Two cards to launch a Pacific quintet

I have five cards that Pacific released in 1999 left to blog, so I'm going to do two today and three tomorrow. Let's kick off with Tony's base card from Pacific's main release.

Card Number 538: Pacific, 1999; #368

A glorious posed photo on the front! There is another version of this card, with Tony swinging at the plate. Pacific often released two versions of cards in their sets.

The cardback mentions Tony reaching the 2,900 hit mark. I like to think Pacific were already gearing up to release their Hit Machine 3000 cards.

Card Number 539: Pacific (team checklists), 1999; #29

The team checklists were numbered from 1 to 30, separately from the main set. 

Because this is a team checklist, it shows that Pacific has adopted a Fleer-esque approach to numbering - all the Padres were sequential in the set.

The design of the checklists cards are classic late-90s photoshopping. It's a style Pacific really went in for across a lot of their sets. They also tried to use as many different fonts as possible, but didn't prioritise legibility.

I'll finish off the quintet tomorrow.

Total: 539 cards

A DonRuss trio from 1998

Three cards today, all released by DonRuss in the year the Padres last reached the World Series.

Card Number 535: DonRuss, 1998; #22

DonRuss flagship sets were using full-bleed images by this point. The orange and blue stripes at the bottom are reminiscent of a circus tent.

On the back, we have a contender for best photo on a cardback ever. It's maybe just exceeded by the one Pinnacle used on their 'New Pinnacle' card in 1997, but it's close.

How many Hall of Fame, record-setting, multiple All-Stars, would bother collecting up the balls after batting practice? Tony has got them scooped up in his jacket and is just about to dump them into the ball box. 

Is there a more human moment captured on a baseball card anywhere? 

Card Number 536: DonRuss, 1998; #167

Tony is the featured player on Checklist number 2 in the set. There is a point when checklists aren't really checklists.

There are some good names on the back of the card. Derek Jeter is #100 and there are several Hall of Famers or contenders for the Hall of Fame. It's a bit odd that all the names are superimposed on a Padres logo. DonRuss could have used their corporate branding as the watermark.

Card Number 537: DonRuss Preferred, 1998; #175

Given the shininess of this card, I think "Preferred" was DonRuss's version of Topps Finest and other shiny card sets. It doesn't really scan very well. 

The double hoop motif that frames Tony's cameo portrait on the back is the set logo for DonRuss Preferred. The write up is about Tony not hitting many home runs.

1998 was the year that Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were both chasing the record for home runs. That interest had been building ever since Albert Belle topped 50 home runs in 1995. Ken Griffey Jr and Mark McGwire both topped 50 home runs in 1997 and there was a lot of expectation around the record set by Roger Maris in 1961 finally being surpassed.

So, it's perhaps not surprising that DonRuss looked at Tony's home run records. Given the hype that was around home runs, his numbers had increased in 1997 as well. He never recorded more than the 17 homers he hit in 1997 - although he did notch 16 in 1998, the year this card was released. The 33 home runs in those two seasons made up a good percentage of his career total of 135 home runs.

Total: 537 cards

Tuesday Twins - a corrected error

Way back in May when I did a post about the cards DonRuss released in 1990, I included Tony's All-Star card, which was the uncorrected error version. I didn't remark on that at the time, although I did notice that the stats box contained his stats from the All-Star game, even though the header said 'Recent Major League Performance', and noted the juxtaposition. What I didn't know then, but realised soon after, was that this was a known error and a corrected version was also released.

A few weeks back I took delivery of a joblot of 80s and 90s Tony Gwynn cards, which I knew contained a DonRuss 1990 All-Star card. It didn't have a photo of the cardback, so when it arrived, I crossed my fingers and flipped it over.

It was the corrected version!

Card Number 534: DonRuss (corrected version), 1990; #705

The front is exactly the same.

But on the back you can see that the stats box is headed 'All-Star Game Performance'.

It's not the most exciting variation in my collection, but...

a) I'm pleased to have both versions as it gives me a sense of completeness, 

b) it's a genuine error and correction unlike the silly fake 'errors' that are deliberately put into sets as parallels these days, and 

c) it gives me another card with a red border for when I put together my sub-theme collection of Tony Gwynn cards with red borders.

So, that's three reasons why it's a welcome addition to the collection.

Total: 534 cards

Modern Monday in the Museum

I received this card from Graham, alongside the Gold Label cards I blogged about a couple of weeks ago.

Card Number 533: Topps Museum Collection (copper parallel), 2019; #81

Topps Museum Collection is one of those high end sets that I rely on other people buying boxes, breaking them, and then wanting to sell on some of the cards to try and make some of their money back.

Personally, I think this 'copper parallel' with its brown frame looks nicer than the regular Museum cards. But I have that sense of incompleteness that I get when I have a parallel and don't have the vanilla base version.

If you ever want to know if a pin-striped Padre was photographed in the 80s or the 90s then look for the colour in the word Padres, and the colour of the batting helmet. Brown = up to and including the 1990 season. Blue = from 1991 onwards. It's a slight shame that this copper parallel isn't framing a photo of Tony in a complementary brown batting helmet.

The write up on the cardback is suitably 'museum-y', mentioning "the game's annals".

Topps have also found a new way to package information. I hadn't seen Tony's All Star appearances presented that way before - 15 appearances in the last 16 years of the 20th Century. Fair play to Topps, they have found a way to phrase that which sounds very special. 

Total: 533 cards

One Card Only - Pacific Prism

Card Number 532: Pacific Crown Collection Silver Circle Prisms, 1994; #36

Not to be confused with Panini Prizm cards (which are spelled with a Z)

There were three kinds of Prism insert cards in Pacific's first Crown Collection series - Gold, Silver, and Silver Circles. These are shiny and yet scan really well. It's one of the earliest cards to feature Tony as a cut out image with no background.

Although these were inserted in the Crown Collection set, they just carry the regualr Pacific logo of the time. The cardback is bilingual and features another cut-out image of Tony.

The giant gemstone is meant to be a visual pun on 'diamonds' as in baseball fields. It creates an orange and turquoise combo that is very early 90s in its colour scheme. 

Pacific produced Prism inserts in various card ranges from 1994 through to 2000 when the company lost its licence to produce baseball cards and abruptly ceased trading. Nowadays this sort of shiny effect is commonplace, but when this card was released this was the kind of innovation that gave Pacific a but of an edge in a crowded marketplace.

Total: 532 cards

CD-Rom Discoveries ~ Powerdeck

Among the cards I bought recently from Russ, was a Powerdeck CD-Rom card. I've already blogged a Powerdeck cardboard card (100 cards ago!), and when I did I said I was going to keep an eye out for the CD-Rom, which was actually the "base" card in the set. 

Card Number 531: Upper Deck Powerdeck, 1999; #9

The CD-Rom is trading card sized and comes in a plastic sleeve.

The 'back' is printed on the plastic sleeve and is the system requirements for running the CD-Rom.

I happen to have an old PC, which is relatively reliable and so I haven't replaced it since I bought it in 2010. It has a CD drive so I thought I would see if this would play. Unfortunately the CD tray is mounted vertically. That's not a problem with an ordinary sized CD, however when the tray went in with the Powerdeck disc on, there was a rattling sound and the disc dropped into the machine. 

Fortunately I was able to retrieve it with a pair of tweezers. Even more fortunately I had an external CD/DVD drive that I could plug into the computer that was flat so the disc couldn't fall anywhere.

I loaded the disc into the tray and it worked!

For people who are into this sort of thing, these are the files on the disc.

Considering there is less than 12mb of information on the disc, the whole thing works really well. There's an animated title screen, leading to a mini home-page.

The menu across the bottom reads Upper Deck Profiles, Highlight Reel, Stat Zone, Powerdeck Gallery, and Web Links. The disc loads with the Highlight Reel, erm, highlighted (as shown), and a small film clip kicks in after a few seconds. 

The Highlights start with Tony's 3000th hit and then segues into a sequence of more hits, accompanied by some punchy music. I didn't time it, but the film clip probably lasts about 30 seconds or so. 

The Upper Deck Profile is quite detailed and runs over two screens.

There are 10 photos in the Gallery. Each one illustrates an aspect of Tony's career. I screenshot this one because it contains the kind of ludicrous hitting statistic that I know Fuji loves as much as I do!

There's a challenge - name another player who missed less than 6 per cent of the time he swung at a pitch!

The Stat Zone has a short animation that dissolves into a fairly standard-looking stats box. I didn't bother doing a screengrab. 

And finally there is the screen of web links. The three linked sites are the MLB website, the now defunct players' website, and the Upper Deck website. 

I was particularly taken by this instruction on the screen!

Ah, remember the days when you would turn on the computer and then turn on the modem and hear it's weird burbling scream and clicking as it tried to engage the world wide web. I know it was the last century, but this just reminded me of how 1999 was a technological epoch ago.

Overall, I was impressed by this little CD-Rom. There was certainly enough content on there to make it worth the hassle of trying to make it work. Back when it was released it must have felt very futuristic and novel. So it's kind of funny that the main thing it's triggered in me is nostalgia.

Total: 531 cards

 

Dancing with Bill Doran

Back in May I did a run down of Tony's Upper Deck cards, including this one from 1990.

Back then, I wrote this: "Tony is trying to avoid getting tagged out at a base there. I think he looks like he is dancing. I'd love to be able to identify the baseman. I think that orange stripe on his arm is an Astros uniform, and his name seems to end RAN. The Astros second baseman in 1989 (when this photo was most likely taken) was Bill Doran, so maybe he is Tony's dance partner here."

Well, I think I've answered this question, based on this other card from the 1990 Upper Deck set that has recently come into my possession.

Yep, that's Tony sliding into second base ...and almost taking Bill out at the knees!

Bill's card was #198 in the set. 

I'm not counting this as a Tony Gwynn card, in the same way I didn't count the Greg Vaughn card where he is obscured by Tony, when I blogged about it.

I'm fairly sure both these photos are from the same game, given the uniforms. Which would be cool if true. They certainly seemed to be competing!

It is fun to have Tony appear on other player's cards and for that appearance to be reciprocated. 

Total: 530 cards (same total as yesterday)