1980 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs - #40 Fred Lynn

Lynn won his first batting title in 1979.  

Not on the card - he played 11 more seasons and never surpassed .301.  His career average was .283.

He only played 177 minor league games.  

Lynn's career is hard to define.  As a kid I was really excited to get his cards.  When I think about his career now, I think of his cards in the commons boxes at card shows.

He was a nine-time all-star.  Throw in four Gold Glove awards and his 1975 Rookie of the Year and MVP awards.

Since I've been looking at MVP votes to see what others thought of the player, I will do that with Lynn.  After his impressive 1979 season he was fourth in the MVP voting.  He received MVP votes in only two other seasons and neither time he finished in the top 20.

In 1979 Don Baylor won the MVP.  Ken Singleton and George Brett finished ahead of Lynn. 

Sadly, our hobby now sees guys as Hall of Famers or commons.  Lynn hit 306 homers to go with all of the other things mentioned above. 

What Else Do You Collect?

Kellogg's cards have been in my collection since 1970.  They were not my primary focus for most of my collecting years. 

I've been cleaning up a lot of my collectible stuff since I'm stuck at home.  With another month of that ahead I am looking forward to more organization.  The stuff that I am looking for never seems to be around at card shows.  Well, card shows don't really exist now either.  Maybe someday. 

Besides Kellogg's cards I am actively looking for Sportscaster cards and Hostess boxes with the cards on the back.  I really prefer the entire box, which makes it difficult.  I don't think I've gotten a new one in over a year.

When I get into the attic I will clean up my Starting Lineup collection.  I've got way too many of those.  That was really fun for me since I spent time with my younger brother on that.  I still would pick up some of them outside of the package if I saw them. 

I always look for track and field stuff, especially things that I can display in my exercise room.  With all of the time at home I am hoping to get lots of stuff mounted on the walls of that room.

I am still seeking odd items from the Western Open golf tournament and anything Chick Evans items.

What items do you seek and rarely see at a card show?

1980 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs - #41 Carlton Fisk

I didn't know that Fisk had relatives in MLB (Rick Miller) and in the NFL (Dave Jennings).  

Not on the card - Fisk and Miller were teammates for six years in Boston.  

Fisk was always my sister's favorite player on the White Sox. 

I didn't remember Fisk missing so many games that year.  He missed a lot of games in 1974, 1975, 1984, 1988 and 1989.  Baseball-Reference.com always lists a player's 162-game average and Fisk's doesn't match up to his career numbers due to him missing so many games. I will compare him to a few others who played around the same time (same strike seasons, etc.).

Fisk

Home Runs - 378
Seasons - 24
Average per season - 15.8
Average per 162 games - 24  (51.9% more)

Mike Schmidt

Home Runs - 548
Seasons - 18
Average per season - 30.4
Average per 162 games - 37 (21.7% more)

George Brett

Home Runs - 317
Seasons - 21
Average per season - 15.1
Average per 162 games - 37 (25.8% more)

Ron Cey

Home Runs - 316
Seasons - 17
Average per season - 18.6
Average per 162 games - 25 (34.4% more)

Why Did Kellogg's Do That?

In 1977 I'd be checking out the back of the cereal box while hurrying through some Frosted Flakes before walking the paper route and heading to the golf course to caddie.  Yes, we had to walk the route and put the paper either between the doors or in the mailbox - give the customer what they want.  

Kellogg's didn't do the best job of selecting players for us kids to see when diving in to find our 3-D card.  At no point in 1977 would I have been happy to get the six guys shown above Pete Rose.

On the box below I would have been happy to get Brett or Madlock and I would have been okay with a Ron Cey. 

When I posted about years with the least amount of players who appeared in more than one Kellogg's set, this set came to mind immediately.  As far as the other years I had no idea.  Here is what I found - of course, I could have miscounted a bit. 

Least cards depicting players who appeared in another set - 41

1974 and 1977.  Since 1977 has three more cards in its set, it has the lower percentage.

The 1981 set had the most repeaters with 57.  That doesn't surprise me since the player selection seems really good in that set.   But, the 1973 set, with 49 repeaters in a set of only 54, has the highest percentage of any year. 

I was expecting some sets to have a lot less repeaters. 

1980 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs - #42 Vida Blue

I stopped working through this set for a few reasons.  Back to the countdown with #42 Vida Blue.

A switch-hitting pitcher.  Isn't that great, especially since he was in the A.L. from 1973 to 1977 with the DH rule in place.  Wait, he hit .104 in his career.  I would have thought that he was a switch-hitter because he was good at the plate.

His MVP/Cy Young season of 1970 is mentioned.  I didn't realize that he only pitched 39 innings during the previous season.  He only pitched 42 in the 1968 season, so he really was a new guy when he took both awards.  He was not too many innings over the rookie limit.

Not on the card - he didn't even lead the league in wins in 1971.  Mickey Lolich was 25-14.

In 1971 Harmon Killebrew led the league with 119 RBIs.  He was the only guy to top 100.  He finished tied for 21st in the MVP voting (28 HR, .254 average).

For those who look at WAR, Wilbur Wood posted the highest one - 11.0.

Kellogg's Card Set Questions

In an effort to keep my brain going at home I came up with the following questions about Kellogg's cards.  See if you can answer them without looking them up.  Only one came to mind when I did this and it was correct for one of these.

1.  Which Kellogg's set has the most players that are also featured in another year (1970 to 1983)?

2.  Which Kellogg's set has the least number of players that were featured in another set?

3.  Since the number of cards varied in the sets, which sets featured the highest and lowest percentage of players that were also featured in another set?

4.  Do the sets with more repeats make them better in your opinion?  Do you prefer the sets with more players who appear in only one set?


Here is what I came up with for these sets.

Year	# repeats	# in Set
1981	57	66
1970	55	75
1980	53	60
1982	53	64
1971	52	75
1973	49	54
1975	47	57
1979	47	60
1983	47	60
1976	46	57
1978	46	57
1972	45	54
1974	41	54
1977	41	57

Searching For Others Who Pay Attention to Kellogg's Cards

I found this blog post today while looking for new information about Kellogg's cards.

https://captkirk42.blogspot.com/2019/09/cotw-1973-kelloggs-baseball-met.html

It mentions Tug McGraw and his 1973 Kellogg's card.  Tug was involved in a crazy game that I watched recently because that is all they show now - old sporting events. 

Here is the box score - https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN197905170.shtml from the 1979 game. 

What did I learn from watching the telecast?

1.  The umpires were on strike.  It was hinted that the strike zone enforcement had been iffy so pitchers ended up throwing for the middle of the plate.  That and the wind blowing out at Wrigley field made for a 23-22 game. 

2.  There were three pitchers in the game who later pitched the last out of a World Series victory for their team.  Can you guess who they are?

Not mentioned - another pitcher had two wins and a save in the 1975 World Series. 

3.  In the first inning the opposing pitchers not only both batted in the ninth spot, but one homered and the other got a triple.  Randy Lerch of the Phillies homered but didn't last through the first inning.  Lerch's box score - one run, one hit, one homer, one RBI and one out on the mound.  Dennis Lamp of the Cubs got one out too and a relief pitcher tripled in the first inning. 

Other things not mentioned -

1.  Bob Boone got two intentional walks and he was batting seventh, not eighth. 
2.  Dennis Lamp was the only starter to not get a hit.  That was only because he didn't last long enough to bat.  As mentioned earlier his replacement got a hit in the first inning so every position got a hit in this game. 
3.  Of the 11 pitchers in the game, only two gave up no runs.  The announcers made a big deal about the Phillies bringing in their closer, McGraw, in the fifth inning with his team leading 21-9.  It was 21-16 by the end of the inning. 

I hope that they show the Mike Schmidt four-homer game too (5th 7th, 8th, 10th innings).  I kept a box score of that one as a kid.  The Cubs led 12-0 after two innings.   McGraw got the win in that one even though he gave up two runs as he blew the save in the ninth inning.