Does Anyone Else Have a Chet Lemon Model Rawlings Glove or His Kellogg's Cards?

I think when I was a kid I had a Billy Williams model glove and then a Tom Seaver model.  In the 1980s I bought my last glove to be used to play baseball, a Chet Lemon model.  That glove continued with me to ballparks where I liked to sit in the outfield.  Batting practice was lots of fun back then.

I get lots of comments when I mention that I have a Chet Lemon model glove.  I guess people imagine that only Hall of Famers have contracts with glove manufacturers.  No one has ever mentioned the obvious problem with all of the gloves that I had - I'm left-handed and none of these players threw with their left hand.  

I was surprised that Lemon was included in three Kellogg's sets - 1980 to 1982.  He was the only White Sox player in the 1981 set.  Claudell Washington was with Lemon in the 1980 set and Carlton Fisk was in the 1982 set.  

Sorry for the blurry pictures.  I'm too tired to dig through the cards to find his cards.  

Lemon played from 1975 - 1990.  He played for the White Sox for seven years and then lasted 9 more years with the Tigers.  I didn't remember his lasting that long with Detroit.  

He was a three-time all-star who batted .300 three times, once while only playing 105 games in 1978.  He amassed 1,875 career hits.  Since he was primarily a centerfielder I'm surprised that he only had 58 career steals and that he was caught 76 times.  

He led the league in being hit by pitch four times.  He ranks 22nd all-time in this category.  

He was on the 1984 Tigers team that won the World Series.  He was 0-for-13 in the ALCS but he redeemed himself by going  5-for-17 in the World Series.  

Lemon still holds the AL record for most putouts by an outfielder in a season.  In 1977 he recorded 512 putouts.  He only played 149 games in the outfield that year.  That's well over three per game.   Only two other AL outfields have surpassed 491 putouts in a season.  One of the two was Dwayne Murphy who appeared in the 1982 Kellogg's set.  The other was Dom Dimaggio, brother of Joe and Vince.  

I like the 10 players that the computer used by Baseball-reference.com comes up with as most similar to Lemon.  That reminds me of what a good player Lemon was.  Here is the list.

1. Johnny Callison (928)
2. Bobby Murcer (917)
3. Jeff Conine (916)
4. Amos Otis (915)
5. Gus Bell (913)
6. Dusty Baker (913)
7. Felipe Alou (910)
8. Devon White (910)
9. Richie Hebner (907)
10. Gary Matthews (903)

Happy Birthday to Davey Johnson - He Only Had Kellogg's Cards in 1972 and 1974

I remember Davey Johnson as both a player and a manager since I'm getting old quickly.  Johnson played from 1965 - 1978 but some of that time in 1975 and all of the 1976 season he played in Japan.

Johnson was a four-time all-star.  He added three Gold Gloves.  He played most of his games as second base.

Johnson's career stats probably would have raised suspicions or showed that hitting homers in the NL is certainly easier than in the AL.  He hit 26 homers from 1966-68, 40 from 1969-72 and then 43 homers in 1973, his first year with the Braves.  How about that?  He then hit 15 the next year.

That 1973 Braves team had three guys hit at least 40 homers.  Hank Aaron and Darrell Evans joined Johnson.

He played for Baltimore, Atlanta, Philadelphia and the Cubs.  He managed for 17 years with the Mets, Reds, Orioles, Dodgers and Nationals.  He was the manager of the 1986 Mets that won the World Series in dramatic fashion.

Quotes That Should Be on the Back of a Kellogg's Card - Round 2

I had fun reading the quotes yesterday so I figured two days in a row could be fun.  After that I will get to answering some of the questions I posed recently.

Here are a few more quotes.

Lou Brock said  "First base is nowhere".  He's thinking that stealing second and third puts him in a better place.  I always like quotes that can combine baseball and running.  This quote could use one of those cartoons that were found on Topps cards in the 1970s.

Ron Fairly when being asked about losing his speed said "There was nothing to lose".  Lots of players have said something along these lines.

Fairly stole 35 bases in 21 seasons.  For those who aren't great at math that is between 1 and 2 per season.  For those who like math that is 1.67 per season.

Brock had a few more steals.  He finished with 938 steals in 19 years.  He averaged 49 per season which is more than Fairly had in his career.  

Brock's middle name is Clark.  I'll need to look more into that someday.

Quotes That Should Be on the Back of a Kellogg's Card - Round 1

It would be great if Kellogg's had put some great quotes on the back of their cards.  I'm going to see if I can find quotes from players who had a Kellogg's card.  I will not worry about whether the quote actually occurred chronologically before the Kellogg's card.

Baseball quotes are easy to find.  One of my favorite books of baseball quotes is called Voices of Baseball by Bob Chieger.  It is always fun to skim through on a quiet day.

Five quotes shown on the back cover are from players who appear on a Kellogg's card - Babe Ruth, Rogers Hornsby, Tug McGraw, Dan Quisenberry and Yogi Berra.  I will check those out sometime.

Today I'm going to check out quotes that are fan-related.

Reggie Jackson will lead the way with his quote.  He said "Fans don't boo nobodies".  I like that one because it sounds stupid but it certainly rings true.

Referring to autographs, Babe Ruth said "Oh, hell, who wants to collect that crap?"  He sure did sign a lot of them.  I was lucky enough to hold a ball signed by the entire 1927 Yankees and another signed by Ruth, Gehrig and a few others.  How did I get so fortunate?  My friend's grandmother went to Columbia University and became friends with a ballplayer named Henry who ended up playing with the Yankees.  Luckily for my friend her grandmother's friend was better known as Lou Gehrig.

I doubt that I will ever see that ball again since I haven't seen my friend in many years.  If someone held a ball like that today they'd at least have a nice picture of the event.

More League Leaders and Kellogg's Cards

So, a few pitchers didn't get a Kellogg's card even though they led the league in wins.  That didn't happen as much with hitters.  Every hitter that led the league in homers or hits from 1969 to 1982 managed to find their way into a Kellogg's set.

Players leading the league in batting also get great recognition from Kellogg's.  Only one player managed to win a batting title without getting onto a regular-issue Kellogg's card.  Many years later he ended up on a 1991 Kellogg's set.  Can you name him?

Leading the league in saves did very little to help a pitcher get noticed.  That goes for everything from the all-star team to the Hall of Fame to Kellogg's sets.  There were 17 relief pitchers that led or tied for the league lead in saves from 1969 to 1982.  Only nine of them found their way into a Kellogg's set.

The nine relief pitchers shown in a Kellogg's set are Bruce Sutter, Rollie Fingers, Clay Carroll, Dan Quisenberry, Rich Gossage, Sparky Lyle, Al Hrabosky, Mike Marshall and John Hiller.  Good luck naming the other eight relief pitchers.  Two of them actual had two years of leading the league and still no Kellogg's cards.

League Leaders in Wins Who DIdn't Get a Kellogg's Baseball Card the Next Year (or at all!)

I was checking the league leader list for wins and I was surprised that there were some leaders who didn't manage to get a Kellogg's baseball card.  I won't count the strike-shortened year of 1981 when the AL had four tied for the league lead with 14 wins - D. Martinez, S. McCatty, J. Morris and P. Vuckovich.  Morris appeared the next year but Vuckovich appeared in 1983.

There were four league leaders in wins from 1969 to 1982 that didn't appear on a Kellogg's card.

One player had Won-Loss records in consecutive years of 15-7, 17-10, 20-12, 21-17, 14-12, 20-11 and 13-11 during the Kellogg's era.  Three twenty win seasons in the AL wasn't enough to get him into a Kellogg's set.  Can you name him?

Another player led the league in wins in 1982 and 1983 but didn't get into the 1983 set.  Maybe that was okay since he led the AL in losses the next season.  Do you have a name for this guy?

The third pitcher tied for the league lead in wins with his brother and then he won 20 games again the next season.  The player in question finished second in the Cy Young voting and his brother finished 6th.  Who is this brother mentioned in an earlier post?

The last guy led the league winning 24 games one year while losing only seven.  That only got him third in the MVP voting.  His previous season was 14-7.  The following season he was 3-15 - ouch.  This is the one I couldn't figure out, can you?

Kellogg's Cereal Box Dream #20 - Who is Wally Bunker?

Before getting this card, most of what I knew about Wally Bunker was from his 1970 Topps Storybook.  Those were a great read.  

I didn't know much about him due to my age and his playing only in the AL.  Like lots of pitchers before the 1980s, his career ended due to arm problems.  He didn't pitch after age 26.  

Wally turns 71 today.  Happy Birthday to a guy pitching in the majors at age 19.  

1970 Kellogg's Wally Bunker #70


1970 Rating                    -- 3  comment -- an okay player but I only know the stars at my age.  

2015 Rating                    -- 4  comment --   You are either in the Hall of Fame or you are a                                                              common.  I disagree with that and I enjoyed learning about him.


Bunker was 19-5 as a rookie in 1964.  He finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting to Tony Oliva.  The player to hit the most homers off of Bunker (5) was Oliva of course.

Bunker threw a shutout in the World Series for the Orioles.  He was taken by the Royal in the 1968 Expansion Draft.  He was the starting pitcher in the Royals first game.  

Kellogg's selected at least one player from each team for their inaugural set in 1970.  Bunker was the only Royal selected after a record of 12-11 in 1969.  Like most expansion teams, there weren't any obvious choices for Kellogg's.