One card only - game-worn Gold Label

I'm not sure how it has been two and a half months since I last blogged. Anyway, I'm hoping to restart this soon. I have about 50 cards sitting to be blogged, some of them for several months. But today's card only arrived at the start of July from my friend Gawain.

Card Number 1025: Topps Gold Label, 2002; #GMR-TG

This 'Major League Moments' insert card has been printed in a dark purple tone, rather than this just being a dark scan.

Unlike modern cards with their little cloth swatches of unknown origin, this card specifies the date it was worn - 30 September, 1999.

On the back it explains why that date is meaningful. Tony got 7 hits from 8 at bats over two games in a double-header at the end of the season.

This card was released in 2002 and Tony had retired at the end of the 2001 season. However, news seemed to take a while to get through to Topps HQ. Tony had a card in the Topps flagship set in 2002, and this card may well have been lined up before they knew he had retired. 

Also, you may have spotted this is a "class 2 platinum" card. Gold Label cards are divided into all kinds of classes and subdivisions. I think the platinum ones were meant to be rarer.

Total: 1025 cards

Thor's Day Thunder Boss

It seems fitting to celebrate Thor's Day with a card called Thunder Boss!

Card Number 983: Fleer Circa Thunder Boss, 1998; #8

There were 300 cards in the Circa Thunder set and 20 cards in this insert series of Thunder bosses. The multiple words in this set name should have given regular readers a good visual idea of what kind of ludicrous card this is going to be. It does not disappoint.

While this could be a contender for ugliest card ever produced by Fleer, it's also a really good illustration of how trying to be futuristic will date a design faster than almost anything else. 

The back has a write-up that is very restrained by the standards of Fleer / Skybox in the late 90s. The photo is far too posed to look natural. "Tony, stare into the middle distance as if you're watching a home run land in the bleachers, that's great Tony, just like that Tony, tilt your head back slightly, great, great...[click click click]."

Bright purple is an unusual colour on baseball cards generally, so I'm going to award a bonus point for that. I'm sure Thor would approve.

Total: 983 cards