Another Victory quartet

My previous blogpost about Upper Deck's Victory sets contained four cards. This post contains four cards. Victory cards just seem to come in fours.

Card Number 765: Upper Deck Victory, 1999; #337

Tony was a 'Big Play maker' according to this subset.

This was from the first year of Victory sets. Upper Deck used the branding in other sports too and issued Victory cards for five years. 

Design-wise, I like this card. It's bold. It's colourful. Tony is kicking up a clod of dirt in the photo. It also looks a lot like a DonRuss card at first glance (or is that just me?)

The back explains why Tony qualifies as a 'Big Play Maker', noting that he was on the brink of joining the elite group of players to record 3,000 Major League hits.

Card Number 766: Upper Deck Victory, 1999; #338

The very next card in the debut Victory set featured Tony in another subset - 'History in the Making'.

The overlay of Tony running on a background made to look like a TV image is quite effective. The date history was made was the 28 April 1998. There are more details on the cardback.

I wonder how demoralised the Cubs pitching staff were at the end of the game after Tony had gone 5 for 5 in his plate appearances. They must have been glad to see the back of him at the end of the game. 

I've thought occasionally of going through all the cards and listing the other baseball players who get mentioned on Tony's cardbacks. Ty Cobb has been mentioned on loads. Realistically, I probably won't ever get round to doing that. It would be a fun diversion though. 

Card Number 767: Upper Deck Victory, 1999; #464

Further on in the set, Upper Deck gave Tony a 'Rookie Flashback' card.

Despite being totally devoid of context, it's evident that is a picture of Tony sliding into home plate, given the player in front of him is wearing the strapping for catcher armour. It looks like it could be a photo from Tony's rookie season - 1982 - in which case there were three catchers who wore #14 in the National League that season. They were Alan Ashby (Astros), Mike Sciosa (Dodgers) and Matt Sinatro (Braves). Ashby played 100 games and Sciosa played 129 games that season, so they seem to be the most likely to be the mystery catcher in this photo. 

This card almost set off the Anachronism Klaxon, as Upper Deck didn't exist when Tony was a rookie. In fact, Upper Deck didn't exist for the five years included in the graph on the back of the card. (But, hey, there's a data representation bonus point for having a graph on a cardback!)

Card Number 768: Upper Deck Victory, 2000; #203

This is Tony's base card from the second year of Victory sets. If it looks familiar, that's because a shiny blue foil parallel "Ultimate Victory" version was in the first blog post about Victory cards back in July 2020.

This card design doubles up on Tony's smiling face. No complaints here!

The cardback is quite dull.The stadium picture in the watermark under the stats box is the same on every card in the set. I don't know which stadium it is; odds are high it's not Jack Muprhy stadium. 

Total: 768 cards.

Toppeechee cards from the 80s

I was surprised when I first researched O-Pee-Chee cards that the name came from an Ojibwa word meaning 'robin' . The Ojibwe are Canada's second largest First Nations tribal people and a large number live in the USA as well. In Canada they tend to live in a large area that stretches from Quebec to British Columbia. 

In my ignorance, I just assumed it was a way of phonetically spelling 'Oh, peachy!' But, no, it has a much deeper meaning, and in terms of languages on baseball cards, it has to count as another one along with English, French, Spanish and Chinese characters. Technically, the Ojibwe people speak one of the Algonquian languages, but for the purpose of this blog, I'm just going to count it as Ojibwe. 

For most of the 1980s, O-Pee-Chee had a licence to reprint Topps cards. They often released smaller sets, added their logo on the front and changed the cardbacks so they had information in English and French. The cards were sold in Canada but seem to have travelled reasonable quickly to collectors in the USA.

I've blogged a few of these "Toppeechee" cards before - here is Tony's rookie card, and also his card from the 1986 set. Richard included a few more in his recent parcel, which I mentioned in the box opening video, and here I am, blogging about them today.

Card Number 762: O-Pee-Chee, 1985; #383

As I noted when I blogged about the Topps release of this card, Tony has a visible wad of chewing tobacco in his cheek. Tony started 'dipping' when he was in the minor leagues at Walla-Walla, and was never able to shake the habit although he apparently tried several times. This card foreshadows his early death from oral cancer. 

In terms of being bilingual, most stuff on the back is translated. However, this would not pass the requirements for translation in my workplace where everything has to be fully bilingual.

Card Number 763: O-Pee-Chee, 1987; #198

This is my favourite ever Topps set (for sentimental reasons!) and the Topps version of this card was the very first card on this blog.

Even though this is my favourite card set, this is one of the worst photos of Tony ever used by Topps on a card. And that is a very low bar to clear!

The back is very crisply printed. The 'On this Date' factoid is also in French as 'Une Date Memorable'.

Card Number 764: O-Pee-Chee, 1988; #360

There is something about the way Tony's stance perfectly frames whoever that person is sat in the dug out that makes me chuckle every time I see it. Tony's pinstripes look absolutely pristine in this photo as well.

The little baseballs in the background make the top of the cardback a bit hard to read, but it's a nice design. 

I am pretty sure I have pointed out Topps's obsession with recycling factoids about Tony's minor league achievements on their cardbacks. On this card they don't mention that Tony was batting champion the previous season, with an outstanding .370 batting average - the highest so far in his career. Instead, we learn about how Tony won the MVP in the Northwest League in 1981, in both English and French.

From 1989 O-Pee-Chee started releasing the full Topps sets complete with the Topps logo on the front and bilingual cardbacks. They did that for three years, then started releasing their own flagship sets. In 1994 they released their last set of Major League Baseball cards. Since then the brand has been through a few different owners and now is licensed out to other companies for use when releasing trading cards. 

Total: 764 cards

Tuesday Twins - photo edition

When I looked through the cards that Richard sent me recently, two cards matched so much I instantly thought, 'That's a twins post!'

Card Number 760: Topps All-Star Collector's Edition, 1985; #29

This was the first time Tony was included in these sets of glossy cards that were mailed to collectors who sent in tokens. I have previously blogged some of his cards from these sets that were issued in later years.

That yellow shirt was history in 1985. After reaching the World Series in 1984, the Padres revealed an all new look for the following season - white pinstripes at home and grey pinstripes for the road uniforms. The background of this photo makes me wonder if is was taken at a Spring Training game in 1984. Topps used photos taken at Spring Training on some cards.

The back of this card is very dull. The glossy photo on the front is supposed to make up for having nothing to look at on the back.

The other card this matches also has a dull cardback.

Card Number 761: Topps Allen & Ginter, 2012; #205

Topps had been releasing Allen & Ginter sets since 2006 but I think this is the first time Tony appeared in one of the sets. He is also on an insert card from this set.

And, there it is, 27 years after Topps produced that glossy All-Star card, the same picture appears with a small filter applied to make it look more like it has been drawn.

And here is the back. This must have felt fun and quirky once, but I feel the novelty has worn off. 

This isn't the only time Topps re-used the photo. In 2013 they mocked up what an All-Star card from 1984 could have looked like. (At least the uniform would have been right on that card!)

Topps go through phases of using the same photos in several sets released around about the same time, so seeing this picture in sets released in successive years isn't that surprising. It's a nice photo, so I'm not complaining. It was just a bit odd getting two cards in the same parcel that were released so far apart and yet look so similar.

Total: 761 cards

Blog post number 394!

When I started this blog I was aiming to collect 394 cards featuring Tony Gwynn. To think that almost a year and half later I am posting my 394th blog post is a bit surreal. I've picked a stand out card for this blog post. It was the card that sealed the deal for me in buying a large parcel of cards from Greg in France a few weeks back.

Card Number 759: Upper Deck Pros and Prospects, 2000; #TGw

Tony's penmanship is lovely on this card. The blue ink is naturally streaky, which makes it look like it has been hand-signed. However, there are no other images to compare it with on Trading Card Database to see if there are variations. It's also great that the swatch of jersey has a pinstripe on it, instead of being a plain white patch. And as a final bonus, this is a relic card released during Tony's career!

According to BaseballCardPedia, these autographed memorabilia cards were included at a ratio of 1 every 96 packs. (Which feels like quite good odds to me.) There were 21 cards in this range of relic inserts. Tony's cards were denoted as TGw, because there were also cards signed by Tom Glavine, denoted with TGl.

The back doubles up as a certificate of authenticity. This is how card companies used to reassure collectors that the cloth swatch was genuinely connected to the player on the front. Somewhere along the way that has been lost. 

I feel this card is eminently suitable for an arbitrary personal milestone! I hope you agree. Thank you for reading my blog, and commenting, if you are one of the people who comments. I appreciate people taking the time to leave their thoughts and am grateful for all the encouragement. 

Total: 759 cards

One Card Only - a fifth magic moment

Topps released five versions of card #240 in their flagship set in 2000. Dubbed 'magic moments', the variations had a foil print over the top and different cardbacks. I had accumulated four of them, but thanks to the recent influx of cards, I can now blog the fifth one in the micro-set. (Here are three, plus an Opening Day parallel; and here's a fourth!)

Card Number 758: Topps, 2000; #240 (1984 Batting Title)

The front is the same as the other versions of the card, apart from the foil stamp across the bottom.

The back is different, talking about Tony's first full Major League season in 1984.

Winning the batting title and the other statistics are all impressive achievements, but the omission of Tony appearing in the World Series with the Padres feel odd. It was the first World Series in franchise history and yet it's not mentioned. However, another version of this card is all about winning the National League in 1984 so it wasn't completely ignored.

The complete list of 'Magic Moments' in this set are:

• 1984 Batting Title
• 1984 NL Championship
• 1995 Batting Title
• 1998 NL Championship
• 3000th Hit

The 3000th Hit card is the one that also appears in the Opening Day set. Tony's modern-day record batting average of .394 in 1994 is mentioned on the 1995 Batting Title card, but didn't merit being a 'Magic Moment' in its own right, according to Topps. 

Having this card means another 'gap' has been filled in the collection (and my Topps binder) and another small 'set' has been ticked off. Which makes it a bit of a magic moment for me, too.

Tomorrow marks a special milestone on the blog and I'm going to be celebrating it with a special card!

Total: 758 cards

Credit to Studio

Studio was a slightly more upmarket set produced in the 90s by the company that released the various DonRuss and Leaf branded sets. (Sometimes the copyright notices are for DonRuss; sometimes they are for Leaf - it's all over the place!) In later years Studio fluctuated between being Leaf Studio and DonRuss Studio, but before that they were just 'Studio'. 

Card Number 756: Studio, 1995; #25

Previous Studio sets had been portrait photos taken in a Studio. The photography cost must have been reasonably high for those sets. In 1995 they opted for a very different design. Each player in the 200 card set was featured on a "credit card" template, that included embossed statistics in the middle. As luck would have it, the timing of this means that Tony's card includes his most famous batting average. 

The photo is still interesting though, as it's a rare picture of Tony wearing glasses (that aren't sunglasses). 

There's a 'signature' on the back, just like a real credit card. 

There were 7 cards in each pack and every one of them had a 'plastic' card alongside six of the ordinary cardboard base cards. The plastic cards were gold or the much rarer platinum. The colour scheme was presuambly chosen to mimic the colours of different classes of credit cards.

Card Number 757: Studio Gold, 1995; #25

Even the hologram is gold! The plastic has rounded edges like a credit card. It is about the same thickness and the embossed details are quite prominent.

Only 50 players were selected for the gold card treatment. (That number dropped to 25 for the platinum series).

These cards still feel quite different, over 25 years after they were released. This was the last time the range was relased just as 'Studio' and the set went back to using posed portraits in subsequent years (blogged here), so maybe this innovative approach didn't appeal to collectors. However, I think the set designers deserve some credit for trying something new and unique with this set.

Total: 757 cards

The late 90s futuretech vision

Ah, the very late 1990s, when the world suddenly got interconnected and we started to wonder how long it would be before humans ended up living in the matrix, enslaved by the technology we had created.  

Card companies approached this culture change in different ways with different 'techie' ranges. And one of the companies that bought into the cybervision of the future was Upper Deck with their Ionix sets. They even went so far as to shrink their brand name to UD to make it more futurey. 

Card Number 754: Upper Deck UD Ionix, 1999; #49

This is from the actual year The Matrix was released. 

This card has a metallic chrome style coating on it which makes it hard to scan and has caused a slight warping effect over time. I like the coding font used for Gwynn up the side of the card. The little sequence of photos that look like a film strip look quite effective too.

On the back, Tony is looking skyward anticipating a catch. The coolness of the photo makes up for the truncated stats box.

There's a relevant factoid as well, about Tony's place on the all-time hits chart. He would break 3,000 hits this season.

Card Number 755: Upper Deck UD Ionix, 2000; #37

The next year, Ionix cards had a stronger chrome-like effect applied to them. I put this card under my overhead scanner to try and get a better image of it. This captures the foil cameo portrait reasonably well, and boosts some of the other colours in the background. 

The back isn't coated and scans like a normal card. The warping is more evident from this scan.

The truncated stats box is a negative, but the coding font reappears, so the negatives are cancelled out on this factoid-less cardback. 

Upper Deck dropped Ionix after just two years, so this represents a complete run of Tony's base cards from this range.

Total:755 cards