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Use the menu below if you'd like to search for posts that relate to your interests. Note - this was just created on 12-30-20 so I will need to link the posts in the coming weeks. Until then, you can scroll down to the labels on the right to find the same information.


Monday, August 31, 2015

Kellogg's Boxes with Baseball Cards - I Sure Had My Hands on Lots of Them - Now I Want the Cut-Out Cards Too

In the years when Kellogg's cards were produced, my family probably went through about three boxes of Frosted Flakes each week.  I had my hands on all of the boxes that I now wish were part of my collection.

I've gotten a few of the complete boxes and a few of the back panels.  In addition to the boxes, I've ended up with a few of the cards cut out from the boxes.  Last week I picked up a nice one - a 1971 Pete Rose that was cut from the cereal box.


I don't have the box shown below.  I hope to get the complete boxes sometime.  I am also trying to get all of the Hostess complete boxes from the 1970s. 


Sunday, August 30, 2015

Recent Purchase - I Can't Resist Clemente Kellogg's Cards from Puerto Rico - There are Some Questions

I purchased the two cards listed below last week.  The corners are not great and the back has a bit of discoloration on one edge.  But, I can't resist buying these cards.  They don't show up often.  I've got them in the package and opened now.  It's time to try upgrading the opened ones now.

These cards are part of a three-card set issued in Kellogg's cereal boxes in Puerto Rico.  These don't seem to show up often since they are not part of a mainstream set.


Whenever I go to the National or other larger card show Clemente cards are always among the most popular.  I've yet to find one of these cards at a decent price at a card show.

There are some great advertising pieces made in conjunction with this set.  I am on a mission to acquire those items.

I checked PSA Population Report and only four of these cards have been graded.  That surprised me since Clemente is one of the most popular former players.

Were these cards in short supply?  Did dealers somewhere get leftover stock like they did with some other Kellogg's offerings?

Saturday, August 29, 2015

More Lou Brock Today with a Bit of Ty Cobb Too

On this day in 1977 Lou Brock broke the all-time record for stolen bases.  Ty Cobb was the former record holder.  Brock was eventually passed by Rickey Henderson.

Too bad that baseball has gotten away from the stolen base as a weapon.  I haven't checked the research on the effectiveness of stolen base attempts, but it certainly can do other things to the defense - rattle the pitchers, move the fielders and frustrate the catcher.





As a Cub fan, mentioning Lou Brock is painful.  The Cubs of the late 1960s had a strong team and the addition of Brock certainly would have helped them end their World Series hiatus.

Friday, August 28, 2015

Ernie Banks is At It Again - Give the Man Another Kellogg's Card

I didn't realize how difficult it has been for NL shortstops to drive in runs.  In 1960 Ernie Banks drove in 117 runs.  From that point through 1984, no NL shortstop managed to drive in 100 runs.




In 1985 Hubie Brooks managed to do that for the Mets.  Who were the NL shortstops that couldn't manage to do that?  The players listed below were those who played multiple seasons of more than 100 games at shortstop between 1960 and 1985.  None hit many homers or had many RBIs.  None of these guys.

Gene Alley
Larry Bowa
Leo Cardenas
Darrell Chaney
Dave Concepcion
Ivan DeJesus
Tim Foli
Dick Groat
Bud Harrelson
Don Kessinger
Dal Maxvill
Dennis Menke
Roger Metzger
Marty Perez
Bill Russell
Ozzie Smith
Chris Speier
Frank Taveras
Gary Templeton
Maury Wills
Bobby Wine














 

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Rickey Henderson Passed Lou Brock Today in 1982 - Both Had Kellogg's Cards

On this day in 1982 Rickey Henderson stole his 119th base of the season.  Lou Brock held the single-season record with 118.



Let's compare these two players.  Remember, Henderson spent almost all of his career in the AL.

Henderson

Steals - 1,406
Walks - 2,190
Hits - 3,055
Runs - 2,295
Home Runs - 297
RBIs - 1,115
Average - .279


Brock

Steals - 938
Walks - 761
Hits - 3,023
Runs - 1,610
Home Runs - 149 
RBIs - 900
Average - .293





Wednesday, August 26, 2015

The First MLB Draft - 1965 - Players From the Top of This Draft Who Got a Kellogg's Cards

Here are some of the players drafted in the first draft in 1965.  824 players were drafted in 72 rounds.

**** I'm having problems uploading now, so just some boring text this time ****

1.  Rick Monday.  One of my favorite Cubs.

3.  Joe Coleman.  I have way too many of his 1973 Kellogg's cards.

7.  Ray Fosse.  Not going to blame Pete Rose.

36.  Johnny Bench.  Krylon Blue anyone?

38.  Larry Hisle.  He got a few posts earlier in the year when I started this blog.

39.  Danny Thompson.  I would remember him more if he had played in the NL.

226 Nolan Ryan.  That's how baseball works.  There are plenty of Hall of Famers way down on these lists.

421 Freddie Patek was the lowest player drafted in 1965 to get on a Kellogg's card.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Happy Birthday to the First Star Relief Pitcher That I Remember in the World Series

Happy birthday to Rollie Fingers who was born on this day in 1946.  He played for Oakland, San Diego and Milwaukee.  He pitched in 944 games, starting 37 of them early in his career.

He led the league in games three times and saves three times.  Seven times he was an all-star and seven times he received MVP votes.

In 1981 he won the Cy Young Award and the MVP Award.  He was 6-3 with an ERA of 1.04.  He recorded 28 saves in the strike-shortened season.  

He finished with 341 saves, which now ranks him 13th all-time.  He was the all-time leader when he retired and he was the first player to record 300 career saves.


Ooh.  Too busy with work to go find a picture.  Sorry Rollie.


Monday, August 24, 2015

Last Career Homers on This Day - Great Things Which is Why They Got a Few Kellogg's Cards

On this day in 1971 Mr. Cub hit his last career homer - #512.   I don't think that I ever was at a game where he homered.  Banks hit 290 at home and 222 on the road.  He only hit seven coming off of the bench.

Banks hit only one homer against the Expos.  Does anyone know why?


Bill Freehan hit his 200th and last career homer on this day in 1976.  Amazingly, Freehan hit exactly 100 at home and 100 on the road.  He hit none off the bench.

Freehan hit two of his homers on artificial turf.  Where would that have been?  Don't count Comiskey Park where they had turf on the infield for a while.


Sunday, August 23, 2015

Nellie Fox is No Reggie Jackson - and He Didn't Get a Kellogg's Card Either

Reggie Jackson struck out 2,597 times in his career.  His season-high was 171.

Jackson struck out 49 times against Bert Blyleven in only 140 plate appearances.  Even worse, he struck out 27 times in only 77 plate appearances against Jim Kaat.

John Hiller struck out Jackson the most times without Reggie getting a homer off him.  Hiller got Reggie on strikes in 23 of 53 plate appearances.


Nellie Fox was no Reggie Jackson.  Not many homers (35 career), no attitude and no candy bar.  Oh, and no strikeouts either.

On this day in 1958 Nellie Fox struck out in a game.  That was big news because Fox went 98 games in a row without striking out.  In 19 years he struck out a total of 216 times.   His highest in a season was 18.

Those numbers sound crazy but the details are even more amazing.  He came up to bat against legendary strikeout pitcher Bob Feller 80 times and never struck out.  Not even a called third strike that he would argue about with the umpire.

Amazingly, he had 144 plate appearances against Ned Garver without a strikeout.

No pitcher struck out Fox more than eight times.  That was Camilo Pascual who Fox faced 121 times.

I really want to create a custom card of Fox.  

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Players from the Top of the Second MLB Draft (1966) Who Found Their Way onto a Kellogg's Card

I know that the football and basketball drafts are a lot different than the baseball draft.  Lots of baseball Hall of Famers have been drafted in late rounds or not drafted at all.

After seeing the card below on a stack of cards, I ended up looking up information on Wayne Twitchell and it was noted that he was selected in the first round of the 1966 draft immediately after Reggie Jackson.  That made me want to look and see who else was drafted near the top of this class.



Reggie was drafted second and Wayne was third.  Ken Brett was drafted fourth.  That's three guys in a row who worked out okay or better.




Number one pick that year?  Steve Chilcott, who played seven years in the minors, mostly with the Mets.  The Cubs were fifth and their pick didn't make it to the Big Leagues either.

Gary Nolan (13th), Richie Hebner (15th) and Carlos May (18th) also found their way into my box of Frosted Flakes.  

Steve Garvey was 60th of the 828 players drafted.  I'm going to see if I can link my Kellogg's database the MLB draft database.

Geoff Zahn found himself on a card even though he was drafted 656th.  There were plenty of players drafted after him to make it to the big leagues, but he was the lowest one drafted that year to have Tony the Tiger on the back of his card.




Friday, August 21, 2015

Anyone Can Hit 600 Homers Today, But What About in 1931?

On this day in 1931 Babe Ruth hit his 600th career home run.   That's why he got two cards in the same Kellogg's set - and the promotion item that I love so much.



Ruth became more of an everyday player in 1918 when he led the league with 11 home runs in 95 games.  He led the league in home runs 12 times in a 14-year period beginning with 1918.

Check out this home run progression for Ruth and the AL and NL as a whole.

               1918          1920           1927
Ruth           11             54               60

AL              96            369             439

 NL            139           261             483

Thursday, August 20, 2015

A-Rod Got the Record, But He Never Got the Beautiful Kellogg's Card That the Iron Horse Got

A-Rod recently hit his 25th career grand slam which is the record.  On this day in 1938 Gehrig hit his last grand slam homer.   Gehrig died less than three years later.



Lou Gehrig held the record forever with 23.  He hit them off famous pitchers like Ted Lyons and Lefty Grove.  His homers came between 1925 and 1938.  Baseball-almanac.com actually tracks all of them.  The site doesn't seem to care about A-Rods list.

A-Rod has hit his homers over a 20-year period.  No Hall of Fame pitchers on the list either.




Wednesday, August 19, 2015

More Pro Athletes Arrested.....You'll Never Guess What For.......and He Got a Kellogg's Card Years Later

Ninety-eight (98) years ago today there were two arrests after a baseball game in New York.  I guess times have changed a bit because the arrest wasn't for drugs, fighting police, steroids, driving over 100 mph (hard to do in 1917) or other stupid behavior that players today exhibit.  

I've yet to be arrested.  Should I create a bucket list?  I have been pulled over by the police in four different states for illegal running and the police also stopped me twice in two different Chicago neighborhoods for cycling violations.  

These two arrests were also quite odd.  On this day in 1917 the first ever Sunday baseball game was held in New York.  Since that was illegal in New York at the time since it violated existing blue laws which contained moral restrictions on Sunday activity since the day was considered a day of worship.

Managers John McGraw and Christy Mathewson were both arrested after the game.  The New York teams didn't play another home game during the last six weeks of the season.  In May of 1919 the teams finally began playing on Sundays in New York.  

Back to my run-ins with the police.  Don't ride double on a bicycle in Hometown, IL.  That is really the name of a place, it isn't just the fake address on the DMV license picture.  



Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Which Kellogg's Baseball Card Shows One of My Favorite Players?

These two cards were selected randomly, but now I want to look at the players further.  They were picked because they were back to back in my binder of 1983 Kellogg's cards.  

Both were long-time NL stars.  I will just tell you now that Murphy was one of my favorite players when he wasn't playing against the Cubs.  He just did his job and went on his way.  I don't have anything bad to say about Hall-of-Famer Steve Carlton, but he played against the Cubs more frequently so it was easier not to like him.

Murphy only batted 49 times against Carlton.  He hit 5 homers and had nine RBIs.


The 162-game schedule with 12 NL teams worked out great.  The Cubs played the other five NL east teams 18 times (9 at each site) and the six NL West teams 12 times (6 at each site).  I loved that schedule.  Every year I'd see every NL team since they usually all came to town on the weekend at least once.  




Monday, August 17, 2015

Happy Birthday to the Player on the Last Kellogg's Card I Needed to Complete the 1970 Set - Lots of Great Memories of Him

Today is Boog Powell's 74th birthday.  It was great to finally get his 1970 Kellogg's baseball card a few years ago.  That allowed me to complete the set.



I don't have the card listed above, but maybe someday I'll be able to get a lower graded example.

I've been to three games are Camden Yards or whatever they call that stadium nowadays.  I clearly remember that Boog was in centerfield signing for fans during the entire game.  I think he owns a rib sandwich shop or something like that.  

As a long-time NL fan, I didn't see him play as much.  He is certainly remembered for being in a lot o the Lite Beer commercials that were popular in the late 70s or early 80s.  I remember someone saying with surprise in their voice "Hey, you're Boog Powell".

Powell had some good years.  He hit 339 home runs, tied for 97th all-time, which is impressive since he played in some of the higher mound/pitcher dominated years.  

He was the 1970 AL MVP.  He also received MVP votes in five other years included 2nd place and 3rd place finishes in the voting.  

Being on two World Series winning teams with the Orioles cemented his status in Baltimore.  At the two National shows in Baltimore recently it was apparent that Boog is one of the fan's favorite Orioles.  I don't know much about that since I'm a Cubs fan and I'd need to be at least 112 years old to remember one of their World Series teams.




Sunday, August 16, 2015

Ichiro Passes Ty Cobb, But Did He Get A Kellogg's Card When They Were Issued in Japan? Is Rose Next?

I've seen a few Kellogg's cards on ebay that originate from Japan.  They feature MLB players.   I've not seen a set offered or a checklist.  If you have that information, please pass it along.  I saw a dealer at the National who specialized in Japanese cards, but he only had vintage ones.  He didn't know anything about the Kellogg's cards that I'd seen on ebay a few times.

Ichiro recorded hit number 4,192 today when including his numbers from Japan.  That places him ahead of Ty Cobb and in pursuit of Pete Rose's 4,256.




He should have no problem passing Rose if he plays next year.

Both Rose and Cobb did one thing that Ichiro has yet to do.  Both managed while playing.  Maybe Mr. Suzuki will do that in the future.

Where else is he already ahead of Rose and Cobb?  Ichiro made big money by playing baseball at the right time.  Rose tried to make money gambling on baseball and Cobb made big money from some sound investments.   I'm not sure who wins here.

Cobb's image took a beating by how he was remembered by players, portrayed in books about him even as a small part of the movie Field of Dreams.  Rose and his betting has tarnished some of what he did on the field.  I haven't heard anything bad about Ichiro so he must be doing something right.

Congratulations and best of luck pursuing 3,000 hits in major league baseball and 4,257 total hits.




Saturday, August 15, 2015

Babe Ruth and Walter Johnson Always Did Something Amazing So I Will Keep Writing About Them

99 years ago today Babe Ruth defeated Walter Johnson 1-0 in 13 innings.  Johnson's ERA after the game is 1.96 and Ruth's is 2.12.

Ruth was now 16-9 before finishing the season at 23-12 with a league-leading 1.75 ERA.  It doesn't matter if the game was different in 1916.  Ruth led the league with 40 starts and nine shutouts.

Ruth only allowed 10 career home runs, four of them being inside-the-park and one being listed as bouncing, which I'll assume to be another inside-the-park homer.  In his career he pitched over 1221 innings, so that is a homer every 122+ innings which would be half of season for today's pitchers.



To be fair, the most homers given up by an AL pitcher in 1916 was 8 and in 1919, Ruth's last real year on the mound, 10 homers was the most given up by an AL pitcher.

Johnson was now 19-16 on his way to 25-20 with a 1.90 ERA.  He led the league in wins, innings, complete games (36 of 38 starts) and most other categories.

As the pitcher, Ruth batted last.  He went 0-4 against Johnson.  He hit 10 of his 714 homers against Johnson.


Friday, August 14, 2015

A Different View on Stealing - These Guys Should Stick to Stealing Some Kellogg's Cereal

I was looking for a different angle on stolen bases.  I searched for players from the Kellogg's era who were not adept at stealing bases.  Maybe their stats will make people realize that stolen bases aren't for everyone.

Jim Sundberg stole 20 bases in his career.  He was caught 37 times.  That percentage probably doesn't make it a worthwhile idea.



His card even shows that he's not fast.  He needs a cane just to kneel down.  Maybe that's not a cane and just a bat, but let's pretend.   Good thing he won Gold Gloves all the time to make up for his lack of speed. 


Wille Horton also stole 20 bases in his career.  He was caught 38 times, so his percentage was a bit worse.

Horton ranks 109th in career homers and 110th in career double plays grounded into.  He certainly never seemed fast to me.  I heard that his last caught stealing occurred in the annual Father-Son game when he was a Tiger.   He always lobbied for replay after that 9-year-old girl threw him out.


Thursday, August 13, 2015

Was He Injured or Taking Time Off For A Television Commerical?

On this day in 1969 Jim Palmer, who had just come off of the disabled list four days earlier, pitches a no-hitter for the Orioles against Oakland.


Palmer was 16-4 in 1969 but he still wasn't able to get himself onto a Kellogg's card.  Maybe he spent too much time trying to get underwear modeling gigs?

He only started 23 games that season but he still managed 11 complete games.  This win moved his record to 11-2 for the season.  In his four losses he gave up 1 run, 2 runs, 3 runs and 4 runs once each.  His season ERA was 2.34.  

Bert Campaneris and Reggie Jackson played for the losing A's.  Reggie recorded three of Palmer's six walks.  

For the Orioles, Brooks Robinson homered, Frank Robinson got an RBI and Palmer added two hits (single, double) and an RBI.  A future post might consider the most hits by a pitcher in a game in which they no-hit the opposition.








Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Kellogg's Cereal Box Dream #16 - They Were the Best of Seats; They Were the Worst of Seats

When I went to the White Sox game on Monday and had the royal treatment.  I ended up getting what they call "Scout Seats" even though I saw neither a scout nor a radar gun.

For those who haven't experienced this, I hope you get a chance to do so.  It started with an all-you-can-eat buffet which was amazing.  It was followed by unlimited food, drink and dessert throughout the game.

For those who think that this is the norm for me, a few days earlier in Kansas City I had Standing Room Only seats and I never sat in a stadium seat the entire game.  A few days before that we had my favorite seats in the first row of left field at Coors Stadium in Denver.

Now to the real story for today's Kellogg's post.  After the buffet we were taken past the visitors' clubhouse and on to our seats.  During that walk there were lots of pictures of former players visiting the ballpark.  The picture of Floyd Bannister was quite a surprise.


1983 Kellogg's Floyd Bannister #57

1983 Cereal Box rating -- 5    comment --   Shown as a Mariner; now on the White Sox.        



2015 Rating                    -- 5    comment --     Card doesn't do much for me.




Of all of the players in the photos, Bannister was the only one I didn't recognize.  The dark hair was gone - how's that for the pot calling the kettle black?  Maybe he just looked a lot older than I thought or maybe I just don't remember his as well since he was an A.L. player for 13 of his 15 MLB seasons.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Can't Anyone Run For Kelloggs Cards in the American League? Where is Rickey Henderson?

I went to three baseball games in the last six days.  First a visit to Coors Field, then A.L. games in Kansas City and Chicago.  Today I actually saw someone steal a base during the game.  I sure don't see that too much.

What made the steal more interesting was that in both A.L. games, the scoreboard displayed the league leaders constantly.  The current A.L. leader has 30, which puts him on a pace for 43 at the end of the season.

If the A.L. leader ends up with 43, it will be the lowest total for the league leader since Alfonso Soriano had 41 for the Yankees in 2002.  The next leader to get less than 43 steals was Bert Campaneris in 1970 with 42.  The next one lower than 43 is Luis Aparicio with 40 in 1963.



It will be interesting to see if the current leader can surpass 40 steals in the A.L. this season.  In 1962 Aparicio led the league with 31 steals, so that should be surpassed.


When Henderson stole 130 bases in 1982 he stole 27 in one month.  He was caught stealing 42 times that season, so those who study baseball can determine whether or not the steal is worthwhile.  





Monday, August 10, 2015

A Golden Sombrero, No-HItters, Canada and Other Random Thoughts After Attending a Royals Game

It was a long ride home from Kansas City today.  My kids hadn't seen the park before.  What a great place.

On the ride home we were talking about strikeouts and my son looked up some records.  He found a phrase that he'd never heard of before - the golden sombrero.  He was surprised that I had heard of it.  More on that some other day.

He went from there to reading about dubious strikeout records by batters.  He eventually found that one player struck out in 36 consecutive games.  That pitcher was Montreal Expo Bill Stoneman.  Somehow the N.L. allowed him to bat in an All-Star game even with a career average of .086.

Nellie Fox has the best At-Bat-to-Strikeout ratio since World War II.  He struck out once every 42+ at-bats.  Stoneman struck out 212 times in 338 ABs.  That's 1.6 At-Bats per strikeout.  Ouch.  I'll need to check out career worsts in a future post.  Not only that, if I ever run into my little league coach maybe he can let me know if I was worse than Stoneman.

Stoneman is better known for throwing two no-hitters for the Expos including one in the ninth game in franchise history.  Due to arm injuries he only played eight seasons.  Maybe the 20 complete games one year contributed to his injury?

Stoneman had a long career in the front office including being GM for the Angels when they won a World Series.

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Latest All-Star Games During a Season and Winning Pitchers From Those Games

From 1959 to 1962 baseball had two all-star games each season.  Even with a second game, the latest an all-star game was played was on August 3rd.  That all changed in 1981.

In 1981 a baseball strike stopped the season.  The Cubs played on June 11th and then not again until August 10th.   The season was divided in halves to determine playoff teams.  Ask Montreal Expos fans what they thought about that.

Vida Blue was the winning pitcher for the National League.  He also won an All-Star game for the Amreican League.  He's the only pitcher to win a game for each league.



Blue is one of only six pitchers to even record two wins in All-Star competition.  Lefty Gomez won three times and Bruce Sutter, Bob Friend, Juan Marichal and Don Drysdale joined Blue with two wins.  


Sutter also added two saves, trailing only Mariano Rivera (4) and Dennis Eckersley (3).  Mel Harder matched Sutter's two saves.



More All-Star game stats will appear in future posts.


Saturday, August 8, 2015

Robert E. Lee Couldn't Do It The Cubs Couldn't Do It, But Nixon Could

On this day in 1863 Robert E. Lee offered to resign after losing at the Battle of Gettysburg.  Confederate President Jefferson Davis didn't accept it.

In 1988 on this day the Cubs tried to play their first night game at Wrigley Field.  The weather, combined with Rick Sutcliffe's dawdling on the mound between pitches, didn't allow it to happen.

In 1974 on this day Richard Nixon resigned.  Unlike the first two events, this was accepted.  For more information on this topic visit your local library.

There have been 28 players with the last name of Lee in baseball history.  The 1976 card of Bill Lee is the only one to feature a player with that last name.  Leron and Mark played during this time, but they didn't get on a Kellogg's card.

There have been six players in MLB history with the last name of Nixon.  None found there way onto a Kellogg's card.  None played during the Kellogg's era.  Otis was the closest with a debut in 1983.

As for the first night game at Wrigley Field, one Cub Hall-of-Famer is kissed by Morganna before homering, another plays on a slip-and-slide and I saw it all from the left-field bleachers.

1988 Cubs included Gossage, who keeps appearing in posts and whose autographed picture I saw in a restaurant at lunch today, Leon Durham and Andre Dawson, who I complain about his not having a Kellogg's card.




1988 Phillies included Lance Parrish, Mike Schmidt and Greg Gross.


Friday, August 7, 2015

Is That Superman? No, It's Just Jim Rice

Here's a story that I hadn't heard of before.  If I were from Boston I'd probably know this story.  

On this day in 1982 a kid got hit by a foul ball at a game in Fenway Park.  Jim Rice quickly climbs into the stands from the dugout to assist the boy who was hit in the head.  Rice took the boy through the dugout to a waiting ambulance and is credited with possibly saving the boy's life.

Rice was 1-for-4 in the game grounding into two double plays.  There are some nice stories about the boy visiting Fenway Park as an adult.  Check online for lots of nice stories about the players and managers in the game and how the family followed Rice through the dugout and locker room.

Hank Aaron called his house to check on the boy.  Tony LaRussa, the opposing manager that day, visited him in the hospital.

What a great story about a player that is not considered to be a nice guy.

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Goose Gossage, Saves and Grasshoppers Galore

On this day in 1988 Goose Gossage became the second player to record 300 saves in a season joining Rollie Fingers.  The way pitchers are used today that number is no longer a big deal.



Yesterday I ran in a park that was named for Gossage in Colorado Springs, his hometown.  Thanks to him for a nice park.  I enjoyed the run.

Also on this day in 1972 a minor league game is postponed when thousands of grasshoppers descend on the field when the lights are turned on for the second game of a doubleheader in Amarillo, Texas.  I would love to see pictures of that mess.

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

This Former Harlem Globetrotter is the Only Player Born in Nebraska to Have a Kellogg's Baseball Card

One of the most intimidating pitchers of my childhood was a former Globetrotter.  Watch a video and you will see how scary it must have felt to bat against Bob Gibson.  Look for one from before 1969 when the mound was lowered to give batters a better chance.


Tuesday, August 4, 2015

I Missed Getting an Autographed Kellogg's Card at the Sneak Peak on Wednesday

Rollie Fingers appeared at the National on Wednesday for VIP autographs and then for anyone else during the card show that evening.  I didn't get the VIP ticket this year because I could only attend the show on Wednesday.

Since I was only attending on Wednesday I made no effort to even find out where he'd be signing.  I saw a line near one of the corporate booths, but I didn't stop to see who was signing.  I didn't have time for that.

It would have been nice to say hello to Rollie Fingers.  His stats were similar to Gossage's stats.  Fingers had 342 saves and 114 wins in 17 seasons.  He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1992.

Pitchers today get more saves because of the situations that managers use them.  Fingers won a Cy Young Award and MVP Award in 1981.  Besides that he got Cy Young votes in 3 other seasons and MVP votes in six other seasons.  The writers certainly knew his contributions to the team.

He was a seven-time all-star who led the league in saves three times.

Monday, August 3, 2015

My Favorite State Doesn't Have Many Kellogg's Cards or a Good Nickname

I am heading to my favorite place soon - Colorado.  Not many players from the Centennial State have gotten a Kellogg's card.  By my count there are only two players.

First of all, what kind of nickname is the Centennial State?  Well, Colorado became a state in 1876 just after the U.S.A. celebrated its first 100 years of independence.  With recent changes in Colorado laws I'm guessing two things.  First, there are probably plenty of inappropriate nicknames that can now be used for Colorado.  Second, because of the changing laws it is likely there will be even less MLB players from Colorado in the future.

John Stearns found himself on a 1980 Kellogg's card.  He played for 11 years with all but one game being with the Mets.  I didn't realize he was a four-time all-star.

Rich Gossage appeared on four different Kellogg's cards.  He played 22 seasons for a bunch of teams.  He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2008.  

Gossage had 124 wins and 310 saves.  I remember his as a White Sox player at the beginning of his career.  He also spent a short amount of time with the Cubs.   He was a nine-time all-star who received Cy Young and MVP votes in five different seasons.





He only played one season with the Pirates but he got a Kellogg's card that depicted him in the bright yellow.  

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Only Six Players Born in Kansas Got on a Kellogg's Card But Four of Them Won 667 of Games

I found that only six players born in Kansas made it to the big leagues.  Two were position players - Danny Thompson and Bob Horner.  The other four were pitchers.  These pitchers won a lot of games.  

Neil Allen won 58 games in his career.

Paul Lindblad contributed 68 more. 

Ross Grimsley chipped in 124 more games.

That leaves 417 wins.  Walter Johnson is the guy who added most of the wins for this group.  





He led the league in wins six times, he won 20 or more games 12 times including 10 years in a row and he threw 110 shutouts (or about 5 per year).  There are many more amazing stats for Mr. Johnson so check them out sometime.




Saturday, August 1, 2015

A Great Card and an Enlightening Conversation About Kellogg's Cards

I made it a goal to stop and talk to someone about Kellogg's cards at the National Card Show.  Luckily, the opportunity presented itself.

I knew that Beckett Auctions and Goodwin Auctions had included Kellogg's proof cards and uncut sheets in recent auctions and that they might have more in future auctions.  I stopped by the Beckett booth and asked about their auction site.  That was a great question to ask.

Rob from Beckett is in charge of their auctions and I had the opportunity to talk to him about the recent addition of Kellogg's items in their auctions.  I told him that I purchased a few items in the last two auctions and he mentioned another auction will be coming up soon.

I glimpsed a 1968 Topps 3-D card in the case and asked him if I could take a picture of it.  The front looks great but the card is graded as a 2.  He explained the back.  Since this card was being used in the production process as a proof, it was glued to something.  Check out the back of the card.  I like this type of card more than a normal one because it was part of the making of these cards.




Enjoy the card and check out the auction sites in the future.