Merry X-press

Instead of a Merry Xmas, I'd like to wish you a Merry X-Press... with a Pinnacle X-Press. (It's a terrible Christmas pun. You deserve better on Christmas Eve!)

Card Number 551: Pinnacle X-Press, 1997; #13

X-Press is one of Pinnacle's less well-known card ranges. This card features a plethora of batting photos.

The statistical breakdown on the back shows a month-by-month summary of Tony's statistics from the 1996 season.

Tony played just one game in July 1996 as he struggled with a foot injury, which is why his total number of plate appearances in the year was four short of the minimum requirement to be in contention for a batting title. He still won the batting title, however, because even with four hitless plate appearances added to his total, his average would have been higher than anyone else's. (More information in this blog post.)

Have a lovely Christmas. I'm expecting coal in my stocking as punning-shment for my attempts at wordplay.

Total: 551 cards

Hanging with the rookie class

It's the day before Christmas Eve and in our house we call that Christmas Eve Eve.

I've been thinking a bit about the future of this blog. It started back in May as a 'lockdown project' and I have posted every day since then. I wasn't anticipating it being a daily blog as I had less then 200 Tony Gwynn cards when I started. I imagined I would blog the cards I had and then blog more when I acquired them. However, I have been blessed by some great contacts who have supplied me literally hundreds of cards between them.

At this point in time, though, I am actually nearing the end of my unblogged cards, and so I think in January I will be heading into 'occasional blogging' mode, as and when I add new cards to the collection. I have a few other bits and pieces related to Tony Gwynn that could feature. And I have toyed with the idea of a virtual "Frankenset", which might be fun. 

However, as I said, I am finishing up the collection of unblogged cards, and have two cards here that have a similar theme.

Card Number 549: Upper Deck Pros & Prospects, 2000; #78

This card set had 192 cards in it, and 47 of them were serial numbered cards of rookies. It was released at the end of the season.

On the back, Upper Deck opted for the confusing 'put the player's uniform number where you would expect to see the card number' design choice. There are also some issues with the kerning in some lines - ah, the wonders of justified text!

Other companies released sets that covered similar ground to Pros and Prospects. Including, Leaf...

Card Number 550: Leaf Rookies and Stars, 2001; #19

Leaf were a bit more obvious about what the set was about than Upper Deck. Again, the setlist was heavy on rookies - 148 out of the 300 base cards were rookie cards.

The airbrushing effect at the bottom of the card makes Tony look like he is skipping.

There's an orange tone on the cardback. And another entry in my collection of cardback descriptions of Tony: "A field general at the plate". It also decribes Tony as being "on deck" for the Hall of Fame.

Leaf also get 19 bonus points for having this as card #19 in their set!

Total: 550 cards

Tuesday Twins - another Magic Moment

In 2000, Topps included some 'Magic Moments' cards in their flagship set. They were issued with overprints commemorating various things. I blogged about three of the cards, and an Opening Day version, back in June.

There are five different overprints in this set, and I have recently added a fourth version of this card to my collection.

Card Number 548: Topps, 2000; #240 (1995 Batting Title)

The cardback explains why Topps picked the 1995 batting title as the one to highlight on this card.

Putting all four cards together makes a nice display.

The 3000th hit card was included in the Topps Opening Day set in 2000. There is a fifth overprint still to get as well. So, Topps really made the most of this photograph in 2000. However, that wasn't the first time Topps had used this photo. It also appeared on the back of a Bowman Chrome card in 1999.

This takes this photo up to 7 appearances on baseball cards across 3 sets, which is reasonably impressive for a time before the current era of multiple parallels. 

Total: 548 cards

 

Modern Monday - got your number

This card from the recently released Topps Update set came all the way from Plymouth, Massachusetts, via eBay. Then, after I'd bought it and while it was somewhere in the postal system, Marc from the UK Facebook collectors group asked me if I had it. The lesson? Wait and see what turns up in the group!

Card Number 547: Topps Update Numbers Game insert, 2020; #NG-15

The theme of this insert set are the various numbers retired by clubs. 

If that picture on the front looks familiar, it might be because it appeared on an insert card in Topps Chrome Update in 2019.

On the back there is a little write up about Tony's career.

I have one quibble with this insert series - why didn't Topps try to align the card numbers with the retired numbers? NG-19 in the series is Ernie Banks, who wore #14. They gave Derek Jeter's card the number NG-22, but his uniform number was #2, while NG-2 is a card for Ryne Sandberg, who wore #23.

Yesterday I talked about how I felt Topps's licensing monopoly had rendered the company lazy. This is the kind of thing I mean. I realise it might not always be possible to number all the cards exactly aligned to the shirt numbers of the players. But Topps could have done that with a lot of them. 

Total: 547 cards

One Card Only: life without logos

Today's blog post contains opinions. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong in the comments!

Card Number 546: Panini Classics, 2014; #134

Panini have been producing cards without a Major League Baseball license for a number of years now. They have signed contracts with the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) and with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, so they have access to photos and player likenesses. But they can't include the franchise name or any franchise logos.

And so we get cards like this. But looking at this objectively, there is nothing particularly bad about this card. You can see Tony's name and number on his shirt and as much of his face as is visible in, say, his Topps base card from 1987 or the main photo in his Topps rookie card from 1983. In terms of visible logos it is about parallel with the Topps Stadium Club card from 2020, which was a fully licensed card.

Panini are operating at a disadvantage, but, honestly, with the exception of the word 'Padres' not being included, this card is absolutely fine. It's nicely designed. The cardback is neatly laid out, and includes a factoid that I didn't remember until I read it. The set year is included on the front (bonus point!), and this is actually one of the few cards issued the year that Tony died.

I have mentioned this a few times when reviewing Panini output - they own the DonRuss stable of brands and now produce the Diamond Kings cards as Panini Diamond Kings - but given what the company achieves without a MLB license, it would be very interesting to see what Panini could do if they had a license that meant they didn't have to airbrush batting helmets and shirt sleeves to remove logos.

Only one card company - Topps - holds a MLB license at the moment. I don't think that is particularly good for the hobby. For one thing it limits innovation. Very few major advances in card production have been introduced into the hobby by Topps, and those that have were introduced in reaction to pressure. In fact I'd go as far as saying that being the sole licensee isn't just bad for the hobby, it's also bad for Topps. They don't need to try as hard, and so, let's be real, they don't.

With the exception of the Topps 2020 product this year, and that product is divisive among collectors, there has been little to show that Topps are the dominant card company. Their flagship set was OK, their archives set wasn't bad, but their other sets like Allen & Ginter and Gypsy Queen are looking tired. Museum, Gallery, Gold Label... they feel like they are treading water. And the decidedly average UK Edition was welcome for being baseball cards released in the UK (hurray!), but has a weaksauce checklist and an England-centric insert set, which I'll be blunt, turned a "United Kingdom" edition into an "England Only" edition. (It's not like Topps don't know Wales exists -  there were two Welsh castles in their Allen & Ginter fortresses subset!)

The Panini Classics card in this post is six years old, and it shows that Panini have known what they are doing for some time now. Despite being at a tremendous disadvantage, they are not as far behind Topps as Topps would like. It may seem counter-intuitive, but maybe the way forward for the Topps company is to relinquish their monopoly on the MLB license and allow other companies to compete on level ground. I think that would help Topps to rediscover the need to innovate and explore new things. There would be risk, but that will keep them sharp. 

It would also be good for the hobby, and what is good for the hobby will also be good for Topps.

In the meantime, if you can bear cards without logos, Panini cards are less expensive to collect, and are often more interesting too. If you collect a player, like I do, then the pictures on the cards are what matter, and they tend to be as good as the pictures that Topps choose anyway. With the archive of DonRuss, Leaf, Score and Pinnacle templates available to them, Panini can match Topps in the nostalgia stakes as well.

And if they produce cards that are as nice in hand as this one, I will be happy to add them to my collection.

Total: 546 cards

SE Stat-urday

I am reaching the end of my stockpile of Tony Gwynn cards and seem to have ended up with a few odd ones that don't really fit into a themed post, like these Upper Deck cards.

Card Number 543: Upper Deck Collector's Choice Special Edition, 1995; #140

Collector's Choice was Upper Deck's other main set, and Special Edition was a smaller additional set of Collector's Choice, like a spin-off of a spin-off.

The stat leaders card is relevant to this blog because it commemorates Tony's .394 score in 1994. The blue foil SE logo marks this out as part of the Special Edition set.

On the back we have all the leading hitters across both leagues in 1994. Tony was .026 more prolific than Jeff Bagwell, who had the next highest average.

Looking down the list of other players, it feels very odd seeing Wade Boggs listed as a Yankee, but he spent five seasons and won the World Series with them in 1996.

Card Number 544: Upper Deck UD3, 1997; #35

UD3 was a high end card range brought out by Upper Deck that went heavy on emphasising its use of "unique technologies" on its cards. Tony's card was a PROmotion [sic] card that featured "Light-FX" - an effect that doesn't scan very well. 

This wonky photo captures the colourfulness of the cardfront better.

The cardback isn't treated with the same coating. It predicts Tony has a place reserved in Cooperstown - he entered the Hall of Fame ten years later!

There were only 60 base cards in this set, which sold at $3.99 for 3 cards. If we adjust for inflation, the retail price for packs of three cards would be $6.47 in 2020.

Card Number 545: Upper Deck Past Time Pennants, 2005; #76

This set from Upper Deck was composed of retired players. There were 90 cards in the set and 69 of them were Hall of Famers, or have been elected since the set was released. Tony was included in the set two years before he was elected.

The cardback lists Tony's five best seasons and it's notable that three of them were grouped between the 1994 season and the 1997 season. 

Although I sometimes comment negatively about truncated stats boxes on cards, this works really well in this kind of set that features legends of the game. 

Total:545 cards

Three cards to complete a Pacific quintet

Here are three more cards released by Pacific in 1999. 

Card Number 540: Pacific Invincible Sandlot Heroes insert, 1999; #17

I mentioned yesterday that Pacific had a penchant for photoshopping cards. Invincible was the product where they did it most often.

As with Tony's card in the regular Pacific release, this card was released with two different card fronts. There were 20 cards in the insert series, but all had two versions, meaning it was actually a 40-card set!

The alternative photo version of this card was of Tony at the plate. 

The posed photo on the back is a rare picture of Tony sans headgear. The cardback is bilingual with Spanish given priority.

I prefer "Heroes del Diamante" to "Sandlot Heroes". It definitely sounds better.

Card Number 541: Pacific Crown Collection, 1999; #242

Crown Collection was Pacific's main product aimed at Spanish speakers. The base card isn't particularly exciting.

The back picks an arbitrary batting average (.320) as a noteworthy data point, and also shows how close he was to his 500th double. (He ended up hitting 543 in his career.)

Card Number 542: Pacific Crown Royale Pillars of the Game insert, 1999; #20

Crown Royale cards were die-cut into a crown shape. I blogged about the 2000 version back in June. There were 25 cards in this insert series.

It's shiny and colourful, and, let's be honest, gaudy. 

There's a bit of history on the back. I've noticed how card companies often decided to summarise college careers and being drafted on cardbacks, instead of more contemporary achievements. This card was released 18 years after Tony was drafted, but that's what they chose to talk about.

Total: 542 cards