Score Summit

I am feeling a bit guilty at neglecting this blog, but life gets in the way sometimes. I had a very busy April, including working my notice before switching to a new job and various other activities that took up my time. I also haven't acquired many new cards - just one new one arrived in April. 

However, I do still have a little backlog of cards to work through. Today's post features a couple of cards from when Summit was a Score brand rather than a Pinnacle brand - although they were all the same company underneath anyway.

Card Number 1006: Score Summit Edition, 1995; #6

There were 200 cards in this 'hobby exclusive' set. 173 cards were 'base' cards like this. The foil team logos made them slightly fancier than regular Score cards that year. The Pinnacle companies love affair with foil on cards was only just starting. 

The back has a candid photo of Tony and a monthly breakdown of his 1994 season.The September / October column is full of zeroes because no games were played in those months due to the player strike that cut the season short.

I'm a fan of different ways of representing data on cardbacks, and so this card gets a bonus point for the way the back is laid out. 

In addition to cards like this there were two 'subsets' in the 200-card base set. The Bat Speed subset also featured Tony.

Card Number 1007: Score Summit Edition, 1995; #183

The white background blends into the card border on the front, which isn't particularly striking. However the way Bat Speed is written as if it's zooming in from the edge of the card is charming. 

On the back we get a photo of Tony swinging through.

Neither photo is particularly good, considering it's a subset about batting. The angle of both photos means Tony is looking down and his face is obscured by his batting helmet. 

In subsequent years Summit was the name of an actual set, rather than being linked to Score. So these cards come from an interesting evolutionary moment as the set emerged into the hobby.

Total: 1007 cards

Certified Selection

It's difficult keeping track of what went on at Pinnacle in the mid-90s, before the company collapsed in epic fashion. There were two main brands of cards - Pinnacle and Score - and both had several sub-brands. The company expanded further with the Select range almost becoming a third stand alone brand, even to the point where it was introducing its own sub-ranges. 

So it all gets confusing. They had some nice cards though.

Card Number 972: Pinnacle Select Certified Edition, 1996; #21

There were 144 cards in this high end shiny set.

The back is a dark red. One thing that Pinnacle did across several of their ranges is experiment with data representation. On this card, they have divided up Tony's stats from the previous season against all the opponents that he faced. This was all National League teams as it was before the current era of inter-league play every season. 

I was going to say Tony did well in his 13 games against the Dodgers until I saw his stats in 11 games against the Astros. Tony battered the Houston pitchers. He got a hit in over half of his at bats. They must have been sick of the sight of him!

Total: 972 cards

Some older Gold Label cards

I selected today's cards with Fuji and YoRicha in  mind, because they said they liked the Gold Label cards that I posted at the beginning of the week. All these cards are slightly pearlescent so I used the overhead scanner on them. The results are a bit flakey, but at least the design is visible. 

Card Number 968: Topps Gold label, 1998; #14

Awkward photo juxtaposition ahoy!

Seriously, that photo arrangement makes it look like Tony is kneecapping his larger self.

These 'cards' are printed on quite thick plasticky card - much thicker than usual card stock. The material they are printed on contributes to the sheen on the card. It also warps slightly. 

The candid photo on the back should have a thought bubble saying "Huh!?" next to it. 

Right, okay, back on Tuesday I questioned what Topps was doing by discounting the 1994 season and the .394 batting average that everyone associates with Tony on their modern Gold Label cards. Back in 1998, Topps didn't have an issue with Tony hitting .394 in a season that was shortened by strike action. Here they have it as his career best batting average. They also explain how they calculated the 'average season' using 'at bats' rather than the number of games. That makes more sense and just adds to my suspicion that the company's employees knew what they were doing back in the late 90s compared to the people working there now. 

I have one of the books mentioned in the factoid - Tony Gwynn's Total Baseball Player. One day I hope to get hold of The Art of Hitting as well. 

Card Number 969: Topps Gold Label Class 1, 1999; #6

Topps introduced the class system to the range in 1999 and the shine on the cards was even more iridescent.

That fielding photo looks really familiar, but I don't think it was on a Topps card.

On the back there is another cameo portrait of Tony with a quizzical expression. 

The factoid about Tony's loyalty doesn't mention that apparently other top players were annoyed with him for staying with the Padres because it was dragging down the market value of all the other players. (Did that really happen? Now it's all part of the mythos.)

For those taking notes, the career best batting average on this card is .394. Also, a bonus point for this card having the class number on the back (by the team logo) - which makes it a lot easier for people like me trying to work out which cardback is which!

Card Number 970: Topps Gold Label Class 2, 1999; #6

One of the photos has been changed on the front, along with the team logo behind Tony.

The cardback is virtually identical apart from the class number.

Card Number 971: Topps Gold Label Class 2, 2000; #11

In this year's set the class is printed on the front of the card, etched into the foil.

That photo on the back is from the photoshoot that Topps used on some of their tribute cards in the 2000 flagship set, except this time, Tony isn't looking straight down the camera lens.

So a couple of things about this cardback. Firstly, the important career batting average high point stat is correct! Secondly, a factoid about walks! This is a really rare topic for factoids, because although Tony drew a fair few walks (as is obvious by the factoid!), generally he made contact at the plate. Except when opponents opted not to pitch at all! 

I always love learning something new from a card - so kudos to Topps for this!

Total: 971 cards

Tuesday Twins - more Gold Label parallels

Following on from yesterday's Gold Label cards from 2021, here are some more from the Topps range that perpetuates the class system.

Card Number 963: Topps Gold Label Class 1, 2019; #92

As with the more recent cards that I blogged yesterday, this card juxtaposes an older photo of Tony with a more recent one. In this case it's a photo from either 1985 or 1986 and a photo that's probably from 2001.

Like the cards from 2021, the cardback has Tony's 'average season' stats and states that Tony's season best batting average was .372. I still can't decide if this is an error by Topps or just someone behind the scenes being a pedantic dork and discounting the stats from 1994 because it wasn't a 162 game season. Whatever the reason, Topps has been printing this stat for a while. 

The factoid is a useful illustration of how well Tony hit in the clutch. He didn't often get to two strikes as he liked to swing at the first pitch if he could. But when he got to two strikes, it was very rare that he would get to three.

Card Number 963: Topps Gold Label Class 1 (black parallel), 2019; #92

Like yesterday, here is a black parallel to compare with the regular class 1 card.

The black parallel looks much more striking as a card, and also makes the 'class 1' lettering much more obvious in the scan.

I have a confession - the cardback I showed you previously could have been from either the regular or the parallel. I scanned them together and can't tell them apart. Here's a scan of both of them to show what I mean.

And, as a bonus, another card from the same set and same year...

Card Number 965: Topps Gold Label Class 2, 2019; #92

I really like the white Padres uniform with the yellow, orange and brown accents. That uniform is the one worn by the team in the 1984 World Series, and replaced almost immediately with the switch to pinstripes for the 1985 season. (Maybe it's because I'm a child of the seventies, but it feels to me that the move to pinstripes in the 1980s was a boring choice!)

The cardback is the same again, complete with the description of Tony's batting after two strikes as "preposterous", and a mention of Wade Boggs.

With baseball itself very much in the balance for 2022, I don't know if Gold Label is scheduled to appear again. I'm waiting to see if Topps persist with claiming Tony's best batting average is .372. If Topps do, then I might get in touch with them and ask what their reasoning is. 

Total: 965 cards

Modern Monday - Fire (but no chestnuts roasting!)

There are a surprising number of references to fires in Christmas songs. And the background of this card makes it look a bit Christmassy to me, because it reminds me of a stained glass window. This card was an early Christmas present from Mark Benn - thanks Mark!

Card Number 898: Topps Fire, 2021; #162

Topps Fire doesn't seem to have fans like their other sets. Mark, who sent this to me, is the only person I know in the UK collectors group who opened any packs of Topps Fire.

I like this design. It's colourful. It looks a bit different to other sets put out this year. True, Topps are doing their usual thing of not showing the player's face clearly and, apart from the San Diego logo on Tony's helmet, this may as well be an unlicensed card considering the pose they have chosen. But it's still a nice card. And yet the set doesn't seem to be appealing to many collectors. 

I have no complaints about the cardback either - for a retired player, one factoid is all that's necessary. I am obviously interested in the 1994 season and postulates about what Tony might have achieved if the season had not been cut short. In He Left His Heart in San Diego, a mathematicican called Michael Schell calculated that if Tony had continued on the streak he was on when the season was prematurely halted, he would have broken .400, and might even have beaten Ted Williams's .406 batting average. This choice of stat on the cardback supports that theory.

Total: 898 cards

Return to 80s Week - Sportflics Big 6

After yesterday's splurge on Fleer cards, there's just one card in today's post. It features six players, although you can't see them all at the same time. 

Card Number 891: Sportflics, 1986; #181

Sportflics cards were lenticular. That makes them horrible to scan.

There are three players stacked lenticularly on the top and bottom halves of the card. If you tilt the card, each player comes into focus. Here's Tony!

Catch it wrong and you can make a mash up of various players. Tilt this card back and forward just a fraction and Tony's gains, then loses, then gains, a magnificent moustache.

On the back, we find a reason these six players are grouped on one card - they are the six players posting active career batting averages over .300. Of the six, Tony is posting the highest average by some margin.

I have often pointed out how Tony's batting average improved towards the end of his career. He retired on a career average of .338. One day I will look through all his career averages and see if at any point he wasn't the player with the highest active batting average. I suspect he would have been.

But in the meantime, I have plenty of cards to blog about before embarking on a research project like that!

Total: 891 cards

One Card Only - Dial-a-Stat

I was away from the blog longer than I thought I would be. Sorry about that.

Back in September Jay sent me an Upper Deck card that featured in a Sunday 'One Card Only' post. A couple of weeks back he messaged me to ask if I wanted the Tony Gwynn card from an insert set he had bought. Like me, he is a player collector and he wanted the Roger Clemens card from this set. So, it helps him to be able to move on other cards, and it helps me because this is the sort of thing that never crops up over here in the UK.

Card Number 841: Pacific Prism Dial-A-Stat, 2000; #8

This has a wheel on it that spins. As it spins it reveals Tony's top ten batting averages during his career though a hole in the card. The default setting is his batting average for 1994. We all know what his average was that year, don't we!

When the wheel is set to 1994, the image of Tony printed in the reverse of the wheel is aligned with the rest of the back of the card.

Of course, such a device could be left untouched. But that's not really how I function as a collector.

The ten years work around in order, starting with Tony's tenth best average in 1986

Then 1989

Then it jumps a decade to 1999

Back to Tony's first ever batting title

Then to 1996

At which point the wheel is halfway round and the card back looks quite weird.

Contuinuing on we get to 1993

1995

A brief return to the 80s, with Tony's highest average from that decade

Before Tony's second highest ever average in the last year he won a batting title

And then the wheel has gone full circle back to 1994 and .394.

It really stands out to me how Tony's batting averages improved in the second part of his career. Tony won the batting title in 1988 and that doesn't even feature here. Instead there are six seasons from the 1990s and four of the five highest career totals are from that decade.

There were 10 dial-a-stat cards to collect as inserts in the Prism range, which was one of several sets released by Pacific in 2000. The main inserts were various coloured shiny cards known as Prisms. Of course, Tony features in thos inserts. He was also the player featured on the packets of Prism cards as well.  

Thanks again Jay, for sending me this. Good luck with the Clemens PC!

Total: 841 cards

Saying goodbye to Upper Deck week

After lots of Upper Deck cards this week, what better way to sign off than some of the cards produced when Tony signed off his career?

Card Number 832: Upper Deck Tony Gwynn Celebration of 20 Seasons, 2001; #unnumbered

This one-sided 'thank you' note to the fans acts as a 'header card' for the five card set. Trading Card Database lists these cards as an insert series in Upper Deck's 2001 set, but Baseballcardpedia does not. These cards feel like they were given out as freebies somewhere, based on what this card looks like.

The back of the card is totally blank. I have made the rare decision not to show the cardback because there is literally nothing to show.

Card Number 833: Upper Deck Tony Gwynn Celebration of 20 Seasons, 2001; #1

This card has the same design template at the Upper Deck 2001 set. Tony's base card from that set was the 267th card that I blogged about. 

Considering this was a 'tribute' series, the massive stats box on the back feels a bit unnecessary, particularly when it was replicated across all the cards in the set (which it was!)

The factoid kicks off the series with the best known statistic about Tony Gwynn - his .394 batting average in 1994.

Card Number 834: Upper Deck Tony Gwynn Celebration of 20 Seasons, 2001; #2

While I would never want to underplay Tony's achievements, it feels a bit odd to read the claim on the cardback that Tony "flourished" in the post-season. Tony only played in the post-season three times, which amounted to a National League Championship defeat and two World Series defeats. 

The Padres lost both their World Series without taking the series to game 7. In 1998 they lost 0-4 to an absolutely dominant Yankees team. 

Tony's personal post-season records weren't particularly spectacular by his exceptional standards - with the exceptionof the 1998 World Series when he posted .500. He Posted .368 in the national League Championship season in 1984. but only .263 in the World Series - well below his career average. 

There was then a 12 year wait for Tony's next post-season appearances, in 1996. The Padres crashed out in the divisional series and Tony posted a .308 batting average. The three post-season series in 1998 saw him build up to that .500 World Series average. In the four games of the divisional series his batting average was a measly .200, and in the Championship series he posted .231.

In total, in 27 games in the post-season, Tony posted an overall batting average of .306, which is well below his career average. It's not really what I would describe as "flourishing". (Although, he still has more World Series appearances as a Padre than anyone else who has ever played for them!)

Card Number 835: Upper Deck Tony Gwynn Celebration of 20 Seasons, 2001; #5

I'm missing number 3 and 4 in this little set!

This is easily the best photo on the cards I've got from this set. Tony always seemed to take really good "candids".

I'm not sure on the timing of this card set release because this refers to Tony's retirement in the past tense.

As I remarked about the first card, having the massive stats boxes on all these cards seems daft. 

Total: 835 cards

Credit to Studio

Studio was a slightly more upmarket set produced in the 90s by the company that released the various DonRuss and Leaf branded sets. (Sometimes the copyright notices are for DonRuss; sometimes they are for Leaf - it's all over the place!) In later years Studio fluctuated between being Leaf Studio and DonRuss Studio, but before that they were just 'Studio'. 

Card Number 756: Studio, 1995; #25

Previous Studio sets had been portrait photos taken in a Studio. The photography cost must have been reasonably high for those sets. In 1995 they opted for a very different design. Each player in the 200 card set was featured on a "credit card" template, that included embossed statistics in the middle. As luck would have it, the timing of this means that Tony's card includes his most famous batting average. 

The photo is still interesting though, as it's a rare picture of Tony wearing glasses (that aren't sunglasses). 

There's a 'signature' on the back, just like a real credit card. 

There were 7 cards in each pack and every one of them had a 'plastic' card alongside six of the ordinary cardboard base cards. The plastic cards were gold or the much rarer platinum. The colour scheme was presuambly chosen to mimic the colours of different classes of credit cards.

Card Number 757: Studio Gold, 1995; #25

Even the hologram is gold! The plastic has rounded edges like a credit card. It is about the same thickness and the embossed details are quite prominent.

Only 50 players were selected for the gold card treatment. (That number dropped to 25 for the platinum series).

These cards still feel quite different, over 25 years after they were released. This was the last time the range was relased just as 'Studio' and the set went back to using posed portraits in subsequent years (blogged here), so maybe this innovative approach didn't appeal to collectors. However, I think the set designers deserve some credit for trying something new and unique with this set.

Total: 757 cards

Tuesday Twins - Shiny Leafs

I have started scanning the shiny cards that arrived in the parcel from France, using my overhead scanner. It's slow work because ideally I need daylight to scan the cards in, and I don't have much daylight left after finishing work. However, here are two shiny cards that got scanned last night.

Card Number 738: Leaf Limited, 1996; #53

Even with the overhead scanner the full shininess of the card isn't quite captured. This is lovely in hand. Unfortunately it also suffers from the common affliction of 90s shiny sports cards - there's a slight warp to it now, a quarter of a century later.

I like cards that have Tony's number (19) as their number in the set. But this comes close, with number 53, which is the number Tony wore in Spring Training with the Padres in 1982 and features on his Topps rookie card.

Apart from the set number, the back isn't particularly noteworthy although it does feature a stat I'd not seen before, about Tony's run of seasons posting over .350. That means he was hitting at a rate of more than 1 in 3 at bats, reaching base 7 times for every 20 times he went up to the plate. For all the hitting power in the current Padres line-up, they could really use some consistency like that.

Card Number 739: Leaf Limited Gold, 1996; #53

The gold parallel version of the Leaf Limited is incredibly shiny!

Leaf changed the colour on the cardback to gold as well. This is what I would call a proper parallel, with the card looking different front and back.

These high end cards may be rascals to scan, but they are lovely to look at. I have quite a pile of shiny cards to work through if I can catch some daylight hours over the next week. This may affect my blogging schedule but I promise I will post them all - and they will brighten up some gloomy winter days in the coming months!

Total: 739 cards