Miniaturised classic card designs

A few card companies have produced smaller sized baseball cards. These are often referred to as 'Minis'. But Fleer went fancy with their titles and called their smaller cards 'Classic Miniatures'. (Oooh, there's posh!)

Card Number 782: Fleer Classic Miniatures, 1986; #69

This 120-card set was sold as a complete box set. The design uses the same frame and colour scheme as the regular-sized flagship set. They use a different photo though.

The cardback has the same lay-out as the flagship set, including the factoids. 

That franchise record for a hitting streak didn't last long. Benito Santiago beat it in his debut season in 1987, when he recorded a hit in 34 consecutive games. 

Card Number 783: Fleer Classic Miniatures, 1987; #50

Again, this smaller card copies the design template of the flagship set. The photo is unusual because there are very few cards that show Tony without a helmet or a cap on. 

The cardback is the same as the flagship set, complete with a 'hitting guide' compiled by "pro scouts". (Or so they claimed.)

Still, it's a neat little graphic to see on a neat little card.

Total: 783 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

Modern Monday: Topps Fire

My main supplier of modern Tony Gwynn cards, Gawain, busts a lot of product, which is one reason why he's my main supplier of modern Tony Gwynn cards. Recently he took delivery of a new release - Topps Fire!

Topps have released so many products this year, people might have missed this one. But if so, that's a shame because they are nice-looking cards and different to Topps's other, samey ranges.

Card Number 452: Topps Fire, 2020; #181

As "retro" cards go, this is a very 80s looking design. Although, I can't recall any 80s cards that actually looked like this. It's an 80s design aesthetic from 2020 rather than based off anything original. Even the set logo screams "80s metal band".

I feel conflicted by this. I feel like I should hate it because it's so jarring, but actually I really like it. It's so nice to see a card that doesn't look like every other attempt by Topps to do retro. And the colours work for me. Turquoise and pink, what's not to love? (Also, it's not a cigarette card!)

There's turquoise and pink on the back too. 

I looked up those dates mentioned on the back because it seemed like a long stretch of time to only make 16 starts. There were 51 regular season games in 1984 from August 5, and 5 May was the 23rd game in the 1985 season. He had five plate appearances in the game on 6 May but didn't record a hit (and also didn't strike out.) 

The dates seem somewhat arbitrary. Baseball Reference has the box score for 4 May 1985, and there's a strike out recorded against Tony. He also struck out on the 28 April 1985.

I went back and looked at the box scores from 1984. He struck out on 5 August against the Astros. Then he had a run of games where he hit safely and didn't strike out. However, on 10 August in the second match of a double-header in Atlanta, Tony got on base twice via walks but didn't actually get a hit. He was also hitless in 4 plate appearances on 12 August as well (also in Atlanta).

There might be a 16 game streak between those two dates, but I decided not to trawl through all the box scores for 74 games. He was obviously hitting well and rarely striking out between those dates, but I can't discern why Topps have picked them.

I mentioned this card came from Gawain, and because he was opening a lot of Topps Fire he also came across some parallels.

Card Number 453: Topps Fire Gold Parallel, 2020; #181

There are four of these parallels per blaster box. They are very shiny gold, which scans very green. This cards looks a lot nicer in real life.

The cardback is exactly the same. In fact, the cardback I showed you earlier may well have been the one off the parallel rather than the base card. There's no way to tell, as you can see from this side-by-side scan.

I need to get smarter about scanning and somehow indicate which one is the parallel. That's a new learning point for me!

Thank you Gawain for these cards!

Total: 453 cards