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

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

Leader of the Team

Card Number 743: Fleer Team Leaders, 1992; #7

This was another one of the half dozen cards from Jeff that arrived on Tuesday. It's green. It's got a bit of foil on it. It's really nice. (I find green cards really attractive for some reason.)

These cards were inserted into Fleer's rack packs at a rate of one per pack. Tony is making a catch on the warning track. Somebody's not getting a home run!

On the back, Tony is described as "Primre Padre" - I've not seen Spanish on a Fleer card before! (Although it's a bit weird because it means 'First Father' if translated literally. Maybe they would have been better with "Jefe de Equipo".) 

In the write up, he is described as a "franchise player", which Fleer claim is a term that is "used in baseball lingo". (It feels like they should have added "Honest it is! No, really!")

Reading cardbacks like this from halfway through Tony's career are always slightly overshadowed by knowing what came next. He was already an all-time Padres leader in a number of statistics, but there was so much more to come. Another four batting titles. A string of seasons posting over .350. Eight more All Star Games. The .394 season.

Also in this write up there is a really lovely turn of phrase when whoever wrote this managed to go poetic, rhyming 'nation' and 'rotation'. 

For this post, I've paired this card up with one that arrived in the parcel from France a few weeks back. 

Card Number 744: Fleer Team Leaders, 1994; #27

These inserts could be found at a ratio of one in every six packs. The front is a good example of how computer aided design changed the look of baseball cards in the early to mid-90s, with two photos and the logo arranged artfully on an orange and teal background. So nineties!

On the back, Tony's hitting is described as pillaging. 

My inner number-nerd let out a slight "Squee!" when I saw Tony's strike-out total for the 1993 season. How many players strike out to match their shirt number!

Total: 744 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

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

Three cards to complete a Pacific quintet

Here are three more cards released by Pacific in 1999. 

Card Number 540: Pacific Invincible Sandlot Heroes insert, 1999; #17

I mentioned yesterday that Pacific had a penchant for photoshopping cards. Invincible was the product where they did it most often.

As with Tony's card in the regular Pacific release, this card was released with two different card fronts. There were 20 cards in the insert series, but all had two versions, meaning it was actually a 40-card set!

The alternative photo version of this card was of Tony at the plate. 

The posed photo on the back is a rare picture of Tony sans headgear. The cardback is bilingual with Spanish given priority.

I prefer "Heroes del Diamante" to "Sandlot Heroes". It definitely sounds better.

Card Number 541: Pacific Crown Collection, 1999; #242

Crown Collection was Pacific's main product aimed at Spanish speakers. The base card isn't particularly exciting.

The back picks an arbitrary batting average (.320) as a noteworthy data point, and also shows how close he was to his 500th double. (He ended up hitting 543 in his career.)

Card Number 542: Pacific Crown Royale Pillars of the Game insert, 1999; #20

Crown Royale cards were die-cut into a crown shape. I blogged about the 2000 version back in June. There were 25 cards in this insert series.

It's shiny and colourful, and, let's be honest, gaudy. 

There's a bit of history on the back. I've noticed how card companies often decided to summarise college careers and being drafted on cardbacks, instead of more contemporary achievements. This card was released 18 years after Tony was drafted, but that's what they chose to talk about.

Total: 542 cards 

Earth-shaking cards

Today's post will see this blog reach 400 cards, which is a milestone I wasn't really expecting to get to when I  started out on this project. Especially as I was aiming for 394 cards. 

I've decided to celebrate with two cards produced by Pacific that really embody the weird collecting journey I have been on this year. These came out of an eBay lot and tick a lot of the boxes you'd expect from Pacific cards.

• Colourful - check
• Spanish - check
• Variation for no reason - check
• Strange choice for a set name - check

Card Number 399: Pacific Invincible Seismic Force, 1999; #16 (portrait photo)

I do wonder if there's a link between California, earthquakes and this set name.

I quite like the orange. It's a bit different.

"Despligues de Fuerza!" That's Spanish for "Seismic Force".

There are only 20 numbered cards in this set, but Pacific produced two versions of each card. With the same number. That means there are actually 40 cards in the insert series to collect. 

Pacific liked to do things like this to keep collectors on their toes!

Card Number 400: Pacific Invincible Seismic Force, 1999; #16 (running photo)

Basically, Pacific swapped the photo theme round to have an action photo on the front...

...and a portrait photo on the back.

The text is the same on both cards. It's just the photography that's different. 

And that takes the total up to 400 cards!

Monday mixer

Here are 3 random, unrelated cards, that I'm posting because it's Monday and we can all use some random drops of joy in our lives on a Monday.

Card Number 62: Sportkings  (Series D), 2010; #180

There are two versions of this card. This is the slightly smaller version. It's not as small as a Topps Mini, but it's smaller than a regular sized trading card. This is also another entry into the 'When is a baseball card not a baseball card?' category. The Trading Card Database lists this as a 'multi-sport' card. The series includes famous sportsmen from across a range of sporting activities.

Sport Kings Gum was one of the ranges brought out by the card manufacturer Goudey before the Second World War. The brand got revived several decades later, and this is from when it was an independent little company. It has also been part of Leaf. When this was produced the company had no affiliations with Major League Baseball, but look at how cunning they have been in their portrait of Tony - on the front of his cap are his pioneering sunglasses, and you can just see a little bit of the SD logo.  That's sneaky!

On the back there is nice little bio and we also learn the card was printed in Canada. Just another odd little aspect of this odd little oddball card.

Card Number 63, Pacific Invincible, 1999; #122

I have one card in my collection so far which is part acetate. This is the card. That little window with Tony's face is actually a window. Pacific are one of those card companies that created little masterpieces that no-one really asked for. Die-cuts and gold foil and see-through bits and all kind of things to make their cards stand out. This may be an unpopular opinion, but the hobby is poorer without Pacific.

There's the back. There's some blurb in Spanish as well as English and the picture of Tony is mirrored because it's printed on acetate. It's weird to think this is the view Tony would have had of himself if he looked in a mirror. He is properly legging it in that photo as well. That's a man on a mission to reach the next base!

Card Number 64: Upper Deck Collector's Choice (The Big Show Insert Series), 1997; #39
The Big Show was one of 20 insert series in the 1997 Collector's Choice set. The premise is that baseball commentators Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick, hosts of ESPN's SportsCenter, are talking about various players in a commentator style.

The cards are foiled on the front, so look nicer than in this scan.

The back has one of the most confusing layouts I've ever seen on a baseball card. It's another 90s design classic!

Basically the text is interlinear as if the commentators are talking over each other. It's horrible to read and I can't work out which person is saying what. Separately they are saying:

"Hit .353 in '96 to win his seventh batting title, which is third-most in Major League history... Has hit .300 or better for 14 consecutive seasons ('83-96)... Has .337 career average, highest among active Major Leaguers ... Posted 2,500th career hi 8-14-96."

"If there is such a thing as a hitting artist, Tony is it. "Mr Padre" is another one the small list of players that I would pay to see. He won a batting title in '96 despite suffering from a painful heel injury. If you broke his legs, he'd probably still get a hit off you."

Am I the only one who feels a slightly sinister undertone in that final sentence?

Keith Olbermann has also been a political commentator but he is back on ESPN now. In He Left His Heart in San Diego Keith recalls meeting Tony Gwynn, who called him Mr Olbermann until Keith asked him not to. They became friends and Keith knew how excited Tony was to be playing at Yankee Stadium in the 1998 World Series. He asked the Yankee stadium announcer, Bob Sheppard, to record his intro for Tony Gwynn and then put it in a talking photo frame and gave it to him. Apparently Tony was so taken by it, that he kept the frame in his trophy cabinet next to the silver bats he won.

That's your Monday Mixer. Have a great day!

Total: 64/394

Jardinero!

Card Number 51: Pacific, 1993; #257
Trading Card Database lists this set as "Pacific Spanish". I don't know if there was a "Pacific English" set.

Jardinero means 'gardener' in Spanish. In the baseball context it means 'outfielder'.

Pacific was one of the companies that came into the packed early 90s card market and managed to bring something a little different with them. In this case, the Spanish language. After reading the same sort of factoids on the backs of so many cards, the description of Tony as "el mejor bateador de contacto" is a welcome break. All in all, it's a decent card too. Nice colours, good photos.

In my opening post I mentioned visiting the USA in 1987 with my family. We changed planes in New York, where I bought a musical badge with a picture of the 1986 Mets team on it, and then flew to Florida for a week. We did Walt Disney World and the Epcot Centre. We then went to Miami, where I remember getting very confused by the addition of sales tax when I tried to buy some baseball cards in a drugstore. Then we flew to Oklahoma where some friends of my parents lived. They had daughters about the same age as me and my brother.

I remember discovering that at school they were learning Spanish. I thought that was the daftest thing I had ever heard. At secondary school in the UK you learned French. You might get the chance to learn German. Nobody learned Spanish. What was the point of that? (Thinking about it, it's weird we didn't get taught Spanish given how popular Spain is as a holiday destination.)

That was my Eurocentrism at work there. French and German were the big languages on the continent. I didn't realise the USA had a large Hispanic population or that Spanish was the second most popular spoken language. (There was a lot I didn't know about the USA. I also had my mind blown when I lost a quiz question about the smallest state in the USA. I was adamant it must be Hawaii. Right up until they showed me an encyclopedia entry about Rhode Island.)

Pacific saw a gap in the market for Spanish cards and jumped into it with this licensed set. Prior to this they had produced a few other baseball collectibles. However, although it was an untapped market, it was also a limited market and the Spanish cards were a short-lived thing.

For the rest of the 90s, Pacific did some pretty jazzy cards. I have a few to show you in future posts.

Total: 51/394