30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Saturday Night Five: Wallet Game Gwynns

I'm a little late to the party... but you know what they say, "better late than never".  Last week defgav over at Baseball Card Breakdown introduced a baseball card game on his blog.

The rules are simple.  Pick a "double" from your collection that you're willing to sacrifice and carry it around with you in your wallet for a full year.  Take photos of it from time to time and share them on your blog.

And since it's a game, there's also a winner who might win "something".  How do you win?  Just be the person who submits the coolest, unedited photo.  Easy, right?

Heck the hardest part for me was choosing a card for my wallet.  I decided to follow defgav's lead and chose a Tony Gwynn for a couple of reasons:

#1 - He's my favorite athlete of all-time.
#2 - Over the years, I've accumulated an abundance of his doubles.

I immediately ran into a problem.  There were so many cool Gwynn's to choose from.  I narrowed it down to these five:

1989 Donruss #6

Donruss Diamond Kings have always been one of my favorite subsets.  Dick Perez did an amazing job capturing the top players from the 80's in his paintings.



2000 UD Ovation #38

What happens when you combine a baseball with an embossed baseball card?  You get 2000 UD Ovation.  Beautiful card with great "conversation piece" potential.



1999 Stadium Club #126

Everyone knows that Gwynn was one of the best contact hitters of his era.  But he was also a five time Gold Glove Award winner and this card did an excellent job capturing him in action.



1995 Skybox Emotion #187

I was addicted to Skybox Emotion products back in the mid 90's.  It started with their basketball release and eventually carried on to their baseball and hockey lines.  Each card was printed on thicker than usual card stock and featured a word that captured or symbolized each player's emotion.  Skybox nailed it with Gwynn's word, because #19 was well known for being a student of the game.



1987 Topps #530

And rounding out my list is his 1987 Topps card, which made the final five for a couple of reasons.  I love the photograph Topps decided to use on this card.  But more importantly... 1987 was the year I made the switch from "collector" to "investor".  Sort of a cardboard collecting rite of passage.

In case you're wondering... I have since transitioned back to "collector" status.

The decision was tough, but in the end I went with the 1995 Skybox Emotion:


A big part of my life is my job and since I spend a lot of time in front of the classroom... this "scholar" would have plenty of photo ops throughout the year.

The Scholar's first appearance...

1st Staff Meeting of 2015

It's a shame that the first time Gwynn was exposed to my school, he had to sit through one hour of "blah, blah, blah".  And to make matters worse... I discovered that he already has a major crease running down the right side.  Oh well... it's not called the "top loader" or "screw down" game.  It's the Wallet Card Game.

Well that's it for now.  Thanks defgav for inspiring so many bloggers to do something together.  I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's photos throughout the year.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

18 comments:

defgav said...

Good to see you playing along! Great choice of card.

sg488 said...

Great choice,I always loved the E-motion cards of the 90s.

Commishbob said...

Too many staff meetings and Tony G is going to jump out of your wallet and not come back. At our last one before the break they announced they were canning our principal for 'philosophical differences' with the district. Almost nothing good has ever happened at a school staff meeting.

JediJeff said...

I think the 2016 contest should be #FujisWallet. Dang man, that thing has some style.

The Lost Collector said...

Great choice. Very fun set!

Eric Bracke said...

Great card for the Wallet game and you've reminded me that I should get a new wallet too. I do not have to teach for another two and half weeks, but I went into school the other day and just worked on doing things in my room. My wallet card had a good crease in it afterwards. I imagine that it will look great in a year.

Ryan G said...

I think I'm the third Gwynn wallet carder. Great minds think alike? A well-worn Gwynn will make this year quite fun!

Ana Lu said...

What a view! He was well surrounded by so many books.

Corky said...

Great choice, I love the Skybox Emotion releases.

Baseball Nut said...

That certainly seems like the perfect fit. I would have picked that for you too.

Fuji said...

Thanks for coming up with the idea. As crazy as it sounds... I was starting to run out of ideas for the blog and actually considered going on a sabbatical.

Fuji said...

Yeah... one of my favorite sets from the 90's.

Fuji said...

Totally agree. Sorry to hear about your principal. Can't imagine what it must have felt like in that meeting.

This year, our administrative team has fallen in love with the idea of having bi-weekly staff meeting where we sit around and set goals. If they only knew how much most of us hate these meetings and feel they're a huge waste of our time. I have no problem with setting goals with my teaching team during our planning time. But this whole "school" gathering stuff is driving us nuts. But it makes them look good on paper and I guess that's the most important thing to them.

Fuji said...

Lol... thanks. It's a company called Mighty Wallet and they're made of this really durable paper like material.

Fuji said...

I can't wait to see what it looks like after a few visits to the beach, possibly a few snowboarding trips, and three or four field trips.

Fuji said...

The more Gwynns... the merrier.

Fuji said...

Well... he is the scholar ;)

Fuji said...

Yeah... no regrets so far. I think the only downside is that 95 Skybox Emotion used a thick card stock, so the creases are going to stand out more. But maybe that isn't such a bad thing.