Mets vs. Royals - Kellogg's Cards Version

Here's the breakdown of Mets and Royals from the Kellogg's sets.

Total number of cards

Mets - 34
Royals - 39




Number of Hall of Famers

Mets - 1 Seaver
Royals - 1 Brett

Number of Seavers as a Met - 7
Number of Bretts - 7

Number of Different Mets - 18
Number of Different Royals - 18

Number of my kids named after a Met - none.  NO, NEVER, NO.
Number of my kids named after a Royal - 1.

The count is close, but the Royals have the advantage.

Happy Birthday to a Royal

Tom Poquette turns 64 today.  From 1973 - 1982 he played seven years in the AL, six with the Royals.  

I remember him most as the guy who got injured allowing Kevin Bell to hit an inside-the-park grand slam for the White Sox sometime in the mid-1970s.


He played for the Royals in the ALCS in 1976, 1977 and 1978.  The Royals didn't win a series in any of those years.  

Chris Chambliss crushed the Royals hopes in 1976 with a walk-off homer in Game 5.  George Brett had tied the game in the eighth inning with a homer.  

In 1977 the Yankees beat the Royals in Game 5 in Kansas City.  The Yankees were down 3-2 going into the ninth inning.  They crushed the dreams of Royals fans again by scoring three times in the ninth inning.   Mickey Rivers drove in the tying run with a hit, then Willie Randolph knocked in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly.  The last run scored when George Brett committed a throwing error.

In 1978 it took the Yankees only four games to win the series.  The Yankees only managed two runs on four hits but that was enough for Ron Guidry to win 2-1.

The All-Tme Greats Left-Hand Pitcher Won How Many Cy Young Awards?

Sure everyone knows that Cy Young never won a Cy Young Award.  I've always known the award to be for the best pitcher in the AL and the best pitcher in the NL.  I grew up with that.  It turns out that from 1956 - 1966 MLB gave out just one award even though MVP Awards were distributed to players in both leagues.

Even more interesting, the Cy Young Award didn't even exist before 1956.  So here is a list of pitchers who never won a Cy Young Award.

How about the pitchers with the five most career wins - Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Pete Alexander, Christy Mathewson and Pud Galvin.

Warren Spahn led the league in wins eight times, but won only one award.

So when people are giving Maddux, Clemens, Randy Johnson and all of the others credit for all of the Cy Young Awards, remember that the rules are quite different today.

We Will See Him on TV Every Day This Week - Geoge Brett Got Injured How?

Sure Brett could have been injured when he went berserk and charged out of the dugout in the pine tar game.  I'm also not talking about him becoming one of the most famous people with hemorrhoids.

Brett got injured running from the kitchen to the TV.  What was his hurry?  He wanted to see Bill Buckner bat.  Why?  In 1983 Buckner was a Cub who had already had seven seasons with an average about .300.  He played until 1990 without hitting .300 again.  He had 2,715 career hits, which is more than many Hall of Famers, but unfortunately he's not known for any of those hits.

Brett hit .300 11 times on his way to a .305 career average.  He hit .310 in 1983, but maybe it could have been higher had he not broken a toe.

Is this really how it happened?  I'll do some research on that one.

Kellogg's Cereal Box Dream #20 - This Guy Kept Playing Until He was 45

In all five years from 1967 to 1971 Cesar Tovar had seasons that were good enough to get him MVP votes.  I was too young to appreciate it at the time, but that is impressive.  

He was quite a versatile player who appeared frequently at all outfield positions, 2B, SS and 3B.   He even added 90 games at DH late in his career.

In a previous post - Tovar Plays All Nine Positions - Tovar's game where he played all nine positions is mentioned.

1971 Rating                    -- 4  comment -- a good player, but I know NL players better.  

2015 Rating                    -- 6  comment --   You are either in the Hall of Fame or you are a                                                              common.  Local interest is the only thing in between it seems.                                                            1971s sure are nice if in good shape.


He continued playing winter ball in his native Venezuela and in Mexico long after his last MLB game.  In all he played 26 years in the winter league, retiring at age 45.

Tovar died of cancer in 1994 at age 54.

Jorge Orta Was Out - Where Was Replay in 1985?

On this day in 1985 the Cardinals were robbed because there was no instant replay.  That's okay, guys have lost perfect games, no-hitters, etc. due to the lack of replay.  I like that replay is used for some things now in baseball.  

So Orta was called safe.  Do you much about Jorge?

Wow!  Orta played from 1972 to 1987.  He played his first eight years with the White Sox and his last four years with the Royals.  In between he played with Cleveland, Toronto and Los Angeles.

He accumulated 1,619 hits, two all-star selections and two Kellogg's cards.

In the 1985 ALCS he was 0-for-5 and in the World Series he was 1-for-3.

In the disputed game six, Orta was called safe.  He advanced to second but was forced out at third in the inning before the Royals won the game on a hit by Dane Iorg.  Iorg had only one hit in the entire seven-game series.  If not for this hit he'd be known forever as a Cardinal since he played eight years with St. Louis and only two with Kansas City.

Dane's brother Garth played against the Royals in the ALCS as a member of the Blue Jays.

Sports News I Learned on the Porch While Reading Someone Else's Paper

In 1973 I had one consistent way to get my sports news.  After my mother woke up me and my brother before the sun rose, we'd quickly run outside grab a Chicago Sun-Times and begin reading the sports.  We were never up to see the 10:00 p.m. news, there was no cable and no sports channels.  

The morning paper was it.  We'd read about every sports score, trade, etc.   I think we memorized everthing except the horse race results and the Gil Thorp comic strip.

Did you notice no mention of us fighting over who got to read the paper first?  That wasn't a problem because there were 104 papers delivered to our house every day by the Ashburn News Agency.  It was our job to get them delivered by 7:00 a.m.  

It was too difficult to re-fold the Tribune after reading it, so we usually stuck with the Sun-Times.  

On this day in 1973 I was stunned to see that he Cubs traded Fergie Jenkins to the Rangers for Bill Madlock and Vic Harris.  Jenkins had just completed a losing season after six consecutive 20-win seasons.  

Madlock was a promising rookie and Harris couldn't do much other than play lots of positions.  

The Cubs of my youth were going to be following Jenkins out of town rather quickly

Glenn Beckert was traded to the Padres in November of 1973.

Randy Hundley was traded to the Twins in November of 1973.

Ron Santo was traded to the White Sox in December of 1973.

Paul Popovich was traded to the Pirates in April of 1974.

Milt Pappas was released by the Cubs on the same day that Popovich was traded.  Pappas never played in the majors again.

Billy Williams was traded to Oakland after the 1974 season.

Don Kessinger was traded to the Cardinals after the 1975 season.


 

He Got Caught Only Once - Just Like His Brother Joe!

On June 13, 1976 Phil Niekro got caught stealing.  In 24 years he pitched in 864 games.  He appeared as a hitter 1,707 times recording 260 hits.  He also reached base 17 times by walk (none intentional) and 12 times when hit by a pitch.  He surely reach base other times on a fielder's choice.

If I had a chance to ask him a question I would want to know why he attempted to steal second in that game.  His career stat line is 0 steals - 1 caught stealing.

Here's what I would ask him.

Did he think he was faster than when he was a rookie twelve years earlier?

Was he trying to match his brother who was 1-for-1 in steals during his 22-year career?  Joe was smart enough to do this as a rookie in 1968.

Did the catcher drop the ball/pass out or have some other trauma?

Was the opposing pitcher throwing a knuckleball or euphus pitch?  Jim Rooker was the pitcher so I doubt it.

My last question - how does it feel to be caught once like your brother Joe?  Above I mentioned that Joe was never caught stealing.  I'm referring to Joe's issue with a file/sandpaper in his pocket during a game.  Watch that clip if you haven't seen it.

In future posts I will see who else couldn't manage to steal a base.

Kellogg's Baseball Packs - To Open or Not?

I've not been able to pick up any more of the 1970 Kellogg's packs that I need to complete an entire set of unopened packs.  I do have some doubles that I should probably sell to pay the bills from all of my purchases but it is so tempting to open them.

I've gone through about 10 packs so far and the cards look great.  Even though there is a bit of curl to them, the borders are a shiny white which is amazing.

Soon I will show the contents of one of the packs that I opened.  That will need to wait until work gets less busy.

This Was Supposed to Be The Biggest One-for-One Trade in Baseball History? What About Trading Their Kellogg's Cards?

On this day in 1974 Bobby Bonds was traded for Bobby Murcer. The Site http://www.nationalpastime.com/ called Bonds the next Willie Mays and Murcer the next Mickey Mantle.

I'm going to look at their careers and their Kellogg's cards.

Bonds appeared in the 1973 and 1974 sets.  He didn't retire until 1981, after playing 14 seasons.

Murcer appeared in 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974 and 1976.  He played a lot longer than Bonds, playing from 1965 to 1983.  He didn't play in the majors in 1967 or 1968.

Bonds had 332 homers and 1,024 RBIs.  He added 461 steals and 914 walks to his .268 career average.

Murcher played in 1,908 games, just 59 more than Bonds.  Murcer had 252 homers, 1,043 RBIs while having a career average of .277.  He stole on 127 bases to go with 862 walks.

Bonds was a three-time all-star and won two Gold Gloves.  Murcer was an all-star five times and won a Gold Glove once.

Not exactly the next Mays and Mantle.

As for their Kellogg's cards, both fall into the same category - good player not in the Hall of Fame.

It Seems Like It Was Just a Few Years Ago - Ouch I'm Old and So Are Kellogg's Cards

I need to stop reading the website that lists all of the baseball happenings from each day in history.  Today's made me feel old.  I know that I can add it in my head, but I started counting by hand in hope that it wouldn't be so long ago.

Ten, twenty, thirty, forty.  Dang, it was forty years ago that Carlton Fisk hit his homer off of the foul pole in the 1975 World Series.  

Everyone watched that game.  Why?  Baseball was certainly the biggest sport in the USA1975.  It also helped that it was the Big Red Machine vs. Boston's rookies - Lynn and Rice.  

Another factor was the channel selections available to us.  We had about five or six channels, no VCR, no DVD, no PC, phones were attached to the wall or required a dime, etc.  Good times.  

We watched every game every year.  Those were good times.  We then talked about it with our friends the next day. 

Fisk came to the White Sox for a while, but everyone thinks of him in Boston Sox.  The homer is certainly a big part of that.

Kellogg's Cards Issued After a Player Was Out of Baseball and P90X?

It looks like there are only two players in the regular Kellogg's sets from 1970 to 1983 that had a card after their career ended.



1971 Tony Horton.  Stress ended his career before he turned 26.  He debuted at age 19.

Horton is not the father of P90X star Tony Horton.  Mr. Push-up talked about his father throwing a no-hitter in one of the videos.  I will need to find out more about that.

From 1964 - 1970 Horton hit 76 homers and drove in 297 runs while hitting .268.


1981 J.R. Richard.  J.R. had a stroke in 1980 before a game.  That ended his career.

Mr. Richard was a star pitcher at the time of his stroke.  He played from 1971 - 1980 and he was only 30 when his career ended.

His career record was 107-71 for the Astros.  In his last four complete seasons he won 20,18,18 and 18 games.  When the stroke occurred he was 10-4 for the Astros.  He struck out over 300 batters in his final two complete seasons, leading the league both times.

He finished in the top seven of the Cy Young voting three times.  

On This Day in 1978 - Not World Series News!

The White Sox name Don Kessinger as player-manager after firing Larry Doby who replaced Bob Lemon in mid-season.

Doby and Lemon are both in the Hall of Fame as players.

Kessinger shown here in his "I surrender pose" went to a team that wasn't very good.

Lemon had a record of 124-112 in 1977 and part of 1978.  The 1977 team was in first place for a while and they were known as the Southside Hitmen.

Doby was 37-50 to finish the 1978 season.

Kessinger was 46-60 before being replaced by Tony La Russa who entered the Hall of Fame as a manager.

The White Sox had losing records from 1978 - 1981.  Boo hoo, the Cubs were not above .500 from 1973 to 1983 - my entire childhood.

Cubs vs. Mets - Kellogg's Card Research

Only Dave Kingman got a Kellogg's card with him on the Mets and the Cubs.  He also appeared as a Giant in 1973.   No one appeared for both the Royals and the Blue Jays.

Besides the cards shown, Kingman appeared as a Met in 1977 and a Cub in 1980.

He went from Mets to Cubs to Mets in his career.  In 1977 he was a Met and in 1978 he was a Cub.  It was big news in 1977 when he went from the Mets to the Padres to the Angels to the Yankees.  Not only did he play in each of the four divisions, he homered as a member of each team that season.

He was traded to the Padres in June, picked up off of waivers by the Angels on September 6th and traded to the Yankees nine days later.  In November he signed with the Cubs as a free agent,

The Cubs traded him to the Mets before the 1981 season began.

He led the league in homers twice.  As a Cub with 48 and as a Met with 37.  Advantage Cubs.

He led the league in strikeouts three times.  As a Cub he had 131 and as a Met he had 156.  Advantage Cubs.

He led the league in slugging percentage once as a Cub.  Advantage Cubs.

Robin Yount Managed to Do This Twice in One World Series

On this day in 1982 Robin Yount got four hits in four at-bats in a World Series games.  This has been done before, but Yount is the first one to get four hits in two different games of a World Series.

In game one, Yount was 4-for-6 with two RBIs and one run scored.  The Brewers won 10-0.

In game five, Yount was 4-for-4 with one RBI and two runs scored.  He homered off Bob Forsch as the Brewers won 6-4.  

For the entire seven-game World Series Yount had 12 hits in 29 at-bats.  He had six RBIs, six runs scored and two walks.   The Cardinals won game seven.

Mets vs. Cubs - At Least There is No Tom Seaver

Tomorrow the Mets and the Cubs begin their series.   Tom Seaver had his highest winning percentage in the months of September and October.  

The Cubs actually did okay against Seaver who was 24-18 against Chicago.  Below are few a Seaver's favorite teams to face along with his W-L record.

San Diego 33-10

Atlanta 32-10

He only had a losing record against Cincinnati and the Big Red Machine.  He was 12-20.  

My Favorite Kellogg's Card Sets - Why I Love the 1974 Set -- and Why It Tortures Me

The 1974 Kellogg's set has always been a favorite of mine.  It was the first one that I obtained by eating Frosted Flakes and/or trading with friends.  The cereal also starting my torturous trips to the dentist.  Or maybe it was the Kool-Aid that we drank daily.  The recipe called for two cups of sugar in the half-gallon container.

It didn't seem to be a problem when I collected the set, but now I regularly see cards #1 through #9 with horrible cracks.  Maybe 9-pocket pages became popular between 1972 and 1974 so more of these sets were housed in the pages?

What makes this problem even worse is the checklist of the 1974 set.  The first nine cards are:

#1 Bob Gibson

#2 Rick Monday

#3 Joe Coleman

#4 Bert Campaneris

#5 Carlton Fisk

#6 Jim Palmer

#7 Ron Santo

#8 Nolan Ryan

#9 Greg Luzinski

These nine cards include:

The best card in the set

Hall-of-Famers - 5

Cubs - 2

Future White Sox - 3

On This Day in 1906 and 1908...........Cub and White Sox Fans!

Nice job by the Cubs winning yesterday.  There are still a lot of games left before the Back to the Future prediction can be made true.  In the movie the Cubs beat Miami, which didn't exist at that time but is now an NL team.

Maybe the Cubs can beat Houston, then an NL team.  That would also be fitting because the White Sox finally won their World Series by beating Houston in 2005.

On this day in 1906 the underdog White Sox defeated the Cubs in the World Series.  In 1908 the Cubs defeated the Tigers to win their most recent World Series.   Is most recent too nice?

To celebrate the Cubs victory check out these Kellogg's cards of Cubs.  None of these players won a World Series ring in their careers.

 

Kellogg's Cereal Box Dream #19 - Does He Ever Drink Gatorade?

It's playoff time and the Cubs are still playing.  I remember Bill Buckner as a Cub, but he's widely remembered for a grounder that went through his legs.

Two years before Buckner's unfortunate play, a Cub first baseman had a similar mishap in the 1984 NLCS.  Leon Durham missed an easy grounder in the pivotal game of the season with the Cubs in the lead.  Unfortunately, Durham is remembered for his Gatorade glove since allegedly someone spilled Gatorade on his glove that day.  Don't guys have more than one glove?

The two players were Cub teammates in the early 80s.  When Buckner was traded to the Red Sox for Dennis Eckersley, Durham moved from the outfield to play first base, Buckner's vacated position.

Before being traded Buckner played seven games at first base and two in the outfield.  Though Durham only played 18 games at first base from 1980 to 1983, he played first base for all remaining games in his career.

Another link between the players - both players appeared in the 1983 Kellogg's set.

This Only Happened Once to Michael Jordan

Everyone likes to talk about how Michael Jordan didn't make the varsity basketball team as a sophomore.  Jordan himself used that snub as motivation.  He still uses it to feed his enormous ego.

On this day in 1965 Larry Bowa was signed as a free agent since he wasn't drafted.  What makes Bowa's story interesting is that he was cut from his high school team during his first three years of high school.  Usually we think of major leaguers as being a star every year.

He enjoyed a 16-year career as a player and many years in coaching.  I didn't remember that he ended his career with the Mets.

Bowa was a 5-time all-star who earned MVP votes in three seasons.  He also won a Gold Glove.  He stole 318 bases and he holds the 9th best career fielding percentage.  

Mr. October Does It Again - Not What You Think

On this day in 1978 Reggie Jackson had a chance to add to his reputation as Mr. October.  In the bottom of the ninth he came up against Bob Welch.  Jackson failed and the Dodgers won game two of the series.  The Yankees won anyway in six games.

Burt Hooton was the winning pitcher.  Catfish Hunter took the loss.

Jackson was 1-for-4 with a hit-by-pitch.  He drove in all three of the Yankee runs with a double and a ground out.  But, the career leader in striking out to end the game with runners on first and second.

Welch was a 21-year-old rookie who had appeared in 23 games during 1978.

Ron Cey drove in all four runs for the Dodgers with a homer and another hit.

I can't remember which time I cheered for since I don't like either.

Kellogg's Cards of Playoff Teams

Ten teams made the playoffs this year.  I decided to check and see how many Kellogg's baseball cards were created for each team.  Now, this number could be off since some players can have different teams listed on the front and back.  I'm not even sure which way I tracked those oddities.


Blue Jays - 4.  Not fair since the Blue Jays couldn't be included from 1970 - 1976.  They weren't included in 1977 either.  Bob Bailor, their first pick in the expansion draft, was included in two sets.

Rangers/Senators - 25.  They weren't a good team for most of these years.  They had five winning records in the 13 Kellogg's years.  Buddy Bell was shown on four different cards.  

Astros - 33.  Not bad since only three of the cards are of Nolan Ryan.  Cesar Cedeno led the way with four appearances.

Mets - 34.  There are seven great Tom Seaver cards as a Met.

Cubs - 36.  Billy Williams appears six times since I'm including the 1991 and 1992 sets.

Royals - 39.  George Brett shows up seven times.

Cardinals - 46.  Lou Brock (8 times) and Bob Gibson (6 times) account for a lot of the total.

Dodgers - 49.  Steve Garvey (5 times) leads the way.

Pirates - 54.  The Pirates are tied with the Reds for second on this list.  Kellogg's really liked Willie Stargell (9 appearances), Dave Parker (7), Roberto Clemente (7 - due to his set from Puerto Rico) and Manny Sanguillen (6).

Yankees - 55.  The Yankees have more than any other team.  Here is one category where Reggie Jackson (5 times) is ahead of Babe Ruth.  

These totals certainly didn't help the Pirates and the Yankees in the one-game playoffs.  Let's hope it also doesn't help the Dodgers and Cardinals.  That would leave the Cubs as next.