1974 Proof Sheets - Why are the First Nine Cards Commonly Cracked?

I looked at the 1974 proof sheets from a 2015 auction to see if the 1974 cards were laid out in such a way that the first nine cards would end up being cracked.  All three proof sheets do have these cards across the top row.  Check it out in the picture below.

So, would it be possible that the top cards on these sheets cracked more frequently than the others?  What would cause that?  Or is it the nine-pocket pages with the cards on page one having issues?  

Someone help.

Roberto Clemente and Pete Rose Have Something in Common?

On this day in 1972 Clemente and Rose both did the same thing in different games.  Clemente tied Honus Wagner for the most hits in Pirates history and Rose tied Vada Pinson for the Cincinnati record.  Clemente added 30 more hits to get his career total to 3,000 in his final season.

No, I didn't pick up this card.  I'm still a low-paid private school teacher and coach.  It is a great card.

I do own this proof card of Pete Rose.  I'm trying to get more but the quest has stalled.

Not Too Many Nice 1972 Mays Cards Come Around

I received a package today from an ebay purchase.  The key to buying this lot was the 1972 Mays.  It looked to be in nice shape, unlike most of the ones I see online for sale.

Sure the card has a curl to it but I really like the color.  1972s are among my favorite Kellogg's cards and this is Mays last regular-issue card because I don't count the 1990s all-star sets.

I spent two hours tonight waiting in line for my child's band uniform so that is all for today.  More about Mays in the future.

Where are the 1994 Clementes? More Thoughts

I still don't see any of these 1994 Roberto Clemente cards that Kellogg's issued in Puerto Rico?  Since I've been checking out PSA for other things lately I decided to get some PSA stats on these three cards.

Only four of these cards have been graded by PSA.  Are these cards anywhere to be found?

When PSA advertising was new in 1989 I remember a full-page ad that showed dozens of 1989 Donruss Craig Biggio cards encased after grading.  My first thought was that this was ridiculous since the card was going for about 10 cents.  No one could be paying for that card to be graded, right?

Back to Biggio.  Sure he had a great career.  I went to check that card.   1,711 of them have been graded with 511 of them being a 10.  The card can be bought for a little more than the grading cost and an entire case of 20 wax boxes still costs much less than its retail price in 1989.

More About the 1974 Kellogg's Nolan Ryan

The 1974 Nolan Ryan card in the Kellogg's set is the fourth most graded card in the set.  That is a surprise since in the 1973 set Nolan Ryans have been graded a bit more than Pete Rose, but Ryan and Rose easily outdistance everyone else.

Why would the 1974 version not be graded more frequently?  That is another reason I think something is up with the cracking on the first nine cards.  There are only 25 grades of 10 for this Ryan card of the 409 that have been graded.  That's only 6.1% of the cards graded.

Most of the other cards in the set have grades of 10 at a rate of 25% to over 60%.  More on the other cards from 1974 at another time.

Recent Stats from 1974 Kellogg's - When Were Nine-Pocket Sheets Created?

I've been seeing consistently cracked cards in the 1974 Kellogg's set.  Which ones?  The first nine.  Did nine-pocket sheets come out that year?

Here are some PSA stats for 1974 Kellogg's cards.

Not counting variations, every card from #10 to #54 has at least 30 PSA 10s.  Here is a breakdown for the first nine cards.

#1 Bob Gibson - 10

#2 Rick Monday - 6

#3 Joe Coleman - 28

#4 Bert Campaneris - 23

#5 Carlton Fisk - 15

#6 Jim Palmer - 54

#7 Ron Santo - 14 (total of both variations)

#8 Nolan Ryan - 25

#9 Greg Luzinski - 29


Starting with card #10 things change a lot.  Are there more difficult PSA 10 Nolan Ryan's from issues that were distributed nationwide?

Recent Stats from PSA - 1975 Kellogg's

I don't get a lot of 1975 Kellogg's cards that have retained their color well.  It is amazing to see nice ones.

What do the PSA totals look like?

My first PSA card was a 1975 Ken Brett.  I bought it because it was cheap, it was a 10 and the color was more amazing than any Kellogg's card I'd ever seen.  

There are a bunch of cards in this set with less than 10 graded as a 10.  Unfortunately the Brett card is not one of them.  Imagine if they'd make a George Brett card in this set.  

The A's Have the Most Players Who Only Appeared on One Kellogg's Card

The Athletics were a good team throughout most of the years that Kellogg's made card sets.  Does that explain how Kellogg's managed to get the following players into their sets?

Sal Bando got onto three Kellogg's cards with the A's.

1970 John Odom

1971 Felipe Alou

1971 Chuck Dobson

1974 Ken Holtzman - one of my favorite Cubs.  How did he not get another card?  I just noticed his high school in St. Louis.  I've coached at that school.

1976 Paul Lindblad

1978 Mitchell Page

1979 Mario Guerrero

1979 John Henry Johnson

1980 Jeff Newman

1981 Rick Langford

1982 Tony Armas - how did they miss him in 1981 and 1983?  He was a star.
 
1982 Dwayne Murphy

1982 Mike Norris - how did they miss him in 1981?

Baseball Almanac's Listing of Kellogg's Baseball Card Sets

I tend to use Baseball Almanac frequently to look for data.  The site also has a checklist for each of the Kellogg's Baseball card sets from 1970 to 1983.  Here is a link for those checklists.


http://www.baseball-almanac.com/baseball_cards/baseball_card_sets.php?m=Kellogg%27s

Kellogg's Cereal Box Dream #34 - The Candy Man

John Candelaria had a great start in his second season.  He was 16-7.  He followed that by going 20-5 the next year.  He had a 13-, 14- and 15-win season mixed into the next 16 years.

It added up to a career record of 177-122.  Not bad, but over 19 seasons that's about a 9-6 record per season.  He had 10 seasons with 10+ wins and nine seasons of less than 10 wins.

1977 Kellogg's John Candelaria #07 

1977 Rating                    -- 7  comment -- Nice start to a career with his 16-7 record.

2016 Rating                    -- 4 comment --  He won 20 games in 1977 but that was the high point. 

Is this one of the weakest row of three players in a Kellogg's set?  More later.

Answers to Yesterday's Kellogg's Questions

Here are my best answers to yesterday's questions.  I could easily be off by a few but I'm trusting the Kellogg's database that I created.  Let me know if I missed anyone.

1.  How many different players were pictured on the cards?  This includes the 1972 All-Time Greats Set and the 1991-92 All-Star sets.

I came up with 387 different players. 

2.  Of the players included, what percentage of the players only appeared on one card?

I was surprised to find out that nearly half of the players (189) appeared only once.  198 players appeared at least twice.  So, 48.8% appeared only once.  Blame some of that on the 1977 set which has lots of guys who are only in that set.

3.  Which Hall of Famers appeared least often (twice) - excluding the All-Star sets and the All Tine Greats set?  I counted at least six players who match this.

Luis Aparicio, Orlando Cepeda, Dennis Eckersley, Juan Marichal, Paul Molitor, Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson and Ozzie Smith.  

4.  Which likely future Hall of Famers appeared only once - again excluding the All-Star sets and the All Tine Greats set?

How about Harold Baines, Minnie Minoso and Alan Trammell?

How Many Different Players Appeared on Kellogg's Cards?

From 1970 - 1983 and from 1991-93 there were about 900 different Kellogg's Baseball cards produced, depending on how you count variations.  I have four questions relating to that.

1.  How many different players were pictured on the cards?  This includes the 1972 All-Time Greats Set and the 1991-92 All-Star sets.

2.  Of the players included, what percentage of the players only appeared on one card?

3.  Which Hall of Famers appeared least often (twice) - excluding the All-Star sets and the All Tine Greats set?  I counted at least six players who match this.

4.  Which likely future Hall of Famers appeared only once - again excluding the All-Star sets and the All Tine Greats set?

The First Step is to Admit You Are Old

I was eating Corn Flakes today.  Isn't that the same as admitting that I am old?  When I was a kid the Corn Flakes box was a last resort.  We were fortunate enough to get a steady diet of Frosted Flakes, King Vitamin, Sugar Pops, Cap'n Crunch, Lucky Charms, etc.  If I was desperate enough to eat the Corn Flakes I would always toss on at least a few spoonfuls of sugar to make it taste as much like Frosted Flakes as possible.

When I posted recently about my earliest Kellogg's card memories I recalled getting Lem Barney and Mel Renfro.  Why didn't I remember getting baseball players?  Probably because I wasn't willing to convince my mother to get Corn Flakes.  Forty-six years later I'm enjoying the Corn Flakes minus the massive extra sugar.

Kellogg's Cereal Box Dream #33 - Was Tommy John Surgery an Option?

I probably got one of these Randy Jones cards from a Frosted Flakes box.  He appeared in both the 1976 and 1977 sets.  Both were great looking cards.  

He played ten years winning exactly 100 games and losing 123.  He didn't play on good teams in San Diego or New York.  After being a 20-game loser (8-22) in 1974 he won 20 games in 1975 and 1976.  
He had an arm injury at the end of 1976 which caused him to be less effective during his remaining years in the big leagues.

1977 Kellogg's Randy Jones #17 

1977 Rating                    -- 8  comment -- A big star even as a Padre.

2016 Rating                    -- 5 comment --  Mostly a common card.  Nice Padre uniform shown. 

My First Two Kellogg's Cards...Again

I bought a handful of Kellogg's football cards recently from ebay.  They arrived tonight.  My first thoughts took me back to 1970 when I got my first two cards from this set.

I don't remember getting 1970 Kellogg's baseball cards out of cereal boxes, but I do remember the football cards.  The first two cards that I got were Lem Barney and Mel Renfro.  Since I played on the pee-wee Cowboys at Scottsdale Park, I followed the Dallas Cowboys and I knew Renfro.  Since the Bears played the Lions twice a year I also knew who Barney was.

The purchase was less than $10 including shipping since the cards were cracked.  It was worth it for the trip back to 1970.  The big difference is now I eat Corn Flakes instead of Frosted Flakes.

Not bad, but I certainly wanted Bob Hayes, Gale Sayers and Dick Butkus.

On This Day in 1927

Babe Ruth managed to become the first person to hit a homer over the roof of Comiskey Park.  I miss (Old) Comiskey Park.

Even though I've always been a Cub fan, going to Comiskey Park as a kid was always better that going to Wrigley in two ways.  First, the Mazzone's Italian Ice soft serve cones in left field were amazing.  Does anyone know where I can get one of them now?  Second, one could always walk around the entire stadium at Comiskey while at Wrigley the bleachers were/are blocked from the rest of the grandstand.

A Strange Flashback in the Cereal Aisle

A few days ago I was at the grocery store and I had an odd flashback as I entered the cereal aisle.  For some reason I thought back to times when I used to look for Kellogg's cards in some of the Kellogg's boxes.  I haven't thought that way since I saw the baseball cards over 20 years ago.

Nothing came of this.  I grabbed two boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios and moved on.  The next day when I went to open the box of cereal I was surprised to see that the Honey Nut Cheerios actually contained cards.  Alas, not baseball cards, but it was weird to have that feeling and then end up with some cards.

I hope all of you don't have odd things like that happen to you.

More Thoughts on the 1971 Kellogg's Proof Sheet That I Didn't Purchase

A little over a year ago there were a lot of Kellogg's proof sheets available in an auction.  Most sold for a lot more than I could afford.  What did I do about it?  I kept the pictures posted in the auction.

Here is the proof sheet from the National once again.

Here is a full sheet that was sold in the auction.

It looks like I properly followed the pattern to name the other six cards.  I do wonder why someone cut the sheet so that only one of each card is showing.  The original sheet has four of each card, which matches most of the other sheets that were in the auction.

There was not a lot of star power on this sheet, so a few of the other sheets must be amazing.  The one with seven Hall of Famers is awesome.  More on that sheet in the future.

I will look at other sheets in the future and maybe even consider a player's position on the sheet and how it impacts card grading.

Does anyone know if there is something on the sheet that determines which print run it is?  For the sheets that I don't own the image quality isn't useful when zooming.

My Most Recent Kellogg's Set Purchase - What Happened to Player Selection?

Recently I purchased a 1977 Kellogg's baseball card set.  The set seems odd because there is no Nolan Ryan, Reggie Jackson, Mike Schmidt, Gary Carter, Lou Brock, Willie Stargell, Johnny Bench, Carlton Fisk, Fred Lynn, Jim Rice, Joe Morgan, Rich Gossage, Jim Hunter, Phil Niekro, Don Sutton, Bert Blyleven, Robin Yount, Carl Yastrzemski, Willie McCovey, Gaylord Perry, Bruce Sutter, Tom Seaver and Jim Palmer among others.

What happened to player selection for this set?  I realize that not all of the players listed above had good years in 1976, but to leave all of them out didn't work so well.

The 1977 set seems to be forgotten because there are no real high-powered star cards.  By a quick count, there might be about six Hall of Famers in the set.  That's far less than any of the other main sets.  I think that 16 players featured in the 1977 set never got into another Kellogg's set.

Usually Kellogg's throws star power into the first nine cards.  This group has only two Hall of Famers.

Did any other Kellogg's set have a similar lack of star power in its first nine cards?  I'll need to check that out.

 Soon I will check out the card backs.  Kellogg's took quite a risk with player selection so how did they do with the card backs?

More Good Brother Stories

On this day in 1965 I'm sure the Beatles were most of the news in the world.  In baseball, Jesus Alou hit a homer in a win against the Pirates.  He was then replaced in right field by Cap Peterson.  An inning later Peterson was replaced by Matty Alou, brother of Jesus.  Matty then hit the game-winning homer.  It doesn't mention why two right fielders were taken out in two innings.

Matty, shown as a Pirate here, got onto a Kellogg's card just like his brother Felipe.  Jesus never got that honor.  

Willie Mays also homered for the victorious Giants.  In game two of the double header, Matty Alou played the entire game in right field.  Mays added another homer.

National Update #3 - This Is The Best Kellogg's Item Seen At the Show

Bob, who was working at the booth with the Japanese cards, mentioned to me that he saw some kind of uncut sheet of Kellogg's cards near his booth.  So after checking around for a while I found it.  Here it is.

There are 15 cards on the proof sheet.  This sheet is in amazing condition.  The colors are bright and the nine cards that I see are free of cracks.  I'm not sure about the other six cards.    

Three of the cards are hidden on the top and three are hidden on the bottom.  Since the sheet was firmly attached to the cardboard it wasn't easy to tell who the other cards were on this sheet.  I also couldn't check to see which print run this proof set was from either. 

Let's check out the number pattern of the visible cards.  

Top Row - ?? 4-9-14

Second Row - Aparicio, Siebert, Cain 19-24-29

Third Row - Epstein, Fosse, Kaline 34-39-44

Fourth Row - Cuellar, Johnson, McNally 49-54-59

Bottom Row - ?? 64-69-74

If the pattern is followed the top row would be B. Robertson, D. Kessinger, F. Howard and the bottom row would be J. Fregosi, T. Horton, T. John.  Not the best group of players, but a great sheet.

Why didn't I purchase this sheet?  I'm mostly in the market for inexpensive items and this was a bit out of my league.  If you are interested in this here is the e-mail of the dealer who had it for sale - Dave Czuba can be reached at zubes1156@msn.com.  

 

National Update #2 - Japanese Kellogg's Cards

I've never seen a Kellogg's card from Japan at any card show.  That is still true after the recent National.

There is a dealer from Florida who specializes in Japanese baseball cards, primarily vintage.  He also produces a price guide/checklist of those cards issued in Japan.  No one has passed along any information to him regarding the Kellogg's cards from Japan.  I guess I will be the guy to do that.  That is my job for this week.

I still don't have all of the information on these cards.  If you know more about them, please pass the information along.

My guess is that no dealer has picked up these cards in any quantity.  I'm also assuming that there are no factory sets offered.  If either of those things had happened there would be some of these cards in quantity somewhere.  Is someone holding those that didn't make it into cereal boxes?  Someone has got to know this.

National Update #1

I only went to the National on Saturday so what I saw might not reflect what the show looked like on Wednesday or Sunday.

I was surprised to see no unopened individual packs from any year.

I also saw no 1970 unopened packs.  Last year I probably saw a dozen of these packs.

I did see a bunch of factory sets but the earliest ones were from 1981.


There were plenty of dealers with curled and cracked cards.  There were also plenty of cards in nice shape.

I bought a few nice cards from 1970 and 1971 as well as some miscellaneous cards that I found in the discount boxes.  Nothing of note.  I will need to check to see if I added any variations to my 1971 set.

My next two posts will relate to other discussions with dealers about Kellogg's cards.

Walter Johnson Followed Cy Young

On this day in 1907 Walter Johnson started and won his first game.

He won 417 games while losing 279.  Just like Cy Young, Johnson's stats have lots of bold signifying leading the league in a category.

I should be back to regular posting tomorrow.

What Did Cy Young Do on This Day

On this day in 1890 Cy Young made his major league debut.  He also recorded his first win.  He played 22 years and won 511 games while losing 316.  I know it's a different era, but his stats are quite impressive.

If I get a chance today I will try to give some update from the National.  It might need to wait until Monday.

On This Day in 1973 Phil Niekro Threw Lots of Knuckleballs

Niekro also threw a no-hitter for the Braves.

I checked out the box score.  He defeated the Padres whose record became 37-73.  Ouch.  It moved the Padres to 31.5 games out of first place with 52 games remaining.  Ouch.  Ouch.

Sorry for the short post.  I'm trying to get ready for the National Card Show.

Fever Pitch - A Great Baseball Movie -- And Two Unrelated Questions

I saw a few minutes of Fever Pitch today.  That's the movie with Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore where he's quite a fanatic fan of the Red Sox.

The part where he takes her to Opening Day brought back good memories.  He's got great season tickets and everyone around him is a long-term friend/acquaintance from the ballpark.  I'd seen the movie before, but this was the first time it brought back great memories from Wrigley Field.

From 1987 until the players' strike in 1994 I went to over 30 games a year at Wrigley Field.  Back when bleacher seats were unreserved, I would go every Sunday before 8:00 am to get in line.  We'd talk baseball and read the paper while sitting on the cement.

At 11:20 am they'd let us in, two hours before game time.  We'd run up the stairs and block off a bunch of seats with our stuff.  Normally there would be 30-50 people around me by game time.  Most of them were people I knew only from the ball park.

Those were some great days at Wrigley Field.  Thanks to all of you who sat with me and talked baseball incessantly.  I miss those days.  I'd even see these same people at Cub games in St. Louis.  It has been almost 22 years since that players' strike.  I haven't seen any of those people since August of 1994.

I was so mad that baseball ruining my upcoming vacation (Denver, Anaheim, Oakland) that I didn't watch baseball at all again until 2005 when my wife and son followed the White Sox World Series season.  I've gone to Wrigley Field only two or three times since 1994 and I've not been in the bleachers at all.  Watching the movie makes me wonder what would happen if I showed up on a Sunday.  Would I know anyone?

12 players who appeared on a Kellogg's card from 1970 - 1983 were still active after the strike.  Can you name some of them?  One played for Boston for a while (8 years) and one played one year with them.

Five players ended their careers either at the strike or just before it.  Here are three of them - Kirk Gibson, Kent Hrbek and Lonnie Smith.  The other two were the only two players in baseball history to endure all eight work stoppages.  Can you name them?

Garvey has nothing to do with this.  I'm just too lazy to edit the photo.

The National is Going on Without Me Tonight

There were a few years where I ended up going to the National every day or almost every day.  Most of those were in Chicago and a few were in Baltimore.  I didn't have a reason to go every day, but it sure was fun.

There is so much excitement at the National on Wednesday night.  Serious collectors are dashing to tables, those who want current wax and show specials are racing around the room for that and others are looking for the free autographs during the show.  The free autographs tend to have local appeal so I usually try to get autographs when the show is in Chicago.

I'm hoping to get to the National on Saturday  Assuming that I attend the show, I will report on what I see with Kellogg's cards and other related items.  I'm going to bring my checklists including Hostess boxes, 1961 Topps and all miscellaneous Kellogg's items.

I'm focused more on taking pictures than anything, since I don't expect to find much to buy.

Amazing Kellogg's items are likely to be gone unless they carry a big price tag, but I'm still going to enjoy the search.

I bought this at a card show and it was a lot cheaper than ebay prices.  It didn't have a price on it so I asked and was happily surprised that I could afford it.

1970 Kellogg's Card Backs - #67 - #69 - Someone Else for the Band

#69 Willie Horton - his hobby is collecting recordings.  Could he help the band?  The card back is like a few of the others.  It has details of his hitting in the World Series and it mentions the years he was an all-star.  He is listed as 5-10 1/2 because I guess he doesn't want to be 5-10.

#68 Ken Harrelson - tied a league record by making no outfield errors.  His hobbies include golf and pocket billiards.  He did try professional golf for a few years.  I wrote about that here - Harrelson as a Golfer.

#67 Dean Chance - his first name is Wilmer.  His hobbies are bowling and basketball.  He had 11 shutouts in his 1964 Cy Young Award season.  He was traded in December of 1969 but it isn't mentioned on his card or Tiant's card.  Are there other trades or transactions mentioned on the card backs?

1970 Kellogg's Card Backs #70 - #72 - Can Anyone Join McLain's Band

Here are the next three bios from Kellogg's 1970 baseball card set.  This trio includes two Hall of Famers.  Two of the players have names that aren't unique in MLB history.  Morgan actually played at the same time as the "other" Joe Morgan.

#72 Joe Morgan - he's still an Astro in this card.  Most remember him as a part of the Big Red Machine.  Morgan tied a record with six hits in six at-bats in 1965.  Of course all Cub fans know that Rennie Stennett topped that by one against the Cubs and the Reuschel brothers and a few other pitchers.

#71 Bob Gibson - his hobby is music.  Maybe he can join McLain in the band.  I didn't know his nickname was Hoot.  Baseball-reference.com confirmed his nicknames as Hoot or Gibby.

His ERA of 1.12 in 1968 was an MLB record for a season with at least 300 innings pitched.

#70 Wally Bunker - before I got this card, my most memorable Bunker item was his 1970 Topp Story Book.  I think he was the only one in the set that I didn't know already.

Bunker's hobby is listed as Guitar.  The band is getting going here.  That's three of the last six cards in the set.  The trio needs a vocalist.

He ended up with the Royals through the 1968 Expansion Draft.  That's also three of the last six cards in the set.  He was selected 25th compared to the other two who were drafted second and third.  Why was he drafted so low?  He struggled with arm trouble in the late 1960s in an era when it was more difficult to diagnose specific problems.  His career ended in early 1971 at age 26.