Wow, the 1981 Kellogg's Set Has Lots of Player Write-Ups on the Back

I'm finally going to start looking at the back of the Kellogg's cards for this blog.  I started with the 1981 Kellogg's set since I've got more of these cards than any other year.  I bought a lot of them in two purchases a few years ago.

I found lots to write about from reading the backs so today I will only talk about cards #55 - #66. Subsequent posts will cover nine cards at a time as they are displayed on standard 9-pocket pages.

#66 Mike Hargrove - didn't play baseball in high school since his school didn't have a team.  After playing at Northwestern Oklahoma State University the Rangers took at chance on him in the 25th round of the draft.  Two years later he won the AL Rookie of the Year Award in what his Kellogg's card calls a "Cinderella Story".  Not on the card - This card did come out a year after Caddyshack.  Did they steal Carl Spacker's Cinderella Story line?

#65 Johnny Bench - it was mentioned that he'd have a good shot at 400 homers.  Not on the card - He finished with 389.

#64 Buddy Bell - the card mentions that his father (Gus) played in the majors and that his grandfather also played professionally (not in MLB).  Not on the card - Two of Buddy's boys (David, Mike) played in the majors as well.  Gus out-homered Buddy 206-201.  Buddy (5) got named to more all-star games than his dad who had four.  David added 123 homers and Mike accounted for two more.  That's a nice family total of 532.  

#63 Pete Rose - is only 74 hits from breaking Stan Musial's NL hit record.  

#62 Bruce Bochte - had 1,033 chances in a row at 1B without an error.  That was a team record.  Not on the card - The MLB record is 2,379.    

#61 Bob Horner - was labelled as the next MLB home run king.  Not on the card - He did hit 218 homers but he never stayed healthy enough to play more than 141 games in a season.  

#60 Mike Flanagan - his father and grandfather both played in the minors.  

#59 Larry Gura - it says he spent the first six years of his pro career trying to convince the world that he could pitch.  Not on the card - He never exceeded 65 innings in any of those seasons.  

#58 Steve Stone - owns a chain of restaurants.  He also had poetry published.  His college catcher was Thurman Munson.  

#57 Robin Yount - is expected to be the youngest player (age 25) to appear in 1,000 MLB games during the 1981 season.  Not on the card - He needed 12 games and since the strike was in mid-season I assume he earned that distinction.    

#56 Bruce Sutter - it took him six years to get our of the minors with the Cubs.  He is shown as a Cub in the photo but the trade to St. Louis is mentioned.   

#55 Rick Langford - he pitched 290 innings and had 28 complete games including 22 in a row, the most in a row since 1904.  Not on the card - Since 1904 only 497 times has a pitcher recorded more than 22 complete games in a season.  None have happened since 1980 and most were before WWII.  The most complete games in a season since 1981 is 21 by Ron Guidry in 1983.