Cookie Rojas Did More Than Bert Campaneris or Cesar Tovar

On this day in 1967 Cookie Rojas took the mound for one inning.  He didn't play every position in a game like Campaneris or Tovar, but he played every position in his career.

He gave up a single to Tom Haller.  He managed to get two future Hall of Famers out.  So what if one was the winning pitcher, Juan Marichal.  The other was Willie Mays.  Surprisingly, he wasn't in the game before pitching.  He pitched with the team down nine in the bottom of the eighth inning in the second game of a doubleheader.

Rojas didn't play in the first game either on that day.  Odd since he played in 147 games that year.

What makes that interesting is how versatile Rojas was.  He played at least 63 innings at seven different positions.  That was his only inning on the mound and he played first base twice for just over two innings.

I've Seen The Twins Twice in Two Weeks With Coach Paul Molitor

A few weeks ago we were in Minnesota and we saw a Twins game against the Marlins.  The highlights were my daughter getting a ball, a great catch by a pitcher in batting practice and Ichiro getting two hits.

Today we saw Paul Molitor and his Twins in Chicago against the White Sox.  The Twins usually aren't horrible but this year is different.

Molitor got on Kellogg's cards in 1979 and 1981.  He began in 1978 and had a great career.  He led the league in hits three times and in runs three times.  Had Kellogg's continued making their cards he'd have been included in every set.  He was a .341 hitter and a league leader with 225 hits at age 40.   He added a career-high 113 RBIs in that season.  

Kelloigg's Cereal Box Dream #32 - Where Are All of These Clemente Cards?

The 1994 Roberto Clemente 3-card set was inserted into cereal boxes in Puerto Rico.  It seems as though none have made it to the USA in large quantities.  Why do I think that?  I just don't seem them available often or cheaply.

Does anyone see them around in bulk?  They are great looking cards.

1994 Kellogg's Roberto Clemente #01 

1994 Rating                    -- 9  comment -- Before the strike I'd have wanted current players.

2016 Rating                    -- 10 comment --  Quite a nice find today.  


Previous Posts About These Cards 

Odd Roberto Clemente Cards

Recent Purchases ------

1994 Clemente Set Unopened

A New Bird Experience To Add To My List

I've been running on trails for over 30 years.  There have been plenty of animal sightings, but few animal encounters.  In the past I'd had encounters with dogs (too many), crayfish (2 days in a row), deer and a few types of birds.  Yesterday I added another bird to the list.

Usually when I spot a bird on a trail in front of me it flies out of my path.  Today a crane actually started screeching and moving toward me.  On my second attempt to pass it I notice another one about two feet off the trail in the high grass.  I guessed that this was a nesting area for them and after my third failed attempt at passing I re-routed to avoid being on the news for being beat up by an angry crane.

As I continued my run I tried to come up with baseball players with bird-related nicknames.  I failed so I guess I'll show another picture of Mark Fidrych.

Little League Isn't Quite The Same as in 1970

In 1970 we'd talk about baseball, baseball cards and more baseball.  We knew everyone's stats and we knew what cards were in our friends' collections.  Things sure have changed as I watched Little League recently.

Of all of my friends only one of them had an Kellogg's All-Time Greats cards.  Danish Go Rounds must not have been big sellers around my neighborhood.  I'd never even heard of them.

We had leagues with great names - Babe Ruth League, Connie Mack League, etc.  Does anyone still call it that now?  Now it is as boring as can be - U-12, U-13, etc.  

Our end-of-season parties included trophies only if your team finished in the top three in the league.  We usually had 6-10 teams in any given league.  There are numerous commentaries on the fact that everyone gets a trophy now.  

I remember that in our league the sponsor's name was on the back of every shirt.  Imperial Gardens was the Pee Wee League sponsor forever it seemed.  We didn't wear team logo hats, instead the hat had one letter (D for Dodgers) and it was generally a similar color to what the real Dodgers wore.  I just saw a picture today from the 1970s of me wearing a Durkin Park Brewers hat.  That hat disappeared before the season ended.

We also had a parade before the start of the season.  I think it was on Opening Day of our season, but I can't remember.  I do remember parading around the neighborhood in cars dressed for our first games.  My brother will have to fill in details on this one.

What I like better about Little League today

To show that I just don't always think that everything was better years ago, here are some things I like better about Little League than when I played.

I like the continuous batting order.  Everyone will probably bat at least twice in a game.

The batting order change goes well with the rule that allows players to leave and re-enter the game.  A kid can play the field in the first, sit out the second inning and return to the field in the third inning.  This allows kids to play more positions as coaches try to figure this out.  Some league mandate a minimum number of innings in the field for each player.

I think coaches pitching in the lowest levels is great.  Kids see baseball as an action-packed game as opposed to what sometimes occurred years ago.  I remember my friend telling me that the pitcher on his team threw a no-hitter but he walked in 25 runs.  I don't want to watch that ever.

Putting The 1972 All-Time Greats in Order Wasn't Easy For Me

I posed this challenge without looking up the order of their births.  Then I found out that of the 14 players, two were born in 1887 and two were born in 1903.  It was pure luck that I put them in the proper order.

In case you haven't tried this and plan to do so, I will tell you now I did without giving up the order.  Why?  Anyone can look up their birthdays online and figure out how they did.

Where did I do well?  I was able to divide the players into groups well.  I grouped the oldest five (group 1), the next four (group 2) and the youngest five (group 3).  All but one of them were grouped properly.  I used Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig as reference points, but that didn't help me very much.

In the first group I properly figured out who the two oldest players were, but I guessed them in the wrong order.  I had the other players correctly ordered.

In the second group I had none of them correctly placed.  One of them was just wrong and another player belonged in the first group.

In the third group I had none of them in the correct order.

I guess I should read up more on these players.  I know that I can't afford to buy any of their cards from when they played.  I'll just need to be content with their Kellogg's/Rold Gold cards.  Now that I think about it, I think I have some poor conditioned cards of Wagner (sorry, just a 48 Leaf), Hornsby, Speaker , Cochrane and Grove.  I need to go check out my few pre-WWII cards to see about these.

A Quiz on the 1972 Kellogg's All-Time Greats Set

This is one of my favorite sets.  As a kid these cards were not around anyone in my circle.  I never saw them at flea markets either.

Here are the 14 players in the set -

Walter Johnson
Rogers Horsnsby
John McGraw
Mickey Cochrane
George Sisler
Babe Ruth
Lefty Grove
Pie Traynor
Honus Wagner
Eddie Collins
Tris Speaker
Cy Young
Lou Gehrig
Ty Cobb

Who is the oldest person in this set?  Can you put them in order of birth?  I thought it would be easier, but most of my collection is from post-WWII so this isn't easy.

I will update this later with how I did.

Kellogg's Cereal Box Dream #31 - 1978 Memories Are Better Than 1984 Memories

I've seen a lot of highlights of the "Sandberg Game" over the years including yesterday.  The game was played on this day in 1984.  I remember watching part of it at my parents' house.

Bruce Sutter gave up game-tying homers to Sandberg in both the ninth and tenth innings.  Sutter's reaction of frustration to the second homer was cool to see.  Sandberg was 5-for-6 with seven RBIs as the Cubs won 12-11.

Sutter was one of my favorite Cubs when they just weren't very good.  It wasn't a surprise to see him get traded since a closer isn't really important when the team isn't leading often enough.

1978 Kellogg's Bruce Sutter #48

1978 Rating                    -- 9  comment -- One of the games biggest stars.  And a Cub.

2016 Rating                    -- 9  comment --  Still a star in my eyes.  

Just because the card is still in the original package doesn't mean it will be in mint condition.  

On This Day in 1982 Ichiro Probably Went 5-for-5 in Little League

Pete Rose passed Hank Aaron on the all-time hits list on this day in 1982.  There has been a lot of news about the Hit King lately and Ichiro Suzuki.

Ichiro played in Japan before joining the Mariners.  His total hits from both professional leagues is now greater than Rose's MLB hits.

Some are calling Ichiro the all-time hits leader.  To me that is odd because when Bonds passed Aaron there was also no mention of Sadaharu Oh and his 868 homers in Japan.

Rose and Bonds.  Those guys certainly generate lots of opinions and comments.  

I Never Heard This About My Favorite Radio Baseball Announcer

On June 20th, 1980 Al Cowens grounds out harmlessly.  What happened next wasn't so harmless.  Cowens ran directly toward the mound to tackle White Sox pitcher Ed Farmer from behind,

Farmer is currently a White Sox announcer.  Cowens got a few punches in before the players were pulled apart.  He also got a seven-game suspension.

What triggered this?  In 1979 Farmer hit both Frank White and Cowens, then a Royal, with pitches.  Cowens missed 21 games with a broken jaw and White's broken wrist resulted in him missing 33 games.

It shows that I certainly know a lot more about the Cubs than the White Sox.

The Odd Multi-Sport Athlete That I Promised to Mention

I skipped this post yesterday since I was busy telling about my crash while running.  Back to business with the oddest of the two-sport athletes I found listed online.

Juan Marichal is listed as a two-sport athlete.  It is mentioned that he participated as a soltadore in a cockfighting circuit in the Dominican Republic.  What?  Really?

I'm not going to pretend to understand much about the cockfighting circuit or how it got into a Seinfeld episode.  I do want to know what a soltadore is.  Time to find out what Juan's job was.

It seems like that is the job of putting the animals into the ring for the fight.  How does that make him a two-sport athlete?

Quite A Father's Day Gift - Not What I Wanted Though

I got a unique gift today for Father's Day.  Sure, I was hoping for a Kellogg's card that I don't have yet or some unopened 1971s, but this is a gift that I will treasure always or at least this week.  Have you ever gotten a tree root for Father's Day?

I had time today to go to my favorite running location in the suburbs.  It was great to run at Bullfrog Lake today and things were going well for about an hour of my 75-minute run.  I was running up and down mountain bike trails and jumping over tree roots.

Back to the gift.  After the hour I got to an opening with a nice easy link between the trails.  There were no hills or rocks.  I lost my focus and found the only tree root on this section of the trail.  A scream, a forward flip and a back somersault later I was on the ground checking to see what body parts still worked.

Left knee - bloodied.
Right knee - just dirt.
Left shoulder - just dirt.
Right shoulder - just dirt.
Back - lots of dirt.

I didn't feel pain elsewhere, so I assume everything else is okay.  There was enough blood and dirt on me that cyclists noticed it going past me.  That made me feel tough today.

It will be interesting to see if I have sore muscles tomorrow.  Ah yes, the gift that might keep on giving.  I do have lots of Bullfrog Lake dirt in my garage to show for today's adventure and the tree root which barely stuck out of the ground about 1/2 of an inch.
MWH

Don Sutton Did This on This Day in 1986

Don Sutton won his 300th game on this day in 1986.  He finished his career with a record of 324-256 after pitching for 23 years.  Why was I never impressed with his career.  I guess I will check the statistics to learn more.

Baseball-reference.com computes what they call a 162-game average.  For Sutton that results in the following averages - W-L 14-11, ERA 3.26, K 159, IP 235, BB 60.  I'm not a huge fan of the 162-game average so I will check some other things.

His best years in terms of Cy Young votes were from 1972 - 1976 where he finished in the top five of the voting each year.  Now it makes sense since that was a few years before I really became knowledgeable about most of the players.  Those were some impressive seasons.

In his ten prime years he averaged 17-11 with 184 Ks and an ERA of 3.04.  That is much more impressive.  He also had 122 complete games and 42 shutouts during those 10 years.  

So his longevity got him to 300 wins and he was fortunate to not be injured much, as evidenced by his starting over 30 games almost every year.  That 10-year-period really gave me a greater appreciation for his career.

Two Days in A Row With Football

Yesterday I mentioned Bo Jackson in my post and then saw him randomly.  Today I saw a football drill at my high school called Bull in the Ring.  I'd never seen our school use it before.  It brought me to a freshman football flashback.  I was horrible at that drill.  Maybe that's one of the reasons I never played.

No more than 10 minutes after that flashback to a time when Carter was president, I ran into my old freshman football coach who I hadn't seen in about 10 years.  It was great to talk to him since he's really into talking about fitness and not about how he never played me in football games or practices.

I looked up a list of multi-sport.  There have been a lot of baseball players who also played football including Bo Jackson.  Steve Garvey and Kurt Gibson both appeared on a Kellogg's card.

Tomorrow I will share the oddest multi-sport combination that I found.

Fidrych Took Over Baseball in 1976

On this day in 1976 Mark Fidrych made his sixth career start.  He also recorded his sixth complete game.  He was 5-1 in those six games, losing the one game even when only giving up two runs.

For the year he had 29 starts and 24 complete games.  He was 19-9 as he won Rookie of the Year.  He lost the Cy Young Award to Jim Palmer.

Fernando Valenzuela had a start to his career that was just like that of Fidrych.

Another of the Things I Would Never Say to My Father

"Dad, can I have a ride to baseball practice?"

As a kid all that was needed to go to baseball practice was my glove.  There were no bat bags, water bottles, spikes, sunscreen or sunglasses to bring along.  I don't think water bottles or bat bags existed, at least in my world.

Almost everyone showed up for games or practices on their bicycles.  It was quite simple really.  Put on uniform or practice closes, toss on your team hat and then put your glove on the handle bars.  Since our one-speed bikes had no hand breaks that was easy.

As a kid I loved to just put my glove on the handlebars and ride to baseball.  Such as easy thing to do.  I found out one summer that the same handlebar plan didn't work was well for a gallon of milk that met a Chicago pothole.  Try explaining that at home when you know that there isn't much money around.

How did we get a drink?  We went to the water fountain.  Maybe that's why I have so many cavities?  No, those were more likely due to the old method of making Kool-Aid.  I think two cups of sugar were added to two quarts of water and the tiny flavor packet.

What made me think of this?  I was riding my bike yesterday and I got detoured due to construction.  I decided to ride through a neighborhood that has its own small airport with one runway.  Then I remembered that a through-street actually bisected the runway.  I decided that it would make for a fun ride to actually cross the runway during a bike ride since not many  people get to do that.

I stayed in the neighborhood for about 20 minutes and crossed the runway three times.  Unfortunately there were no plans.  I found out why about 30 minutes (and 8 miles from home) later when the heavy rain started.

What does this have to do with Kellogg's cards?  Nothing, but I like taking tangents.  Bo Jackson has a charity bike ride across Alabama.  I'd like to make a Kellogg's card of him.

Update - I mistakenly didn't post this in the morning because it had a future posting date.  In the meantime, I actually walked past Bo at a grocery store.

The Mets traded Tom Seaver and Dave Kingman on this day in 1977.  Bad moves by the Mets.  Both ended up playing for the Mets again.  Kingman was born in Mount Prospect, IL, a place I was in yesterday.  Kingman talked about bike riding a lot.

I Didn't Think Lou Gehrig Would Do That

On this day in 1933 Lou Gehrig and manager Joe McCarthy were thrown out of a game.  The manager was suspended for three games but Gehrig wasn't.  Had Gehrig been suspended the consecutive games streak would have ended.

I haven't found records of how many times Gehrig was ejected from games but I am searching for it.
There were some other moments that could have ended the streak.  I will address those some other time.  Tomorrow I'm going to talk about players riding their bicycles.

1979 Kellogg's Baseball - Unopened Card Back Variation

I don't find 1979 Kellogg's unopened frequently.  I don't know if it is because the wrapping is much worse in 1979 and 1980 or if they didn't enter the hobby by bypassing cereal boxes in big numbers.

Today I received a few from a recent purchase.  The Garry Maddox shown below has one of my favorite variations - the two-man Phillies logo.

This matches the opened ones I already have for Maddox so it isn't a new variation for me.  The Phillies two-man logo is combined with the Registered (R) in Tony the Tiger's scarf.

Lou Gehrig's Last Game(s) in 1939

Baseball-reference.com lists Lou Gehrig's last game as April 30, 1939.  He only played in eight games that season.  In that game he was 0-for-4.

According to nationalpastime.com, on June 12, 1939 he played in an exhibition game against the Class AA affiliate of the Yankees.  He was 0-for-1.  On this day the first Hall of Fame class was inducted at Cooperstown.  Gehrig was inducted later in the year when it was apparent that his career was over.  

Gehrig was also an all-star in 1939.  He was on the roster for the July 11th game.   He did not enter the game.

Another Kellogg's Baseball Card Set That I've Never Heard About

I saw a few cards for sale on ebay this week that I'd never seen before.  They are from a 45-card set of 2007 Kellogg's baseball cards from Venezuela.  Here is a picture of one of them.

Zucaritas means Frosted Flakes.

Galarraga played his last game in 2004, but he is an obvious choice for this set since he's from Venezuela and he hit 399 career homers.  From a few quick searches it seems like the set focused on current players.

 I hope the has more retired players like Galarraga.  Other stars from Venzeula that I'd like to see in this set are Chico Carrasquel, Luis Aparicio, Manny Trillo, Tony Armas, Carlos Zambrano and Miguel Cabrera.

Kellogg's Cereal Box Dream #30 - I Always Liked Getting Card #01

Even in 1972 card #1 in any set was desirable.  In some instances like this one with Tom Seaver, card #1 was given to a star player.  Even without a star player card #1 was a big deal.  

1972 Kellogg's Tom Seaver #01

1972 Rating                    -- 9  comment -- One of the games biggest stars. 

2016 Rating                    -- 10  comment --  Moves up from a 9 rating since I can now overlook                                                                             that he was a Met.  


He won three Cy Young Awards.  In the strike-shortened 1981 season he was 14-2 but he lost a close vote to Fernando Valenzuela (13-7) who got off to a great start and threw eight shutouts.  I'll need to look at how Fernando managed to lose seven games with his ERA in the 2s.  Both players got eight first place votes for the Cy Young but Valenzuela prevailed 70-67.

Seaver also lost a Cy Young Award vote to Fergie Jenkins in 1971.  Seaver's stats were superior but Jenkins was given the nod dealing with being at Wrigley Field known as hitter-friendly.

Did he get card #01 because someone though he deserved the Cy Young Award?

Kellogg's Cereal Box Dream #29 - Hey, You're Boog Powell!

I remember my first 1970 Kellogg's Football cards more than I remember getting the baseball cards.  Spin forward to the 2000s and I remember Boog Powell being the last card I needed to complete the 1970 set.  In 1989 I also needed an Oriole (Mike Boddiker) to complete my 1988 Starting Lineup set.   

1970 Kellogg's Boog Powell #19

1970 Rating                    -- 6  comment -- I wasn't that knowledgable about AL players yet.

2016 Rating                    -- 7  comment --  Is this a short-printed card? 


I should have known more about a player who was MVP runner-up in 1969.  He then won the 1970 MVP award and I knew more about him.  He hit 339 career homers even though he played some years with the pitcher-friendly higher pitching mound.

Every time I went to an Orioles game in the last few years Powell was there at his restaurant.  I remember him most from the Lite Beer commercials where the umpire says "Hey, you're Boog Powell!"

Boog was one of the few players to win a World Series and a Little League World Series.

Kellogg's Cereal Box Dream #28 - A #2 Pick in the 1970 Draft

Chris Speier had a long career by being a guy who could play anywhere on the field.  While primarily a shortstop, he was able to play everywhere else in the infield. 

1972 Kellogg's Chris Speier #51

1972 Rating                    -- 3  comment -- Who? Late games didn't make our newspapers.

2016 Rating                    -- 3  comment --  why not a card of Hank Aaron?


Not a bad guess by Kellogg's since Speier was an all-star in 1972, 1973 and 1974.  He played until 1989 and was never an all-star again.  

Kellogg's Cereal Box Dream #27 - He Never Looked Like That in the Batter's Box

I have clear memories of Bobby Tolan.  Most of my memories are of his distinctive batting stance which all of us tried to imitate his stance/swing since it was so unique. 

1973 Kellogg's Bobby Tolan #32

1973 Rating                    -- 6  comment -- A good hitter and Reds star at this time.

2016 Rating                    -- 5  comment --   Only Hall of Famers get their due.  


Tolan held the bat as high as possible in his batting stance.  The card shown is not even close to his batting stance.  I guess the photographer didn't ever watch the Reds play.

I didn't realize that he was only on the Reds for five years and he missed one of those with injury.  He ruptured his Achilles tendon playing basketball.  That injury ended up being an issue with the Reds and doomed his future there.  He was traded to the Padres after the 1973 season.

He led the league in stolen bases in 1970.  

Beep-Beep Bye-Bye to Baseball

On this day in 1980 Ralph Garr was released by the Angels.  He played his last game a few days earlier.  Garr began playing in 1968 so he was one of those guys I grew up watching.

Lots of quizzes ask the question about final teams for a player.  I would never had known that Garr played 27 games over two seasons with the Angels.  I remember him as a batting champ for the Braves and a fine player for the White Sox in the softball shorts.  

This is one of my least favorite Kellogg's cards.  The lack of Braves logos is more apparent here than on almost any card that I can think of right now.  As one can see on the Seaver card below, Kellogg's was allowed to use team logos and Garr wasn't new to the Braves, so I don't know how they wouldn't have a photo of him to use.  What were they airbrushing over a minor league cap?  His last minor league game was in 1970.

Garr was a career .306 hitter.  Like many players in his generation his career was over at age 34.  Better conditioning year-round along with the insane money given even to bench players have resulted in players sticking around a lot longer.

The 1974 Drafts - Little League and Big League

The MLB Draft occurred on this day in 1974.  Future stars drafted on that day included Dale Murphy, Willie Wilson and Mark Fidrych.  I'm sure that there was lots of drama and excitement in their houses and neighborhoods centering around the draft.

In my neighborhood there was always drama about the Little League draft.  The 1974 draft was a big one for me and my friends who played baseball every day together.  Parents who volunteered to coach would get together to figure out the teams for the upcoming season.  Most of our leagues were determined solely by age.  Ages 5-8 had a league as did 13 - 15.  Between those two it varied.  Nine-year-olds played in what we called "the minors" while 12-year-olds played in "the majors".  Those between would play in either league depending on whether a coach from the majors drafted them.

Complicating our draft was the rule that players remained on their previous year's team if they weren't moving up to a higher level.  In this prehistoric, pre-internet world the way one found out what team they were on was by getting a phone call from the coach announcing the first practice.  That was a stressful time for all of us.

Without texting we still found out quickly what was happening.  How?  Younger readers might not understand this, but we'd leave our house and talk to our friends.  I remember when a friend from across the street came out to mention that he was going to be on the Rangers, a team in the majors.  Then another mentioned his team in the majors.

I remember the disappointment of being told that I would be once again on the Dodgers, a team that only played in the minors.  That made me a Dodger for a third straight year.  I knew that meant another year of playing first base and batting sixth with the same coach.  That made me one of the older kids in the league while most of my friends got the call to the majors.  The Frosted Flakes didn't taste good for about a week.  

I was one of the tallest kids in the league and a lefty.  They never did try me at pitching which was fine by me.  In our daily games the youngest kids were pitchers.  I remember not enjoying that since the mound was too close and the biggest kids would rocket the ball past me.  I was glad to quickly grow out of that position by showing I could play the outfield.

Forfeits? There Was One On June 4th, 1974

Before lighted stadiums teams would try to slow a game down to have darkness stop a game before it became official.  That resulted in lots of forfeits.  Since 1970 there have been only five forfeits of MLB games.  How many can you name?  I only knew of two of them - the two easy ones.

Texas outfielder Jeff Burroughs was attacked by fans on this day in 1974 by Cleveland fans.  The game was forfeited by the home Indians.  

Fergie Jenkins started for Texas.  He left with a lead but there was a blown save.  I guess that didn't matter since the fans would have had a blown save on this one.  Did I mention it was 10-cent-beer night?  I remember reading all about that before delivering papers.  It was also a big enough deal to make the news when there was no cable television.

Lots of players in this game found their way onto a Kellogg's card during their careers.

Players stats from the forfeited games count.   In the game above it was a tie so no pitcher gets a decision.  In another forfeited game the losing team was given the win due to forfeit so no pitchers got a decision in that game either.  When the team leading won by forfeit the pitchers of records did get decisions.

More on the other forfeits at another time.

No Respect for A Great Hall-of-Fame Accomplishment

On this day in 1932 Hall-of-Famer Tony Lazzeri went 5-for-6 with 6 RBIs.  He also hit for the natural cycle by hitting a single, then a double, then a triple and lastly a homer.  To make his day more sweet, the homer was a grand slam.

Sounds like great news.  Unfortunately, he was overshadowed by two other stars on the same day.  How is that possible?

Well, John McGraw retired from managing on that day due to poor health.  That was after being a manager for 33 years!

In addition to McGraw retiring, one of Lazzeri's teammates did something that had never happened before in baseball history.  Lou Gehrig became the first player to hit four homers in a game.  He also had 6 RBIs in the Yankee win.

Did Lazzeri ever get noticed with the Yankees?  He played his entire Yankee career with Gehrig and most with Babe Ruth too, before playing parts of two more seasons with three different teams.  He surpased 100 RBIs seven times.  

1971 Kellogg's Football - Great Card Backs

I really like the backs of the 1971 Kellogg's football cards.  Lots of space is allotted for text.  In addition, the text is divided into topics and each one is spaced out and labelled with larger, bold text.

Here are the easy to find categories:

College Background

Personal Info

Pro Honors

After the player's statistics there is another section called "It's a fact."  On the card below it mentions that the Chicago Bears won the first NFL title in 1921.  It informs us that they were called the Decatur Staleys at that time and they later changed their name to the Chicago Staleys before becoming the Bears.

Wages doesn't have lots of interesting things on the card.  As a running back he did throw some touchdown passes.

More About the 1970 Kellogg's Commercial

Does anyone recognize the voice on the commercial?  More about that in the future.  I'm not working on making the video quality better now.  I've decided to take a different direction on this after watching the video in slow-motion.

I noticed that only 45 of the players are shown in the entire commercial.  The clip added yesterday shows 36 cards from the set.  I noticed this because two of my favorite cards from that set, Bob Hayes and Daryle Lamonica, were not in the commercial.  It got me wondering who else wasn't included and why.

They didn't display the cards in numerical order so it wasn't as simple as running out of time.  It is noticeable that the clip switches from the cards when there are still cards in the stack.  The second clip does the same thing.

Does anyone have an idea why they wouldn't include Nelson, Stenerud, Garrett and Garrett, Olsen, Grayson, Alworth, Simpson, Hill, Sayers, Jurgensen, Unitas and Nobis?  Some of these guys were bigger names in 1970 than many of the players shown in the commercial.