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

First Five in the Fabulous Fleer Fortnight

I have a lot of Fleer cards to blog and so I decided to do a theme week... then I thought about it and I thought a Fleer Fortnight was more apt. And it would help me 'clear the Fleer'. So this is the first post of my Fabulous Fleer Fortnight!

This first post will feature five cards from the special Tony Gwynn commemorative set - an insert series in Fleer Ultra in 1992. I have gradually acquired eleven of the twelve cards in this set. Here are cards numbered 1, 4, 5, 8 and the two mailaway cards. (I blogged those in August 2020, nearly 700 cards ago!)

Card Number 920: Fleer Ultra Tony Gwynn Commemorative Series, 1992; #2

That's a nice picture of Tony in the proper vintage Padres colours from when he first broke into the team. It looks familar though... Back in July last year I noticed that Topps were using a photo that originally appeared on one of these cards in the commemorative set, on the Archives insert in Series 1 of their flagship set. This photo really looks like the photo used by Topps on their 2021 Stadium Club card.

It was only when I compared the two I realised it wasn't eactly the same photo. Tony is wearing exactly the same gear, but that is a different bat. The dug-out in the background is also different, but I wouldn't put it past Topps to alter that anyway.

There is a decent chunk of biography on the back of the card.

I doubt that Tony really went to college thinking he would "play a little baseball" as well. The way his fellow alumnus Bobby Meacham tells it in He Left His Heart in San Diego, Tony was reluctant to approach his basketball coach to ask about playing baseball. 

Card Number 921: Fleer Ultra Tony Gwynn Commemorative Series, 1992; #3

Outfield photo!

Another chapter of "Big T's" biography on the back. (Big T? Really?)

This chunk of Tony's life concludes by mentioning the broken wrist he sustained in the Puerto Rican league in the winter of 1982-3. It was his right wrist. He had already broken his left wrist during the regular season! 

I do think it's testament to how much Tony loved playing baseball that after a very successful season in the minor leagues he would head off to Peurto Rico to play even more baseball. 

Card Number 922: Fleer Ultra Tony Gwynn Commemorative Series, 1992; #6

This card shows Tony posing with a silver slugger award and a golden glove!

Tony's golden gloves don't get mentioend very often - perhaps that's because he didn't in any in the latter half of his career. His batting titles were evenly split between the first ten years and last ten years that he played. The golden gloves were all early career awards.

Some of his fielding achievements are mentioned in the biography on the back.

As an aside, this is why I roll my eyes when people suggest Fernando Tatis Jr is a better player than Tony Gwynn. Brilliant though he is, Tatis is never going to win five gold gloves in his career. I will predict that now.

Card Number 923: Fleer Ultra Tony Gwynn Commemorative Series, 1992; #9

A baserunning photo. Fleer were trying to show all aspects of Tony's game in this set.

Tony was a multi-sport man. He was a basketball player good enough to be offered an NBA contract. He was a keen fisherman and golfer. I don't know if he ever boxed, but he's putting up his fists on the back of this card. 

Tony's commitment to playing baseball possibly cost him a batting title in 1991. If he had limited his appearances and maintained that .360 average, he would have won it by a margin. (Julio Franco won the batting crown with an average of .341 that season.)

Card Number 924: Fleer Ultra Tony Gwynn Commemorative Series, 1992; #10

These photos on the last card were bang up to date at the time,as the Padres had just switched out their brown accoutrements for blue. 

Tony looks contemplative in the photo on the back. 

This is the second card in a row where Kirby Puckett is mentioned on the back. There is also a mention of his wife and children. His son is referred to as 'Anthony II' instead of junior. 

You may have noticed that the card I am missing from this set is card number 7! Do you have one lying around at home in a random old card box, not really doing anything? Could you help me complete this insert series? I would great appreciate it!

Total: 924 cards

Foolish mistakes on April 1st

Nobody reads cardbacks. That's my explanation for why Topps can produce baseball cards with nonsense on the back. As today is April Fools Day, it feels relevant to feature some foolish mistakes.

Card Number 627: Topps Gypsy Queen, 2011; #28

This was the from the first Gypsy Queen set. The range is a decade old now. 

It's not a particularly exciting card design. And then turn it over and witness how lacksadaisical Topps can be with regard to fact-checking their cards.

My first reaction was "Eh?" Then I remembered Tony Gwynn Jr was playing for the Padres in 2010. Maybe some stat compiler mistook Tony Jr for his dad. Tony Jr did play 117 games for the Padres in 2010, and it was a winning season for the team (90-72; second in the division with a win percentage of .556). But the team didn't play an additional 73 games without him. Those figures on the card add up to 190 games, and the Padres only played 162 games that season.

For the record, the two seasons the Padres have played the most games were the World Series seasons of 1984 and 1998, where they played in 171 and 176 games respectively. Nowhere near the 190 total listed here. Maybe Topps added in Spring Training games.

So, to sum up, it looks like Topps confused Tony Sr and Jr on this card. The picture is clearly Tony Sr even though his son does look like him in a lot of photos. But physically, Tony Jr was very lean in his seasons with San Diego. Then to compound the error, Topps just chucked some random figures on a page that add up to more games than is physically possible to play. (By my calculation, the most games a team could play if they maxed out the post-season series would be 181.)

I know I am sometimes overly-critical of Topps, but these are just weird mistakes that the market leading company really shouldn't be making. 

There was a second Gypsy Queen card in my recent eBay purchase and it highlights something that is becoming more prevelant with Topps - the reuse of images. 

Card Number 628: Topps Gypsy Queen, 2014; #53

(Hey, #53 - that was Tony's first ever number with the Padres.)

Recognise that photo? Well, last week I blogged about a card from 2020 that used it.

It also appeared in sets in 2019. This is the Chrome version.

They've photoshopped it a bit on the Gypsy Queen release, but it's clearly the same photo. I have seen other collectors complain that Topps are using the same images for players again and again. I'm willing to give Topps a bit of leeway on this for players like Tony who played before the era of digital photography. I don't think there can be any excuse for continually reusing photos of any players who are active now. But there is a more limited bank of photos available for stars from the last century.

However, Topps might need to think carefully about how often they reuse images. 2014 to 2019 is an acceptable gap in use. But using this image in two insert series in consecutive years makes it much more obvious.

The cardback is fairly dull, but at least the factoid is about the right Tony Gwynn and the numbers are right. 

I was a bit surprised recently when I made an off-hand comment on Facebook about Gypsy Queen that there are a number of collectors who still really like it. Personally, I think it's feeling a bit tired, but it's still popular with the people who like to rip packs and build sets and as long as it sells I have a feeling Topps will keep producing it.

Total: 628 cards

And another Tony Gwynn...

I'm reaching the end of my cards to blog, so thought I'd do something a bit different today. Here are some cards featuring Tony Gwynn's son, Anthony Keith Gwynn Jr, also known as Tony Gwynn Jr.

I recently watched the MLBTV documentary about Tony Gwynn (thanks to Daniel in Chicago who recorded it for me), and Tony Jr shares several stories in that, including how at college he went in to bat in his first game, went 0-4 and decided he would be known as Anthony Gwynn Jr for the rest of the year. Being Tony mark II was not easy, particularly as he was at San Diego State where his dad was a legend.

Tony Jr was drafted by the Brewers after college, playing for them for three seasons from 2006-2008. He then moved to the Padres for a couple of seasons before signing for the LA Dodgers. Tony Jr's uncle, Chris, had also played for the Dodgers, and it was the team Tony Jr's grandfather, dad and both his uncles supported. Chris Gwynn also played for the Padres, so Tony Jr was the third Gwynn to play for them. 

After a year out of the game, Tony Jr had a return to the Major Leagues in 2014 with the Phillies, playing 80 games for them. He was on the road with the Phillies when he got the news that his father had passed away.

I've got cards of Tony Jr playing for three of the Major League sides he represented.

Tony was still with the Brewers on this Upper Deck card in 2008.

He appeared on these three cards in Upper Deck's 2010 set. The "Season Biography" card mentions how he moved to San Diego in 2009.

His base card in 2010 shows him diving to make a catch. I think he really looks like his dad in that photo.

One the back, we get a note that this is an unlicensed baseball card. Topps had been given the monopoly, but Upper Deck went and put out this set anyway. Topps sued them and, to date, this remains the last baseball card set released by Upper Deck.

Tony was also on the team checklist, along with Chase Headley, who played for the Padres for 7 and a half seasons before moving to the Yankees, returning to San Diego for a final season in 2018.

The back of the checklist helpfully reminds everyone of a not very good Padres season.

By the time Topps released their 2012 set, Tony was with the Dodgers. In the photo he is just about to dive to try and reach base. 

The cardback mentions him diving to catch balls as a fielder.

Looking at his stats on that latter card, it's clear Tony Jr wasn't as attuned to hitting as his dad. He had an 8-year career in the Major Leagues, which would be considered very successful in other families. It does feel, however, that Tony Jr was always going to be playing in his dad's shadow.

Tony Jr now does a lot of media work in San Diego. He's a very watchable studio presence and seems very personable. Like the rest of the Gwynn family, he has done a lot to maintain his father's legacy, and he is a great ambassador for baseball.

I don't count any of these cards as "Tony Gwynn cards" for the purposes of my collection, but I do keep them as part of my collection. 

I'm taking a break tomorrow and plan to be back on Monday with another Modern Monday post.