Catching Up with Dave Winfield

Probably my most neglected player collection is HOFer Dave Winfield.  When I think about the reasons a couple things come to mind.  I do have a majority of his playing day cards that aren't super rare so picking up big lots of his cards isn't typically fruitful.  Also, unlike many of the retired HOFers like George Brett, Robin Yount, Dennis Eckersley, etc. who get 200-400 cards per year in new releases, Winfield has averaged under 100/year for the last 8 season. I think it is a little out of site, out of mind for me.

That didn't stop me from picking up these 3 cards of Dave, all representing his first few years with the San Diego Padres:

First up is this nice team logo medallion card.  Early on, I was irritated by Topps usage of these commemorative pins or patches as hits in their products but they have grown on me.  This is a great example of a nicely designed card.  Solid photo selection and the team logo is nice, big and clear in a hard metallic material.  I briefly flirted with the idea of seeking out the entire set but if I recall it is a pretty big checklist and I shifted gears.  Glad to have this Winfield in my collection.

This card design from the Donruss set is fairly basic but it has a couple things I really like on this particular card.  First, I think this is the first time I have seen this photo used on a Winfield card.  It isn't anything super special but I have gotten sick of the constant recycling of just a few photos.  I also like the usage of a bat relic.  It seems to me that the start of the relic phase had a lot more bat cards versus jersey cards to the point where I personally undervalued bat relics.  The tide has turned and now I seem to be appreciating the little slabs of wood more than a jersey.

This final card is a nice low numbered autograph card.  If I do ramp up my Winfield collecting and start going after more of his cards, I do know that one thing I will find is reasonably priced autos.  According to Beckett he has just over 600 different autographed cards (George Brett for example has more than twice Winfield) so they might not be as plentiful as some of his contemporaries but I do think I will be keeping my eyes open to see if I can continue to add some cards to this player collection.