Career on Cards

When it comes to card collecting, I'm a "jack of all trades, master of none" kind of guy.  But a quick look at my spending habits over the past thirteen years would reveal that a high percentage of my cardboard budget has gone to picking up autographs, memorabilia cards, and graded rookie cards.

Yup.  I'm the collector who enjoys collecting "hits" for my team and player collections.

That being said... my collecting roots go back to the early 80's where there were no such "hits".  It was all about base cards and set building.  And even though sometimes it might not come off that way in my blog posts, both of these things are very important to me and my collection.

Back in the fall of 2021, I spent several months sorting and organizing cards in my garage.  That's when my latest card project was born (actually reborn).  The goal is to complete entire Topps base card runs of specific players in my collection.

I'm all about keeping things simple and straight to the point... so here are my guidelines:

1.  Playing Years Only (Sunset Cards too)

2.  Topps Flagship Only

3.  Regular Base Cards Only (no subsets)

4.  Only Dupes (Singles won't come from sets or player collections)

Buster Posey's retirement was the inspiration for this project.  While sifting through boxes, I kept coming across small patches of his cards.  I started setting them aside and after awhile, I decided to see how many different Topps base cards I had accumulated.  Then I though it'd be kind of cool to collect one of each of his cards and toss them into 9-pocket pages.

At some point during the sort... I remembered doing this for Steve Carlton and Thurman Munson... and the project was reborn.  Ultimately, I decided to put Posey on the back-burner (only have 6 of his 12 cards) and set my sights on Tony Gwynn.  He's my all-time favorite athlete and I have a ton of extras laying around.

Unfortunately... I fell one card short of Gwynn's Topps base card run from 1983 to 2002.  Let's see which one I need...

1983 Topps #482

This is one of my favorite cards of all-time.  In fact, the only card I love more is the 1956 Topps Jackie Robinson.  I know there are some who don't like staring at Gwynn's butt... but I like the action shot paired with the portrait.

1984 Topps #251

1985 Topps #660

1986 Topps #10

1987 Topps #530

This is another one of my favorites.  I really like this design... and the angle of the photograph is different.

1988 Topps #360

1989 Topps #570

1990 Topps #730

1991 Topps #180

1992 Topps #270

1993 Topps #5

It took Topps ten years to use a well-cropped photo of Gwynn... where no limbs or pieces of equipment were chopped off.  I think I'm gonna have to chase down all versions (Micro, Gold, Marlins Inauguration, & Rockies Inauguration) of this card.

1994 Topps #620

Ugh.  This is the lone Tony Gwynn base card that I'm missing for this project.  I have a copy as part of my Tony Gwynn PC, but that collection ranks higher than the Topps Base Card Run PC.

1995 Topps #431

This is the first card since 1984 where Topps didn't honor Gwynn with a zero at the end of his card number or placed him within the first five cards in the set.  What's weird is that 1994 was arguably one of his best seasons as he chased .400.

1996 Topps #250

1997 Topps #410

1998 Topps #1

After Gwynn won his 8th and final NL Batting Title... Topps honored him with the #1 card in the set.

1999 Topps #75

2000 Topps #2

2001 Topps #220

On June 28, 2001... Gwynn told the San Diego Padres and their fans he was hanging up his cleats at the end of the season.  He had been dealing with a strained hamstring up to that point and had been out of the lineup since early May.  A few days after the announcement, he returned to the field but mostly as a pinch hitter.

2002 Topps #99

Topps sent Gwynn off into the sunset with card #99.  Who had the privilege of being card #19?  Dmitri Young.  C'mon Topps.  You can do better.  I'm also a little disappointed that Gwynn never received the honor of being a double zero card on the checklist.

What's next?  Well... the plan is to take on each Topps Base Card Run one player at a time.  As soon as I grab the 1994 Topps Gwynn, I'll move onto the next player.  Here's a hint... he was Tony's teammate on two separate occasions... and played on nine different teams during his twenty-five season career.

Let's wrap things up with today's question.  Based on the twenty cards in today's post...

What's your favorite Topps base card design?

I'll go one step further and list my top five:

1st:  1983

2nd:  1987

3rd:  1984

4th:  1991

5th:  1985

Happy Thursday and sayonara!