And the 'cards' are weird too. I think this is the front.

Which makes this the back.

As far as I can work out, from the folding guidelines, this is meant to be manipulated into a second card by basically bending it into shape. I can't find an image on Google of one that has been constructed and the picture on Baseballcardpedia is actually of the Tony Gwynn card looking like this. According to that page, the odds of finding one of these cards was 1 in 18 packs.

This is from the same set as the MLPD unscannable insert card that was basically the reason why I asked for an overhead scanner for Christmas. However, unlike the MLPD card this doesn't have a cardback, which means no whacky write up this time. Baseballcardpedia blames the tendency towards weird comments on the back of the Skybox and Fleer cards of the time on an attempt to make cards more appealing to younger collectors. I totally agree with the wiki writer's summary that "The language used on cardbacks has not aged well." Although I doubt it was ever appropriate really. 

As with the Upper Deck bobblehead card, I'm going to want a second one of these so that I can bend it to get the second card for display in my binders. Maybe Skybox were onto something with this insert idea. It's just a shame they chose such a terrible name for it. 

And, annoyingly, this is yet another set where I have inserts but don't have the base card, so that's another one to try and find.

Total: 660 cards

Scholastic Skybox

Skybox did some odd ranges and some odd cards. I don't think I'm being harsh, saying that. (Last week I blogged about a card I labelled "whacky") The Emotion ranges in the mid-90s are similarly strange. Not least the choice of "emotion". Last time I blogged one of these cards I queried whether the emotion was actually an emotion. 

I'm going to do the same thing here.

Card Number 474: Skybox Emotion, 1995; #187

The emotion they chose to highlight was "Scholar". There's no debate here, is there? I mean, that just isn't an emotion.

It's a great photo though. It looks like Tony is saying "ooooooh".

The back is a confusing composite of different photos, which includes Tony with and without his Van Dyck beard. 

Considering the emotion is "Scholar" there is no mention of Tony's pioneering use of video, the hours he spent scrutinising pitchers, or even his recommendation to at least spend your time in the on deck circle watching how the pitcher throws the ball at the guy ahead of you in the line up.

Last week I said that i doubted any collector misses Skybox. That's not going to change soon.

Total: 474 cards

Scanning Nightmares - MLPD

Of all the cards I would dub a 'scanning nightmare', this is the most nightmarish of all. Perhaps I should have posted it on Halloween a few days ago, but I went for treats instead of tricks!

So, what makes this such a nightmare? Well, it's foil. Not only that, it's bronze foil (looks brown in most lights). It's quite an ugly card in hand as well. 

Card Number 460: Skybox Metal Universe, 1999; #283

There were actually three Tony Gwynn cards in this set as Tony featured in two themes within the set as well. MLPD stood for Major League Prominent and Dominant, apparently. 

This is how is scans

I've taken a photo so show what it looks like in unscanned form. 

And if that's not enough, there's a write-up on the back that is downright whacky.

Whoever wrote the cardback copy for Skybox has a bit of a bro-dude attitude going on. (Also in evidence on the Spring Training card). I'm going to add "pure-n-easy hitter" to my list of unique ways that Tony is described on the back of a baseball card. But the way it starts sets my teeth on edge.

This might seem mean, but when people list the card companies they would like to see make a return to the baseball hobby, they never seem to mention Skybox. Cards like this are part of the reason why.

Total: 460 cards 

Access with an X

Every so often a set appears that needs a bit of research. Dugout Axcess (sic) is one such range. According to this article on Beckett's it was a one-year wonder aimed at younger collectors. It was also released by Skybox when Marvel operated the brand and Beckett mentions some cards that paired baseball players with superheroes. I had to look those up on Trading Card Database and it's true, but sadly Tony didn't feature in that 10-card insert set.

However, Tony did feature on more than one card in the set.

Card Number 397: Skybox Dugout Axcess, 1998; #43

The X in Axcess is formed from two crossed bats, which I thought was just a design motif, but actually it's the proper name of the set!

This card is similar to a Skybox card featuring Tony at Spring Training, with him carting his equipment bag around. He's carrying at least three bats poking out of the top. This set definitely went for quirky photos - Roger Clemens' card has a picture of him bunting!

The back carries a photo and quote from Orel Hershiser, which made me wonder if there is another card from the set with a little inset photo of Tony saying something about another player. I decided if I was really committed I would go through all the images on TCDb and find out.

The answer is 'yes'. Tony provided a little quote on the back of team-mate Ken Caminiti's card.

Tony has another card in the base set as part of a 'sketch' series. I don't have that card, but I do have a card from the 'Double Header' insert set.

Card Number 398: Skybox Dugout Axcess Double Header, 1998; #18DH

This insert series was printed on foilboard and doesn't scan well. 

I'm going to be petty and ding this a point for the missed opportunity to give Tony the number 19 card in a 20 card set, instead of 18.

Double Header was a dice-based card game (dice not included) that looks absurdly tedious and I predict has been played by no one, ever. On the front of the card it lists the outcome of a dice roll if someone was playing using this card. On the back it explains what the abbreviations are. 

I have a dorky interest in games and I know that on a two dice roll the most common numbers to roll are 6,7 and 8. To have those numbers allocated to the outcomes "double play", "ground out" and "hit by pitch" are just terrible game design decisions. They also don't take into account Tony's actual ability to make a base hit and seriously overplay the likelihood of him being hit by a pitch. In his 20-season career, Tony was only hit by a pitch 24 times. But the likelihood of rolling an 8 with two dice is 13.89% - which would be a huge number if that probability reflected reality considering he made over 10,000 plate appearances. 

This wasn't the first time a card set tried to introduce an interactive game element, and it probably won't be the last. They all seem like they would be extremely boring, but at least it gave me an extra Tony Gwynn card for the collection.

Total: 398 cards

Up in the Skybox

I'm posting today about some cards produced by Skybox, a card company that was merged with Fleer during the time that the latter was owned by the Marvel Entertainment Group. Marvel barely had any time to release anything under the Skybox brand before selling the whole Fleer/Skybox concern during a bankruptcy fire sale. The new owners decided to use the Skybox brand for a few sets each year, but a bit like the Fleer sets at the time, these ranges didn't last very long.

Skybox seem to be fairly high end cards, but they feature some odd photos and design choices, which might be why they have become cards that nobody really seems to talk, or care, about.

Card Number 382: Skybox Premium, 1999; #119

I don't have a non-premium card to compare this with, although I have blogged about a Skybox Premium card before - when Tony was having a Spring Fling.

The photo is kinda artsy, with an orange and blue squiggle across the background, and a florid TG in gold foil. 

On the back there's an interesting design lay-out.

The prominent number 19 is not to be confused with the set number - which is 119! I don't like the perpendicular stats box. What was the design team thinking with that?

Card Number 383: Skybox, 2000; #48

They added a 'zoom effect' to this photo by blurring out and recolouring half the photo.

The photo on the back is a hot mess of the PhotoShop blur feature.

That's a nice font for his name on the back. However, a truncated stats box normally sees me ding a point from any card. Eagle-eyed viewers will note that Tony is wearing a different shirt from the photo in the front because it doesn't have the white edging around the collar and down the front. He's also wearing different wrist protectors - the number 19 is really easy to see on these.

Card Number 384: Skybox Dominion, 2000; #101

"Dominion" is definitely the name given to a card set named after all the good names were taken.

The background of the photo has been recoloured black and white. This was a photo from the 1999 season, judging by the 30th anniversary patch on Tony's sleeve.

The photo on the back is very odd. That's not a game jersey, so this is probably a close cropped action shot from batting practice.

The truncated stats box leaves room for some factoids, which maybe makes it more acceptable. The reference to Lou Brock is a bit poignant, given his passing a few weeks ago. 

The odd design choices on this cardback extend to including the beginning of 'Gwynn' under the Padres logo and disappearing behind the photo of Tony. It's unnecessary and the card composition would have been fine with just the logo. 

Total: 384/394 (just 10 to go!)

Sharing the Spotlight - Cesar, Shawn and Brett

Occasionally I show cards which feature other players besides Tony, sharing the spotlight with him. Here are three examples.

Card Number 338, Fleer Ultra, 2002; #236

In 2002 Fleer finished off their base Ultra set with a series that paired a star name with a young player starting out. Tony was paired with Cesar Crespo.

There's a poignancy on the back as they predict bright things for Cesar. As is often the case with baseball card predictions, this didn't come true. The 2001 season was one of the few where Cesar made any Major League appearances. His 55 games for the Padres was his most in a season in MLB, so by the time this card was published his career had already peaked.

However, there are two things that Cesar did manage to do, that Tony didn't. Firstly, he hit a home run while playing against the Giants on 7 June 2001 - and his older brother, Felipe, who was playing for the Giants hit a home run as well! I don't think Tony and Chris Gwynn managed that if they played against each other.

Another way in which Cesar outdid Tony, is that he collected a World Series ring. He was in the Boston Red Sox organisation when they finally broke the 86 year curse and won the World Series in 2004. He didn't play in the latter half of the season, or the post-season, but he got a ring! That was his last year in Major League Baseball before returning to the minor leagues and other competitions.

It's no fault of Cesar's, but I'm going to ding this card for having '2001' prominently under the Fleer logo, in the 2002 set. That's just not helpful!

Card Number 339: Skybox Dominion - Double Play insert, 2000; #DP8

Skybox was a Fleer brand. There were 10 cards in this insert series. The front is foil and didn't scan well. 

Just to prove that I'm not just terrible at scanning, here's a poor quality photo as well.

It's a very shiny card. 

The conceit of the Double Play inserts, is that they had a different player on the back. In this case it was Shawn Green who is wearing a Blur Jays uniform even though the card proclaims he had been "Traded to Dodgers".

"Traded to" used to feature on baseball cards back in the 70s and 80s when a player had switched teams and the card company hadn't updated their photo library. This is a very late occurrence of the phrase on a card. I'm intrigued to know if there has been one this side of the year 2000. Because the back of this card isn't foil it scans much better than Tony's side.

Shawn spent four years at the Dodgers, during which time he racked up several major league records. He once hit 4 home runs in a game and with a fifth hit, recorded 19 "total bases" in one game. That's still a record. His notable Major League career came to an end after the 2007 season, but in 2013 he came out of retirement to coach and play for the Israel team in the World Baseball Classic. (His Wikipedia page is worth a quick read) 

On a sad note, although two of his bats are on display in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, Shawn won't be getting a plaque in the Hall. He dropped off the ballot in his first year of eligibility as he didn't record the minimum required number of votes. I feel that's wrong. He should at least still be eligible.

Card Number 340: DonRuss Limited, 1997; #91

Most of the cards in this set were double-sided with a different player on each side. the pairings were listed as "Counterparts", "Unlimited Talent", "Double Team" (when both players were from the same team), and some players had their own "Star Factor" cards which they didn't share with anyone. Tony had a "Star Factor" card and an "Unlimited Talent" card in the set, but the one I'm showing here is his "Counterparts" card, which he shared with Brett Butler.

It's another shiny card. I like the baseball looming in the background, even though it brings to mind Indiana Jones running away from the boulder.

This is another card where Tony is paired up with a Dodger - behold a bunting Brett Butler. 

This is another card where the reverse scans better than the front. You can really see that giant baseball rolling towards the player!

A few weeks ago, Jeff at Wax Pack Wonders blogged about the "Lesser Knowns" - baseball players with the more famous namesakes. Brett is in this category as he shares his name with the actress from the comedy Grace Under Fire, which was airing on TV while this Brett Butler was playing baseball in the mid-90s. 

The Dodgers were the last of the five major league teams Brett played for in his career. As a fun fact, in 1984, Brett was the very first batter to face Hall of Fame pitcher Roger Clemens in the Major Leagues. Brett earned an All Star spot in 1991 when he led the National League in runs and walks. In 1996 he received treatment for cancer before returning to play a final season in 1997. 

It's been real fun putting these players under the spotlight with Tony in this post. I hope you've enjoyed reading about them.

Total: 340/394

Joining the 3000 Hit Club

It's the 6th August! 21 years ago, at the Stade Olympique in Montreal, Tony Gwynn recorded his 3000th hit. It was his first hit of four on the night, as the Padres beat the Expos 12-10. Here are a few cards issued that marked the occasion.

Card Number 244: Topps, 2000; #459 (Season Highlights)

This card gives some great background information about the lead up to hit number 3000. The night before the Padres played the Cardinals and Mark McGwire recorded his 500th home run. There was every possibility that Tony would hit his own milestone in the same game. Except, the pitching staff in St Louis hadn't read the script...

The card also notes that weirdly Tony achieved both the 2000 hit milestone and the 3000 hit milestone on his mother's birthday, six years apart. That's pretty cool scheduling. (Here's a write up from a couple of years ago about how reaching the milestone in Montreal was a bit of a let down for Tony.)

Card Number 245: Skybox Dominion, 2000; #19 (Season Highlights)

This is an orange card.

This card has a unique look with the orange wash background and Tony picked out in full colour. I hope the photo is of him acknowledging the crowd on the occasion of his 3000th hit. But if so, that's one casual guy with his arms crossed in the dug-out in the background.

The write up on the cardback goes with the 'Mom's birthday' angle, in that bizarre chatty style that Skybox seemed to use on some of their cards. (The Spring Training one is like this.) However, I can forgive them that because this is card number 19 in the set!

Card Number 246: Pacific Private Stock, 2000; #124

Hot damn! Pacific did some nice cards in their time.  

I honestly couldn't like this card more than I do!

The back is a nice faux newspaper story.

In the details on the back it's revealed that Tony was the 22nd player to reach 3,000 hits, and the first National League player since 1979, two decades prior!

Card Number 247: Upper Deck Hitter's Club, 2000; #67

Hitter's Club was a small set of 90 cards featuring players known for their batting skills. Within the set, Tony had a regular card and was part of the 22-card "Why3K?" series featuring all the players who had achieved 3000 hits. 

The "Why3K?" name for the subset was a riff on Y2K, the commonly applied moniker for the year 2000. Often linked with the Millennium Bug fears and the general changeover of the century. I recall the countdown to Y2K was a mixture of wanting to make the most of the occasion and hoping planes didn't fall out of the sky and my bank account wasn't deleted. (Not that I had any money back then!) It's funny what memories get triggered by baseball cards. 

The cardback features a solid portrait photo of Tony and mentions his .394 average in 1994 as well. 

The repetition of Tony's vital statistics three times down the right hand side of the card is decidedly odd. Upper Deck did this on all the "Why3K?" cards. They must have really wanted everyone to know that Tony was 5'11".

Total: 247/394