Crown time part 2

The thing about kings and queens is that as soon as one dies or abdicates, the next person in line instantly becomes king or queen. There is always a monarch. That's a change that nobody had experienced in the UK for 70 years but now everyone is having to get used to it fast. 

After yesterday's tenuous link between the monarchy and baseball cards, here's another card that is roughly keeping in with the theme of crowns.

Card Number 1044: Fleer Ultra - Gold Medallion Edition, 1998; #216G

Rather than being an insert set, the ten cards of players given a "Season Crown" were included as a subset within the main set. This is the parallel 'gold medallion' version of the card. (Yet again, I seem to have the parallel and not the normal base card.)     

The design of this card would fit into my much smaller collection of 'cards with a giant baseball motif. I like it as a design choice. 

Tony won what would turn out to be his final batting title in 1997, with over 200 hits.

I'm awarding this card a bonus point for adding 'G' to the card number to show that it's a parallel. Fleer often showed kindness like this to collectors.

Total: 1044 cards

One card only - American Pie

Topps American Pie was a short-lived range that featured a mix of subjects - baseball players, celebrities and cards denoting historical events. Topps still produce sets like this, notably their Allen & Ginter ranges. In 2002 the set only included retired players and as Tony was in his first year of retirement, he got a card. This is despite him having a card in the Topps flagship set that year!

Card Number 1008: Topps American Pie, 2002; #32

All the baseball players featured in the set were assigned a characteristic or quality. Tony got 'perseverence'. Topps used a photo that looked like it came from the photoshoot used for the "glossy" All Star card in 1986 because it has been harshly lit and Tony's skin is reflecting the light source.  

As cardbacks go, this is an understated design. Some people might even describe it as dull. 

It's a good little write-up though, and ties in to the theme of perseverence. 

Total: 1008 cards

Into a new millennium of cards...

How do you follow the 1000th card on the blog? Well, blogging my first millennium of cards reminds me of celebrating the Millennium 22 years ago.  Here are some cards from two early-noughties sets that just about everybody has forgotten about.

Card Number 1001: DonRuss Champions, 2003; #221

Tony tips his hat on the front of a card celebrating a batting title eight years previously. 

This was an odd set with a lot of parallels and large insert sets. However, DonRuss were struggling for photos because they reused the photo on the back. The one line stats box is from Tony's last active season, for some reason. He was retired by 2003 and it could have just had his career totals.  

Card Number 1002: Fleer Mystique, 2000; #105

Fleer included the set name in the logo on the front and right across the background of this shiny card.

Fleer opted for the full stats box on the back. Tony has a faint white aura around him in the photo. 

Someone is probably working on a history of the Fleer company because what little I know is, frankly, incredible. There was a slew of these strange sets released when the company was in private ownership during the last ten years of its existence. Three sets of Mystique were released, in 1999, 2000 and 2003. That gap in release years is intriguing, as is the return for just one year.

Total: 1002 cards

Leading the league in the middle of the 90s

I like cards that show 'league leaders'. They are usually relatively easy to find, and they provide a bonus card of certain players if those players happened to trouble the leader boards. Tony often did, so that often meant he had an extra card in sets issued in the 1990s.

Card Number 993: Fleer (league leaders insert), 1995; #6

The base cards in the set issued by Fleer in 1995 are all kinds of mid-90s crazy- when I blogged about Tony's card in the set I called it "the most 1995 card ever". Fleer toned their hyperactive designers down a lot for these inserts.

The write up on the back is how Tony had to "settle" for winning the batting title in 1994 with .394. The writer notes that Tony's average was rising at the point the season was curtailed. 

A couple of years later and Tony was picking up another National League title...

Card Number 994: Upper Deck Collector's Choice, 1997; #56

Of the eight batting titles that Tony won, his title in 1996 was the only one when he wasn't the outright winner across both major leagues. In 1996 he missed out to a young buck who was in his third season in the majors, Alex Rodriguez. Whatever happened to him, eh?

The way Upper Deck positioned the two photos makes it look like A-Rod is about to swing at Tony who is distracted by something else. 

There are a few names on the back that instantly jump out. And several that I'd never heard of before. Bernard Gilkey? Kevin Seitzer? 

Tony's team-mate, Ken Caminiti was sixth on the list. Ken was integral to the Padres National League West pennant win in 1996 and was also an All Star that year. 

But it's not just batting average that produces leader boards. In baseball, every statistic has leaders and sometimes the card companies decided to highlight some of those.

Card Number 995: Fleer Ultra [On Base Leaders insert], 1996; #3

This seems to be a weird stat for an insert set to focus on because it's very similar to batting average. The designer maybe felt the same way and it doesn't look like much care has been taken on the photo placement on the front. 

The back is much better. 

I had a Twitter conversation with Tim from Pennsylvania recently about the decision by Major League Baseball to ban the defensive shift, and we agreed that it just showed the reduced quality of hitting in the modern game. Would Tony have been curtailed by the shift? Unlikely, and this Fleer card from 26 years ago agrees.

I never think of Tony being the kind of player to draw a lot of walks, but his on base percentage of .404 suggests he got a few in the preceding season. A few blog posts back, I noted a stat on a Topps Gold Label card about walks, so pitchers sometimes opted to intentionally put him on base rather than risk a hit. And I don't blame them!

Total: 995 cards
 

One Card Only - a fifth magic moment

Topps released five versions of card #240 in their flagship set in 2000. Dubbed 'magic moments', the variations had a foil print over the top and different cardbacks. I had accumulated four of them, but thanks to the recent influx of cards, I can now blog the fifth one in the micro-set. (Here are three, plus an Opening Day parallel; and here's a fourth!)

Card Number 758: Topps, 2000; #240 (1984 Batting Title)

The front is the same as the other versions of the card, apart from the foil stamp across the bottom.

The back is different, talking about Tony's first full Major League season in 1984.

Winning the batting title and the other statistics are all impressive achievements, but the omission of Tony appearing in the World Series with the Padres feel odd. It was the first World Series in franchise history and yet it's not mentioned. However, another version of this card is all about winning the National League in 1984 so it wasn't completely ignored.

The complete list of 'Magic Moments' in this set are:

• 1984 Batting Title
• 1984 NL Championship
• 1995 Batting Title
• 1998 NL Championship
• 3000th Hit

The 3000th Hit card is the one that also appears in the Opening Day set. Tony's modern-day record batting average of .394 in 1994 is mentioned on the 1995 Batting Title card, but didn't merit being a 'Magic Moment' in its own right, according to Topps. 

Having this card means another 'gap' has been filled in the collection (and my Topps binder) and another small 'set' has been ticked off. Which makes it a bit of a magic moment for me, too.

Tomorrow marks a special milestone on the blog and I'm going to be celebrating it with a special card!

Total: 758 cards

Cards for kids

I have read there was some concern about the way the baseball card hobby was going in the early to mid-90s. Cards were becoming more expensive and with inserts, parallels, relics and autographs, kids - the collectors of the future - were being priced out of the hobby. In an attempt to rectify this the major card companies launched sets designed for younger collectors. These never really took off that well, but they have left collectors with some quirky cards to hunt down.

Card Number 740: DonRuss Triple Play, 1994; #187

Yaaarrrrr!

Tony looks almost like he is yelling or laughing in the photo. This card gets a bonus point for including the year in the set logo. I also like the effect of the see through 'cut out' letters.

It's a fairly boring cardback for a range aimed at kids, particularly compared to the Triple Play cards from 1992 and 1993. DonRuss had obviously decided that what kids really wanted was a massive stats box. 

Card Number 741: Upper Deck Fun Pack, 1994; #119

Not to be outdone by their competitors, Upper Deck also had their own range aimed at kids, selling packs of fun cards called Fun Pack!

"Ruh Roh!"

I would love to know what Tony has seen in that photo. A ghost in the outfield, perhaps? Maybe he's just feeling a bit dizzy, which is why he is surrounded by swirls.

Fun Pack cards lived up to their name with the cardback. Instead of a photo there's a little charicature of Tony. At this point he only had four batting titles, although he had come mighty close to five the previous season. He would collect his fifth title the year this set was released. 

Both card companies discontinued these sets after 1994. One theory I have seen is that kids felt these sets were condescending, and preferred to chase after the valuable insert cards in the regular sets. But these sets were also released just before the 90s baseball card bubble popped and the hobby went through a very difficult period of readjustment. Now they are relics of an era of desperate market differentiation when card companies tried as many different angles as possible to sell pictures of baseball stars to as many potential customers as possible.

Total: 741 cards

Store exclusives part 2 - Woolworths

After posting my first post in the series on store exclusives yesterday, I discovered Fuji had blogged about store exclusives last week! But he's going to get a surprise in this post...

Woolworth's was a very popular store when I was kid. Known as "Woolies" in the UK, they were famous for having a large pick'n'mix confectionary display. In a lot of places, Woolies was one of the bigger shops and the only place to buy records and CDs, kid's clothing and toys, as well as a range of hardware items. 

Many stores also had cafes and when I was very little my Mum used to take me to the big Woolies in the centre of Birmingham, where we lived. That's one of my earliest memories. I must have been about three years old. I can remember the cafe with its yellow formica tables, and eating sausage, chips and beans, which was a typical offering on a kids' menu at the very end of the 1970s. 

Because it was a ubiquitous high street name in the UK, I remember being surprised to find that it started in America. The British company was independent from 1982, and outlasted its American parent company by about a decade. It was quite a big story when the company closed down all its UK stores around time of the recession of 2008, as it left a big hole in many town centres, particularly in smaller towns across the UK.

Like some other stores, Woolworth - the American one - sold exclusive card sets. I have acquired two cards from them. One has the Woolworth branding on it, but the other is just branded as Topps.

Card Number 695: Topps (Woolworth) Baseball Highlights, 1987; #16

No reference to Woolworth on the front - but this is listed as a Woolworth set on Trading Card Database

I think this photo is of Tony sat in a dug out, which would explain the nondescript wall behind him. On the back is a highlight, in a very bright yellow and purple colour combination.

That's a genuiniely interesting stat on the back. Tony had the most hits and tied for the most runs in the 1986 season, but didn't win the batting title. The comparison of his batting average to on-base percentage shows he didn't take many walks. Tony liked to swing - often on the first pitch - so popped up and ground out fairly regularly. 

As an aside, the packaging for this card set says it was printed in Ireland, as were quite a few other Topps products at the time. This means this card was printed in Europe, shipped to the USA, and now it has travelled all the way back across the Atlantic Ocean to Wales!

Card Number 696: Woolworth Baseball Highlights, 1988; #12

Woolworth had their branding front and centre on this card.

Tony is swinging in the photo. The back has Tony's second batting title as a highlight.

56 stolen bases in a season is an incredible feat. I've said this before, but Tony's ability to get on base and steal an extra 90 yards would have made him the perfect Moneyball player when Moneyball came along.

Topps and Woolworth partnered on exclusive sets for three more years after these ones, but Tony did not feature in those sets. So, that make these two Woolworth cards a "complete run" of Tony's cards. 

The series on store exclusives continues tomorrow!

Total: 696 cards

Tuesday Twins - unexpected reprints

I received a parcel yesterday containing a job lot of Tony Gwynn cards I bought off eBay a few weeks back. When I bought it I knew it was a mix of new cards for the collection and several I already had, including quite a few base cards. Except, when the cards arrived and I could see the backs I realised that some of those base cards were inserts from later Topps sets. 

Card Number 623: Topps Cards Your Mom Threw Out insert, 2010; #CMT-43

Tony had 3 cards in this insert series.

The front is a straight-up reprint of Tony's card from 1994. The cardback explains why they chose this card.

I like this card as it refers to Tony's batting achievement in 1994. It's also nice to see a reprint that isn't of Tony's rookie card!

Card Number 624: Topps 60 Years of Topps insert, 2011; #60YOT-33

This is another reprint of an iconic card design. 

Basically this insert series reprinted a card from each year and this is the one they chose from the 1984 flagship set. The cardback explains about the Topps design for the year and mentions Tony's first batting title right at the end of the write up.

Again, I like this card because it's a reprint of a card that I feel I haven't seen a zillion times over. Admittedly it's a little bit self-indulgent to produce inserts celebrating yourself, but I'll let Topps off for that because this is a lovely card to have.

I know that after yesterday's post where I wrote about Topps's over-reliance on nostalgia, I'm being much more enthusiastic about these reprints than might be expected.  But there's nothing quite as exciting as realising that cards I'd mentally written off as a dupes turn out to be ones I can add to my collection!

Total: 624 cards

Milestones and Masterstrokes

In the grand tradition of Sesame Street, today's blog post is brought to you by the letter M.

Card Number 593: Topps Milestones, 1998; #MS6

A beautiful blue holofoil insert card from Topps.

There are a few similarities here with a Pinnacle card I blogged yesterday - same year, same blue holofoil and clouds design, and on the back a reference to how close Tony was to his 3000th hit.

Tony didn't get a ninth batting title and finished his career tied with Honus Wagner on 8 National League titles. 

Card Number 594: Leaf Studio Masterstrokes, 1996; #1

There were 8 cards in this insert series, printed on canvas effect card with the images put through the 'paint effect' feature of Photoshop.

Studio cards were released by the DonRuss company under just the name 'Studio' for a while, before being released as Leaf Studio for a couple of years, and then finally as DonRuss Studio. Tracking the use of the brand name shows how the company was positioning its premium brands. 

On the back there is another reference to Honus Wagner. In 1996, Tony was yet to catch him up.

At the bottom of the cardback is the serial numbering. This is number 701 out of 5,000. While that's only half the number of limited edition serial numbered Diamond Kings cards from the same year, it's still a high number of cards to consider a 'limited edition'.

The paintbrush and blob of blue paint confused me at first glance. I thought Tony was flipping away a bat. It's a nod to the idea of brush strokes on a masterpiece painting. It feels like by the mid-90s card companies were running out of words to use on insert series. Leaf chose Masterstrokes, even though that doesn't really mean anything to do with art or painting. 

Total: 594 cards

Merry X-press

Instead of a Merry Xmas, I'd like to wish you a Merry X-Press... with a Pinnacle X-Press. (It's a terrible Christmas pun. You deserve better on Christmas Eve!)

Card Number 551: Pinnacle X-Press, 1997; #13

X-Press is one of Pinnacle's less well-known card ranges. This card features a plethora of batting photos.

The statistical breakdown on the back shows a month-by-month summary of Tony's statistics from the 1996 season.

Tony played just one game in July 1996 as he struggled with a foot injury, which is why his total number of plate appearances in the year was four short of the minimum requirement to be in contention for a batting title. He still won the batting title, however, because even with four hitless plate appearances added to his total, his average would have been higher than anyone else's. (More information in this blog post.)

Have a lovely Christmas. I'm expecting coal in my stocking as punning-shment for my attempts at wordplay.

Total: 551 cards

A fistful of Fleers

Here's an illustration of how a run-of-the-mill set could get stuffed with Tony Gwynn cards for collectors like me to accumulate. For some reason I hadn't already blogged about Tony's Fleer cards from 1997, and then a recent purchase from Russ, who was selling off his baseball card collection, brought me two more cards from the same set; a veritable fistful of Fleers.

First up, Tony's base card:

Card Number 525: Fleer, 1997; #462

I love this picture with the disembodied hands reaching down over the dugout wall with things for Tony to sign.

The card has a matt finish, which is unusual for a full bleed card. Fleer have included the set year on the front (bonus point!) and noted that Tony was a league leader and an All Star with little embossed prints.

There's a bit of controversy in the factoid - "Tony lacked sufficient plate appearances, but an arcane rule... gave Gwynn his seventh batting title in '96." 

I did the bare minimum of research to find out what that arcane rule was. Here's an explanation, couirtesy of Wikipedia: 

"if a player's lead in AVG is sufficiently large that enough hitless at bats can be added to reach this requirement and the player still would have the highest batting average, he wins the title. Tony Gwynn, for example, had 159 hits in 451 ABs in 1996 (.353 average) but only 498 PAs. Gwynn's batting average would have dropped to .349 (159 hits in 455 ABs) with four hitless ABs added to reach the 502 PA requirement, but this would still have been higher than the next-highest eligible player (.344 average), so he was awarded the 1996 NL batting title."

I appreciate the spur from a cardback to go and learn something new!

Tony was also on a checklist.

Card Number 526: Fleer, 1997; #743

Why would anyone complain about a checklist when checklists look this good?

It's a team checklist for Series 2

It also includes the opening day line up for the Padres in 1997. That game was on 1 April 1997 at home against the Mets and they won 12-5. Tony had 3 hits in 5 at bats, scored 2 runs and batted in another 2 runs.

You can see on the side there that Tony had another FIVE cards issued in this set. That included a card in the 'Encore' subset. (Guess what's coming next!)

Card Number 527: Fleer, 1997; #702

The card is very orange.

The back looks similar to the regular base set, but the reference to "arcane" rules has been replaced with some number-crunching about Tony's hitting stats in the final third of a game.

 

Tony's consistency in the 'clutch' is probably down to him getting used to a pitcher by the sixth inning of a game - he recommended batters watched pitchers throwing their practice pitches and to any players ahead of them in the order to maximise the likelihood of being able to hit off them.

Tony was in among the inserts in the 1997 Fleer set too.

Card Number 528: Fleer (Headliners Insert), 1997 #7

The Headliners cards featured 20 players who made headlines the previous season.

In September 1996 the Padres went into a 'winner takes all' series against the Dodgers to decide which team would be Champions of the National League West. The Padres swept the season.

What's notable (to me, anyway), is that the game after the game mentioned on this card, which decided the Championship, was won by Tony's brother Chris. He was on as a pinch hitter (replacing Greg Vaughn), and his two-RBI hit in the 11th inning brought the Championship pennant to San Diego, and took the Padres into the post-season for only the second time in their history.

That could have been mentioned on the card, but by 1997 Chris had retired from Major League Baseball and it looks like his exploits had already been forgotten.

I hope you enjoyed this fistful of Fleers. Thanks for reading!

Total: 528 cards

80s week: super Slugger cards

Back in the 80s Fleer used to sell little self-contained sets of 44 cards. I have blogged about a couple of them before. They aren't hugely expensive but they can be lovely cards, printed on glossier stock than regular cards of the time and featuring some nice photos. 

One of the annual sets was called Best Sluggers Versus Pitchers and featured 22 players who were renowned for their batting and 22 cards of top pitchers. The word 'slugger' to me conjures up images of players hitting the long-ball and powering home runs out of the ground, which wasn't Tony's game. Fleer included him in their sets anyway. And looking at Tony's ability to hit the ball means he was most definitely a 'slugger'. 

Card Number 493: Fleer Baseball's Best Sluggers vs. Pitchers, 1986; #15

This photo is so washed out with light, you can almost feel the San Diego sun on your skin.

The average on the front (.325) was his career average rather than from the previous season. 

The back isn't particularly exciting. No factoids or cartoons.

In 1986, the year this card was released, Tony led the National League in hits (211), runs (107 - the only time he led the league in runs) and had a batting average of .329. That wasn't high enough to win him a batting title that year. Tim Raines of the Montreal Expos was the National League leader that year with .334, while Wade Boggs was overall champion with .357 in the middle of his streak of five American League titles in six years.

This was before 'slugging percentage' became a thing, but that has since been calculated at .467 for 1986. That's lower than would be expected for his number of hits, but Tony always hit a lot of singles, which brings the slugging percentage down.

Card Number 494: Fleer Baseball's Best Sluggers vs. Pitchers, 1987; #17

The border design is more colourful giving this card more pop than the 1986 version.

Tony's successful 1986 season helped him move his career average up a percentage point. Keen observers will note that Tony's final career batting average was another 12 points higher at .338. He is one of very few players who actually batted at a higher average in the second half of his career.

The back is a bit jazzier too, if minimalist.

1987 was a superlative season for Tony. His batting average of .370 was a new post-war record at the time and brought him his second batting title. He also led the leagues in hits (218) and scored more runs than the previous year (119). He must have spent a good amount of the season on base.

It was also one of the few seasons where he broke .500 in slugging percentage, with .511. He wouldn't top .500 again until his famous .394 season in 1994.

In conclusion, I think Fleer were right. Tony was one of Baseball's Best Sluggers!

Total: 494 cards (100 cards over my original target!)

Friday fun with Upper Deck

Let's end the week with some slightly unusual cards from Upper Deck.

Card Number 461: Upper Deck, 1996; #116

The "Young at Heart" subset were 18 cards within the main range dedicated to players who had been playing a while and still performing at an elite level. Tony is in catching mode on the front.

There's a photo on the back from early in his career.

The factoid about Tony's .394 season eschews the comparison with Ted Williams recording .406 in 1941 (which occurred in the American League) and takes Tony's record back another five years, to 1936 and Bill Terry's .401 average in the last season of his career. "Memphis Bill", as he was known, played for the New York Giants from 1923 to 1936. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1954. The Giants organisation retired his uniform number in 1984. As ever, Tony is in illustrious company!

(Also, "Young at Heart" gave me a Bluebells earworm!)

'Card' Number 462: Upper Deck Collector's Choice Stick-Ums, 1997; #19

Given how these are still widely available, did anyone ever, um, stick a Stick-Um? 

19 bonus points for giving Tony Stick-Um number 19!  The number indicates that this was from a hobby pack rather than a standard retail pack, as those Stick-Ums weren't numbered.

Card Number 463: Upper Deck Collector's Choice Memorable Moment insert card, 1997; #5

There's always something fun about a die-cut card.

The Memorable Moments cards were only inserted into 6-card retail packs. There were 10 in each series of Collector's Choice cards released, although they don't have the Collector's Choice logo on the card. This one is from the Series 2 release, because it had bronze foil. The Memorable Moments cards in Series 1 had gold foil. Both releases were numbered 1-10, just to add a little bit of confusion to things.

On the back, the "memorable moment" is about Tony securing his seventh batting title.

The text layout is awkward on the back. It's rare to see right-justified text on a baseball card and it's not easy to read. On yet another occasion, Tony is compared to famous Hall of Fame inductees.

Total: 463 cards