Classic reminders of the baseball card bubble

How do you get a license to produce baseball cards without getting a licence to produce baseball cards? Get a licence to produce a tabletop game... that's composed of baseball cards. That's what Game Time did with their Classic Baseball game during the explosion of interest in baseball cards during the late 80s.

The first Classic cards were produced in 1987. 100 cards were shipped with the game and the company then sold expansion packs containing more cards. Tony had a card in the original set, which I blogged about here.

Classic released two more expansion sets in 1988, and the cards were sequentially numbered on from the original game. 

Card Number 698: Classic Baseball (blue expansion set), 1988; #220

This photo is at a slightly odd angle but features what looks like a batting cage and a prominent advert in the background for Jack in the Box resturants.

The back isn't particularly inspiring. There is a bit of player data, but the majority of the space is saved for the questions that would be used as part of the game. There is also a space for an autograph.

Trying to reverse engineer what the game looked like, I'm guessing it was a bit like Trivial Pursuit and questions were in different categories. That's an interesting factoid about Hall of Fame pitcher Warren Spahn.

Game Time carried on producing expansion sets each year for a few years into the early 90s. Having a limited checklist meant that only a few players from each team featured. However, Tony had a card in the 1990 set as well.

Card Number 699: Classic Baseball, 1990; #17

The three expansion packs released by Game Time in 1990 were different sizes - 150 cards, 99 cards, and 50 cards respectively. This card is from the first set released. Tony's brother, Chris Gwynn, was also in this set of cards.

With it's hot pink scribbles, I don't think the designers could make this card could look more like it was from 1990 if they tried. It's a great bunt photo of Tony, which makes it a bit special. I'm blogging this in quick succession to another bunt photo on an oddball card.

The trivia questions on the back includes a reminder of a time when Montreal had a baseball team. 

The Lou Brock Award is still given out every year. I have to admit, I hadn't heard of it. Vince Coleman won it six times in a row in the 1980s. No wonder he was labelled "the thief" on a baseball card. 

Given the restrictive monopoly on licenses for baseball cards at the moment, I'm surprised nobody has used a similar loophole to produce baseball cards that are ostensibly part of a game. That could be a way for another company to produce baseball cards that aren't really baseball cards.

In terms of this blog, I am tantalisingly close to blogging my 700th Tony Gwynn card. However, I am taking some much-needed time out next week. I'm also planning to watch some more games in the UEFA European Championships (which is another reason my blogging has been erratic of late!) 

I will be back blogging in early July to reveal card number 700 and also the few remaining cards in my yet-to-be-blogged folder. See you next month!

Total: 699 cards

Cereal freebies: Part 1

These"oddball" cards by Post arrived in the post from Gawain last week. 

Post is a massive cereal company - currently the third largest in the world. C.W. Post who founded the company spent time at the sanatorium run by John Harvey Kellogg and was inspired to develop his own breakfast cereal. The first cereal sold by Post was Grape Nuts, one of the few America brands readily available in the UK. I always think it's the most misleading brekfast cereal, as it contains neither grapes nor nuts, and is more like eating shards of concrete rather than food. Still, to each their own. 

For several years in the early 90s, the Post company included baseball cards as giveaways in their cereal. (They'd actually first done this in the early 1960s as well.) I've previously blogged cards of Tony that Post produced in 1990(#413) and in 1991(#46).

Card Number 688: Post Cereal, 1992; #26

These cards were licensed by the Major League Baseball Player's Association (MLBPA) rather than Major League Baseball, so the logos and team names have been rather skillfully erased from the photos of Tony. These cards were printed by Michael Schechter Associates (MSA) who arranged print runs of promotional baseball cards for a lot of companies back in the 1980s and 90s.

The back is a fairly solid design, with a photo of Tony and a decent stats box.

Major League Baseball was less protective of franchise names in the early 90s so even though the Padres name and logo have been removed from the photos, the word 'Padres' appears on the front and back of the card. 

Card Number 689: Post Cereal, 1993; #8

Wonky scan! Sorry.

A bunt photo! 

Tony was quite happy to bunt when necessary. He devotes a section in his book Tony Gwynn's Total Baseball Player to "The Art of Bunting". Tony felt it gave opponents something else to worry about, causing the infield to shift and opening up holes a batter could punch a ball through. Tony went on to list the five type of bunt - can you name all five? Answers at the bottom of the post!

This is a nice looking card, with a black border similar to the Pinnacle cards issued in the same year. The back has dispensed with the big stats box and has added a little write-up, which mentions his option to play in the NBA with the Clippers.

Somehow in this joblot of oddball cards I managed a complete run of the three Post Cereal cards that I didn't have already.

Card Number 690: Post Cereals, 1994; #13

Another slightly wonky scan. My bad!

This design looks like the love-child of a DonRuss card and a Fleer Ultra card. It is very green. The designer has also gone for a fancier logo for the set - this is part of the "Post 94 Collection".

The back really emphasises the write up at the expense of the stats. There's some slightly confusing syntax in the first sentence, though. The Padres were playing the Rockies when Tony recorded his 2000th career hit, but it wasn't his 2000th career hit against the Rockies. (Who were in their debut season in the Major Leagues!)

For two years in a row the cardback write-up predicted Tony's eventual election to the Hall of Fame. 

Come back tomorrow for Cereal freebies: Part 2!

Total:690 cards

Answer: According to Tony, the five types of bunt were: The Sacrifice; The Drag; The Push; The Slug; and The Swinging Bunt. - Tony Gwynn's Total Baseball Player pp 49-53.

80s week: Dynamite DonRuss designs

I feel a bit embarrassed to admit this, but for a long time I judged DonRuss on the quality of their ubiquitous late 80s cards, particularly the 1988 cards that are the cards most people would think of first when they hear the term "junk wax". But in the build up towards the saturation of the market, DonRuss had some very nice card designs that aren't as easy to track down (at least not here in the UK).

Of the two Tony Gwynn rookie cards I own, the DonRuss 1983 card is by far my favourite. It's even incorporated into the header of this blog. The 1984 card is still on my wants list. So, this post starts with Tony's DonRuss card from 1985.

Card Number 485: DonRuss, 1985; #63

It's a bunt card!

This is a photo taken in the 1984 season as the Padres switched to pinstripes in 1985. However the new arched lettering logo is on the card. I think the person sat in the dugout, perfectly framed between Tony's legs, is the Padres manager, Dick Williams.

DonRuss had the most consistent cardbacks of the 80s. It worked so they never really changed anything.

As I said yesterday when writing about the Fleer cards from this era, the factoids capture elements of Tony's career that are often forgotten. Most players who batted .263 in a World Series would have that as a 'permafact' on the back of their cards in perpetuity. However, compared to Tony's normal batting standards, that was disappointing.

Sometimes factoids trigger new questions as well. I wonder how Tony broke his wrist in 1983 - and was that the reason he had a stint in AAA in Las Vegas?

Card Number 486: DonRuss 1986; #112

This card design was re-used this year by Panini, who now own the DonRuss brands.

My guess here is that Tony is watching the pitcher. That was his top tip to batters - spend as much time as possible watching the pitcher before you go out to bat. He recommended watching their warm-up throws as well, to try and work out their release points.

The cardback mentions an ongoing wrist injury in 1985, but it's not clear if that's a holdover from the broken wrist in 1983.

Tony's DonRuss base card from 1987 has already featured on the blog, however, a couple of new cards that arrived in the recent package were from the same year.

Card Number 487: DonRuss Opening Day. 1987; #146

This was a 272-card factory set, which used the "tyre tread" design of the regular base cards with a grape colour instead of black. From my research, this Opening Day set predates Topps Opening Day sets by eight years.

Tony's longer hair is a very middle-of-the-80s look.

The cardback describes Tony as the "Padres' best hitter". Already his ability to consistently bat above .300 every season was being noted. That opening day game sounds like an epic battle.

One thing that stands out to me in the career performance box is Tony's very low number of strike outs. At this point in his career he was striking out once every 4.75 games. So if you wanted to see him strike out you would need to go and watch the Padres at least five times to give you the best statistical chance of seeing it.

Card Number 488: DonRuss Highlights, 1987; #12

The 'Highlights' series was a 56-card boxed set. The 'tyre tread' is over a royal blue background.

This is probably the wordiest DonRuss cardback from the 80s.

There's a mistake there - it says he collected over 20 hits, when it should probably say over 200 hits. Although to be fair, to collect over 200 hits, he would need to collect over 20 hits on the way. June was definitely a hot month for him. Those were some figures!

Total: 488 cards