Quick Football Card History - Check Out This Site

The site gives a quick look at football card history including a mention of Kellogg's Football cards.  This is good since I've purchased football cards, but I've never been a big collector of them.

I can easily identify the year of any Topps baseball card from 1951 to 1994, but I can't really do that with football cards.  With Kellogg's cards this is certainly not an issue since there were only two Kellogg's sets.

http://www.starrcards.com/history-of-football-cards/

Happy Birthday Louis

I mostly remember him as a Boston Red Sox infielder, but Luis Aparicio played for the White Sox from 1956 - 1962 and from 1968 to 1970.  Between those stints with the ChiSox he played for the Orioles.  He finished his career with Boston 1971 to 1973.

He turned 83 today.

I like checking out the stats for players that I didn't see play much.  What jumps out for Aparicio when looking at stats?  He led the AL in steals during his first nine years in the league.  No one else has led the league for that many consecutive years.

Ka-Boom....Eventually

The White Sox exploding scoreboard was unveiled on this day in 1960.  It wasn't until May 1st that a White Sox player homered to trigger the scoreboard to erupt.  That was a great site to see as a kid at a night game.  The new stadium's scoreboard kept the same style as the original.

Even as a Cub fan, some of my favorite baseball ambassadors were involved in this game.

Billy Pierce, the winning pitcher, lived nearby and was alway around baseball events and card shows.

Minnie Minoso, who had a double, stolen base and sacrifice fly, was present at ball games and as a team representative at community events.

Jimmy Piersall, whose movie I watched last night, was quite entertaining with Harry Caray.

Jim Perry was probably the only player on the two rosters to get into a regular Kellogg's set.

Chicago Tribune Story About the Comiskey Scoreboard

When in Doubt, There is Always Something About Babe Ruth to Post

but today I will go with Ty Cobb.

On this day in 1961 Ty Cobb made his last appearance at a major league ballpark.  I don't know how someone would know that, but he did die in July of 1961 so it does make sense.

In this last visit, Cobb threw out the first pitch in a game at a stadium never before used by MLB.  I don't want to give away too much information, but can you name the stadium?

"For All of You Youngsters Out There..."

That's a great start to a Steve Stone story.  Check out what happened on this day in 1931.

Yankee Lyn Lary walked and Lou Gehrig followed with a homer to center field.  The ball bounces directly back to the outfielder so Lary thought that the ball was caught.  He retreated to the dugout as it would have been the third out.  Gehrig is ruled out for passing the runner in front of him so that cost him a homer and two RBIs.

I know that some other scoring rules have changed over the years.  Did Gehrig lose other homers due to differing rules?  I know that Hank Aaron's totals would have been different with today's rules, but I never looked into this with Gehrig.

300-Game Winners as Teammates

I wanted to see how many teams had two 300-game winners on their team at the same time.  Yesterday's post made me think about that.  Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine were teammates for a long time and both won 300+ games.  They don't make the list since they were not teammates when both had 300+ career wins.

From yesterday I know that Phil Niekro and Steve Carlton were teammates in Cleveland during part of the 1987 season.  Carlton and Tom Seaver were both on the 1986 White Sox but they were never teammates.  Seaver was traded in June and Carlton became a member of the White Sox later in the season. 

  

Mickey Welch and Tim Keefe were N.Y. Giant teammates in the 1890s.

Are there any others?

A Unique Occurrence 30 Years Ago Today

On this day in 1987 Rickey Henderson homered off both Steve Carlton and Phil Niekro.  What made that unique?  Henderson became the first player to hit homers of 300-game winners in the same game.

How many 300-game winners have been teammates even?  If I figure that out I will mention it tomorrow.

Nothing New to Sort

It's been a while since I've purchased any Kellogg's card.  The last show I went to - nothing.  The day I planned to go to the flea market - rain.  A week off of school - no shows and more rain on the flea market day.  Ebay - nothing appealed to me.

Those are probably all good things.  I'm in my busiest few weeks at work, so this streak will probably continue.  I was going to show another proof sheet that I don't have, but I can't insert a photo for some reason.

Spent Too Long at Track Meets Today

I was there so long that I started trying to figure out how much time Mike Hargrove spent on all of his career at-bats combined.  He had 6,694 plate appearances in his 12 seasons.

Does anyone have an estimate as to how long each plate appearance lasted?

Is actual data available?

How much longer were Hargrove's at-bats than at-bats of others?

Did someone else take longer at the plate?

Former Senators and Don Mincher

The new Minnesota Twins team played their first home game on this day in 1961.  The team just recently relocated from Washington where they were known as the Senators.  The city of Washington wouldn't let them leave until the city got a new franchise in 1961.  So, Washington had the Senators in 1960 and a new team called the Senators in 1961.

The new Senators team ended up moving to Texas after the 1971 season to become the Rangers.

Back to the Twins home opener.  Their opponent?  The new Washington Senators.  The expansion team won 5-3.  Don Mincher hit the first home homer for the Twins, but Dale Long hit one in the first inning for the Senators.

Mincher played for the Senators when they moved to Minnesota and then he played for the Senators when they moved to Texas.  Did anyone else do that?  Not for these two teams.  Someday I will check to see if others were involved in multiple franchises moves.

Also on this day in 1972, the Texas Rangers played their first home game after moving from Washington.   Mincher

I don't even want to add more about previous or future teams in Washington called the Senators or Nationals.

Ballpark Openings on This Day

On this day in 1912 both Fenway Park and Tiger Stadium, known as Navin Field at first, opened.  I couldn't find the box score for these games on baseball-reference.com.

In 1916 Wrigley Field, then called Weeghman Park, had its first game.  I found the box score and found that no players appeared in the game who had a Kellogg's card.

I've been to Fenway four times so far.  I enjoyed sitting behind the lowest part of the right field wall, but now that they have seats in left field, my favorite place in any ballpark, I've got to make another trip to Fenway.

I only got to Tiger Stadium once.  I remember that it was just like Comiskey Park in almost every way.  The stadium was crowded with rowdy kids who were waving around their fire engine red bats that were given out to kids under the age of ?? that day.  I was too old for that one.  When Cecil Fielder hit a big homer the noise from all of the bats thumping on the cement was awesome.  I guess the year could be narrowed down since he played for Detroit from 1990 to 1996.  I think it was in the 1993 to 1994 time frame since I boycotted after the 1994 strike.

I am hoping to see a new ballpark this year.  Maybe Milwaukee's park since it is fairly close.

Ty Cobb hit .409 in 1912 even though the team had a poor season.

No one in my neighborhood had more than one of these cards from the 1972 Kellogg's All-Time Greats set.  Now they are among the most popular Kellogg's cards.

1973 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs - #37 - 39

I'm still thinking about the comment on the back of the Sanguillen card about Roberto Clemente.  I check some 1973 Topps cards to see if there was any mention of Clemente and I found none.  

Back to more of the 1973 Kellogg's baseball card set and the comments on the back.

#39 - Bobby Grich

I mentioned before about the National card show and getting autographs of many Orioles including Grich.  

"Sensational minor league arithmetic".  That's the second time I found a phrase like that in this set.  How about telling kids about that in an easy way to understand.

He has won lots of minor league awards including minor league player of the year.  

He attended UCLA in the off-season.  

Not on the card - the "breaking up the roster" mentioned included traded second baseman Davey Johnson to the Braves to make room for Grich to play every day.  Grich played in 162 games in 1973.

#38 - Gaylord Perry

He pitched 343 innings in 1972.  His 1.92 ERA trailed Luis Tiant by 0.01.  

He won the Cy Young Award in 1972.  He won another in 1978.

Not on the card - he received MVP votes in six different seasons.

Not on the card - in 2016 David Price led baseball with 230 innings pitched.  No player has exceeded 300 innings pitched since 1980 - Steve Carlton.

Not on the card - Perry exceeded 300 innings pitched in six seasons but he only led the league twice.

#39 - Ralph Garr

Garr finished second to Billy Williams in batting average in 1972.  He trailed only Joe Torre in 1971.
Nicknamed "the Roadrunner".  The White Sox used to play Beep-Beep when he came up to bat.

He is "showing a growing tendency to the longball".  He had 12 homers.

Not on the card - He never hit more than 11 homers in his career which ended in 1980.

Not on the card - he did league the league in batting average in 1974.  His career average was .306.

1973 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs - #40 - 42

When I was opening Kellogg's cards from cereal boxes as a kid I always read the backs.  I'm enjoying reading these now.  Time for three more from 1973.

#42 - Manny Sanguillen

Because the 1973s are the only Kellogg's cards without the 3-D technology, this set offers a few different looks.  I will need to check and see how many other cards have other players in the background.  Who are those Pirates behind Manny?

Wow, is this the first card that mentions Roberto Clemente's death?   Manny may take Roberto's right field position.

He only walked 16 times (unintentional) over the last two seasons but he doesn't strike out much.

Not on the card - he played 59 games in right field in 1973.  Richie Zisk played 64 games there and Dave Parker stepped out their 19 times.  

#41 - Pete Broberg

Broberg is considered one of the league's future pitching stars despite what Kellogg's called "unimpressive arithemetic".  I guess they mean his 10-21 career record and his strikeouts.  Unfortunately, he also recorded a lot of walks.  

His strikeout totals were compared favorably to Walter Johnson's first two seasons.  Really?

He played at Dartmouth and his father starred as a basketball player there.

Not on the card - I didn't find anyone else with a given name of Sven in the baseball database.

#40 - Brock

Brock has now stolen 50+ bases in eight consecutive years.  No one had done that before.

Not on the card - He added four more seasons in a row of 50+ to end the streak at 12 seasons.

Not on the card - I was surprised to see that Rickey Henderson only managed to get 50+ steals in seven consecutive seasons and he only accumulated 50+ in 14 seasons.

Why Not Bunt?

I saw the first inning of the Cubs-Brewers game tonight.  The lead-off hitter for the Cubs bunted his way onto first base.  I didn't think much about it again until reading this day in baseball history.

Jackie Robinson got his first career hit on this day in 1947 - by bunting.  For the season he had 19 hits via the bunt in 42 attempts.  That's an average of .452.  It doesn't seem like a big difference, but without those at-bats he was hitting .285.  If he hit at a .285 clip for the other 42 at-bats that would have given him 12 hits.  By bunting he had 19.  Makes sense to keep doing that.

Check out this article about bunting with the bases empty -

http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2012/12/10/3748738/best-bunter-all-time-career-bunt-hits-bases-empty-mlb


Some names on the lists will surprise you.  Not many names from the last 20 years since bunting has changed a lot in the game.

Should I Believe Everything I Read?

I like reading some of the websites that show baseball history on a given day of the year.  On this day in 1935 Babe Ruth made his National League debut.  He hit a homer off of Carl Hubbell.

Should I believe the rest of the story?  It says that the day was snowy and the band was playing Jingle Bells.  I haven't tried to confirm this, but I like the story.

There certainly are not many people around who can remember that day since it was 82 years ago.  They'd probably need to be at least 78 years old to have a good memory of that day.  

I could check newspaper accounts, but I'm going to be busy doing my taxes for the rest of the night.

1973 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs - #43 - 45

Time for a few more Kellogg's baseball card backs.

#45 - Carlos May

I've written before about Carlos May since he was one of my favorites from my childhood trips to Comiskey Park.  I didn't know that any of his cards was so specific about his "service-connected disability".  It was actually during his playing career too.

I'd hadn't heard first base called the gateway before either.  His brother Lee played for Houston at this time.  Lee played from 1965 to 1982.  I always had trouble with him and Lee Maye who played from 1959 to 1971.  

#44 - Dave Kingman

Dave Kingman was always exciting to watch.  The 6-foot-6 infielder-outfielder hasn't found a permanent position on the field but he has a strong arm.  He's mentioned as a good base stealer.

Not on the card - he went to a community college that I taught at once.

#43 - Willie Davis

Davis liked golf and music.  Back then one couldn't do both simultaneously.  That's not a problem now.

He didn't hit .300, but he was "far from being a liability to the Dodgers last year".  Wow, who wrote that one for a guy who ended up with 2,561 career hits.

1973 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs - #46 - 48

Time to look at three more cards from the 1973 Kellogg's baseball card set.

#48 - Joe Coleman

Joe's dad, also Joe Coleman, pitched for the A's, Tigers and Orioles after World War II.

He was a number one draft pick for the Senators in 1965.  He was chosen third in the first-ever free agent amateur draft.

Not on the card - Coleman was an all-star in 1972.

Not on the card - he was traded to the Tigers in a deal that sent Denny McLain to Washington.

Joe won 142 MLB games, his dad won 52 games, and his son, Casey, won eight.  Three generations so far.  Maybe Casey can continue the family history?

#47 - Mike Cuellar

His hobbies are painting and music.  They can both be pursued simultaneously unlike surfing and painting.

The word correlation was used on a baseball card in 1973.  Did Topps or anyone else every do that?  What did I think of that sentence as a kid?  I probably ignored it since it made no sense.

He played nine years in the minors awaiting his chance to get into the big leagues.

#46 - Tom Seaver

Tom listed bridge as a hobby.  He failed to retain his ERA and strikeout titles even though his ERA 2.92 and he struck out 249 batters (Carlton had a 1.97 ERA and 310 K's).

Seaver hit three homers in 1972.

Not on the card - he hit 12 career homers.

World Series Rings Again

Jack Morris was the only one I could quickly think of who won rings with three teams and had a Kellogg's card.  He was in the 1982 and 1983 sets.  



When someone mentioned Lonnie Smith, I recalled hearing that somewhere.  Smith also appeared in the 1983 set.


Steve Carlton and Jay Johnstone won three as well, but neither played in the World Series for all three teams.  Johnstone was in the 1977 set and Carlton was in the sets in 1973, 1977 to 1983 and 1991.

Carlton and Smith were both born on December 22nd.

Morris and Smith were both born in 1955 and they played their last games during the same week, a week where I had to change my vacation plans.  Why?

I Heard a Good Question on the Radio Today

I was driving home and listening to the Cubs.  They were talking about the World Series rings which had just been given out before the game.  John Lackey received his ring, so he now has won rings with three different teams.

The question was which players have won World Series rings with three different teams?  They mentioned five or six guys.  I haven't looked it up yet, but I heard three names that were players who also appeared on a Kellogg's card.  I would have only guessed one of these three guys.

Can you name all three of these guys?

Claude Osteen Again

On this day in 1975 the White Sox signed Claude Osteen as a free agent and the Atlanta Braves released Davey Johnson.

Osteen went 7-16 with the White Sox to finish with a career record of 196-195.  He was released on 4-05-1976.

Johnson batted 1.000 in 1975 for the Braves before being released - has was 1-for-1.   He played in Japan during 1975 and 1976 before returning to the Phillies and Cubs in 1977 and 1978.  

1973 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs - #49 - 51

Three more for today from the 1973 Kellogg's set.

#51 - Rod Carew

I never heard that the Twins signed Cares "right under the Yankees' nose in 1964".  That was just before the first draft, in 1965.  He was the first AL batting champ to not hit a homer.  

I was too young to remember that he had torn ligaments in 1970 that shortened his season to 51 games.  

Even as an all-star in his first six seasons, Carew played in the Venezuelan winter league.

Not on the card - I think Carew is the only player with a Kellogg's card who is mentioned in Adam Sandler's Hanukkah song.

Not on the card - he kept the all-star streak alive for his first 18 seasons.  He didn't get named to the team in his last season - his 19th.

#50 - Steve Kline

Kline enjoys fishing.  He is seeking a math degree in the off-season.

There are two references to Mel Stottlemyre on the card.  There are also multiple references to Kline being a key pitcher for the Yankees.

Not on the card - He was traded in 1974 to the Indians.  The Yankees got Chris Chambliss and Dick Tidrow.

#49 - Claude Osteen

Another golfer.  He won 20 games for the second time.  The card calls him "one of baseball's most dependable lefthanders".

Not on the card - he averaged over 37 starts a season over the last 10 years.  That's certainly dependable.  Osteen had 371 starts during that time, more than anyone in baseball.  Mickey Lolich had 368 and Gaylord Perry had 353.   

1973 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs - #52 - 54

Time to start writing about the 1973 Kellogg's baseball card backs.

This is one of my favorite sets.  The ones that I am going to show are mostly in well-loved condition.  That's just how I remember them.

I really like the design of the card backs.  It works well unless the player has had a long career.

#54 - Ron Santo

Santo listed horseback riding as a hobby.  I knew about his golf hobby since I mentioned in a post long about seeing him when I was caddying for Peter Jacobsen one day.

I also ran into Santo at a Juvenile Diabetes Dance Marathon that I did in college.  Santo was a diabetic and the JDF was an organization that he seemed to be volunteering for a lot.

The card mentions that he holds or shares ten fielding records.  Not much else can be said since his stats go from 1960 to 1973.

#53 - Larry Dierker

Yeah, another golfer.  He now has two no-hitters.

He went 215 innings without issuing an intentional walk.  The game was certainly a bit different at that time.  Barry Bonds got lots in intentional walks later in his career.   Did everyone else get more IBBs?

Not on the card - in 356 career games over 14 years he issued on 43 intentional walks.

Not on the card - I checked and found that the number of intentional walks didn't go up from the 1970s to today.  The numbers stayed fairly similar, even though more teams were added to the league.

#52 - Al Kaline

I was surprised to read that one of my favorite players when I was eight years old had hockey as a hobby.  

Position - Infield-Outfield.  When I see that I usually think of someone who can play all around the infield and outfield.  His 2,625 games included only 135 games at first base, two at third base and 146 as DH.  All of the other games saw him in the outfield.  

I love the short bio - "It's totals such as Kaline's on which Hall of Fame plaques are made".

Not on the card - anything about his hockey hobby.