Cards on Cards - 1992 Upper Deck Tony Gwynn

Time to unveil a new and probably short lived serial.  It's time for Cards on Cards.  No, not that Cards on Cards...

Every blue moon, we spy a baseball card that has a baseball card on it.  In my experience, it has always been some type of photo trickery of a player holding a card of themselves that is the actual card and going on for infinity.  It's kind of a mind bender, but trickery none the less.

Dan from "The Other World" sent me a stack of Tony Gwynn's completing our Phillies and Stickers trade.  This was an amazing package.  When I opened it and saw the 50 count case, I said to myself that it couldn't all contain Tony Gwynns.  I was wrong.  Besides a few Topps dupes, it was mostly gold that I had never seen before.  I guess it does pay to not collect anything but Topps and then start seeing all that Fleer, Donruss, Leaf and UD had to offer.  

Speaking of Upper Deck, I noticed something rather peculiar on the 1992 UD Gwynn card.  Let's dole this out bit by bit.

First, is the 1991 UD Gwynn All Star Game Card. 

It's a rather bland card of Gwynn signing autos at the Toronto All Star Game.  He looks less than thrilled.  I wonder why?

Now lets move on to the card at hand.

Nothing special here, but let's look at the obverse.

Gwynn is still signing autos, but wait!  He's still unenthusiastic, and if you look at the programs he's signing, they are from the 1991 Toronto All Star Game.  So, same photo shoot as the 1991 UD AS Game card, but from a different angle.

And here is where it get's interesting.  Let's zoom in on the lower left hand corner.

Why, that's a baseball card!  Coming from San Diego, I know that baseball card like the back of my hand.

Time to flip and zoom a little more.

Hmmm.  Blue checkerboard borders.  Red name box.  Blank stare from a should of been first time HOFer.

Why, that's Roberto Alomar! No wonder TG was not so thrilled having to sign an Alomar card!

Way to go Upper Deck.  You successfully incorporated a 1988 Donruss card into your 1992 set.  Now that is some awesome QA/QC.

Doc T

Tournament Update

I am so far following through on my promise to update the tournament on a weekly basis.  It appears that there are some interesting match ups forming, and it is always exciting to see the Pads and Rays (my Padrays) doing decent, if not awesome.


Dan the Sticker Man has entered the fray with his completion of an awesome trade with me.  I will post something in the near future about one of the 49 (good golly) Gwynn's he sent my way.  Looks like I'm going to have to go digging for more Phillies and stickers! 

Contestants:

Nationals (Plunger-hoo) tied with Night Owl (Dodgers) at 6 games a piece.
Cpt. Canucks Braves are holding a 2.5 game lead over the Reds.
Dan's Phillies are up one game on the surprising Pirates.
GCRL's Twins (sorry had to give you to the Twinkies) are up 2.5 over the Indians.
Play at the Plate's Rangers are in a dead heat with the Royals.  Ouch.
Troll's Ray have a 5.5 game lead over WSC's White Sox.

If you want in, post a comment about a trade and what you're looking for, and I'll dig through the boxes some.  Once the trade is complete, you're in the running.

Still waiting on cards from Wicked Ortega, and I Cpt. Canuck, but I'm sure his are lost in customs somewhere.

Need addresses from Fan of Reds sometime, too.

Doc T!

Opening Day - Minor League Style

After going through a drought in 2009, where I had neither the time nor money to attend a baseball game (save for a UVA @ UNC game my bud Plungerhoo took me to), I am heading to the ballpark tonight.

While in Florida back in March, I was fortunate enough to go to the Baltimore Orioles facility in Sarasota, and watch them play a spring training night game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.  The weather was nasty cold and the game was not like the 1971 World Series.  I could tell then and there the O's were bad.  So bad, the Pirates looked good.  The only Oriole bright spot is Adam Jones.  That kid is awesome, and I hope Wieters blossoms into an awesome C.

Anyways, the game was ho-hum, but my son had a great time!  Just look at that smile.  He cheered for every pitch, for every batter and every run scored.  Jersey colors meant nothing to him.  It was about BASE-BALL, as he says it.

As an aside, while I was less than 10 miles from the scene of The Collective Troll's horrible break-in incident, and I have the ticket stub to prove I was at the ballgame, not stealing 1950s Bowmans!

So tonight is opening night for the Durham Bulls.  I haven't been to a Bulls game since August of 2008, so I'm excited to see the new left field construction.  Having lived in Durham for several years, I ended up becoming a fan of the Rays since 2001.  It was awesome to see all the talent they have now come through Durham.

Now I live out towards the Carolina Mudcats, who are the AA affiliate of the Reds, yet I just can't bring myself to be a fan of another NL team.  Padres forever, and occasionally Pad-Rays.

The Reds situation may change, as my brother-in-law's cousin pitches in the Reds organization for the AA Lynchburg Hillcats.  I'll post more on that later, as I'm waiting for my BIL to return from Afghanistan later this month.  Even non-baseball players have jinxes to worry about.

Eventually, I will also be treated by the Plungerhoo to a minor league game of my choice, since I "trounced" him in a one-on-one NCAA tournament challenge, where the winner got to pick the game and the loser buys.  I picked an Albuquerque Isotopes game, but then I found out travel wasn't included, nor was a week long stay in Chaco Canyon.

I guess I'll have to settle for a Kinston Indians, or enjoy a Coastal Plain League Wilson Tobs or Outerbanks Daredevils game.

Baseball is everywhere if you just take the time to look.  Play ball!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

http://punkrockpaint.blogspot.com/2010/04/checklist-contest.html

All of those crosswords and literature books finally paid off for me.  Not too shabby for an engineer who specializes in math.

It's idiomatic, my dear Watson! (with a sprinkle of The Bard).

Rejoice in my winnings...

I will let the one and only PunkRockPaint do the honors of revealing the solution.  An awesome contest worthy of wasting an hour at work.

 

Tournament Contest Update

I will keep the tournament updates coming each Monday...

White Sox Cards has officially entered the fray, as I received a spectacular package from him on Saturday (That's what she said).  The highlight was a 1956 Topps Tom Gorman, plus a boat load of Padres, of which I only had one.  I must say he raised the bar for me, and I will have to go digging into the treasure chest for another trade round.  Kudos my good man.

Anyways, the tourney is well under way.  The Astros are all but dead in the water facing a 5 game up hill battle against the dreaded Giants.  And if it couldn't look worse for Do-ho fans, you're down one game to the Nats.  Ouch.

I received some flak about the Phils being the #2 seed, but as stated previously, the seeding is based on 2009 regular season standings.

If you want in on the fun, all you need to do is complete a trade with me and your entered to win a prize.  I'm still debating on a prize, but it will likely end up being a 600 count box of your favorite team (junk wax not withstanding).

Other random comments on the blog include:

Any more Musial cards?  Nope, just the one in the Gallery.

A subtle rip on the 1976 F. Robinson... Yeah, I know the pose is lame and there is no facsimile signature, but it is damn hard finding decent photos of HOFers at the end of their careers...