Why Am I Thinking About 1968 Topps 3-D Cards?

There are lots of storms here tonight.  I hope everyone is safe.  The first thing I heard on the news just now was 3D radar, then storm tops and baseball-sized hail.  Of course I immediately heard Topps 3-D Baseball.

I still have only one of the 1968 Topps 3-D cards.  From all I've read it sounds like they originated in New York.  Does anyone have these cards?  What are your stories?

This morning I also heard that Chicago has had no measurable snowfall in the months of January or February this year.  It was reported that this had never occurred before since whatever year they started tracking this stuff. 

Some Comments and Suggestions About Getting Kellogg's Cards Graded

I found a few forums where getting Kellogg's cards was discussed.  Since I've never sent a card to get graded, I found this helpful.  I'm not sure if I will ever send a card in but at least it was good to learn about the process.  Check out these links, even if they are not recent.



https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/515509/whats-the-best-way-to-grade-kelloggs-3-d-baseball-cards


https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/100712/grading-kelloggs-cards

I Guess This Happens to Everyone, Even the "Babe Ruth of ....."

It's great when someone is called the "Babe Ruth of ....." whatever their field is.  

I've been let go from two jobs over the years.  It happens to lots of people.  I've never been the "Babe Ruth of..." anything.  

On this day in 1935 the "Babe Ruth of baseball" was release by the Yankees.  It had to happen at some point unless he decided to retire but Babe Ruth ended up continuing his career without the Yankees.  

Remembering Ron Santo on the Date of His Birth

Ron Santo was born on this day in 1940.  

He was included in the 1970, 1973 and 1974 Kellogg's baseball card sets.  He had better seasons in 1970 and 1971 than he did in 1972 and 1973.  Then how did Kellogg's skip him in 1971 and 1972?  

When I start making my own cards I will have to work on getting good pictures.  This was a good picture until I started editing it.

Collector Discussion About the 2007 Autograph Cards with Peter Jacobsen

Here is a link to a discussion about the Peter Jacobsen and other autographed cards from 2007 Kellogg's products.

https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/621413/2008-kelloggs-all-star-auto-cards

I also wanted to get another look at the Jacobsen card since it was a long work day.

A Unique Addition to My Kellogg's Card Collection

A long time ago I wrote this story about caddying for Peter Jacobsen.  It was a fun day and my caddie friends have recounted stories from that day many times.  Here is the link to that post -

Peter Jacobsen Story From My Youth

The story fit into the Kellogg's card plan on this blog because Ron Santo was involved.  I didn't know at the time that I wrote the post that Jacobsen also had a Kellogg's card.  In that last year I found out that Jacobsen was included in a set of autographed cards in some Kellogg's product(s).  Since I collect golf stuff I really wanted to get this card.

Last week I saw the Jacobsen card listed on ebay.  I had never seen it listed before.  I was a bit hesitant to buy it since I don't like to spend more than a few dollars on a card.  I'm glad that I did because it is a great card.  I still need Yamaguchi, D. Robinson and Aaron.  I'm not willing to pay the prices needed to get Robinson and Aaron.

Does anyone know how available this card was in 2007?

A Great Site that Shows Kellogg's Football Cards

Check out this site which has a picture of each Kellogg's football card, along with information about the player.


http://www.footballcardgallery.com/set/1970_Kelloggs/

http://www.footballcardgallery.com/set/1971_Kelloggs/


I like that it lists the college attended, some honors and some notes about the player.

1976 Kellogg's Cards and PSA Grades

Here is my boring chart that shows how many 1976 Kellogg's cards have been graded by PSA.  8,195 cards have been graded and most of them are 9s and 10s.

Variations of Clay Carroll, Jim Kaat, Mickey Rivers, Jorge Orta, Jon Matlack, Mike Hargrove, Paul Lindblad and Greg Gross are sure in short supply.  

One of the Seavers is certainly in shorter supply.  Both the different Vida Blue cards have been submitted in similar numbers.  

Only one Frank Tanana card is listed even though there are two variations.  What's up with that.  I need to check my variations on this card.

Sports Collectors Digest Article About Kellogg's Football Cards

Here is a nice story about the football card sets.  I subscribed to SCD for many years.

http://www.sportscollectorsdigest.com/a_lipsmackin_look_at_1970-71_kelloggs_nfl/

I don't have this ad, but I sure would like to find it.  

1976 Kellogg's Card Backs - Card Numbers 28 - 30

I'm hoping to find something else to discuss soon, but I never have a problem going back into the 1976 Kellogg's baseball card set.  On to the next three cards.

#28 - Eric Soderholm

Most of the story is about his minor league days.  I wouldn't have expected to read about Jay Johnstone on this card.  

Not on the card - I caddied for a bunch of White Sox players as a kid, but my son ended up caddying for Soderholm a few years ago.

Not on the card - his brother played for nine years in the minors but didn't get to the majors.

#29 - Bill Lee

Soderholm listed bowling and golf as hobbies.  Those seem to go well together.  Lee's hobbies of hunting and golf don't seem to go together as well.

Lee won 17 games in each of the last three years.  He had a great college career.

Not on the card - anything about the 1975 playoffs.

#30 - Frank Tanana

Three golfers in a row.  Great since I am watching golf on television now. 

He turned down 100 scholarship offers from colleges for basketball.  He is listed as 6-3, so he's not overly tall by basketball standards.

He led all of MLB in strikeouts in 1975.  I didn't realize that his career almost ended at age 17 when he "tore his shoulder".  

Not on the card - in today's world there would be details as to what he did to his shoulder, who fixed it and how long the rehab took.

1976 Kellogg's Card Backs - Card Numbers 25 - 27

Back to the 1976 set.  Here is a summary of the backs of the next three cards.


#25 - Jim Kaat

Not much space to write here since Kaat broke into MLB in 1959.  

"Jim, like fine wine, gets better with age.  He's the winningest active pitcher in the majors."

That's a good thing to put on the card.

Not on the card - he won 16 Gold Glove Awards.

Not on the card - in his best season (1966) he led the AL in wins (25), starts (41) and complete games (19) he got no Cy Young Award votes.  From 1955 - 1966 there was just one MLB Cy Young Award and this happened to go to Sandy Koufax in a unanimous vote.  Kaat had his great season a year too early.  

Cy Young Award voting rules have changed over time.  I need to learn more about that.

#26 - Marty Perez

The only other Perez with a Kellogg's card is Tony.  There is no way one would confused these two since Tony was a big star in the 1970s.  Tony didn't even appear in this set, but Marty is still known on the front as M. Perez.

He is a "slender Californian".  From watching TV in the 1970s I thought that described everyone in California.

I liked the years when player heights were precise - 5-10 1/2.  Does that matter?

Not on the card - he was still growing.  Baseball-reference.com lists him as 5-11.

Not on the card - he was traded in June.  I wonder is his cards were still in cereal boxes at that point.

#27 - Bob Watson

Not much to say on the card.  He led the team in HRs and RBIs and the team was horrible.  I like the mention of "Houston's long-suffering fans".

Not on the card - I still remember Watson scoring the one millionth run in MLB history.  Here is a nice story about that - More to the Millionth Run Story.  That would have been better to mention on the card.

Hey, Post #714 - Everyone Knows That Number .......

............ is my locker at school.

Well, maybe that's not what makes this number so well known.  Babe Ruth hit 714 career homers, a number that is well known by baseball fans.

Here is how I divide people in the world.  There are five types of people in the world:

1.  Those born when Ned Williamson held the single-season home run record (1884 - 1919).

2.  Those born when Babe Ruth held the single-season home run record (1919 - 1961).  

3.  Those born when Roger Maris held the single-season home run record (1961 - 1998).

4.  Those born when Mark McGwire held the single-season home run record (1998 - 2001).

5.  Those born when Barry Bonds held the single-season home run record (2001 - 2016).  

The first type (Williamson) is almost 100 years old.  I don't know any of them so I will be nice to them.

The second type (Ruth) is old, but won't admit they are old.  When they answer that Ruth held the record when they were born, they sound old and they hate hearing about it.  If you haven't asked someone this give it a try.

The third group (Maris) are well-adjusted, hard-working difference makers who strive to make the planet a better place.  Spend your time with these wonderful people.

The fourth group (McGwire) recently got licenses to drive and are about to spend all of their parents' money on college.  Watch out for this group.

The fifth group (Bonds) can't drive, but they expect their parents to drive them everywhere, do their science projects, buy their girl scout cookies and coach their teams.  Another group to watch out for.

1976 Kellogg's Card Backs - Card Numbers 22 - 24

I think I did a better job on the pictures for this group.  I hope that the backs can be read easily.


22 - Willie Stargell

Stargell listed his hobbies as dancing and bowling.

I love the paragraph so check it out.  Has Father Time been mentioned on a baseball card anywhere else?  How about "over the hill"?

Not on the card - his foundation did some charity events including bowling tournaments.

Not on the card - no other baseball player had the given name of Wilver.

Not on the card - no other baseball player had a given middle name of Dornell, not even Willie Stargell whose middle name on baseball-reference.com is spelled Dornel.

Not on the card - I didn't find another player with the last name of Stargell.

23 - Al Hrabosky

I'm not surprised to see him list surfing as a hobby.  If you haven't seen his pre-pitch routine you should check it out on the internet.  We would mimic those moves as kids because it was entertaining.

He has only one career start.  That continued in his 545 career games.  

Not on the card - his famous quote about his appearance - “How can I intimidate batters if I look like a g*d* golf pro?

24 - Carl Yastrzemski

Not much to say about Yaz in 1975.  He had shoulder problems but helped lead them to a pennant.  If they had more room to write on the back it probably would have mentioned Fred Lynn and Jim Rice who burst onto the scene with the Red Sox in 1975.  

I was surprised to see how few 100+ RBI seasons he had (3).  He added two more in 1976 and 1977 and finished his career doing this five times.

Not on the card - He led the league in batting average three times and homers and RBIs only once.  Lucky for him he led the league in all three in 1967 thereby achieving the Triple Crown. Only Miguel Cabrera (2012) has done that in the 49 seasons since Yaz accomplished it.

1976 Kellogg's Card Backs - Card Numbers 19 - 21

Here are the next three cards in this great set - 1976 Kellogg's baseball cards.  It's been a busy day so sorry about the poor images.

#19 Dennis Eckersley

Ouch, this was a poor picture I took.  The back of the card isn't blurry.  I just hurried my work on this.  All I can tell from the card back is that Eckersley had long hair, played one year for the Indians and Kellogg's wrote a lot about him.  

From a cleaner card back - he had a 13-7 record and 2.60 ERA as a rookie.  That was the third lowest ERA in the AL.  He was a "baseball, football and basketball enthusiast in high school."

#20 Bill Madlock

Another bad shot by me.  And this is one of my favorite Cubs.  That's an impressive career average for his first 279 career games - .336.  

Not on the card - he repeated as batting champ in 1976 and was promptly traded for Bobby Murcer and Steve Ontiveros.  He won two more batting titles for Pittsburgh in the early 1980s.   His career average was .305.

#21 George Scott

My failures to take a picture continue.  Scott led the league in RBIs and shared the HR title with Reggie Jackson.

Not on the card - how does a guy lead the league in the two categories above as well as total bases, win a Gold Glove and still finish only 8th in the MVP voting?   Remember this was 1975 - Fred Lynn and Jim Rice dominated headlines and finished 1st and 3rd respectively in the voting.  Pitchers Jim Palmer and Rollie Fingers finished ahead of him as did John Mayberry, Reggie Jackson and Thurman Munson.  Tough break for George C. Scott, Jr.  

SportsCollectorsDaily.com is Still Writing About Kellogg's Cards

The website sportscollectorsdaily.com had written about the 1970 - 1983 Kellogg's baseball card sets in the past year.  Today they started on the football cards.  They started with 1971 after going through the baseball card sets in chronological order.

Check out their article on these 1971s.  Of course the write-up is the standard that all card dealers talk about with the 1971s.  What I like that it is another article that mentions Kellogg's cards on a site that probably gets lots of views.

http://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/1971-kelloggs-football-set/

We ate a lot of cereal as kids but Corn Flakes was near the bottom of the list of choices and Raisin Bran was in the middle.  We preferred Sugar Frosted Flakes, Sugar Pops, King Vitamin, Cap'n Crunch and others.

Looking a Bit Closer at the 1976 Set and Centering

I was putting away the 1976 cards that I bought recently and I looked more into the centering on the back of the cards.

The front centering was fine for every card.  The back centering was poor on every third card starting with card #4 Randy Jones.  That seemed odd but I remembered that these cards were printed on three sheets of 18 and a fourth sheet for #1, #2 and #3.  Here is the sheet below that contains card #4 and every third card after that.

This is another sheet that I don't own.  I doubt that I will get another chance to own these sheets.

I don't know what people think when the front of the card is fine and the back has centering issues top to bottom.  I've seen this a lot but I hadn't noticed it in a set that I bought.  I will check this out when going through my cards when summer begins.

Unfortunately, this group contains Eckersley and Rose as well as six other Hall of Famers.  Am I concerned?  No, but I wonder if anyone has seen this happen with centering on the front of these cards.

The remaining cards that I show from the 1976 set will come from my recent purchase.  You'll easily be able to see the centering difference on one card for each group of three that I discuss each day.  I didn't plan on three at a time for this reason at all.

Kellogg's Unopened Single Cards Update and Questions

I'm trying to keep going on the unopened packs of Kellogg's cards.  I haven't seen any lots on ebay recently.  Has anyone seen them elsewhere or at card shows?

Here is what I have so far with Kellogg's unopened single packs.

1970 - I only have 10 cards.
1971 - I only have 5 cards..
1972 - I am missing the 12 best cards in the set.
1973 - I am only missing Ryan, Palmer, Perry, Seaver
1974 - I only have 13 cards.
1975 - I don't have any unopened.
1976 - I have about half of the set.
1977 - I have about half of the set.
1978 - I completed this set.
1979 - I have about half of this set.
1980 - I completed this set.
1983 - I've not seen any of these.

I've got 1973s, 1978s and a few other duplicates to trade.  Does anyone have some of these to trade?

I'm not very far with the football sets either.  

Getting the Clementes is a huge challenge.  Someone must have a lot of these somewhere.  Any ideas?

Here are Those #1 Picks Who Appeared on a Kellogg's Baseball Card

The first June Amateur Draft was held in 1965.  Rick Monday, one of my favorite Cubs, was selected first by the Athletics.  Lots of big names were drafted first.  There was lots of talk this year about Kris Bryant being selected second because he's had more success than the player drafted ahead of him - Mark Appel.

Here are the overall first picks from this draft along with the team that drafted them and the year(s) they appeared on a Kellogg's card

1965  Rick Monday (Athletics) -- 1971, 1974, 1979 (three different teams)
1967 Ron Blomberg (Yankees) -- 1974
1969 Jeff Burroughs (Senators - now Rangers) -- 1974, 1975, 1978, 1979
1974 Bill Almon (Padres) -- 1979
1976 Floyd Bannister (Astros) -- 1983
1977 Harold Baines (White Sox) -- Baines
1978 Bob Horner (Braves) -- 1981, 1982, 1983

Don't confuse 1972 #1 pick Dave Roberts with Dave Roberts who was a Padre from 1968 - 1971 and appeared on a Kellogg's card in 1972 in a Padres uniform.

First Overall Draft Picks (June Amateur Draft) Who Appeared on a Kellogg's Card?

Tomorrow I am going to talk about all of the number one draft picks who made it onto a Kellogg's baseball card.  I was surprised at how many of these guys made their way into my Frosted Flakes.

Here are some guys who were close but were drafted second overall.


Reggie Jackson

Pete Broberg

others drafted second ---

J.R. Richard

Rick Manning

John Stearns


Who was drafted before these guys?  More tomorrow.

My First Kellogg's Autographed Card - Who Signed It?

Other than the logo that has been wiped from the helmet I really like this card.  But, I'm used to my football cards not having the team logos since I collected Topps football cards in the 1970s.

I never got this card out of a Kellogg's product.  I did buy a bunch of these Joe Theismann cards on ebay for a few bucks each.

These signatures are hard to figure out with most of the signers today.  I looked online at three of his autographs today and they all looked like that at the beginning of his first and last names.  That's a "J", but I wouldn't have figured that one out.

Later in his career it looks like he gave up on the last name.  Sounds like most guys.  That is frustrating if you collect autographs, but it doesn't both me that much.

1976 Kellogg's Card Backs - Card Numbers 16 - 18

Finally back to the 1976 Kellogg's baseball card set.  I've had a busy few days but looking at the three cards below really got me in a good mood.  Most of the Kellogg's sets went with the blue borders but this one went with the white border.  It really helps the uniforms stand out.

According to baseball-reference.com, all three of these players were born in 1948.

16 - Dave Cash


He played 162 games in each of the last two seasons.  In both seasons he surpassed 200 hits.

His early career with Pittsburgh was hampered by his "military commitments with the Marine Reserves".   It also didn't help that the Pirates had Bill Mazeroski and Rennie Stennett.

Not on the card - the Pirates traded him to the Phillies for Ken Brett who was traded six times and released four times.

17 - Ron LeFlore


According to this card LeFlore was born in 1952.

The Tigers signed him out of Southern Michigan prison.  He didn't play baseball until his "confinement at Jackson State".  Jackson State is more common name for Southern Michigan.

His hobbies include reading, chess and woodworking.

Not on the card - a fellow inmate convinced Billy Martin of the Tigers to give LeFlore a tryout.  His book would probably be great to read.

Not on the card - he first played baseball in prison.  I assume that's also where he picked up the hobbies listed on the card.

18 Greg Luzinski


He had 34 homers and 120 RBIs in 1975.  He played first base in the minors.

He is "no gazelle afield or on the bases".  Not surprising when his nickname is "The Bull".

He was a Big 10 football prospect.  He signed out of high school so that didn't happen.

Not on the card - his card can be considered a common now.  That's a surprise since he had some great seasons.  In seven different seasons spanning 11 years he earned MVP votes.   He amassed 307 career homers.

From 1975-1978 he finished 2nd, 8th, 2nd and 7th in the MVP voting.  He lost out to Joe Morgan (1975) and George Foster (1977).

How Can This Happen to a Kellogg's Baseball Card?

I've seen lots of Kellogg's cards with the following:

1.  The front is centered fine
2.  The back is quite off-center

What happens in the process of making the card to cause this?

Has anyone ever found out how the printing process works?

Is there any documented information about these cards?

My New 1976 Set

Great to complete a duplicate 1976 Kellogg's baseball card set while I am writing about them three cards at a time.  This is one of my favorite sets and the colors are just great.  When the white is bright on these borders, they look great.

I've got a busy few days ahead, so it's going to be lazy posting for me.