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.