So We Meet A-Gwynn

We’ve been down this road before.

It’s a good road.  It’s a fun-filled road with interesting treasures to be discovered.  A road laced with history.

But this is a fragile road because it’s made of cardboard.

It’s also a never-ending road to nowhere, because I don’t know what kind of metaphor or analogy or introduction I’m really leading to.  It wouldn’t be the first time my concept fell apart before it came together.  I’ve been down that road before, too.

All I’m trying to say is that I’ve traded with Tom from The Angels, In Order before, and it went very well.  I’m happy to say this second trade (stemming from my Mini boxes) you’re about to see won’t be the last, because he took some of my 2013 Blaster goods off my hands.

Love those uniforms

What a great start.  Any card older than my first pack (1986 Topps) is like paper gold to me.  Tony Gwynn is the only active collection of mine that allows for such things.  If I was collecting just a year earlier, I could have discovered the guy playing peek-a-boo under Tony’s legs 28 years ago.

Ready for battle with Canada over rights to the design

I’m tempted to pull a baseball card vandal and complete that title at the bottom.  “Tony Gwynn of Sandiegoshire.”  You know, something Game of Thronesy.  And their family crest would have a cartoon chicken.

What is this, a 2010 UD? Face the camera!

Yay! More Canadian cards.  I used to think these were a special little secret that most people didn’t know about.  I would search the card show bins for the OPC and Leaf logos so I could pull a fast one on the table owners.  It looks like Topps & Donruss, but they aren’t as attentive as I am!  They could have charged $3 for that Leaf Strawberry.  I’m pretty sure I never pulled that fast one.

Big > Mini

I fully understand why the Topps Big sets didn’t take off, but just because it looks like a mix between a game of Scrabble and an ’80s action show opening credit sequence….never mind. I just answered my own question.

The only book I'll read

Collect-A-Books were the ultimate oddball item.  They’re kinda like cards, but they’re also informational treasure troves that you could read for credit towards your Pizza Hut personal pan pizza thingy.  What? You didn’t do that?  If I wasn’t worried about cracking the spine in my scanner bed, I’d show you this great picture of Gwynn falling right on his ass.  You don’t get that with normal cards.

Don't get much better.

If I were to make a top insert sets of all-time, this would probably be #1.  I wouldn’t choose this particular card, because “ugh, awkward.”

No logos, but they can say the team?

Is there an online petition to bring toys and baseball cards back to our cereal boxes?  If not, can one of you get on that for me?  Thanks.

Get that non-buntable crap outta here

Wouldn’t you want a pack of these in with your whatever cereal Post makes?  I know I would.  Panini should get on that.  I don’t care about the license, I’ll buy any sugary processed grain fluff if it meant I find cards at the bottom.

What the hell is going on with the fake signature?

I was thinking about calling this “The Post Post.”

90's understatements

This card was made in 1994, but I’d still say it’s about right.  It’s safe to say Tony dominated the Batting Average space.  He won 4 batting titles in the ’90s and was runner-up once.  One of those titles was the strike shortened season where he hit .394.

Sta-LINT-ical Standouts

Two cards in a row celebrating virtually the same thing.  The back details how the 1993 season was Gwynn’s 11th in a row with a batting average over .300.  At the time, Stan Musial was the most recent player to accomplish anything like that with 16 straight.  Tony only hit under .300 in his first, shortened season and ended with a streak of 19 seasons over that mark.

I would have called this one "Winded"

I shouldn’t be surprised to find this in a package from Tom.  For those that don’t know, he also runs a tribute blog to the 1995 Emotion set.  Each card has a different descriptor to match the player.  The problem is that, despite the name of the set, most of the words are not emotions.  Such as “Scholar.”  Appropriate? Yes.  I mean, the guy is Captain Video.  Is it an emotion? No.

Pay attention to this picture

My first exposure to the 1995 Leaf design was from a box of 2005 Leaf.  They had double-sided cards with a then and now type theme. I had no idea that’s what was going on.  As a result, I now automatically associate this look with an insert.  That’s not a bad thing.

That's so Ultra

This card, paired with the one before it, is further evidence that card companies probably don’t use their own photographers.  I’m pretty sure both of these shots are from the exact same play.

putting the video in captain video

I really have no idea why these League Leader cards come out so rainbow-y.  I’m scanning at 300 dpi.  That shouldn’t look low-res.  I don’t know. It looks better in person.

It also looks great in my binders, and I have Tom to thank for it.  And I’ll be sure to thank him again shortly with our new upcoming trade.  If you have any extra Angels, please send them down the road to him so you have someone to thank, too.