Playing the Numbers Game

Card Number 661: Score Numbers Game, 1996; #9

A very 90s design with the colours and the swirl and the photo composition.

What do I love on a cardback? Factoids and stats! These are golden.

I know that pitching has changed in the 20 years since Tony retired, but the sheer number of strike outs in games this season does make me wonder if anyone will ever rack up numbers like this for successful swings again. I imagine most players miss at least 50 times a month these days, let alone 50 times a season.

I'm particularly struck by the stat that he could have decided not to hit a ball in his next 859 at bats and still have a career average of .300. I doubt he would have become a Padres legend if he had adopted that tactic. Anyone who saw Tony have a hitless game then saw a rare occasion - he had one hitless game in every 5 or 6 games during 1994. No wonder he attained an average of .394!

Total: 661 cards

Skybox wooden wordplay

I'm sure "wood" has the same euphemistic connotations in American English as it does in British English. In fact, I would imagine the other meaning is a transatlantic import back to the old continent. So, I can't believe the designers and writers at Skybox didn't know exactly what possible interpretation they were flirting with when they named this insert series.

Card Number 660: Skybox Metal Universe Boyz With the Wood insert, 1999; #8BW

OK, so they were probably going for a riff on the film title Boyz n the Hood that was released in 1991. But, this was eight years after that film and it really feels like every other punning name for an insert series had been taken so Skybox came up with this risque take.

And the 'cards' are weird too. I think this is the front.

Which makes this the back.

As far as I can work out, from the folding guidelines, this is meant to be manipulated into a second card by basically bending it into shape. I can't find an image on Google of one that has been constructed and the picture on Baseballcardpedia is actually of the Tony Gwynn card looking like this. According to that page, the odds of finding one of these cards was 1 in 18 packs.

This is from the same set as the MLPD unscannable insert card that was basically the reason why I asked for an overhead scanner for Christmas. However, unlike the MLPD card this doesn't have a cardback, which means no whacky write up this time. Baseballcardpedia blames the tendency towards weird comments on the back of the Skybox and Fleer cards of the time on an attempt to make cards more appealing to younger collectors. I totally agree with the wiki writer's summary that "The language used on cardbacks has not aged well." Although I doubt it was ever appropriate really. 

As with the Upper Deck bobblehead card, I'm going to want a second one of these so that I can bend it to get the second card for display in my binders. Maybe Skybox were onto something with this insert idea. It's just a shame they chose such a terrible name for it. 

And, annoyingly, this is yet another set where I have inserts but don't have the base card, so that's another one to try and find.

Total: 660 cards

Bats and stats

A couple of insert cards producd by Leaf today.

Card Number 658: Leaf Limited Bat Patrol insert, 1995; #2

"Bat Patrol" sounds like a terrible Batman spin off from the 80s.

The scan has rendered it white, but the big words saying 'Bat Patrol' are in a pearlescent shiny finish.

I'm guessing this insert series featured the best active batters at the time. There's no explanation on the back - just a very large, quite standard stats box. 

It feels like I am constantly making this point, but even here, just after Tony's record .394 batting average, his career average was still 5 points below his eventual final career average of .338. He still had several years of high averages ahead of him, high enough to drag his overall average up.

Card Number 659: Leaf Statistical Standouts insert, 1994; #9

This card is very shiny and did not scan well on my flatbed.

So I got out the overhead scanner, which captured it in all its shiny glory.

I find it ironic that Leaf called Tony a "statistical standout" in the year when he was destined to become a true statistical standout. It's almost as if they knew.

The cardback mentions Tony's run of 11 seasons posting an average above .300. He woud go on to beat San Musial's streak of 16 seasons. By the end of his career he has scored .300 for 19 seasons in a row.

That is a great photo on the cardback as well. I really like these sort of candid shots taken during practice or while warming up. It's not quite as good as the picture of Tony returning practice balls that he had collected up, but it's still a cool photo. 

The only negative of this card is the slightly odd numbering system. It means it's number 9 out of 10 as there were only 10 cards in the insert series, not card Number 910 or cards 9 and 10.

Total: 659 cards

Tuesday Twins - let's do it all again in Chrome

I thought that Topps only recently started reissuing chrome versions of all their sets. Turns out they have been doing it for longer than I thought. Actually, from shortly after they patented the chromatising technique.

Card Number 656: Topps Chrome Milestones, 1998; #MS6

This is the Chrome version of a card I blogged about back in February. This is actually less shiny than that card, because the regular version was printed on foilboard.

Here's a top tip for everyone. When this card arrived, the front was filthy. Like, really grimy with dust particles stuck to it. My wife Cathy suggested I use some glasses cleaner on it, so I sprayed some of the solution onto the soft glasses cloth and gently wiped the surface of the card. It lifted the dirt clean off and restored the card to a nice sheen. 

The back didn't need cleaning. Tony appears to be gritting his teeth in the photo.

Finding out this card was a Chrome version was a bit of a bonus, because it wasn't that obvious on the scan on eBay. It's always nice when a card I had discounted as a dupe turns out to be a new addition to the collection. 

Card Number 657: Topps Stadium Club Chrome, 2000; #137

This was issued as a standalone set in 2000 instead of chrome parallel cards being included in the regular release of Stadium Club. This was also the last standalone Stadium Club Chrome release until the 2020 release last year - which also featured a Tony Gwynn card!

The front is the same picture as the regular Stadium Club card.

The back almost indistinguishable from the regular release. It doesn't even have the Chrom logo on there. The card stock is a bit different and that's it.

In one sense adding parallels to the collection is a bit dull. But Chrome cards are probably the shiniest dull cards to add.

Total: 657 cards

Upper Deck come back for more

My recent eBay purchase alerted me to the existence of an Upper Deck set that I'd not heard of before - Encore. (Not to be confused with the Fleer subset called Encore from a few years earlier.)

Card Number 654: Upper Deck Encore Upper Realm, 1999; #U4

Upper Realm is a bit of a weird name for an insert series. The UR swirling around Tony's legs makes this look a bit messy. 

This card scans very blue due to the foilboard effect, but looks more purple in real life. The back is more obviously purple.

The cardback points out that Tony's career average was the highest among active major leaguers. It's also higher than any major leaguer since Tony retired.

Card Number 655: Upper Deck Encore Strokes of Genius, 1999; #167

This subset was actually very blue.

The graphics on this give it a very sci-fi look; a theme that continued onto the back.

There are three years worth of stats arranged vertically, which makes a nice change. However the really wide kerning on the word 'In' at the start of the write up shows the perils of using justified text in an odd shape. As an aside, I hate justified text. It makes text harder to read and is especially difficult for people with impaired vision. (I consider it one of my best achievements in a previous job when a directive came out saying all our documents had to be in justified text and I successfully got that rescinded by citing good practice guidance from a charity supporting people with sight loss!)

I now have the fun task of trying to find Tony's regular base card from Upper Deck Encore, now that I know the set exists! Still, what is collecting without little challenges?

Total: 655 cards

One card only - Most Wanted

This is a contender for my favourite ever Upper Deck card.

Card Number 653: Upper Deck UD's Most Wanted, 2001; #MW6

I am a sucker for portrait cards and this is one of the nicest themed portrait cards I've seen. 

Why was Tony one of Upper Deck's Most Wanted? The cardback explains it all.

This was one of a 15 card insert series. It's one of the few insert series where I would be tempted to collect them all. I don't want for much in life but I want more cards that look like this!

Total: 653 cards

Fleer have fun with puns

I imagine the ideas meetings at Fleer Corp were fun occasions, given what sometimes resulted. How about an insert series that was basically a pun?

Card Number 652: Fleer Showcase Consummate Prose, 2000; #6

I imagine the brief for the designer went something like this.

"It's consummate prose, see. You know like how people say a guy is a 'consummate professional', like that!"

"Yeah, but you don't spell pros with an 'e' on the end, that's like writing."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know. I dunno, put him on a scroll or something."

"Put... him... on... a... scroll...er....okaaaaaaay."

And voila!

In it's favour, this card looks a bit different. It might have worked better if the scroll had been covered in some actual prose instead of the words 'consummate prose' repeated over and over.

But then they wanted to save the prose for the back.

I'm used to reading comparisons between Tony and his contemporaries, or with baseball legends of yore. I think this is the first time I've read comparisons with Edison and Beethoven.

Fleer employed some florid writers at the time. Usually they were let off the loose on Skybox or Metal Universe cards, but sometimes they got to liven up Fleer's short-lived random ranges as well. This is one of those times.

Total: 652 cards