Some little things for St David's Day

It's St David's Day, celebrating the patron saint of Wales. David was a monk, preacher and reputed miracle-worker who lived in the 6th century. His earliest biography dates from the 11th Century. Much of that is apocryphal, but I really like one of the, perhaps legendary, tales about him. 

Towards the end of his life, David gave some final instructions to his followers and friends and told them to "Do ye the little things in life" as a way of demonstrating they remained faithful to their religious beliefs. It's a phrase I find inspiring because it's often doing the little things that show how much we respect and care for people.

So in honour of St David, here are some "little things", that came in the big parcel of items that Richard (YoRicha) sent me several months back. They are stickers not cards, but they count here as cards! (Although they are about a quarter of the size of a regular baseball card.)

Red Foley stickers were included in the Red Foley Best Baseball Book Ever that was published for several years in the late 80s and early 90s. The books had spaces to stick the stickers in. These stickers don't seem to never got stuck into a book.

Card Number 976: Red Foley, 1992; #44

There's no sticker back to show. Not even a number on the little bit of paper.

There were only 130 stickers included with the book so it's pretty cool that Tony was on two of them.

Card Number 977: Red Foley, 1992; #116

That photo might look really familiar. I am reasonably certain that's a photo from the All Star game in 1991. Mainly because of this Upper Deck card.

The guy in the yellow backwards baseball cap is in the background of both cards. I hope whoever he is he knows he was on a baseball card and a baseball sticker!

Tony got two stickers the next year as well!

Card Number 978: Red Foley, 1993; #38

Tony is adjusting his gloves in the photo that also looks quite familiar, although I can't quite place it. Dug-out pictures are fairly common, after all. 

And just to make it fun and confusing, Tony had the #116 sticker for the second successive year.

Card Number 979: Red Foley, 1993; #116

This is the same uniform and virtually the same pose as sticker #44 the previous year. It's a different background though, and Tony has sleeves on.

As a bonus Richard also included a little cameo picture cut from the cover of one of the Red Foley books.

I could have probably dated that photo by the colour of the batting helmet and the Van Dyck moustache and beard, but instead I used Google image search to locate it in the top right corner of the cover of the 1988 sticker book. Ironically, Tony wasn't on any of the stickers inside the book in 1988!

I really appreciate these little things from Richard - and thanks also for faithfully commenting on the blog along with other regular commenters. Your encouragement keeps me going!

Total: 979 cards (and stickers!)

2013 oddities courtesy of Glenn

Last week Glenn sent me a little envelope with a couple of oddities from 2013. That year is right in the lull caused by the Topps monopoly squeezing other card companies out of the baseball market at the end of the noughties, and the recent resurgence in baseball card popularity that started in about 2019. There aren't many Tony Gwynn cards from that period so I was surprised when Glenn sent me pictures of two cards I didn't yet have from the same year. 

Card Number 914: Topps Archives 1969 mini-stickers, 2013; #69S-GBRS

The card number is weird. 69S stands for 1969 sticker, because they replicate the 1969 Topps card design. Tony is the G in GBRS. He shares this card-sized sticker sheet with Wade Boggs (B), Cal Ripken Jr (R) and Ryne Sandberg (S).

Tony easily has the best photo on the front. Wade looks annoyed. Cal looks sleepy. Ryne looks tense and confused.

The photo of Tony seems to come from the photo-shoot that yielded pictures used on his Topps glossy all-star card in 1986 and the Baseball Champions Superstar sticker in the same year. The guy in the yellow shirt behind him seems to have a large number 18 on his back. That's not a contemporary Padres shirt as far as I can tell, so I have no idea who that guy is.

The back is dull, even for a sticker back. 

Card Number 915: Panini Cooperstown Colgan's Chips, 2013; #unnumbered

This is the first round 'card' in my collection. It's unnumbered, but there are 165 listed on Trading Card Database.

The photo of Tony isn't the most flattering. He looks to me like he is trying to suppress a laugh.

This is from Panini's 'Cooperstown' range that they issued through an agreement with the Baseball Hall of Fame. It's the range that had a card that just featured Tony's spikes. 

In 2013 Panini were feeling their way into the unlicensed card market, wary of triggering a lawsuit from the aggressively protective Topps, and also trying to hit on a formula for cards that people would want. This set was issued the year before Panini resurrected the DonRuss brand when they were also still trying to get the Prizm brand right. So this round card was part of a process where Panini threw a lot of things at the wall and hoped something would stick.

Despite being a retro-tastic tribute to gum cards issued a century before, these inserts were a one shot that they didn't try repeating in the following year's Cooperstown set.

The Cooperstown set of 2013 is noteworthy in that it had autographed inserts, including cards autographed by Tony. Those would have been some of the last cards that he signed before his untimely death. One day I might be lucky enough to add one to the collection.

A big thank you to Glenn for checking whether I had these weird cards. Much appreciated, Glenn!

Total: 915 cards

Collecting intersect - Panini Stickers

Before I collected baseball cards, I collected football stickers. By football, I mean soccer. I still have the first Panini sticker album - Football '85 - that I filled, in partnership with my little brother. It's quite tatty now, but it is 36 years old! In 1986 we completed the Fifa World Cup sticker album by Panini. We didn't collect the regular football stickers in 1986 or 1987, although I do have incomplete albums that I acquired off friends. 

Then in 1988, my brother and I collected the Football '88 stickers. They had bright yellow borders, in one of Panini's more exciting design templates. Those football albums by Panini in the mid-80s were the pinnacle of sticker collecting in my opinion. In addition to all the first division clubs, the albums included the second division teams and club badges, the teams in the Scottish Premier Division, and additional features. 

In Football 88 one bonus spread focussed on the celebrations of the Football League's centenary season. There was also a page of 'Second Division Heroes' with a few players from the second division clubs featured. Unfortunately, none of the players from the team my family supported, Shrewsbury Town, made the cut for that feature.

I had, of course, had my first encounter with baseball cards in 1987 (which I recorded in my diary!). But it was those Panini football stickers that started me off collecting this sort of thing. 

What I didn't know, however, was that Panini had produced baseball stickers in the 80s as well. It was a real surprise when I went carefully through the parcel that Richard sent me to find two stickers. And as I picked them up all those memories of collecting football stickers in my childhood came flooding back. 

Card Number 784: Panini Baseball 88 Stickers, 1988; #410

As with the football stickers, each team in Baseball '88 had a double page spread in the album with 12 player stickers, two stickers that made up a 'league leaders' image, a foil sticker of the team logo and another foil sticker depicting the uniform. 

The back is very plain. These were going in an album and the peeled backs would be going in the bin, so there was no point printing anything on them.

Tony isn't pictured on the Padres 'league leaders' stickers. But later on in the book were some action shots of various players in a 'Highlights' spread.

Card Number 785: Panini Baseball 88 Stickers, 1988; #437

It's not the most exciting photo, really. Although, there is a TV camera on a tripod in the background, which is a bit more interesting than the usual empty bench. 

The back is plain again. 

One day, maybe, I will pick up a Baseball '88 album and see what these stickers would look like if they had ever been stuck. Until then, I'm happy just reminiscing about my childhood collecting. 

Total: 785 cards

One sticker only - a Topps "halfsie"

Ask anyone who grew up in the UK in the 80s who was into soccer, and they probably collected Panini football stickers. The first sticker album my brother and I filled was Football '85. We then completed the Mexico '86 book for the World Cup. Then my mum enforced a break on us. The last book we filled was Football '88. I did have sticker albums for Football '86, Football '87 and Football '89, but didn't complete them.

As an adult I collected and filled the World Cup 2014 and the Euro 2016 sticker albums. It may have been regression, but it was great fun swapping football stickers again.

I didn't realise that Topps did sticker books in the 80s for baseball until I started delving into the depths of Trading Card Database. Also, a little known fact about these "Topps" stickers is that they were actually manufactured by Panini, who had the right equipment for producing them! (Source: BaseballCardpedia)

Hence the link to my childhood football sticker collecting.

This was all triggered by one of the items in the envelope that recently arrived from Tim in Pennsylvania.

"Card" Number 614: Topps Stickers, 1984; #160

These stickers could be stuck in the Baseball Sticker Yearbook that was sold for 25c. 

This sticker really reminds me of Football '85 because in the 80s, the Panini sticker albums had the English First Division with one player per sticker, then the teams and badges of the Second Division, and then at the back the players for the teams in the Scottish Premier Division. But the Scottish player stickers came like this - two stickers on the same sticker back. Although, unlike these, the Scottish stickers got stuck into the album next to each other. 

The nostalgia is almost overwhelming.

Tony is sharing this sticker with "Disco Dan" Ford, who was in the penultimate year of his decade-long Major League career. The Orioles was his final ball club after starting out with the Twins and then playing for the Angels. He was an outfielder like Tony and won the World Series with the Orioles in 1983 - so considering he was an established player and had a World Series ring, it's a bit odd he only got a 'halfsie' sticker. 

On the back it says the sticker was printed in Italy - another clue that this was produced by Panini under a subcontracting agreement. I particularly like the perpendicular baseball bat separating Tony and Dan's names. Another oddity is that the sticker-back suggest you collect the baseball cards, instead of completing your sticker collection. Maybe after they paid Panini for the print run, the stickers were less profitable for Topps, which is why they wanted collectors to buy the baseball cards instead.

Total: 614 cards

One card only, sorry, one sticker only, to end 80s week

I still have a few cards from the 80s to blog about, but I'm going to close off 80s week for now with a sticker!

Card Number 497: Fleer Star Stickers, 1987; #52

There were 132 stickers in this set and they were ordered alphabetically, starting with Don Aase of the Baltimore Orioles and finishing with Robin Yount who had sticker number #130. The final two stickers in the set were checklists with a couple of players on them.

I really like the border design on this card. It looks Christmassy. 

Although this is a sticker, it's the same thickness as the card. The instructions on the back say to bend and peel. 

The design of the cardback is practically the same as the cardback on Tony's Fleer base card - which I blogged about on Monday. It's a different colour scheme, as you can see, below.

So that's the end of 80s week on Point 394. I hope you've enjoyed it. We have a Modern Monday post tomorrow and then a major blog milestone post on Tuesday!

Total: 497 cards 

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

Tony Gwynn, Superstar...

Apologies if the thread title has given you a musical earworm. 

Occasionally I ask the question, when is a baseball card not a baseball card? How about when it's the back of a sticker? Topps Stickers were released in the late 80s. The stickers could be stuck into an album, but the sticker backs were little trading cards in their own right. 

To make things even more fun each sticker came with different possible cardbacks, so if you were collecting both, you could end up with needing just the sticker or just the cardback, making swapping stickers more difficult because you would ideally be checking the front and the back of the ones you were swapping to see if you needed them both. 

Card Number 297: Topps Stickers Superstar Cardback, 1988; #16

The sticker this card backs on to is #159, a foil sticker of Wade Boggs.

This sticker also appeared with three other cardbacks, of Andre Dawson, Tim Raines and Mark McGwire. Tony's sticker in the set was #115 and is available with Superstar cardbacks of Gary Carter and Mark Langston.

Card Number 298: Topps Stickers Superstar Cardback, 1989; #50

Tony's waiting for his turn in the batting cage in this photo. (Is my guess!)

Both this card and the previous one list Tony's weight at 199 lbs. Usually trading cards round to the nearest 5 lbs.

The stickers on the reverse are #29 - Rick Mahler from the Atlanta Braves, and #269 - Floyd Bannister of the Kansas City Royals. 

Rick and Floyd's alternative cardbacks were Kirby Puckett, Dave Stewart and Barry Larkin. Tony's sticker in 1989 was #109 and his Superstar cardbacks were Paul Molitor, Dave Henderson and Mike LaValliere.

Card Number 299: Topps Stickers Superstar Cardback, 290;  #15

Tony's weight has crept up to 205 lbs.

The stickers on the other side are #138 - Todd Benzinger of the Cincinatti Reds, and #292 - Dan Gladden of the Minnesota Twins. 

Unlike in other years, this sticker of Todd and Dan only appeared with Tony's cardback. Tony's sticker was #101 and was produced with two different cardbacks - Mike Sciosa and Rick Reuschel.

The Superstar cardbacks are all smaller than a standard trading card and slightly smaller than "Topps mini" cards that were for sale around the same time. Collecting all the different sticker and cardback combinations that Tony is in would be a real challenge. I'm going to file that idea away for now!

Total: 299/394

Monday Mixer Miscellany

The usual round up of unconnected odds and sods today, although there is sort of a theme here. These cards are just slightly odd ones.

Card Number 101: Upper Deck Collector's Choice "Push Out", 1999; #24

Trading Card Database lists this as "mini bobblehead". I'm intrigued whether they actually work as bobbleheads, but I'm not pushing out my push out card to find out.

The back has the instructions of how to assemble it.

This is one of those innovations from a card company that leaves me wondering if anyone actually did this.

Card Number 102: Score, 1992 (All Star), #779

Another case of putting Tony's real head atop a cartoon body.

I actually really like this card. I even love the funny way they've written 'All Star' in a cartoonish font. Panini own Score now, and they've revived this style of card, which is a great choice for a retro card design in my opinion (I have a card of Fernando Tatis Jr in this style that somebody sent me.)

In a previous post about Score base cards I said that Score tended to have better cardbacks than card fronts. Not true in this case, but this is definitely one of the better cardbacks for an All Star card. For one thing it has the National League line up for the 1991 All Star Game.

For the record, the 1991 All Star Game was in Toronto and the National League lost 2-4. Tony had 4 at bats, got 2 hits, scored 1 of the National League's 2 runs. He made it home when Andre Dawson hit a home run. (Box score)

Card Number 103: Upper Deck Collector's Choice You Make the Play, 1996; #17 (Groundout variant)

I think that is officially the longest set name I will ever write on this blog. 'You Make the Play' was a baseball card game you could, um, play, in some way. There are two versions of this card, a "Groundout" and a "Single". Every card in the 90 card set has a variant, making it a 180 card set in actuality.

Every time I see this card with Tony surrounded by a neon glow it makes me think of the Ready Brek Kid, with his bright orange outline after he'd eaten Ready Brek. The adverts had the tagline "Central heating for kids!" Which in turn reminds me of the rumour that Viz Comic got done for a tasteless joke that a high strength lager was "Central Heating for Tramps!" It's funny where a train of thought ends up, and mine always ends up there every time I see this card.

The back is like this.

All the card backs in the set are the same, so that you can actually play the game. From the packaging pictures on TCDb, it looks like You Make the Play cards were inserted as 'bonus cards' in regular packs of Collector's Choice cards. 

Card Number 104: Upper Deck Collector's Choice Stick-Ums, 1998; #23 

Another insert from Collector's Choice packs. They are stickers, not cards.

You actually get five sticker elements on the front, which include Tony, his name, and two San Diego logo motifs. The fifth sticker is a generic baseball.

The back is a checklist of the Stick-Ums. There are some star names on the list.

That's the end of this week's Monday Mixer. I hope you enjoyed it.

Total: 104/394