Wednesday, May 17, 2017

#660 - Tony Gwynn


What a card: Tony Gwynn was coming off his first full major league season when this card was issued. The '84 season was a good one. Gwynn led the league with a .351 average and the Padres made the World Series for the first time in franchise history.

My observation on the front: This is one of my favorite Gwynn cards. It may not be the most flattering, but it is definitely distinctive. There can't be a lot of up-close candids of players wearing sunglasses.

More opinion from me: If you stare at the photo a long time, Gwynn looks like a creature from outer space. Or maybe that's just me.

Something you might know: Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2007, Gwynn has won more batting titles (eight) than everyone except Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner.

Something you might not know: When Gwynn attended San Diego State, he would go to Padres games and thought the team's uniforms were "the ugliest ... I've ever seen in my life."


My observation on the back: The first player to 300-300, of course, was Willie Mays. Bonds' son, Barry, also joined the list, as have Andre Dawson, Alex Rodriguez, Carlos Beltran, Reggie Sanders and Steve Finley.

The blog want to speak now: The News category is updated.

3 comments:

Rob said...

So many of his cards are retroactively ruined when he died of oral cancer...like this one. That big ol' wad of chew...can't understand how MLB hasn't outlawed it yet.

Jeff said...

I believe chew is outlawed at the minor league level. As far as the major league level, I'm sure its collectively bargained and the player's union isn't ready to sign off yet.

Brett Alan said...

Just bought this one from a dime box earlier this month. Nice card, unusual without bring weird, if that makes sense.