Following up on the post a few weeks ago where I began logging my Tony Gwynn collection at the Trading Card Database, I'm more or less wrapped up now. Unfortunately I fell short in my lofty goals of either hitting 1k cards and/or cracking the top 10 in the site's rankings. But I ended up with a pretty cool consolation.
Yep, I'm ranked #19 on the site! I will rep this prestigious "jersey number" position with pride. I know collectors sometimes toggle their collections between public and private, and so there could be a shakeup at any time that either bumps me up or down, but I'll hope to stick around at #19 for a while if I can. (...not that it means anything, just a fun little thing to smile about.)
Currently I'm just narrowly above #20 (another guy, like myself, on the cusp of 900 unique TG cards) and about 40 cards from #18. It puts me in the funny position of not wanting to add a bunch of new Gwynns, thereby possibly forfeiting my special rank. But yeah, I would like to eventually hit a thousand cards. Tony is my "top guy" after all. But my hobby funds/interest gets pulled a lot of ways, with me working on those pricey Topps Retired refractor autos, ATFF refractors, and several vintage setbuilds in addition to having a bunch of "PC guys" of varying priority. I wonder if that YoRicha guy at #1 has time for other hobby interests, or if being a Tony Gwynn supercollector consumes his entire experience in the hobby.
Anyways, let's take a look at some more cool Tony Gwynn cards.
I didn't collect in 1995, so when it was time to sort out to this pair of cards, I was sure one must be a parallel. The card on the left has "Extreme Corps" in rainbow lettering, while the card on the right features the same text all in red. But nope, TCDB considers these the same exact card. Turns out 1995 Stadium Club used multi-colored foil that resulted in variances like this but they aren't considered unique cards. Ha, try telling that to a player collector with 2 different looking cards! If I did a "my count" of my Gwynn collection, it'd likely hit a thousand already, counting things that TCDB doesn't, such as the above foil variant, plus a bunch of customs, mods, and other unofficial variations and whatnot that might not be considered "real cards" but are close enough for me.
Logging my cards also gave me the opportunity to "see what's out there", and discovering this "Complements" insert from 1999 Finest on TCDB lead me to search out one. There are 3 flavors of this card: full refractor, or having the refraction limited to either side. I had never heard of a partial refractor before, and as I've been becoming more of a refractor enthusiast in recent years, was compelled to look around for a good deal on one, and lucked into this "Gwynn refractor / Boggs not" in my latest COMC order that arrived a few days ago. I'm really tempted to peel off the protective coating, especially seeing how it's directly over Tony. If I had gotten this for my Wade Boggs PC, I'd feel better just leaving it. Should I do it? Gah, the collector's conundrum.
But when I've got a dupe of a card with a protective film? Then it's an easy call to peel. I pick to peel the one where the text is most obtrusive. The above pair aren't too bad (top half of body unaffected), but I went with the card on the right since the text covers more of Tony.
That looks a lot better. I should probably be less precious with my protective films and just remove them from any "keeper" of mine. It's my understanding that chrome cards all still get manufactured with a similar protective film, but they remove it before packing it out now rather than leave it to the collectors since we can't be trusted to do it ourselves, lol. (But yeah, I get it, if that's how it comes from the manufacturer, then to peel is technically altering the card from its original, packed-out state... if that means anything to you.)
Speaking of altering cards, I think I've found my niche in the "cardart" landscape: Border art.
I've been going nuts making "mashups" or "full bleed" artsy homemade parallels lately. Tony is typically my guinea pig for stuff like this since I have so many dupes of his junk-era cards. I know these are silly (and no doubt some collectors look down on the cardboard vandalism), but it's fun getting creative turning a dupe into something that's no longer a dupe. And sometimes they turn out pretty cool looking!
Ok ok, let's go ahead and peel that '99 Finest.
Ahh! That looks terrific and so much nicer without the tire tracks over Tony!
To close us out, here's a card that just arrived today (actually it's still out for delivery as I draft this post and it feels like I'm tempting fate by typing that I already have it because you never know, but I'll snap a pic as soon as I get it) and it's a big one, hitting multiple bullseyes for me.
Boom! I've been picking up 2005 Topps Pristine Legends refractors at an accelerated clip over the past few months, now nearly a third of my way through completing a refractor parallel setbuild of the 140-card set of past greats. This card was a need towards that project.. plus San Diego State cards of Gwynn are kinda like the closest thing I have to a "focus" in that PC. I showed off my SDSU Gwynns recently, coinciding with this year's Aztecs making an incredible run to the Final Four. As seen in that post, I already had the base version of the card (graced with a faded in-person auto, to boot) and I'm happy to be able to pair that with the refractor now, a whale I had been after. Helps make for a satisfying conclusion to getting my Gwynns logged. #19, Baby! I'll take it.
I've never followed college sports very closely-- probably in part because San Diego has historically not been much of a factor in college football or basketball rankings despite a few incredible players passing through over the years. Living in Portland now, the Oregon Ducks are the most popular college team in these parts, and I'll casually root for them to win the championship if they're in contention, but I honestly don't really care about college sports.
But as a fellow San Diego State University alum, I love collecting Tony Gwynn cards that picture him as an Aztec. I was happy to hear that the current squad has made it to the Final Four. Winning it all would be a big deal! To help wish the team luck, I thought I'd make a quick post with my SDSU Gwynns.
The college basketball subcollection is a favorite portion of my Gwynn PC. Those 2 autos are especially bad-ass.
And no surprise I also have a few baseball cards featuring collegiate Tony, with little bro Chris also popping in. The bunting one is a custom I made, but otherwise these are all legit.
With Tony having so many damn cards out there, trying to go after everything is pointless and exhausting, so I try to focus on what I like most. I'm sure there are a ton of big Gwynn collectors out there who would put my overall Mr. Padre PC to shame, but at least when it comes to Aztec cards specifically, I might have a chance at ranking somewhere up the list.
My previous post was kind of a downer, with me coming to terms that a card I'd been after for years isn't actually out there.
But in happier hobby happenings for me, another card high on my most wanted list that I had never actually seen anywhere in my several years of searching was finally spotted and secured earlier this month.
I won a listing for the rare 1988 San Diego State Aztecs All-Time Greats 50th Anniversary 22-card set, with this particular set being special because a few of the cards are autographed. Says the seller: "I got this set from the dinner back then which those players were there to sign the cards." Seems to check out and the signatures give no reason to doubt their authenticity. I'd love to someday search the San Diego Union-Tribune archives or something to see if I can find more details of that dinner event.
Funny enough, this Gwynn wasn't the whale I was after, though it becomes a jewel in the crown of my biggest player collection. Mr. Padre's SDSU cards are a subcollection I love adding to, and this one is kicked up heartily by the big, blue autograph. Weirdly sentimental to me, with Tony's signature of the era reminding me of my oldest auto of his, a signed 1989 Score card I traded for from my best friend Doug back in the day. By the time pack-certified autographs were a thing, Tony's signature had devolved a bit. I think the late 80s were the glory days for Tony's john hancock.
Chris Gwynn is also present with a signed solo card plus a combo card with big bro Tony. (Too bad that one didn't get dual signed!)
The backs are solid, with the player's SDSU stats and a bio. No card numbers, tho.
Here are the rest of the signed cards. Mark Grace is cool to see in an Aztec uniform. The late Dave Smith was a prominent closer in the 80s with the Astros (and a teammate of Grace on the Cubs for a couple years in the early 90s), though he's more familiar to me from his stint as the Padres pitching coach. Mark Williamson had some success pitching for the Orioles, 1987-1994.
Bud Black, Al Newman, and Bobby Meacham are familiar names who each got 2 cards for some reason. The respective backs are identical (Again, none of the cards are numbered). I suppose college baseball didn't get much coverage back then compared to today, no doubt limiting the resources available to whoever was tasked with creating the set. All the photos are in black & white, but at least there are some neat shots mixed in there.
Graig Nettles is another appreciated PC addition-- and likely my first time seeing him in an SDSU uniform. Besides the Nettles Brothers, I'm not very familiar with the rest of these guys. I got my degree from SDSU, but don't blanket-collect cards of all ballplayers who went to the same college as me. Guys who went to the same high school as me? Now that's a different story.. and the white whale in question...
Chris Jones is a tricky guy to collect because of all the other players with the same common name. Like myself, he went from Granite Hills High to Grossmont Community College to San Diego State. Our paths differ from there with him getting drafted to play professional baseball and me getting asked to help out at the computer shop my friend was working at. Pictured here with the header/checklist, this is a card that's been among the few cards I search for way more often that is probably healthy, so it's great to finally score it, and I didn't mind at all the fact that the Gwynn Bros autos and other goodies helped elevate the asking price of the set.
My PC of the second Guy From Granite to crack the bigs is nearly complete. What's left to track down? The big one missing is his entry in the 1985 Astros Postcards set (and/or its 1987 re-release). It's the only card-like-thing documenting his brief major league career (besides modern customs). If any of you readers know any bigtime Astros collectors who might have the '85 Astros postcard set (I've already asked Bru), I'd be appreciative of any help locating it-- ideally scoring one for myself, but really even just seeing a picture of Chris Jones' postcard would be nice. Nolan Ryan is the only player from the set that ever pops up anywhere.
And I've seen listed somewhere online a 1989 San Diego State All-Time Greats set that also includes a Chris Jones card, but I'm fairly confident that's just a mislabel of this 1988 set. (Why would they make a 51st Anniversary set a year later? Maybe they did a small run of reprints if anything?) Maybe something will show up in a saved eBay search notification someday, but I'm going to assume the '89 version is a "ghost whale" and won't stress it.
The only other hole in the PC on my radar is the glossy version of his 1984 Tucson Toros Cramer minor league card. I have the regular version, but apparently there's a rare a glossy parallel.. likely a team set handed out at one sparsely-attended Toros game back in '84. Again, I'll keep an eye out for that, but it doesn't interest me much apart from checking it off the list.
I'll close out with a cute pic of Ruby from Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. She was on her best behavior, relatively speaking, and had a huge amount of fun being the center of attention for a packed house. Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving, too.
It wasn't till I was in my 40s that I discovered frozen grapes. Frozen grapes are incredible! They're like funsize popsicles. I encourage you to get some grapes (either green or red, as long as they're seedless), rinse them, freeze them, and then snack on them. The natural sugar in them keeps them soft when frozen. Man, oh man; good stuff!
The painting on the right shows Tony Gwynn hitting a baseball before he learned about frozen grapes. The portrait in front is Tony after he learned about frozen grapes.
Tony was drafted by the SD Clippers! It's true!! He was an incredible athlete.
With the NFL season starting up, I'm saddened by no longer having a football team to root for anymore. The Clippers left San Diego before I was following sports, so I never had to be heartbroken about losing a basketball team, but I often wish San Diego had an NBA franchise while I was growing up. I never had a fighting chance to get into basketball.
Anyways, I love that doodle of Tony bi-sporting.
- "He holds the all-time basketball assists record at San Diego State where he played guard."
Chris Gwynn later went to the Royals for a couple years, then a double dip with the Dodgers for a couple more years, than to San Diego to finish his career with a season alongside his brother. Chris didn't have the success Tony did, but still had a respectable career.
Lest you think Chris rode Tony's coattails to baseball attention, did you know Chris was originally drafted by the California Angels in the fifth round of the 1982 draft (didn't sign), a month before Tony made his MLB debut.
Also..
On September 29, 1996, in the final game of the season, Gwynn hit what would prove to be the game-winning, two-run, pinch-hit double in the top of the 11th inning against Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Chan Ho Park to complete a three-game sweep of the Dodgers and clinch the Padres' second National League West division championship in team history. It was the final at bat of his career. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Gwynn]
That's very cool.
- "Tony won batting titles in 1984, 1987, 1988, & 1989..."
He would go onto win 4 more in a row, 1994 through 1997. Oh damn! Can you believe it?!!!
- "Tony says: 'Should I get two or three hits today?'"
Hey now... I don't think he really said that, did he? LOL
This is my favorite Tony Gwynn card. It's a refractor auto from 2004 Topps Retired. I would take a bullet for it.
And below is the most recent addition to my Gwynn PC...
If you wanna get technical, this is an upgrade. I've had a copy of this card for a long time, but my old one isn't in as nice of shape.
Here's the side-by-side. That's my "lucky card" that I've kept in my car since the 90s. It used to reside on my dash around the turn of the millenium, but over the years retired to a simpler life in my glove compartment.
Joy of a Completed Insert Set: 1992 Fleer Ultra Tony Gwynn Salute.
Feels good to wrap up this sweet tribute set I remember chasing as a kid in '92. The card I needed to upgrade (Casa De Amparo) is a promo that was not available in packs.
Mmm..frozen grapes! (Frozen cherries are also similarly very good.)
I can't really explain it, but I was nervous about this one. It was way back in January when Padrographs Rod hooked me up with the elusive mailing address.. and it took me until the middle of August to finally get around to making the request, though it was high on my to-do list that whole time.
Chris Jones has been an enigmatic figure in my collection for a while now, sort of my personal Moonlight Graham. He was only the second person from my high school to play in the major leagues. And the first (Mike Reinbach) passed away many years ago, so Mr. Jones is by default the reigning patriarch of the Guys From Granite fraternity. The fact that "Chris Jones" is a very common name only further clouds the enigmatic nature of the situation, as searching for his cards is not easy, and googling him is pretty much a waste of time as 99% of the results will be for the other baseball player named Chris Jones (who debuted with the Reds in 1991), or maybe the other few guys with that name who've played in the minors over the past few years (or the football or soccer players who also have that name).
I just wanted it to be perfect. You never know how a TTM request will be received.. especially when customs are involved. I've heard about some old-timers who are like, "This is a FAKE CARD! I wasn't paid for the use of my likeness with this! Grumble grumble!" Worst case scenario is upsetting the guy.
Another concern of mine was the weather. Yeah, seems funny, but my customs are susceptible to the ink running when they get a little damp. I figured mid August would be safe, but lol, the day before this return came in, it rained. Thankfully it was dry the day the mailman dropped the return envelope off for me.
But enough lead-in, let's get to it!
Boom, if I may say so myself. Chris never got a real MLB card, so I made my own using the only photo I've ever seen of him not in a minor league uniform. I colorized the b&w pic and put it in a 1987 Donruss design (which might look familiar if you read my post from last month about 87D customs).
I sent 4 copies of this custom, and in my note I asked for one signed in return and said he could keep the extras, which he did. (I also sent a fine-tip red Sharpie for him to sign with [and keep].. an advanced TTM move I've only done once before.. for when you really want it to turn out well and not risk a crappy ballpoint pen or dried-out Sharpie ruining your request). I also mentioned how we both went to Granite Hills High School, and then Grossmont CC and SDSU (I nearly asked him which elementary school he went to, curious if our scholastic paths mirror back that far, though I resisted, thinking it might be creepy to do so).. and mentioned how collecting cards of players who went to my high school is a way I connect with my hometown after moving away a decade ago.
I think the back turned out pretty good, too! I take pride in my custom backs, gotta admit. Helps me stand out from other custom card makers who don't bother with the backs. But really it's just my OCD on the matter, as a blank-backed card feels incomplete to me. This is not only a rated rookie (that never was) but also a sunset card with full career stats. Turns out Chris read it and gave me props in a great note he included in his return...
Transcribing for posterity, he says:
Hey Gavin
Thanks so much for the cards. You did your homework on the career highlights. I didn't even remember that Nolan R. was pitching the game of my debut. I do remember that being on the same team as he was my greatest memory in the ML. Such a great guy as well as HOF no brainer. Take care and thanks again.
Chris --->
That picture was in spring training during an intersquad game on deck to face Vida Blue. Nice game face! I ended up punching out looking on a 3-2 slider. Nice!
Wow! I've received nice little notes with my custom TTM requests before (including from Vida Blue himself!) but this takes the cake. I couldn't have dreamt of a better reply. This epitomises the greatness of the hobby for me and what it's all about.
Chris even wrote "Go Eagles!" on the back on the return envelope, a reference to our shared Granite Hills heritage.
Oh man, I'm so very happy with this return! While I wouldn't expect it to have big value on the secondary market, this signed card is now easily in the inner circle of best cards in my collection, right up there with my Trout autos and vintage Mantles.
Again, huge thanks to Mr. Jones for making my day by taking the time to sign and return my card and write that wonderful return note. And big thanks also to Rod as well as Brian at ABC Unlimited, the autograph dealer who kindly supplied the address. Much appreciated!
I may have just said goodbye to a damaged autograph of the greatest player ever born in San Diego.. but I also recently said hello to a beautiful autograph of the second best San Diego-born player!..
Graig Nettles!
2004 Topps Retired refractor autos are my favorite cards. I always keep an eye out for them-- tryin' to collect 'em all-- and I finally landed this one the other day. I'm now down to a lucky 13 cards left in my quest. They can be tough to find, numbered out of just 25 copies each.
But back to saluting Graig...
He's close to my heart as the 2nd best baseball player to ever come out of my alma mater of San Diego State University, in addition to sharing cities where we were born..
Here's a list of the top San Diego-born MLB ballplayers according to baseball-reference WAR: (This is in ascending order, not descending, because I'm not great at using stats sites, sorry.)
Being second to Ted Williams, and Tony Gwynn, in anything is surely something to be proud of. (And hey, Graig has 2 more World Series rings than the both of them combined.)
Graig Nettles should have legit HOF consideration thanks in large part to his power numbers (390 career taters) and his elite defense at 3rd base-- known as a "glove only" position for much of his career (Mike Schmidt and Eddie Mathews notwithstanding)-- not to mention his postseason prowess (WS champ in '77 and '78, plus ALCS MVP in '81). Hall of Stats has him comfortably enshrined with a ranking of 126 out of the 232 eligible ballplayers deemed worthy of induction. But his lifetime .248 batting average turns off Cooperstown voters. Oh well, maybe someday they'll take a deeper look at his stats and rightfully put him in.
As for the title of this post, it's a reference to a favorite episode of an all-time favorite show of mine, The Mighty Boosh, a BBC offering from 2004 to 2007 (currently available for streaming on Hulu). It's a must-watch if you're into silly, absurd stuff.
Angus of Dawg Day Cards dropped a heck of a card package on me.
The heft of the package was a box of about 400 cards from 1979 Topps-- some good names, too-- taking me from around 30% complete all the way up to over 87% complete! Ninety-two cards left to go.
These '79s were a complete surprise. What I had expected from Angus were some of his spare Cleveland Browns cards...
I've been wanting to start a PC of hometown boy Brian Sipe for a while but had zero of his cards before this lot. I just learned that El Cajon won the Little League World Series in 1961 with a team featuring Brian. That's pretty cool. He then attended Grossmont High School, a district rival of mine, before attending my alma mater, San Diego State University. He went onto a solid NFL career with the Browns highlighted by being named MVP in 1980.
And Sipe isn't the only former Brown with ties to my hometown...
Touchdown Tommy Vardell is among the greatest athletes to have attended Granite Hills High School. He went onto become the star running back for Stanford before entering the NFL with Cleveland in 1992. Lots of great cards here... and here:
Seeing as I tend to focus on baseball Guys From Granite, I only had 9 or 10 Tommy Vardell cards before this generous lot from Angus more than tripled the PC!
He also sent along a bunch of Canadian Padres cards.
Some more baseball stuff, including a Reggie Jackson "SportsClix" miniature figure.
Here's a closer look at Reggie. He arrived broken off the base, but a little glue fixed him right up.
And for my Greatest Gavins minicollection, an OPC hockey card.
And we close out with a few more football cards highlighted by a sweet LaDainian Tomlinson red refractor. Also a Michael Sam auto and Marshall Faulk rookie.
Thanks a lot, Angus! I've got a couple Browns hits set aside for you and will keep an eye out for more at the next card show.
I woke up with a tiny bit of a sniffle, and didn't have much on my plate at work today, so called in sick.
I successfully made it through another Dry January (no booze all month), and celebrated with a beer at lunch today.
I was a day late in celebrating Jackie Robinson's 100th birthday, but whipped up a nifty gif card today. I think this is one of my best, if I say so myself!
This helped me hit 1400 followers on Twitter today, which is pretty crazy.
I love making custom cards. And I really love when I can take a boring autograph and spice it up into a custom card. This post will take a look at some custom cut-signature cards I whipped up recently. (Actually, this post has been sitting in my drafts for a couple months.)
Here's what I started with. My bud JBF Wes approached me with a couple Bob Walk IP autos and Josh Willingham stickergraphs asking if I could make them into something cooler. I was up to the challenge. (The Bob Walk cards were obviously cannon fodder for his ongoing cardboard war with Matthew Scott, so I had to sit on publishing this post for a while not to ruin the surprise. But he received them the other day, so I've got the greenlight.)
But first let's start with the Dick Enberg I made for myself. The legendary broadcaster passed away on December 21, 2017. At the risk of coming off as a vulture, as soon as I found out, I headed to eBay to see if I could find any inexpensive autographs. Honestly I had been meaning to do this back when he was still alive, but never got around to it. I remember earlier checking if he had any autos available out there, but turns out he doesn't have any pack-certified auto cards (none that I could find, anyways). I think his only real card is in 1989 Pro Set. So the custom card route it is!
I found this auction simply titled "DICK ENBERG autograph" with the description reading "obtained by me at DFW airport 1984. $10k guarranteed authentic!" $13.95 with free shipping... worked for me and I pulled the trigger. Looked a little large for my custom-card-making aspirations, but workable. The seller was named Steve, so I assume that's who the signature is made out to, though it's not very legible. I have no reason to believe this isn't authentic. Dick was known to be generous with his autograph. A forger would be very unlikely to include personalization. It's on old-school printer paper and the signature crosses a page perforation. If it was counterfeit, they would have done a better job. So it's 100% legit as far as I'm concerned.
Very happy with how this turned out! Borrowed an existing Topps Five Star design rather than whip up something from scratch. I had to extend the window bigger that I would have liked, but I eventually was able to get it lined up to where it looked good and didn't cut off too much (It's such an annoyance when a card company obscures or otherwise edits out part of a signature in cuts like this). I was fine with losing the "Steve–" part. The top of the "M" and bottom of the "Y" just barely fit in together snugly. The only unfortunate loss was the top of the exclamation point, but I can live with that.
I didn't do much for the back on this one, just a little bio paragraph.
Really proud of these Willinghammers! Wes seems pretty stoked with them, too. They're in the style of 1996 Leaf Signature Extended and 1998 Donruss Signature Series, respectively. Josh doesn't seem to do TTM, or otherwise I would have just tried to get the customs hard-signed. This was my first time ever peeling off a sticker auto and placing it on a custom. Usually I just do custom overlays, leaving the original card untouched. But with Wes' blessing, I went for it. It wasn't perfect, as the stickiness mostly stuck to the original card, though it was enough to work with, and was fine with a tiny bit of glue added to one side. Some tamper-proof design may have also been activated on the stickers as they were peeled off, though I don't think it hurts the look of the customs much.
I even made backs that are semi-faithful to the original designs. I was too lazy to type up original blurbs, though, and both of these were copied and pasted straight from the internet.
I absentmindedly dated all these cards "2017" on the bottom. It was actually mid-January 2018 (over MLK weekend, to be specific) when I made them. D'oh!
Pete Coscarart is an old-timer up my collecting alley thanks to his SDSU and Padres ties. I think the card I turned a signed index card into came out pretty well. The index card was even PSA/DNA certified with a sticker on the back, so I peeled it off and affixed it to the back of the card.
And now to the Bob Walks. These use the same Five Star templates as seen earlier in this post. I was glad I was able to fit in most of Bob from his '90 Donruss card on this one.
The autograph on the '93 Topps card was a bit too large to get all of Bob in the cut, unfortunately, but still turned out cool enough.
I affixed the COA business cards to the back of each. Because why not.
So there you go, some neat custom autos for me, Wes, and Matt created out of less interesting sources.
Thanks for reading.
