Tuesday Tribute Triple

I recently bought a few cards from an eBay vendor that shipped very quickly from the USA. However, unfortunately some of the cards arrived with dinged corners. The dealer refunded the money for those cards and said they didn't want me to send them back. So, basically what I'm saying is the cards in today's post were effectively free. I will hopefully replace these in my binders at some point. However, for now, they are shiny placeholders.

How shiny? Well, they broke my scanner.

This is more reflective (ha!) of how they actually look.

They are three more cards in the 5-strong "Tribute" insert series that DonRuss including in their 2015 set. One of the cards from the set was the 100th card to feature on this blog.

Card Number 423: DonRuss "Tony Gwynn Tribute", 2015; #1

Until the cards arrived I hadn't noticed that the little picture of Tony on the front was different on each one. This card shows him following through on a swing, but it really looks like he's busting out some dance moves!

This card commemorates Tony's perennial selection for the All Star teams and particularly focuses on his first appearance, in 1984.

Tony was the lead-off hitter for the National League team in the 1984 All-Star Game, with a hit and a strike out from 3 at bats. He also stole a base. It was a night game at Candlestick Park in San Francisco and the National League won 3-1.

Card Number 424: DonRuss "Tony Gwynn Tribute", 2015; #3

The third card in the series is about Tony's career hits. (You can really see the corner ding on this one!)

There's a slightly forced write up on the back, punning on the idea of Tony having hits if he was a musician. Tony's wife, Alicia, is actually in the music industry. She owns a record label and studio in Indianapolis. Tony's daughter, Anisha, released an album called '19' back in 2003 and the single from that album ('No Means No') was in the R&B charts for 19 weeks! This version on YouTube apparently features Tony. If DonRuss were going to riff (ha!) on the music idea, it's a shame they didn't mention this.

Card Number 425: DonRuss "Tony Gwynn Tribute", 2015; #5

I only bought the odd numbers in this series this time around.

The final card in the Tribute series is about Tony's career batting average.

There's some real truth in the comment that Tony's batting average was a throwback to baseball history. If you look on Baseball Reference at the Career Batting Average Leaders, Tony's is the only colour photo. 

Tony is joint 18th on the all-time list and most of the players ahead of him had passed away before he was born. The exceptions are Ty Cobb (died, 1961), Rogers Hornsby (died, 1963), Lefty O'Doul (died, 1969), George Sisler (died, 1973), Bill Terry (died, 1989) and Ted Williams who lived until 2002. Tony is the only player in the top 20 to play baseball after 1960. That was Ted Williams' final season in the game and the year Tony was born. So there was literally nobody hitting to the same consistency as Tony throughout his entire lifetime!

Total cards: 425

Modern Monday Minis

Topps 206 is an expensive premium card range made to look like cigarette cards of yore. In addition to the size and design, Topps also use some old tobacco company names on some of the card backs to introduce even more parallels into the card hobby, except this time you can't see the parallel until you turn the card over. 

Marc, who also sent me the Topps Archives card that I blogged about a few weeks ago, sent me two Topps 206 cards released this year. I've scanned them together because that's easier.

Card Number 421: Topps 206, 2020; unnumbered

Card Number 422: Topps 206 - Piedmont Back Parallel, 2020; unnumbered

The Piedmont cardbacks appear at a rate of 2 per box, so they are reasonably rare. I'm just lucky that Marc pulled one and knows I collect Tony Gwynn cards. The fronts as you can see are exactly the same.

I've written before about how I feel ambivalent about Topps using tobacco brands on their cards. The original T206 cards that were released from 1909 to 1911 by the American Tobacco Company numbered 524 different cards over the three years, with different backs representing 16 different brands of cigarettes or tobacco. The same card was printed with different backs in that original release as well. 

Piedmont was one of those original brands, launched in 1905 by a subsidiary of American Tobacco Co. called Liggett & Myers, which continued to produce the brand after the American Tobacco Co. was broken up so it was no longer a monopoly. Piedmont is a region of North Carolina, near the border with Virginia, where yellow tobacco is grown. It's sometimes referred to as the "Tobacco Belt", and that probably explains why the brand name was chosen. The Piedmont brand existed at least up until the Second World War.

I feel uncomfortable with the juxtaposition of cigarette branding, even historical brands like Piedmont, on the back of a Tony Gwynn card released in 2020. Given that Tony died after several courses of treatment for cancer caused by chewing tobacco, and the subsequent lawsuit against the tobacco industry by his family, it feels in poor taste to have his picture on a card with a cigarette brand on the back. Tony has appeared in almost every Topps set this year, and they could have possibly left him out of this one.

Total: 422 cards

One card only: Best of a Generation

Card Number 420: Upper Deck, 1996; #377

This is a shiny foil card that my scanner didn't like

So, here's a photo of it as well

This card came out five years before Tony retired, two years before he helped the Padres to their second World Series, and three years before he scored his 3000th hit. (Yesterday was the 22nd anniversary of Tony hitting a home run in Yankee Stadium during the 1998 World Series!)

Even though his most famous achievements were still in the future, Upper Deck chose him as a player worthy of the label "Best of a Generation" - on the back they made clear this was the opinion of the Upper Deck Company! (Look under the numbers table!)

There is a comparison between Tony and Ted Williams, who recorded a season average of .406 the year before the United States entered the Second World War. This is just my opinion, but I feel comparing achievements in baseball in the 1940s and the 1990s isn't as easy as just looking at the headline numbers. 

I'm not saying the game was harder 50 years later, but it was different, just like how certain parameters have changed in the game between the 1980s and 2020. In many ways you can only compare players within their generation. Tony won 8 batting titles, and hit over .300 for 19 straight seasons, and no one else in his generation managed that, which is why he deserves the label 'Best of a Generation'.

Total: 420 cards

It's even more Tradition!

And a treat today, as Fleer inadvertently revive a great tradition of baseball card production.

Card Number 418: Fleer Tradition, 2000; #346

Fleer ditched the base set that looked like every other card set and instead rendered all 450 cards in a retro look that wasn't based on a Fleer set, as much as the Topps set from 1954 (judge for yourself)

One thing I really like about the back is that the watermark logo looks like a proper gum stain!

But the "gum stain" isn't the great tradition of card production from back in the day that I was referring to. (Although, as an aside, it surely won't be long before Topps start adding faux gum stains or tobacco stains to their retro products!)

Card Number 419: Fleer Tradition, 2001; #141

No, the tradition I was talking about was the good old miscut card! I bought these at the same time, just because! I've also scanned them together.

You can see how on the bottom one the ribbon is much closer to the bottom of the card. The dark line on the top edge is actually part of the image from the next card on the printing plate.

The misalignment is also noticeable on the cardbacks.

It's not obvious which set this is meant to be, so I think it's an attempt at a totally new retro-looking set. It also earns itself bonus points for having a cartoon on the back.

Little things like miscut cards amuse me. In one sense this kind of mistake helped Fleer succeed in making a genuinely retro product.

Total: 419 cards.

It's Tradition

In a similar move to other card companies, Fleer brought out a retro range towards the end of the 90s. Fleer Tradition produced a normal-looking base set and then additional retro styles cards. Unlike Upper Deck, who borrowed freely from Topps templates, Fleer had a couple of their own retro designs they could use. 

Card Number 415: Fleer Tradition Vintage '63 (Insert), 1998; #52

This was Fleer's revitalisation of their 1963 design. There were 128 cards in this 'vintage' insert series, along with 600 base cards and multiple other inserts. This was the era of big card sets!

The photo is nicely centred on the Jackie Robinson 50th anniversary sleeve patch and Tony is autographing a shirt. The patch dates this to the 1997 season. 

The back is done in a similar retro style. I like the way the stats are set out. 

Card Number 416: Fleer Tradition, 1999; #43

Tony did bat flips too!

This is the base card in the set. The full bleed photo marks the set out as more high end.

There's an oddly positioned photo on the back with Tony looking awkward, and a huge stats box.

One thing I would say about Fleer cards at the end of the 90s - they included the year under the Fleer logo. That's very handy for collectors. 

Card Number 417: Fleer Tradition - Vintage '61 (Insert), 1999; #43

This time Fleer revived their own design from 1961 for the 50 card insert series. It's the same photo as the base card with Tony cut out and dropped on a plain background.

The back is arranged nicely. They aped the DonRuss tendency to include a player's full name. 

The write up notes that Tony was the closest active player to 3,000 hits - a milestone he would reach during the 1999 season.

Total: 417 cards

A couple more oddballs

'Oddballs' are cards that aren't released by the big manufacturers (although they might be made by the big manufacturers for another company). They aren't often that odd, but they are hard to categorise and file so they all end up getting lumped in together. I have put some up on the blog before, way back in May!

Card Number 413: Post, 1990; #5

These cards were available in packs of 3 inside boxes of breakfast cereal (like Marshmallow Alphabits, pictured here.)

It's a close up photo with no recognisable team logos. That's because these cards weren't licensed by Major League Baseball. However, they did include the team name, unlike logoless cards released in 2020.

The card was produced for Post by Michael Schechter Associates (MSA), who produced cards for a few different companies. I can't find the company online now so I think it has ceased trading.

Card Number 414: K-Mart Superstars. 1990; #5

This was produced by Topps as an exclusive for K-Mart. The 33 "super glossy" cards were sold in a box like a deck of playing cards.

The back of the card is fairly dull, with a stats box and a one line factoid.

I like this card because it reminds me of visiting a K-Mart in Brooklyn on one of my trips to America. This may sound ludicrous to American readers (and I know there are a few of you), but wandering around a K-Mart, Target or Wal-Mart is always something I look forward to when planning a trip to the USA. Give me ten minutes in a card aisle in Target and I'm usually a very happy bunny.

Total: 414 cards

Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball insert series part 2

The second half of the 10-card insert series I started showing yesterday. 

Card Number 408: Upper Deck Prospect Premieres Heroes of Baseball, 2002; #TG5

I always like cards that show Tony signing autographs!

Card Number 409: Upper Deck Prospect Premieres Heroes of Baseball, 2002; #TG6

Card Number 410: Upper Deck Prospect Premieres Heroes of Baseball, 2002; #TG7

(Sidebar - some of these photos have a background and some do not. There doesn't seem to be any guiding reason to why the cards either side of this one have the backgrounds left in and in this one it's been photoshopped out. It's a fielding photo. What could be in the background that they didn't want people to see?)

There's a good line there for my collection of ways Tony is described on the backs of baseball cards: "simply the best pure hitter of his generation."

Card Number 411: Upper Deck Prospect Premieres Heroes of Baseball, 2002; #TG8

That's a little factoid that I haven't seen represented before - 11 invitations in a row to play in the All-Star Game.

Card Number 412: Upper Deck Prospect Premieres Heroes of Baseball, 2002; #TG9

And a posed potrait photo to finish.

As I said after the first half of the set, this is a nice little series with some good photos and write ups. It fills a page in the binder and looks very attractive doing so.

Total: 412 cards