Time to Look at the 1974 Kellogg's Baseball Cards

I look forward to checking out the backs of the 1974 Kellogg's baseball cards.  This was the first set that I completed by eating cereal and trading them with friends.  I remember completing the set before the 1975s came out.  I have no memory of trading or which cards I got last, but I did have about five friends who traded with me regularly.

I do know that I didn't get a factory set.  I couldn't even get the 25 cents from my parents to mail in for the popular Snake and Mongoose Hot Wheels cars that were offered around that time.  Once I started my paper route I had a bit of money around.

Here are some PSA stats for the 1974 cards.

9,919 cards have been graded.  That's an average of over 183 copies of each card.

3,378 - 10s.  (34.0%)

4,941 - 9s.  (49.8%)

1,174 - 8s.  (11.8%)

That's over 95.6% of the cards submitted.  The 1974s tend not to curl as much as other years.  Like most years, the 1974s have sturdy corners too.   At some other point I will compare these to other years.

What about the individual cards?

The Wilbur Wood and Ron Santo variations are not surprisingly the lowest graded cards.

I've had a problem with cards 1 - 9.  Cracks, cracks, cracks.  How do the PSA numbers look for these cards?   Pete Rose and Reggie Jackson have more graded cards than Nolan Ryan.  Tom Seaver's numbers also almost equal those of Ryan.

Rick Monday (#02) and Joe Coleman (#03) are the least graded cards.  Greg Luzinski (#09) is in the lowest six graded cards as well.

Bob Gibson's card (#01) has only had 144 graded.  That is less than all Hall of Famers except Ron Santo (#07).  Gibson's card is such a condition problem that it has been graded less than cards of Manny Sanguillen, Bobby Murcer,  John Mayberry, Kenny Holtzman, Bobby Bonds, Chris Speier, Sparky Lyle, Cookie Rojas, Tommy Davis, Willie Davis and Manny Mota.  He's exactly equal to Willie Hortan and one ahead of Sal Bando.

Overall cards 1 - 9 are being graded less, but are they receiving similar grades?

1,541 cards have been graded.  That's an average of over 171 copies of each card.  That doesn't seem to be a big difference from the overall set average of 183, but consider that Nolan Ryan (#08 with 421 graded samples) skews these numbers.

219 - 10s.  (14.2%) -- not many 10s here

878 - 9s.  (57.0%)  -- lots more 9s here since there are less 10s

325 - 8s.  (21.1%)

That's over 92.3% of the cards submitted.   A lot less 10s than the total listed for the entire set.

When excluding cards 1 - 9, the remainder of the set (10 - 54) has the following grading percentages -

10s - 37.7%

9s - 48.9%

8s - 10.1%

Why is My Blog Named Like This? Clemente Card Information?

I got another one of these Clemente cards from Puerto Rico.  I just can't pass them up when they are around five dollars.  They seem to sell for a wide range of prices.  I am going to ask some of the dealers at the National.  There are usually a few dealers who focus on Clemente.  Their take would be interesting.

I seem to get this card (#1) more than the others.

And now for the rest of the story about the new card show I attended this weekend.  There is no more Kellogg's content so feel free to stop reading this post.

*************** boring history of my weekend follows; it also relates to how this blog was named.

I decided at 1:00 on Saturday to drive by myself from IL to ME since I found a five-mile race that I wanted to do.  From 1:00 to 2:00 I packed some stuff,signed up for two races online (the second one was in VT) and I booked rooms for the three nights in three different places - PA, ME and NY.  I was out the door at 2:00.

At the hotel on Saturday I realized that if I got up early I could get to a card show in CT.   That's the show that I mentioned finding the cheap Kellogg's cards.  I saw a public golf course so I decided to use the range.  I ended up playing nine holes on the easy par-3 course.  That was a nice surprise.

The race in Maine was unique because I had to take a ferry boat to the inland island where it was being held.  I did this without my car so I just stood next to the 12 cars on the ferry boat - no frills, but a great ride.

I was warned about how this might take time so I arrived really early.  I was at the start three hours before the race was to begin so I decided to walk some of the race course.  I saw a golf course sign so I turned toward it.  It looked nice so I checked it out.  No one was there but before I left the staff arrived.  They let me borrow some clubs and I played nine holes in 45 minutes - badly again.  Seeing some large snakes on the 6th hole kept me moving fast.  No one else even got on the course until I was on the 8th hole so the quiet was enjoyable.  

The race was hot and hilly.  The residents didn't call the course hilly, but they don't live and work in flat Chicagoland.  

After the race I was back to the ferry boat so I could take the four-hour drive to Vermont.   I signed up for a one-mile race to be held in conjunction with their parade.  Lots of spectators made this a fun event.  Running two races on the same day made this not such a fun event.

Why did I target these races?  I like to do races that are not your standard road race 5ks.  I also am trying to run a race in each of the 50 states.  This holiday weekend was big because now I'm up to 48.
I've been to Arkansas many times, including to watch track meets, but I've never done a race there. That will happen in the next six months.  That will leave me with getting to a race in Hawaii, a place I've yet to visit.

Golfing in CT and ME has given me a goal for later in life - golf in every state.  I've probably golfed in 5 - 8 states but I will have to think about that.

FYI - for anyone who is still reading, this is probably the first time I've put all - three things into one of my posts - run --- fore -- Kellogg's.

National Plan

It looks like I will be at the National on Friday only until 1:00 pm.  Then I might get there late on Saturday or early on Sunday.  Kid duties are mixing with the event but luckily it is 30 minutes from my house.

I spent a lot of time in the car today.  More about that tomorrow.  I rarely see much at the National when it comes to Kellogg's cards, but for the first time I am focusing on bringing my want list.  Here is what it will include.  I need not put them in order because not all/many of these things will be seen.

1.  1970 Unopened Packs with players that I don't have showing on the top.  I've got more than half of them so far.

2.  Some 1970 cards that I need to upgrade.

3.  Anything clean from 1971.

4.  1972 Unopened packs that I need including ATG.

5.  A few 1973 panels that I don't have.

6.  1974 cards 1-9 - without cracks.

7.  1975 cards - only if really clean.  I rarely see that.

8.  Anything else that is cheap.  Sometimes that actually happens.

9.  Anything odd - advertising items, proof cards, etc.

A Nice Pick-Up Today

I stopped at a small card show today and found a nice group of Kellogg's cards for under 7 cents each.  There were about 50 of them with most being from 1977 - 1980.  All but 3-4 were in great shape with minimal curvature and bright colors.

I like finding the 1979s with the white border instead of that other, nasty, brown-yellow border.  All but one had the white border.

Surprisingly, there were even a few stars in each group.

I didn't buy much else other than cards from the .10 box but it was fun to stop at a show that I'd never been to before.

No pictures available today.

This card was included.  As you can tell, it isn't a card that I need.  So, yes I have a problem.   If there were 100 of this card under 7 cents each would I have bought them all?  Sure.  I'm also sure my wife would love hearing that.

Pennsylvania - Kellogg's Players

Of at least 1427 major leaguers born in PA, 17 got themselves onto a Kellogg's baseball card.

It won't be a problem making a team with this group.  Here's what we've got for a batting order.

SS Honus Wagner
OF Ken Griffey Sr.
OF Reggie Jackson
1B Dick Allen
3B Buddy Bell
OF Jack Clark
C   Butch Wynegar
2B Glenn Beckert
P   Pete Vuckovich, Jon Matlack, Sam McDowell

RP Bruce Sutter, Sparky Lyle

Bench - Gregg Gross, Art Howe, Bob Bailor, Pat Kelly

Players from Maine and New Hampshire

I'm Hoping to get the Vermont and Maine this summer.  Today while stuck in traffic forever I decided to check out how many major leaguers were from these states.

Remember, I haven't updated the database in 1-2 years, so my numbers could be slightly off.  I found 81 players who were born in Maine.  Unfortunately, none got onto a Kellogg's baseball card.

Only 38 players hail from Vermont.  One of them found his way onto a Kellogg's card.  Carlton Fisk stayed and attended high school and college there.

Is everyone playing hockey there?

Who is Next?

Yesterday I was golfing and it started raining.  I kept golfing.  That was fun.  As kids we often golfed in the rain.  Good memories.

Today I was running at a track meet and it started raining.  I kept running.  That was fun.  I've always liked running in the rain.  Good memories.

With Tim Raines in the Hall of Fame, who else should be in?  Let me know who you think should also be there.  I will start with Dale Murphy whose career certainly was similar to that of Raines.