1980 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs - #34 - 36

 Back for three more 1980 Kellogg's baseball cards.  Yes, I am sitting home on New Year's Eve.  Luckily, that is the norm for me and it has always been the case.  

#36 - Cesar Cedeno

Oops.  The auto-detect didn't recognize the white border as part of the card.  I didn't correct that until later.  

I remember him being very good in centerfield as well as being a regular all-star with lots of steals.  It turns out he was an all-star four times and he won five Gold Gloves.  He also had 550 career stolen bases, good for 27th all-time.  

The back is a bit blurry but I don't want to re-do it.  I didn't notice that the front listed him as playing first base and centerfield.  He starting playing first base in 1979 and that slipped by me.  The card mentions him recovering from knee surgery.  That explains the position switch.

#35 - Pete Rose

This is the first Pete Rose card that shows him as a member of the Phillies on the front.  He is listed as playing first base.  Unlike Cedeno, I remember Rose him switching positions throughout his career and being an all-star at each position.

Rose had his 15th season of hitting at least .300 in 1979.  Ty Cobb did it 23 consecutive times.  I like that Kellogg's called him "Charlie Hustle" with his pursuit of Stan Musial's N.L. hit record.  

He was the first play to get 200 hits in 10 seasons.  Ichiro Suzuki did that in his first 10 seasons but never was able to pass Rose.  Cobb did this nine times, but remember Cobb played 154 (ish) games in a season and there were two seasons where the Tigers played a lot less games (1918-1919).  

36 - Claudell Washington

I don't remember him being around the White Sox for very long.  Maybe I missed something since I was caddying a lot at this point.  When I looked him up on baseball-reference.com I figured there would be less Claudells than Washingtons.  I found out that he is the only Claudell on the database.

He had three years of injuries from 1977 - 1979.  He jumped to the majors with the A's after only 215 games in the minors.  Baseball-reference.com shows him still being 19 years old when he made that debut.

He only played 32 games with the White Sox in 1980 before being traded for a minor leaguer.  He played 17 years in the majors for seven different teams.  

He passed away this year.  Check out his 1976 Topps and Kellogg's cards where he can be found wearing the A's green and yellow uniform.  

Taking a Break to Look at One Of My Sets That Gets Neglected - 1975 Topps

I made it a goal to not ignore my original card collection just because I spend most of my time now on Kellogg's and Sportscaster cards.  Today I grabbed the 1975 Topps baseball card set.  It's been a long time since I looked at it.  Here are my thoughts from this 30 minutes of fun.  

I made my set by buying packs and trading beginning in 1971.  I eventually worked my way back to 1969.  I stopped making sets by the late 1980s when there were too many to track.  Since my room is getting more organized I might get back to working on the 1968 set.  

No-hitter highlights.  Whenever something big happened, my brother and I would find out before going out to deliver the daily papers to our 100+ customers.  That would slow us a bit since we'd read every story about a no-hitter or any other great game.  No ESPN highlights were around in 1974 and the news usually spent a few seconds on out-of-town sporting events.   

It was hard to see this card, especially for my older brother who was a long-time Cub fan before me.  

The Cubs of my childhood were just about done.  I couldn't even add the Billy Williams here.

There are so many great things about this card.  I like the uniform, the fact that they took the picture outside of an MLB stadium and even trees.

Everyone who played baseball with us knew who the MVPs were from 1951 to 1974 because Topps told us.  We also knew that the first year of Topps cards was 1951 and we made sure to get some.  

We didn't see the Brewers much as Comiskey.  Even though they are about 90 miles away, they played in the A.L. East.  The White Sox were in the West with Minnesota, Oakland, California, Kansas City and Texas.  

We all knew Ken Brett since he was a starting pitcher for the Pirates.  

Not only the Cubs did the odd team pictures.

Okay, now the truth.  This set was not collated by me.  This checklist proves it.  I always filled these in since I didn't have Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, a typewriter or even a notebook.  My set is in much worse condition that this one that I bought from an older neighbor sometime around 1976.  

I didn't order the checklists, but I think I've gotten them somehow.  I need to look for them and put them with this set if I have them.  

When I got to card number 288 I stopped.  Why?   I didn't recognize the picture or the pitcher.  Time to find out more about Bruce Ellingsen.  He was drafted by the Dodgers in 1967 and finally made it to the big leagues in 1974.  He went 1-1 in 16 games and never played in the majors again.

As I finished looking up Bruce I found something that will help me remember him.  The Dodgers traded him to the Indians in 1974 for Pedro Guerrero who was 17 at the time.  Pedro must have signed at age 16.  

This is a great card.  The donut is a nice touch.  The only thing better today would be how they manage to also keep shadows off their faces. 

There were a bunch of cards centered like the Seaver below.  We didn't care about that much in 1975.

The only card in the set with a rough cut on the right edge.  I didn't look close enough to see how many cards in the set would need an upgrade but one of my favorites, Bill Madlock, needs an upgrade.

Everything is great with the Dick Allen card including the helmet and the star denoting him as being an all-star.

I wasn't a track runner yet, but Herb was.  

Kids today can easily mimic the players they see constantly on television.  We didn't have that but we had their cards to help us think we could be like them.  We certainly noticed that Paciorek had the hat in his back pocket.  

We always read the backs of these cards.  I only looked at four of the backs.  The checklist above, the Yount and Brett to check for conditions and the Tom House below.  I knew that there was a mention of Tom's greatest accomplishment as an active player.  

That was fun.  Now I know why I kept all of those sets.  FYI, the cards are still in the same box for a long time.  The original box had those tabs on the bottom of the inside of the box.  I got rid of that as soon as the new style was available.  

Cards from Cereal Boxes

1970 Front - none; Back - large T. Seaver; small Short, Jackson, Kaline, Banks; Laboy, McDowell, Fregosi, Clemente
1970 Front - none; Back - large - B. Robinson; small Harper, Wynn, Petrocelli, Rose;

1971

1972

1973

1974 Back - Monday, Jackson, Fisk, Palmer, Singleton, Bonds;

1975

1976

1977 Front - Madlock; Back - Luzinski, Jenkins, Garr, Kingman, R. Jones, Rivers, Fidrych;
1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

1991

1992

1994

1970 

1971 FB front - none; back - large card C. Morton ; 6 small cards -;
1971 FB front - none; back - large card G. Blanda; 6 small cards - ;

1980 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs #37 - 38 Stearns & Mazzilli

I haven't done this since April.  I had two reasons for working my way through all of the Kellogg's cards and talking about the back.  First, I wanted to have a scan of every card.  Second, I want to go back to my early collecting days when I always read the back of every card - and everything on the cereal box too.

#38 - Lee Mazzilli

What do I remember about Lee Mazzilli?  One year he was near the lead league in batting average for a while.  It must have been 1979 to get him into this set.

I didn't remember hearing that his hobby was speed skating.  I read that he won some age-group nationals titles as a youngster.  

Back to 1979.  On July 4th he was hitting .336.  He did finish with a solid .303 for the season. 

That hot start in 1979 got him his only All-Star Game recognition.  He made the most of it.  Baseball-reference.com lists his two at-bats as the top two plays of the game.  In the eighth inning he tied the game with a solo homer and in the ninth he was walked and the go-ahead (and winning) run scored.  Dave Parker won the game's MVP award by throwing out a runner at third and another at home plate, the latter to end the eighth inning.    

I was surprised to find out that Mazzilli played for 14 seasons.  

Kellogg's reminded us about how the Mets had a "negative season".  Ouch, they won only 63 games.  Dave Kingman's 48 homers helped the Cubs finish 5th (of 6) and 17 games ahead of the Mets.

He added 34 stolen bases in 1979.  He notched a career-high the next year with 41.

My favorite comment on the back - "signed for a reported $50,".  Oh wait, they put the three additional zeroes on the next line.  

#37 - John Stearns

Two Mets in a row.  I don't like how that looks in my binder.  Stearns was a defensive back in college and had an offer from the Buffalo Bills.  

He was drafted out of high school but didn't sign.  Then was drafted in the first round of the June, 1973 draft as the second choice.  Lee Mazzilli was the 14th choice in the first round.  David Clyde was taken first and Robin Yount (3rd) and Dave Winfield (4th) followed Stearns.  A few other MLB guys were taken in that round including one of my favorites - Steve Swisher (21st to the White Sox).

The card notes that he can play almost any position.  

Stearns was a four-time all-star.  I would have guessed that Mazzilli had more than Stearns.  His football speed showed as he had 91 career stolen bases, which is solid for a catcher.  

Stearns came to the Mets from the Phillies in a trade that sent Tug McGraw to Philadelphia.

Collecting Goals for 2021

 I finally sorted a shoebox full of Sportscaster cards that I purchased in April.  Those take way too long to sort due to the large set size, the small card numbers and the thin card stock.  Can I even call it card stock when it is really paper stock?

Since I have next week off I will probably be able to spend more time with my Kellogg's cards.  

For 2021 I've got a few goals for my collecting.

1. Attend card shows.  That didn't really happen this year for obvious reasons.  

2. Attend flea markets.  The one I usually attend never did open.  Even if it did, I had no assistant for my golf course job so I probably would not have gotten any time to go.  Related goal - find an assistant to help me at the golf course once a week.  

3.  Attend the National since it is 30 minutes from my house.  One year I had already planned a team camp during the week of the National so I only got to go on Sunday.  I'd like to get two days since it is close.  That would give me time to actually dig through boxes to find things from my want list.

4.  Meet up with some bloggers at the National.  Let me know if you are going to attend.

5.  Work on my want lists.  This is way down the list because even though it is fun, it isn't a big deal how long it takes me to to get these items.

6.  Work on my other collecting interests - Sportscaster cards, Hostess boxes, Western Open items (golf) and Starting Lineups.

Are any of you going to the National if it happens and if the world is vaccinated by that time?

More Organizing With Hopes of Card Shows in 2021

I find it easier to keep track of what I am looking of by having it here on the blog.  With that in mind and with hopes of card shows sometime next year, I've been adding to the list of cards that I am trying to find next year.  I will keep adding to this as I get organized more.  It worked well at the last show I attended because the phone is easier to check than a bunch of lists.  

Why do I sometimes get extra sets?  I tend to buy cards in lots so I end up with doubles.  If that gets me close to a set, it gives me something to do while slowly trying to complete sets that are taking a long time - variations from 1971 and 1979, unopened packs and other items that don't show up often. 

I hope to be doing some trading and purchasing next year using these lists.  Let me know if you can help.

I love the strip of 1970 cards above, but I am trying to collect nice versions of the cards other than 1971s at this point.  Why?  It isn't my favorite set and it is so much more expensive than the others in nice condition.  

Maybe in 2021 I will at least start to track how many of the 1971s I even have in nice condition.  I would guess that the number will be less than 20.  I do have the entire football set in nice shape - to PSA-10 quality but I do believe that that are clean and uncracked.  

 

One Collecting Goal for 2021 - Cereal Boxes

I picked up another box recently.  By recently I mean I ordered it a while ago and it finally arrived.  USPS is certainly having some issues.  When ebay starts their new $1.00 tracked shipping option that might not help either - .ebay Standard Envelope for Cheap Cards.

I'd like to get every box that was issued, but that will be quite a challenge.  I would settle for pictures of the boxes.  I prefer the entire box to just getting the back panel.  

If anyone has pictures please send along the fronts and the backs to my e-mail which is shown at the top of the blog - runforekelloggs@gmail.com.

Just like with Hostess, different Kellogg's products offered the cards some years.  The boxes are not all even the same size.  

I will add pictures to this post during the week ahead.

Does anyone else collect these boxes?  Is the back panel enough or do you collect the entire box?

So far I've seen the following different backs - regardless of the front.  Please pass along any additions to this list that you know about.  

I am labelling the box by a card on the back.  It could be the biggest card (1970), the card on top (1972), the card on the top left (1974) or the card in Tony's hand (1977).  

BASEBALL

1970 Tom Seaver, Brooks Robinson, Harmon Killebrew

1971 Billy Williams, Pete Rose, Bob Gibson

1972 Vida Blue, Joe Torre

1973 Billy Williams, Dick Allen

1974 Wilbur Wood, Rick Monday (card on the left)

1975

1976

1977 Mark Fidrych, Bill Madlock, Pete Rose

1978 Willie McCovey, George Brett, Frank Tanana (card on the top left)

1979 J.R. Richard, Paul Molitor  (card on the top left)

1980 Pete Rose, George Brett (card on the left)

1981

1982

1983 Robin Yount (card on the left)

FOOTBALL

1970 Dick Butkus, Len Dawson

1971 Craig Morton, George Blanda

OTHERS

1991 Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Yogi Berra, Lou Brock, Steve Carlton, Bob Gibson

1992 Tom Seaver (USA and Canada)

Unique Items at Auction - Prices Cannot Be Predicted

 Check out this recently-completed ebay auction.  

1970 Rold Gold Display - Babe Ruth

Sorry if there is a redirect. 

If you don' want to head there, here are some pictures from the auction.

Until recently, I'd never seen the back of this display.  I have the Babe Ruth  and the cards that go with it.  I really like the catcher and umpire and what they add to the display.  

The price of $550, which includes shipping, was way beyond what I would pay as well as being a lot higher price than I would expect to see.  One can never tell when the item is unique.  

If anyone sees that catcher/umpire display let me know.  

There must be other displays like this for other Kellogg's/Hostess sets.  Has anyone seen other store displays other than this one, which officially isn't even a Kellogg's item.  

 

Kellogg's Cards Competed With Hostess Cards from 1975-1979

 I was fortunate enough to be a kid during the Kellogg's and Hostess eras.  I collected both of these as much as possible.  With the Hostess cards I almost always cut out the cards from the panel.  Now I've been collecting the complete boxes.  

These boxes tend to be sold for some big bucks, so I am not chasing them very aggressively.  I've had a few opportunities to pick up small lots of these.  In doing so I've gotten a few duplicates.  If anyone would like to trade let me know.  I can come up with a list of duplicates.  

Does anyone else collect these full boxes?

Do people try to collect all of the different products/box combinations for each player?  

Does anyone ever see these for sale?

The 1976 Hostess set, shown above, is my favorite one. 

We had Ding Dongs in the Chicago area, but I'd never heard of Choco-Diles.  I am guessing that they were like chocolate Zingers.  

I really shouldn't be thinking about my favorites since I am trying to eat better.  Grabbing a Ding Dong, okay two, from the freezer really would be good about now.  

UPDATE - I saw a few lots were added on ebay yesterday, but I'm not ready to pay $10+ per box.  I have no idea about the value of the boxes, but I am certainly patient with this pursuit.

As one can see from my counts, I don't have lots of the full boxes or full back panels yet.   I do have duplicates from each year but shipping them isn't easy/cheap.

2008 Kellogg's Autographs Questions

When I look at these cards, all I've ever seen are autographed versions.  I seem to remember them being only offered that way.  Does anyone know of versions that were not autographed?

If all of the cards are autographed, does it matter if the COA accompanies the card?

Since the COA isn't on the back of the card, does it ever help at all?

What cards have you seen from this set?  Bettis, Rice, Theismann.  

I Never Got This in 1973. It Looks Like it Has Been Left Outside for 47 Years

 I bought a 1973 Kellogg's Factory set a while back.  It is in really rough shape as you will soon see.  With that in mind, I decided to open it for a bit of fun and research.

I have an uncut sheet of two factory sets which are in card number order as shown below.

Kellogg's used a different printer for these 2-D cards.  It is odd to see the cards on the sheet in number order since that hasn't been the norm with Kellogg's sheets.  I am accustomed to seeing repeating cards on the same sheet as seen below.  Not all of the years repeated the cards in number order like the 1970s sheet shows.  I will need to check on that with other sheets.  

Having only 15 different players on a sheet probably explains why we kept seeing the same group of cards in cereal boxes in our neighborhood back in the 1970s.

My expectations are low for opening this set because this box has destroyed by time, mold and/or some kind of animal.  I am going to look at this set opening to help me with any future damaged packages. 

The back doesn't look so bad.  

 

On the front it is apparent that the edges are ruined.  

Here are the reasons the set was cheap.  Lots of problems with the last picture above.  

Things I wonder about with this box

What order will the sheets be stacked?  

Which sheets will be damaged the most?  Will damage be only on one side?

Will the sheets remain intact?  

Will different sheets be connected?

Are there any creatures still living in this box?

If you skipped the video because I went on too long (nearly six minutes) here is a summary.  

I thought the fronts of the cards looked great.  Lots of nice colors.  This was a bit of a surprise.

The backs were as I thought they might be - damaged.  The Rose card had the its back up against other cards.  What was different about the front of the card that caused it to resist the staining?

Many of the other cards backs were stained as well.  They sets were stored in the packaging as shown.  I haven't gotten any factory sets with the mailing box older than 1978.  It would be great to find some sets that were stored in the sturdy mailer provided by Kellogg's.  

Time to check out other sheets to see how the card order changed over the years.

Opening a Single-Card Kellogg's Baseball Pack - 1980 Kellogg's Pack Mike Flanagan

In 1980 the Kellogg's packs were sealed differently than in other years.  It hasn't worked out well for those who collected unopened packs.  Why?  When I picked up a Rod Carew card the two pieces separated and the card was no longer in the package.  I have gotten these cards from at least five different sources where this happened, so I think this is a common problem.

As one can see from the video, the front and back wrappers can easily separate while the card is still inside.  I have a bunch of these cards that have this same problem.  Lots of these wrappers are also discolored which makes them look bad compared to a clean wrapper.  

I don't know what Kellogg's did differently but I suspect they did so to save money.  Does anyone know about this?

When opening a pack from any previous year one had to actually tear the wrapper.  Notice in the video how it easily separated into two pieces.  Luckily, there are not any expensive cards in this set because I wouldn't trust them as original packs.  

I am not really using the YouTube channel much, but I wanted to test it since I plan to do something big over the weekend.  I have an unopened 1973 Kellogg's set in the original mailer.  Why do I plan to open it?  The package has been severely damaged so I didn't pay much for it.  I thought it would be fun since my parents would never fork over money to get me a complete set when I was a kid.

Sometime around 1973 I wanted to send away for two Hot Wheels cards.  I remember that it was 25 cents for the Snake and Mongoose cars.  That never happened for me.  Did anyone get those?  

Here is the only video I put on this YouTube channel before today.  It's a great commercial.  

Dick Butkus Commercial

So These Aren't Really Kellogg's Cards They Are .....

called Fact Slides.  It says so on the box.  I need to get one of these boxes.  

Here are some images of these fantastic "cards"

The facts slide out of the card.  

I found out that there is also a similar set of soccer fact slides.  I might pick them up if I find them cheap.  FYI - I have no idea what a fair price is for any of these but as a track and field fan I think that they are great.