1992 Kellogg's Basketball Checklist and Trading?

I'm trying to sort out some of my extras to start doing some trading.  In an earlier post (Who Wants To Trade Kellogg's Cards) I listed some cards that I have available to trade.

I've added more items to this list.  I recently picked up a few extra Kellogg's Basketball card sets from 1992.  The players in the 18-card set are listed below.  I'm up for trading individual cards or an entire set.

1.   Kenny Anderson
2.   Clyde Drexler
3.   Waymon Tisdale
4.   Horace Grant
5.   Kevin Johnson
6.   Karl Malone
7.   Larry Bird
8.   John Stockton
9.   Doug Smith
10. Mark Price
11. Hakeem Olajuwon
12. Charles Smith
13. Bernard King
14. Tim Hardaway
15. Spud Webb
16. Mark Macon
17. Scottie Pippen
18. Gary Payton  

Players are shown with their college affiliations.  The statistics on the back only include their college numbers.  This makes sense since the set is called College Basketball Greats.  I will discuss these players in detail in the future.

A Happy Birthday to Wille Mays

Happy Birthday to Willie Mays who turned 85 today.

I saw him at card shows a lot years ago, but I've never been one to pay for autographs, so I never had a conversation with him.  

I started getting lots of Kellogg's cards in 1973, so I didn't get many of his cards until I was older.  I did get a lot of his 1970's Topps cards as a kid.

I do like having all of the stats on the back of his 1972 Kellogg's card, but he only gets two lines of text for me to read.  

Mays can be seen on some of the Kellogg's advertising and I think I heard to he was on a TV commercial for Kellogg's cards.

I Could Find Something New About Cobb, Ruth and Gehrig For Almost Any Day of the Year

When searching for something to include I always find stuff about Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth.  Cy Young is another one who I see often in the blurbs that I find.  Once I'm through with school I will spend more time on the actual cards.  I've gotten a few new ones to show but I'm so busy with teaching and coaching that I don't get everything done.

Cobb appeared twice in the archives on this day.  In 1925 he went 6-for-6 in a game with 3 HRs and 16 total bases.  That's great, but that doesn't surprise me.  What does surprise me is what he did on this day in 1922.  On that day, Bob Fothergill became the only person to pinch-hit for Ty Cobb.

It's amazing to think that this guy pinch-hit for Cobb.  So what if he struck out.  He had over 1,000 career hits but not many before this game since his debut was just a few weeks earlier.

There's more.  Not only was this guy the only one to pinch-hit for Cobb, the manager that decided to put Fothergill in the game was Detroit manager Ty Cobb.   Baseball sure was interesting in those days.

I'll Take the 5th Over the 4th Anytime

This morning one of my students greeted me with "May the 4th be with you".  Now my son is watching one of the Star Wars movies that I have never seen.  Did I mention that it came out about 35 years ago?

Kellogg's made plenty of 3D baseball cards of players of hispanic heritage.  I don't think they made any named Hans, Solo, Luke, Skywalker, Yoda, Darth, Vader or Princess.  Did they get close?  Maybe someone who has seen the movies will have an idea.  That rules me out.

Jorge Orta and Fernando Valenzuela were both born in Mexico.

Only Seven Non-Japanese Players Are Featured in the 2007 Kellogg's Japanese Set

Three of the ten players in the 2007 Kellogg's set from Japan are Japanese players - Iguchi from yesterday's post, Hideki Matsui and Kenji Johjima.  It is quite interesting to see how they chose the other seven players.

Justin Verlander pitched twice in 2005, losing both starts.  In 2006 he was the AL Rookie of the Year with a 17-9 record for the Tigers.  Maybe it says all of that on the back of this card, but I'm going to need to find a translation for all of the text on these cards.

I was surprised to see Kellogg's take a chance on a guy like this, especially when the set is only 10 cards.  More on that after I do some research.  Does he have some connection to Japan?

Finally Can Talk About My New Kellogg's Cards and a 20-year+ Career

It took me a while to get this post going.  It's exciting to add a few new cards to my collection.  I added some unopened packs of 2007 Kellogg's cards from Japan.

From what I've found so far, there are 10 cards in the 2007 set.

1. Hideki Matsui
2. Kenji Johjima
3. Tadahito Iguchi
4. Ryan Howard
5. David Wright
6. David Ortiz
7. Ivan Rodriguez
8. Alex Rodriguez
9. Albert Pujols
10. Justin Verlander

Tadahito Iguchi was a well known player for the White Sox.  Was he one of the best players in the league to warrant being included in a small set?  No, but he was born in Tokyo, Japan and he played for the World Series Champion White Sox in 2005.

Iguchi began playing professionally in 1997 and much to my surprise he's still playing in Japan almost 20 years later at age 41.

A Big First for Yankees Today

On this day in 1920 Babe Ruth hit his first career homer as a Yankee.  Also on this day in 1951 Mickey Mantle hit his first career homer.

The coaching season is starting to wind down so I may get into more details with my posts soon.