These 1980 cards are annoying to scan. With that in mind I decided to just scan all of them so I won't have to be frustrated again. I decided to not worry about whether they are perfect or not. The more narrow card is not as easy to utilize in the scanner. Back to look at three more cards from the set.
#33 - Steve Kemp
Being in Chicago, A.L. East guys were the ones I knew the least about. Kemp definitely fit into that group. He did have one good season with the White Sox later.
This the first year where I've struggled to get good scans of the card backs. It's also the only year where I have trouble reading the backs on my own.
He only played 125 minor league games after being a first round draft choice. Kellogg's said it would have been less had he not had an ankle injury in 1976.
The card mentioned that he competed for batting honors (.318) in 1979. He was eighth to Fred Lynn's .333.
#32 - Dave Winfield
It is more fun to write about guys who only have one Kellogg's card. That keeps me from repeating things. Luckily, Kellogg's put lots of comments on the back so I will stick to those.
The card reminded us that he was drafted by the NBA, ABA and NFL as well as being a first-round pick of the Padres. I remember the ABA but I forgot about him being drafted there as well.
Also mentioned on the back - his .444 average in all-star games, his NL RBI crown, his strong throwing arm, his Gold Glove award and his speed on the bases.
#33 - Steve Garvey
Like Winfield, Garvey appeared on a bunch of Kellogg's cards. At least I don't have to see him in a Padre uniform on any of them.
I remember that he had a consecutive games streak going for a number of years. Why do I remember that? He eclipsed the mark of Cub Billy Williams, one of my favorite players. Garvey still holds the N.L. record in this category.
"The Dodgers didn't do as well as Steve did...". Nice way to start the story on the back. The Dodgers were in the World Series in 1977 and 1978. They finished 79-83 in 1979.
Steve had a great career going. He had 200 hits for the fifth time and he hit .300 for the sixth time in his seven seasons.
His consecutive game streak is mentioned as well - 672 games and counting. I think it was mentioned on another Kellogg's card but it is nice to repeat - he has a school named after him already.
Garvey ended up being a 10-time all-star. He was the 1974 N.L. MVP. He received MVP votes in nine different seasons including eight in a row from 1974 to 1981.
I'd always expected him to get more Hall of Fame votes. He started out getting around 40% for a few years and then the numbers dropped. In today's voting if he started over 40% on year one he'd have no problem getting enough votes in future years.
Whoever was in charge of writing up the summaries on those card backs deserves a pat on the back. They did a great job.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to have varied immensely over the years. They certainly didn't take the easiest, quickest approach. I appreciate that they seem to be interested in the player's story.
ReplyDeleteI doubt he wrote them, but the backs sound a lot like the writing of Zander Hollander, who used to compile yearly paragraph-sized capsules of MLB and NBA (among other sports) players. He mainly wrote about achievement, but had the gift of choosing the most interesting details when he talked about the players' personal lives. He was an excellent writer, too, like many of the people who wrote these summaries were. It strikes me now that there's a form of writing called the encyclopedia or baseball-card-back genre, and these guys were good at it.
ReplyDeleteWinfield purchased my ticket for the 1983 All-Star game!
I never heard about those genres. I also didn't know that Dave Winfield buying the ticket that you had for the All-Star game in 1983. That's awesome.
ReplyDelete