Cameo blogger

A little diversion today, to redirect readers to a guest post I wrote for Baseball Fans Only. Dave from the UK Collectors Group on Facebook runs the blog and asked me to write something about collecting Tony Gwynn cards. You can read the post here (and see a picture of me looking a bit tired in the Hall of Fame!)

A couple of weeks back Fuji described a card I showed as a "cameo card" - that's when a player appears on another card that isn't really "theirs". The card in question was this card from the Topps 1989 set which features Tony sliding in to second base on the 'Pirates Leaders' card.

The year prior to this, Tony featured on the Padres Leaders card, alongside Benny Santiago. I'm not sure whether this is really a 'cameo', but it was listed on the checklist just as Padres Leaders and it doesn't have Tony or Benny named on the front.

This is another card that I have already blogged about, which arrived in a joblot of Tony Gwynn cards, but wasn't a Tony Gwynn card. He is high-fiving, and partially obscuring, his team-mate Greg Vaughn.

And here's another card that arrived in a similar lot of Tony Gwynn cards. Like on the first card in this post, he is sliding in to second base. This time it's Astros second baseman Bill Doran trying to avoid a Tony Gwynn slide. 

I admit I'm inconsistent with these cameo cards. The first two I count in the collection, the latter two I don't. I think if it has another player's name on the front then it can't really count as a Tony Gwynn card. 

I hope you enjoyed the cameos - sorry, no new cards today. If you want to see my cameo on Dave's blog, then here's the link again!

Beyond the Base - Upper Deck 1992

Here are three cards produced by Upper Deck in 1992 that were more than just regular base cards. 

Card Number 313: Upper Deck, 1992; #717

This was one of the many cards that arrived in my collection from Gawain several weeks ago.

Upper Deck proclaimed Tony the Best Hitter in 1992. Not gonna argue.

The ball is either making its way onto the bat or streaking off the bat in the photo on the front. The Upper Deck Diamond Skills logo looks a bit like the logo for a heavy metal band. And also like how the Diamondbacks have sometimes arranged the letters in their name.

There is a big write up on the back. These mid-career summaries are illuminating - Tony was yet to win his second quadruple of batting titles, score .394, or star in his second World Series. 

Card Number 314: Upper Deck - Ted Williams' Best insert, 1992; #T6

This was another of the cards sent to me by Jeff as part of his Wax Pack Wonders giveaway.

Ted Williams picked 20 players he regarded as the best and they had their own insert series. Tony was 6th on the list.

There is a quote on the back from Ted himself.

Tony was in awe of Ted Williams. It was on Ted's advice that he started using a bigger bat at the start of the 90s, which was one of the reasons for his highly successful second decade. He also helped Ted throw out the first pitch in the 1999 All-Star Game at Fenway Park. Tony apparently re-read Ted's book about hitting two or three times every year. If Tony saw this card then it must have given him a bit of a thrill.

Card Number 315: Upper Deck All Star Fan Fest, 1992; #25

This card was sold as part of a complete 54-card set, which appears to have been linked to the All-Star Game. (I acquired it in an eBay lot recently.)

The front has a sliding action shot. I like photos of Tony sliding.

The grey background with pin-stripes is very Fleer-esque.

The write-up includes a new description for my list of different ways Tony gets described on cardbacks. This time I can add "splendid ballplayer". There's a lot of detail in the summary with an emphasis on Tony's excellent fielding that led to him winning his fifth Gold Glove in 1991.

Total: 315/394

Slide, Tony, Slide!

There are so many cards with Tony at the plate waiting for a pitch, or swinging at a pitch, or following through on a swing. But here are some cards showing Tony baserunning in dramatic style.

Card Number 141: Topps Stadium Club, 1996; #301

I've been trying to identify the Cardinals player who is getting in Tony's way there. Working on the assumption this was a photo from 1995, none of the regular basemen seem likely candidates. I asked Madding, who writes the Cards on Cards blog dedicated to Cardinal players who the St Louis player was. Madding's educated guess is that it's shortstop Ozzie Smith, covering second base. It's hard to know because he's pulling a bit of a funny face there as Tony slides towards him in a cloud of red dirt.

Stadium Club cards all had some kind of stats system or ratings to make them a bit different to other cards. The 1996 cards had a "skills matrix". Tony had superior Hitting and Clutch skills, but was average on power and range. It seems a fair assessment. He was a precision hitter, not a swinging slugger, which explains why he had the lowest strike-out rate in the Major Leagues in 1995 as per the cardback. There's another decent factoid there as well about Tony being the first player in sixty years to record three seasons in a row with a batting average above .350.

Card Number 142: Leaf, 1993; #28
An elevated angle capturing Tony sliding into home.

I have coveted this card ever since I started reading the Sportscards from the Dollar Store blog. The blogger, Doug, scans highlights from the repacks he buys in various dollar stores and he always scans the backs of Leaf 1993 cards because of the way they combine an image of the player with local scenery.

Having wanted this card for ages, I have acquired two in short succession. I am very tempted to try and build the set, so obviously I needed more than one in readiness for if I go on and do that...

Card Number 143: Score Select, 1993; #5
A surfing style slide on this one.

Score Select was a slightly higher quality product than regular Score cards, which I have already described as cards that have better backs than fronts. Not so on this card. Tony is kicking up grit there!

Although, this is a good cardback. It's a great photo of Tony set up for some media work wearing some proper vintage technology.

Score selected Tony's On Base Percentage for their 'Select Stat'. Although that stat was higher than the average, it's a long way behind the all time season records set by Barry 'Got a Lot of Walks' Bonds.

The final card on this theme comes from Tony's final active season.

Card Number 144: Topps Stadium Club, 2001; #15

By 2000 Tony was carrying a terrible persistent knee injury that required him to have fluid drained from the knee quite regularly. Sliding like this won't have helped.

Topps have created a horrible compound term on the cardback: "Analyskills". In that little blurb box it notes that he was "not as quick, but still a quality right fielder". The knee injury was part of the reason Tony had lost some speed. According to this cardback he was 15 pounds lighter than in 1996.

These were the first Stadium Club cards to feature on this blog. I'm going to rectify that in some upcoming posts.

Total: 144/394