This and that, Billy Pierce Style

Seemed like a good day to try to clear out some of the backlog of scanned cards I've been saving. Let's start with these. 

Top card is a Bill Pierce Topps Archives from 2001. I didn't really know Topps was doing these 'throwback' cards 13 years ago. Anyway it's obviously just a reprinted '64 with a gold stamp. I like the original '64 card, love that the color compliments the Giants' colors. But having said that I rally don't pursue these 'modern' Pierce cards wholeheartedly. I keep a list of the ones I have but I'm not tracking down a 'wantlist'. There are so many variations of these sorts of things I'm not sure a wantlist is even possible. 

There is a Heritage Pierce card on COMC that is signed. It is supposedly a 2013 card and it has a number of 18/64. I can't tell if its a 'signed through the mail' card of if it was issued like that. Either way for $25 the guy can keep it. I made him an offer of about half the asking price since the card has been there f-o-r-e-v-e-r but, just as I figured, it was rejected.

Next is another 99 cent Pierce card, this one is a variation of something I already had. It's an Upper Deck All Time Heroes card from 1994. I posted my original one awhile back but this one is "special"... it has a gold stamp reading 'Major League Baseball 125th Anniversary' along the right side. Why? I don't know. And I wouldn't have bothered with it had it cost more than a dollar or so. 

But along with the Pierce Upper Deck the seller included an extra card (don't you love it when sellers do that?). He stuck an '89 Fleer Tony Gwynn into the same case. I'm sure I have this card someplace and, yes, the '89 Fleer set isn't anything to be excited about but a Gwynn is a Gwynn. If nothing else it gave me the chance to flip over a card and be astounded at some player's stats.

I blew up the scan of the back, just because. Here are a couple of things I found out when this card prompted me to look at TG's Baseball Reference page: he was second in the NL in triples three times. Triples!  

In 1994 he won the batting title with a just plain silly .394 average but he also led the league by grounding into 20 double plays. He was in the top four in putouts by a rightfielder eight times and top five in fielding eight times. 

Mr. Padre, indeed.

Randon Friars on a random Sunday

What better day than a Sunday to post some Padres I've had scanned for awhile with no purpose in mind. I like the 1980 Ozzie Smith because he's got his eyes closed while following through on a huge cut. Random facts about the Wizard I didn't realize till now:

• He finished second to Bob Horner in the 1978 ROY balloting but Horner played in about half as many games.
• He's from Mobile, Alabama. I drove through the hardest rain I've ever experienced in Mobile one night in the early 70s. I was on my way to Florida with a girlfriend and when we got out of the tunnel that goes under Mobile Bay and the rain was coming down so hard I thought my Malibu had landed in the damn Bay. I literally drove blind for awhile. I'll never forget that and I think about it every time someone mentions Mobile. 
• He only played four seasons in San Diego. I thought he was there longer. And he hit .231 over those four seasons.

1981 Topps Dave Winfield card on which Winfield just plain looks like a badass who I wouldn't want to pitch to. Winfield and Ozzie played together for Smith's first three seasons. Winfield finished up his playing career with the Indians. I'd have lost a bet on that for sure! The Indians?

This is some kind of jersey swatch Tony Gwynn card from Donruss in 2001. Gwynn led the NL in hits seven times and made the NL All Star squad fourteen times over a 15 year span from 1984 through 1999. In 1989, his rookie year, he hit .289 and never hit below .300 again, even in his last year at the age of 41. When it comes to just pure hitting ability who's better in the last 40 years? Rod Carew? Wade Boggs? Ichiro Suzuki? ::::shrug::::