Corn Flakes Baseball Greats Display

I got this display a long time ago and I've yet to fill it with the 15 cards that belong in there.  I guess that will happen sometime.

I'm going to use this to display my 15 favorite Kellogg's cards.  I don't know which cards will be included, but I will come up with this list once I complete showing the 1972 All-Time Greats card backs.   

1972 Kellogg's All-Time Greats Baseball Card Backs - #14 Lou Gehrig

I mentioned previously that I wasn't able to chase these cards as a kid since we didn't buy the products, but there is more.  We started going to card shows in 1975.  These events were nothing like today's events.  In 1975 there might have been people selling newer cards, but I don't remember much about that.

What I remember is seeing stacks and stacks of old baseball cards everywhere.  Some people had albums and pages of some kind, but most of the cards were just in stacks on the dealer tables.  My normal $20 - 35 would certainly all be spent, but I don't think I ever bought a card newer than 1969.

Once a dealer was treating us like we didn't know our stuff so we asked him about a 1933 Goudey Lou Gehrig.  I wasn't going to spend all of my money on one card but when he told us $50 we debated for a while whether we should pool our money and buy it.  No, I was (and still am) too cheap to do that.  I rarely spent more than $2 on any card.  Instead I bought a bunch of cheap cards that probably had soft corners.

Back to the Lou Gehrig card, one of my favorites.

#14 - Lou Gehrig

Great photos on the front and back.  He died from a paralyzing disease which caused him to retire after the 1939 season.  His 2,130 games streak is mentioned too.

The career highlights start by mentioning Wally Pipp and his headache.   Gehrig played every day until asking manager Joe McCarthy to take him out in early May of 1939.  He stayed with the team all season, but he never played again. 

After his retirement he was immediately named to the Hall of Fame in a Special Election.  No vote counts are shown on baseball-reference.com.  Only one other player has been named to the Hall of Fame via a Special Election - Roberto Clemente. 

The card mentions Lou Gehrig day and Babe's 60-homer season when Gehrig took home the MVP Award.

One last Gehrig story.  About 30 years ago I had my hands on a Ruth/Gehrig ball and a ball from the entire Yankees team from one of those years.  How?  A friend's grandmother was a classmate and friend of Gehrig's from Columbia University.  It was cool to hold them knowing that they were authentic.  Those baseballs weren't going to leave that family, which is awesome.  I wonder if they still have them?  If they lived in my area I would certainly find out. 

Time for Kellogg's All-Time Great Card Backs - #15 Ty Cobb

I've always liked these card backs and these cards.  It doesn't bother me that they are the same cards as the 1970 Rold Gold cards except for the date stamp on the bottom.

I like that there is a picture, a bio, career highlights and career stats including World Series stats.  I don't like that there are not year-by-year stats and some demographic information about the players who all played long before my time.

#15 - Ty Cobb

Cobb was called the most feared player in the game.  A .367 career average, highest in history, will do that.  Add stolen bases, RBIs and even homers and that makes him dominant.

He used a split-hand grip.  I wonder if kids read about that in the early 1970s and then tried it out.

He led the league in hitting for 12 of 13 years at one point in his career.  In the "off" year he hit .371.  Baseball-reference.com now credits him with hitting .370 in 1916.  Tris Speaker hit .386 to stop Cobb's streak.  Cobb won 12 batting titles and he led the league in numerous other categories.

Cobb hit .401 later in his career without winning a batting title.  George Sisler hit .420 in 1922 to deny Cobb another title.

He managed the Tigers for six years without taking them to the World Series.  His last post-season game was in 1909 and he retired in 1928.

Not on the card but included on the regular 1972 cards -

Position - Outfield
Height - 6-1
Weight - 175
Hobby - being disliked?

Not on the card - when the first Hall of Fame class was voted in, Cobb had more votes than the other five elected - Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson.

Was Topps Paying Attention to Rold Gold Cards?

 The 1970 Rold Gold card set had great card backs, even including a photo of the player.  The 1972 Kellogg's All-Time Greats card shown below is identical other than the date at the bottom.

The card provides lots of career highlights and summary information since they skipped yearly statistics.  I always liked the statistics, but it was nice to read something about these players who I never watched play the game.  

In 1971 Topps added a picture to the back of their baseball cards for the first time.  Did they get this idea from the Rold Gold cards?  Whey did Topps abandon the idea again until 1993?

Kellogg's then added photos to the back of their cards in 1971. 

The Spectrum of Unopened Kellogg's Cards

Yesterday in the mail I got a few packages.  I didn't get to check out the cards, but here are the main ones.

These did not come from the same seller.  The cards couldn't be more different, but they are both in the original wrapper.  Both are also lacking the 3-D coating which is good in some ways because they won't be cracking.  They are also not susceptible to curling.  So, they really aren't 3-D cards at all.

Do I love them?  Absolutely. 

They have something else in common - neither was issued in the United States.  One is from Canada and the other is from Puerto Rico. 

Some Card Organizing to Do Once School is Out

All of the cards on my table need to get organized, but I never seem to finish.  If I don't finish in the next month I will be too busy coaching track to get it done.  At least being unorganized means that I am continually getting new Kellogg's cards. 

I really should get organized and sell off things that I don't need so that I can afford some other stuff.  I just never seem to find time for that. 

I'm going to make one goal - get my want list updated so that I can at least post what I am trying to find.  That means going through everything, especially the 1971 variations - I know that I need a bunch of them and condition doesn't matter to me on those.

Now I need to get a new car.  I haven't done that in 10 years. 

Happy Birthdays

52 MLB players have birthdays today.  Since Ty Cobb is one of them, I thought that this day might be near the top of the list for most career hits for players born on a day.  Wrong I was.

Cobb had about 31% of the hits for players born on 12-18.  Bill Skowron was second with 1,566.  Roy Howell is the only other player on the list who got onto a Kellogg's card.  Howell is fifth on this list with 991 hits.  This group of players has over 13,000 hits.  I have no idea if that is a lot.

Four days during the year have over 20,000 career hits by players born on that day. 

06-15 - 56 players; Leader - Wade Boggs (3011), Billy Williams (2711), Brett Butler (2375);

10-30 - 66 players; Leader - Ed Delahanty (2597);

12-20 - 57 players;  Leader - Cecil Cooper (2192); 10 players over 1,000 hits.

10-18 - 63 players; Leader - Willie Horton (1983)


What does all of this mean?  Nothing.  I just decided to check it out instead of just mentioning that today is Ty Cobb's birthday.