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Use the menu below if you'd like to search for posts that relate to your interests. Note - this was just created on 12-30-20 so I will need to link the posts in the coming weeks. Until then, you can scroll down to the labels on the right to find the same information.


Monday, April 30, 2018

I Just Couldn't Do It



I was always a fan of Frosted Flakes back when they called them Sugar Frosted Flakes.  Corn Flakes got soggy in milk quickly, even for a guy who still eats fast like I do.  Plus, to eat Corn Flakes I toss enough sugar on top that they'd be the equivalent of Frosted Flakes.

This led me to now have any of these cool Corn Flakes boxes that I had to purchase on the secondary market.  It's also why we didn't get as many older Kellogg's cards in my house.  The screaming kids preferred all sugary cereals and every dentist agreed with that idea.

Does anyone ever see the 1970 - 1983 cereal/Danish Go Rounds boxes around at card shows, flea markets or other events?  I'm interested, but ebay prices that I've seen are beyond my budget.


Sunday, April 29, 2018

I'm Still Around

I've taken a vacation from the blog.  Since my last post I've gotten nothing new, I haven't continued sorting my mess of cards and between work and college visits I've been busy, busy, busy.

I expect to be back in action tomorrow.  I want to get back to the backs of the 1972 Kellogg's card set.

Is there anything new going on with anyone?

Friday, April 20, 2018

Never Cheaper By the Dozen

Does anyone have this book - Never Cheaper By the Dozen?  It has lots of things that interest me.

What are your opinions?

Should I buy it?

Is there enough of a story about Kellogg's cards to make it worth getting?

It's been a rough week.  We had a track meet in 35 degrees, rainy and windy.  Oddly, it didn't seem too bad because every day recently was like that.

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Winter Won't End in the Midwest

I'm too cold and busy with track meets being delayed/canceled/etc. to think.  So, I will just complain about how I keep being the underbidder in many recent auctions. 

Kellogg's cards seem to be all over ebay lately.  Lots, sets, graded cards, etc.  Go out and buy some today for Mother's Day, Father's Day, Earth Day, etc.

Monday, April 16, 2018

1972 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs #25 - 27

Maybe I can get back to every day posting.  Maybe not since I am hosting three track meets in the next two weeks.

#27 - Mike Cuellar



Cuellar is on a three-year streak of winning 20+ games.  He is a master of the screwball.  

The card mentioned that he's been on a bunch of teams.  He's a "full game" pitcher, which means lots of complete games.

Not on the card - he threw 172 complete games.  

Cuellar ended his career with 185 wins, one more than McNally.  Baseball-reference.com calculated the most similar player to Cuellar as McNally and vice versa.  



#26 - Bob Gibson



I can see why the error was easy to spot on Gibson's card.  The text mentions that he is now in sixth place all time with 2,577 K's but the totals on the bottom show 2,578.  


#25 - Tony Oliva



Tony won batting titles in his first two seasons and again in 1971.  He's been an all-star during all of his first eight seasons.

I knew the story, but I didn't know it got onto any of his cards.  Pedro, his real name, used his brother Tony's passport to enter the USA in 1961.  


Sunday, April 15, 2018

1972 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs #28 - 30

A tough week of coaching in wind, snow and rain is over.  Next week will have no snow, but I'm guessing it will still be windy and rainy.  Lots of MLB games canceled too.

#30 - Leo Cardenas



Leo is shown in an Twins uniform on both sides of the card.  The text mentions his trade to the Angels and the Angels team logo appears on the back. 

Not on the card - he was traded for Dave LaRoche.   

I'd never seen Minnesota mentioned as "Minny".  He's mentioned as having a great glove.

Not on the card - he was a five-time all-star and he won one Gold Glove 



#29 - Dave McNally



Wow, he won 87 games during the last four seasons.  He was limited to 30 starts due to an elbow injury.  

Not on the card - he only pitched until the age of 32.  His last game was in 1975.  Four consecutive 20-win seasons didn't get him a Cy Young Award.  

The 1971 Orioles were well known for having four 20-game winners.  The foursome hit win number 20 during the same week on Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  None were won in Baltimore.



#28 - Chris Speier


He went from non-roster to starting shortstop and Rookie of the Year candidate in 1971.  

Not on the card - Earl Williams was Rookie of the Year in the NL.

He's mentioned as a varsity performer in college.  Do JV guys ever make it to the majors?





Friday, April 13, 2018

Why No Love For These Kellogg's Cards?

I picked up some of these 1991 Kellogg's cards today.  Even in the wrappers, these cards are quite cheaper than anything else out there.

The cards look nice, but are they the victim of late-80s - early-90s overproduction in the baseball card market?

These cards are fairly indestructible.  If the early Kellogg's cards were produced with the thickness of these cards they'd surely have less curling and they'd look fantastic.




Thursday, April 12, 2018

Ugh! A Track Meet Got in My Way Today

I'm in the third of five days and five track meets.  Two with my team, one with the boys at our school and one each for my kids.  That's not usually a problem for me, but I missed out on a nice lot of unopened Kellogg's packs that I'd been watching.  I never really thought about that lot until I saw it as sold.  I don't have lots of 1979s in their packs, so that is disappointing.

Monday, April 9, 2018

PSA 9s and 10s - Five Weeks Later

Here are the latest PSA 9 and 10 counts along with the total number of graded Kellogg's cards.



I haven't seen any big jumps in 9s, 10s or the overall count of PSA-graded cards. 

Will there be a big blip?  Stay tuned.

Sunday, April 8, 2018

1991 Kellogg's All-Star Set - How Did They Choose These Players?

Here is the checklist for the 1991 Kellogg's All-Star Set.

1.  Gaylord Perry
2.  Hank Aaron
3.  Willie Mays
4.  Ernie Banks
5.  Bob Gibson
6.  Harmon Killebrew
7.  Rollie Fingers
8.  Steve Carlton
9.  Billy Williams
10. Lou Brock
11. Yogi Berra
12. Warren Spahn
13. Boog Powell
14. Don Baylor
15. Ralph Kiner

How did they end up selecting some of the best players of all time and then including a few who are not in the Hall of Fame. 

Did they cover all of the positions?  What about 2B?  Jackie Robinson, Rod Carew and Joe Morgan were probably the most likely to fit into the type of players included in this set.  Carew played almost exactly half of his games at 2B.  He also was inducted into the Hall in 1991 along with Fergie Jenkins.     

They didn't include Carew and Jenkins, but they included one player who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1991 with those two.  Do you know which player that is?  

Two players were included in the set were inducted into the Hall of Fame after this set came out.  Can you name them?

The last question is the easy one.  Two others from this set are not in the Hall of Fame.  Can you name them?

Saturday, April 7, 2018

1971 Kellogg's Variations Update

I picked up the three 1971 Kellogg's baseball cards shown below.  All new variations that I needed.  I also was able to upgrade three cards from the set.





I now have 163 different cards from this set.   I think I still need a lot more to get the entire master set.  Since I've finally figured out which 1979 variations I need, I should figure out which of the 1971 variations that I need.

Friday, April 6, 2018

1972 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs #31 - 33

Back to check out a few more card backs from the 1972 Kellogg's baseball card set.  All three of these cards have variations.  I don't have the other McDowell variation.

#33 - Sam McDowell



I guess "Sudden Sam" was his nickname.  Another AL player until this point so I knew less about him.  He ended up back in the AL in less than two seasons.  Kelloggs mentioned that Sam was unhappy in Cleveland.  

Not on the card - I'm surprised that the card didn't mention that he was traded for Gaylord Perry.  

For his career he had more strikeouts than innings pitched at this point.  He just missed doing that for his career with IP (2492) and K's (2453).  Can I add the 306 times he struck out at the plate on his way to a .154 career average?

What did he like to paint?





#32 - Bud Harrelson



Kellogg's mentioned Bud's lack of long-ball power.  With two career homers at this point that didn't need to be said.

Not on the card - in 16 seasons he hit seven homers in seven different seasons, only two of those seasons being consecutive.

I really like this line - "Harrelson is still hampered by the weight problem that annually threatens to reduce him to skin and bones".   5-10 1/2 - 155 lbs. sure made him look like a high schooler.

He's also available for long autograph sessions and he's involved in other public relations events.  Did he end up doing lot of card show signings?





#31 - Bill Freehan




Not many guys list football as a hobby.  Freehan was a varsity end at Michigan.  The 6-3, 210 lb. catcher would never be mistaken for Bud Harrelson.

Back surgery helped his career.  That is surprising to hear for operations done in 1970.  Lots of players had career-ending surgeries back then.  

He wrote a book about the Tigers 1969 season.  That was probably interesting since there certainly must have been lots in there about Denny McLain who was certainly easy to write about.

Not on the card - how many players from that Tigers team read the book?




Thursday, April 5, 2018

This Kellogg's Custom Card Creation Might Take A While

I've got lots of work to do if I am going to be able to create my own cards.  



I made no attempt to cleanly delete the Babe Ruth outline but this gives me some hope that I can create a template for each set.  Has anyone already created nice templates that can be used for custom Kellogg's cards?

Monday, April 2, 2018

1972 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs #34 - 36

I spent some time sorting my 1972s today so I've almost memorized the card numbers.  I will forget that by the time I sort something else tomorrow.  I intentionally didn't read the backs because I want to do that while I am working on today's post.

Here are the next three cards in the set.

#36 - Sonny Siebert



Fenway Park, which is much revered today, was mentioned on the back of this card as a bandbox ballpark.  It is also mentioned as "the pitching graveyard".

He was signed in 1958 and turned into a pitcher in 1960. 

Not on the card - why the change to pitcher?  His batting stats from early in his minor league career were a good reason to have him try the mound.  I read that he injured his ankle so he ended up pitching BP ad eventually being tried on the mound.





#35 - Reggie Smith



Reggie Smith cards can be found in commons boxes.  This guy was good.  He had a .287 career average and he hit 314 homers.  He was a seven-time all-star who received MVP votes in seven different seasons. 

Karate and quarter horses are different hobbies.  Do they go together?

He played Little League with Houston's Don Wilson, who is also included in the 1972 Kellogg's set.

Smith was known for his glove and strong arm.  He was second in assists to Carl Yastrzemski.  





#34 - Claude Osteen




Osteen's hobbies put us back to normal - fishing and golf.

He played a long time so there isn't much text.  All three cards in this post refer to other baseball people by name.  I like that.  Dodger manager Walt Alston thinks that he is one of the most consistent pitchers in baseball.   





Sunday, April 1, 2018

Big News on 1976 Kellogg's Cards #1, #2 and #3

I found out today why 1976 Kellogg's baseball cards #1 (Steve Hargan), #2 Claudell Washington and #3 (Don Gullett) were not included in cereal boxes.  They were only included in factory sets.

Hargan's career was plagued by a bunch of injuries including carpal tunnel.  An avid collector himself, Hargan's carpal tunnel was constantly aggravated when he'd reach into a box of Frosted Flakes in search of the card stuck near the bottom of the box.  He was excited to be included in the set, but he based his decision to have his card only in the factory set on his volunteer work the the National Carpal Tunnel Research Group.


Claudell Washington, who struck out more times than anyone else against Nolan Ryan, had a different reason for being excluded from the 1976 Kellogg's set.  After his first all-star season in 1975 he wanted his card number in the set to be 15, his jersey number.  Dave Parker, who was third in the MVP voting in 1975, was already set with that card so Washington struck out again.  He finally relented when he heard that they were going to replace him with teammate Billy Williams.  I really would have liked to seen that Williams card even if it would have been a painful reminder that my favorite childhood player was in Oakland.


Don Gullett actually was okay with the number 3 in the set.  He was all-state in three sports in high school - football, basketball and baseball.  What was Don's issue?  After pitching the Reds to a game one win in the NLCS and getting two hits, a homer and three RBIs, Don insisted on having the card depict him as a slugger.  By the time he agreed to be shown as a pitcher it was too late for him to be included in the cereal boxes. 


In no other year did Kellogg's exclude a few of its cards from the cereal boxes.  Kellogg's spokesperson Sidd Finch assured kids in 1976 that this would never occur again.  He regretted not using the replacements that were planned - Billy Williams, Hamilton Porter, and Roy Hobbs.