Set Appreciation Post #5 - 1979 Kellogg's

I am glad to be out of the 2000s cards for this week's post.  I figured a 1970s set would be fun for this week, so I am going with the 1979 Kellogg's set.  It's a smaller set, like all of the Kellogg's sets, but there is still plenty of to talk about. 

Here are my highlights:

Design 

Two posts in a row with a Bruce Sutter card.  Totally on accident, I always scan the first card in the set for this section of my post.  It's pretty typical of the Kellogg's cards from the 1970s and 1980s. 

It's got the lenticular front with a Kellogg's logo at the top.  It's not my favorite Kellogg's set design (1970).  It's not the worst Kellogg's design (1978).  It's sort of in the middle, maybe the bottom of the middle.  A lot of the design elements on the Kellogg's cards reappear frequently, but I still love them.  There is something about the arch way thing at the top that I don't love.  I think the arch is supposed to be 3-D, but the Kellogg's script on the front of it is 2-D and crosses lines.  That's really picky. 

THE BELL CURVE OF KELLOGG'S CARDS 

I went ahead and put this set on a bell curve of Kellogg's cards.  I will do more Kellogg's sets in the future.  We can revisit the Kellogg's bell curve when I get to the other sets.  The 1970 Kellogg's Johnny Bench might need to be further to the right.  

The card backs of the Kellogg's sets are always really busy.  The small dissertation is a common element, although they feel shorter on the 1979 cards.  Still, there is some good information in the blurb.  I like how this card describes Bruce Sutter's "forkball", which he calls a "split-fingered fastball".  Those are two different pitches nowadays, but I guess not back in the late 1970s.

The Busch Stadium Cards 

You know, there are not a ton of cards that have photographs taken in Busch Stadium.  The Kellogg's cards always seem to have cookie cutter stadium backgrounds though.  We all know the best cookie cutter stadium was Busch Stadium, so it was inevitable that the two ended up together. 

Not all of the photos were taken at Busch for the 1979 Kellogg's set, plenty of Three Rivers and Veterans in there too, but there are a few cards in the set that are obviously in Busch Stadium.   

Pete Rose. 

Red seats and arches, definitely Busch Stadium.  I think the Stadium Club, which was a restaurant in left field, is over his left shoulder. 

Lee Mazzilli.  Busch Stadium. 

I only picked out two cards, but I know there are a few others.  If my life had a few less things going on, I would have spent the time to examine and scan each card taken at Busch Stadium.  I would like to think that the inclusion of Busch Stadium in this set will help it in the rankings when we get to the bottom of the post. 

The R. Jackson Cards 

I had not been around for very long in 1979, so I don't know that this is a fact, but I am guessing the average baseball fan was aware of Reggie Jackson at this time.  When I was a kid, he was an old guy on the Angels and A's. 

He also tried to kill the Queen of England in the Naked Gun movie. 

If you saw Reggie Jackson on a baseball card wearing a Yankees uniform, would you need a first or middle initial to be able to tell him apart from another baseball player?  Would you confuse him for someone, say an Angels infielder? 

Well, the good people at Kellogg's decided to make sure you did not confuse Reggie Jackson and Ron Jackson in this set.  No relation by the way.  Reggie Jackson is identified as R.M. Jackson on his card...

and Ron Jackson has R.D. Jackson on his card.  

What does the M stand for? 

Martinez.  

Now that I have a second card back in the post, I like how these have the player's favorite hobby listed along side their height and weight.  Bruce Sutter liked hunting.  Reggie Jackson likes automobiles.  I cannot find anything about Bruce Sutter hunting, but apparently Reggie Jackson fixes up old cars, and is really good at it.  

I don't know what kind of card Reggie is driving here, but the tail fins on the back are making me think something from the 1950s or 1960s. 

Best Cardinals Card 

I only had two Cardinals to choose from in the 1979 Kellogg's set.  There is a card of long-time pitcher Bob Forsch, along with catcher Ted Simmons.  I went with the Simba card.  There was not a lot of separation between the two in terms of quality, but I kind of like the background on the Simmons card. 

It's a blue blur for some reason, rather than the cookie cutter stadium mentioned earlier.  I am not sure it would make for a great set, but this card it works.  Fits in nicely with the powder blue Cardinals uniform, which you guys know I always like to see on cards. 

The back of Simmons Kellogg's card.  Check out that hobby.  

Not sure that would fly anymore with modern baseball contracts.  

Favorite Former Durham Bulls Player 

I had to flip through the stack two or three times to make sure this was the right answer.  The right answer, because there is only one former Durham Bulls player in this set.  No Joe Morgan, Greg Luzinski, Ken Singleton, or Rusty Staub.  Those are the go-to names when looking for the 1970s Durham Bulls players in stacks of cards.  

Those were good players too.  They were in all the 1970s sets.  

None of them are in here.  I was really genuinely surprised that none of them are here.  I had to go find out what happened to these players in 1978.  Craig Reynolds in this set. Craig Reynolds.  

Joe Morgan - He had the worst season of his career.  I will give you that Kellogg's.  It's still Joe Morgan though.  Everyone loves Hall of Famers, even when they have down seasons.  

Rusty Staub - Hit 24 home runs and drove in 121 runs.  Could be a bit of an omission.  Possibly.  

Greg Luzinski - Hit 35 home runs, drove in 101 runs, and made the National League All-Star team.  That home run total, 35 home runs, was better than Mike Schmidt by 14. Schmidt got a card, because he's Mike Schmidt.  I want to point you back up to Joe Morgan, but let's keep going.  

Ken Singleton - He only hit 21 home runs, drove in 81 runs, walked more than he struck out, and batted .293.  

None of that gets you into the 1978 Kellogg's set?   

The lone Durham Bulls player was a solid Major League pitcher, and 1978 was his best season in the Majors.  I am not arguing that he shouldn't be here.  Just surprised that the other players listed above were not on the checklist.  

The answer is Jon Matlack.  

He was in the top 10 for a bunch of important stats during the 1978 season including ERA and Strikeouts.  Matlack's back of the baseball card numbers sometimes did not look the best, but the Sabermetrics really have helped show how good he was at times during his career.  

Here is the back of his card. 

First, I love that his hobby is listed as "sports", and he's a professional athlete.  

Good job Kellogg's.  

According to his baseball card, he won 15 games and had an ERA just below 3.  Looks like a good enough season.  However,  go over to Baseball-Reference, and he had the second highest WAR for a pitcher in 1978, along with the second highest Adjusted ERA+ and FIP.  Basically, he was better than every pitcher in the American League in 1978 who wasn't named Ron Guidry.  

Nolan Ryan isn't even in the top 10 for some of those categories, but he did strikeout a bunch of people.    

Best Non-Cardinal/Non-Durham Bulls Card 

You watched baseball in the 1970s?  

Yes?  Then you know Vida Blue.  

No?  Then you might not know Vida Blue.  

I started watching baseball in the 1980s.  Vida Blue was an old guy who was a mediocre pitcher on the Giants.  I likely did not bother to turn his card over to see that he won a ton of games for the A's in the early 1970s.  If I did turn it over to give it a glance, Topps included facts about him throwing touchdowns in high school.  

Thanks a lot 1987 Topps.  

A Cy Young Award and three World Series rings weren't good enough to be a fact?  

Beyond appearing mediocre to the 10 year old me, Vida Blue always seemed like the happiest guy on all of his baseball cards.  He is always smiling on his cards, not just on one, but seemingly all of them.  It's one of the things I look for when I find a stack of 1970s or early 1980s cards.  

He actually was not happy on all them, but there is a high percentage where he is smiling.  

The 1979 Kellogg's is no different.  Vida Blue seems genuinely happy to be on this baseball card.  It wouldn't surprise me that he ate a bunch of Kellogg's cereal in an attempt to find this card.  

I will do more research on the number of cards where Vida Blue appears happy and report back a different day.  

How Does It Compare?  

Not sure we need a lot of discussion here.  

5. 2000 U.D. Ionix 

4. 1986 Topps Mini League Leaders 

3. 2001 Fleer EX 

2.1979 Kellogg's 

1. 2002 Topps Super Teams 

I am putting it second.  This isn't even my favorite Kellogg's set.  I will do an 80s set next week.  Super Teams might be in trouble.  

Set Update. Shall We?

Roughly a month ago, I posted a project that I was going to work on into the beginning of 2019 that was actually several different small sets, rather than one larger set.  The cards all come from the Topps Glossy Send Ins from the 1980s.  Although, the 1990 set is also included.  Most of the sets are more than 50% done.  Two are over 90%, which will be easy to finish.  However, they are not the first sets to get crossed off my list.

All forty cards from the 1983 set are sitting here on my desk.  I had to find 9 cards to finish this part of the project.  Shall we look at some cards?  Some are a little crooked, but I am tired after spending the day out with the little guy.  A little something about my favorite card in each of the groups of cards....

You'd think I would go with the Cardinals player, but I am going to go with Mookie Wilson.  He was one of the players missing when I started last month, I was honestly surprised that he was in set.  Mookie was always a good supporting player on the 1980s Mets teams, but never the star.  He was never an All-Star, little really stands out from the early years of his career outside of the fact that he stole 50 bases in both 1982 and 1983.

Plus, there really is a Cardinals connection here.

One of these people won a World Series with the Cardinals.  Mookie never played for the Cardinals.  

I like the Terry Kennedy card strictly based on the fact that there is a yellow and brown Padres uniform.  The other three players in this grouping are pretty big stars from this era.  The Schmidt card feels distorted to me.   Winfield and Young, do not have a ton of interest in my world.  Let's talk about Terry Kennedy.

Terry Kennedy was on the Cardinals for a very short time at the beginning of his career and was traded the Padres in exchange for Rollie Fingers and Gene Tenace.  Rollie Fingers never played a game for the Cardinals though.  Kennedy had a pretty solid career.

Love the card with Fernando Valenzuela wearing the batting helmet.  He seems like the kind of pitcher who would have a batting average under .100.  He had that screwball that gave people fits, but I would not classify him as an athletic type.   However, I learned something in making this post.  Fernando could actually hit.  During his career he won two Silver Slugger Awards and had a total of 10 career home runs.  Surprised, but good for Fernando.

Uh.  Pete Rose.  Not his best day.  This is supposed to be a Phillies card, but so much about this card looks like those Leaf cards that came out about five or six years ago where all of the logos were all blanked out.  He had been a Phillies a few years at this point, you would think that Topps could do better than a generic looking baseball equipment windbreaker.  

The end of Pete Rose's career was not really all that pretty.  Bad commercials.  He had a .286 slugging percentage in 1983, so there is that too.  Ivan DeJesus was the next lowest slugging percentage on the 1983 Phillies, but it was 50 points higher than Pete.  

I miss having Expos cards.  The Nationals are not quite the same.  Truth be told, I am not a huge fan of the players in this group, so that is about all I am typing for these four players.  I guess Carlton Fisk was alright as a White Sox.  

My most memorable Ray Knight moments all came while he was on the Mets.  He was somehow one of the "good guys" on those teams, which developed a bad reputation around players like Keith Hernandez, Dwight Gooden, and Strawberry.  

Ray Knight was a punk.  

None of those "bad" Mets players ever tried the garbage that Ray Knight pulled in the above video.

  

I like the Richie Zisk card in the group.  Not a Hall of Famer, but he had some great years for the Pirates, Rangers, and Mariners.  His last season as a Major Leaguer was in 1983.  He was only 34 at the time, but it was one of the few really below average years he had as a Major Leaguer.  Not sure what happened to him at the end of his career.  Maybe he was hurt, or maybe he just ran out of gas.  I like the Mariners uniform in this picture.  Good still shot of him at Yankee Stadium.  

Love the Dave Stieb card with the powder blue jersey.  Serious thought, now that the Hall of Fame bar has been drastically lowered by letting Jack Morris into the Hall of Fame, how long will it be until we get Dave Stieb into Cooperstown?  His numbers are better than Jack Morris, except he did not pitch in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series.  Dave Stieb also did not sexually harass a reporter.  

Bill Madlock won 4 batting titles by the way.  That's half the number of times that Nolan Ryan led the league in walks.  

Jack Clark.  Quite a look there.  The hat has sort of a wave going across the front of the brim and he has obviously never asked his barber to touch up his eyebrows.  He was on the Cardinals for a few years in the mid 1980s and had some great years.  

Love the Rickey Henderson picture in this group of cards.  He was always a great base stealer, but this was a period during his career where he was putting up huge numbers.  In 1982 he had set the single season record with 130 steals, and followed that up with 108 in 1983.  Highest two year stolen base total in the history of the game.  He still had a few more stolen base titles left in his legs at this point, but 1983 was the last season he cross 100 in his career.  

This is the last group of cards in this set and is a fabulous cross section of early 1980s coolness.  Rupert Jones with the yellow, brown and orange Padres jersey.  Eddie Murray is wearing a jacket underneath his uniform.  Bruce Sutter is wearing a powder blue road uniform with a rather unkempt looking beard.  Reggie Jackson is wearing metal rim sunglasses, not some fancy Oakley plastic types. 

This look would eventually land Reggie a memorable movie role next to Leslie Nielson and Ricardo Montalban.  

We have reached the end of this glossy set, but hopefully I can knock a few more of these Topps Glossy Send In sets out before the end of the year.  I will even try to make the scans a lot straighter.  

Friday Five: Top 5 1980s Fleer Sets

We have worn the Durham Bulls and Cardinals out during the past few months, so I am going to go back to the whole baseball card thing for awhile.  You know, I started this blog as a baseball card blog, but wander off to food and Wes Anderson movies.  Back to my roots for the next few months on my weekly Friday Five posts.  This week I am focused on the 1980s Fleer products.  After carefully looking through all the Fleer sets produced in the 1980s, including Update sets, I have picked out the best of the best based on design, cool base set cards, and important rookies cards.

Sets are in numerical order by year.  Cue the music....

1982 Fleer 

This was the second Fleer set issued in the 1980s behind the error filled 1981 set.  The design was really simple with the white border, colored band, and player information in that oval thing at the bottom center of the card.  If you flip through the base set there are lots of good early eighties players in here: Nolan Ryan, Ozzie Smith, Reggie Jackson, etc.  The Brad Mills card is actually my favorite card out of the base set.  The set is really made by the most important rookie card in the product.

Not the best of the Cal Ripken rookie cards, but there are not really any bad ones.  Easily the best card in this set and the only reason that this set makes this list.  Hate to play you that way Brad Mills, but it's true.  If you do not own this set it worth it for the Ripken card alone.   If you own the Ripken card, but not the rest of the rest...Well, there's Brad Mills.  

1983 Fleer 

This was the first year that I collected cards and my first pack of baseball cards.  My first card was a Jim Smith.  The base set is pretty similar to the 1982 set in terms of photography, but the design of the card was changed up a bit.  The grey bordered cards were a little something different at the time and I still cannot recall many sets with just a grey border outside of this and the 1970 Topps.  Seriously, nothing too cool about most of the base set, but there were three pretty important rookie cards in this product......

All Hall of Famers.  My favorite of the group is the Sandberg card.  Love that blue pinstriped Cubs uniform.  This set is really affordable considering that it has three Hall of Fame rookie cards.  The cost of buying the whole set is not going to be too much more than buying three nice copies of the important rookie cards in the set.   

1984 Fleer Update

The only Update set on my list and one of the absolute best sets of the 1980s.  The cards are actually somewhat difficult to find and the set has two monster rookie in it.  My favorite card in the base set is the Pete Rose Expos card.  The all-time hits leader was briefly on the Expos during the 1984 season in between his stint with the Phillies and second go around with the Reds.  The two best cards belong to Roger Clemens and Kirby Puckett.  

Both players are in the Hall of Fame and these are their only 1984 issued cards.  Both have several rookie cards in 1985 products that are also considered rookie issues, but these are the top of the food pyramid as far as 1980s rookie cards in Fleer products.  Yes, I would put these two above the Ripken rookie card.  Finding this set is much more of a challenge than the other sets on my list and will cost considerably more money. 

1987 Fleer

The 1987 Fleer set should only be bought if you want some rookie cards of some pretty good baseball players.  There is Will Clark, Barry Larkin, Barry Bonds, and Rafael Palmeiro.  The rest of the 1987 Fleer set is rather boring.  The blue card design is pretty cool, but again it all comes down to the big rookie cards in this set.  

I am not going to get in too deep on the whole steroids thing right now, but there is a lot of Hall of Fame caliber talent in this set given how cheap it is on sites like Ebay.  If you can track down a copy the Tiffany version of this set looks really nice and rarely costs more than $30 and comes in a nice tin.  The high gloss finish is well worth the extra money.  

1989 Fleer

If I had to pick out just one base set from the 1980s Fleer products this would be it.  The design leaves a little bit to be desired, but in my opinion it offers one of the best base cards of the decade and an underrated rookie card too.  The Ripken card is one of the more iconic modern baseball cards for all the wrong reasons.  This is the unedited version of the card, but some of the edits are rare and extremely pricey.  The two rookie cards worth owning.......

The Griffey rookie card is nice and is underrated in someways, but the real prize here is the Randy Johnson rookie card which is underrated in almost everyday imaginable.  Similar to the Ripken card there are different variations of the Johnson card because of a Marlboro cigarette sign over his right shoulder.  Some cards the sign is visible, others it is blocked out by different colored boxes.  Like most things 1980s Fleer the Johnson card is not too expensive and is not too difficult to track down either.  

My Top 50 On Cardboard- #22 Pete Rose

My Top 50 On Cardboard 
#22
Pete Rose

1987 Topps Pete Rose 

An interesting post indeed for your Thanksgiving day.  Major League Baseball banned Rose from the game in 1989 for betting on baseball games he was managing for the Reds.  The fallout has been an ongoing soap opera that has run its course and is just slightly sad and tired at this point.  Nobody has stirred the Major League Baseball pot over the last thirty years more than Pete Rose.  All of the attention has certainly helped keep Rose relevant, but his life-time ban from the game certainly puts a hamper on Charlie Hustle's popularity and ability to impact the hobby.

Hobby Impact- 
The last official Pete Rose card was issued in the 1989 Topps set and featured Rose as the manager of the Reds.  Since then there have been Rose cards made, but none of them have been officially licensed by Major League Baseball.  It seems the heaviest action on Rose baseball cards has been from the rebirth of Dallas based card company Leaf.  Leaf does not shy away from controversy, so it's only fitting that the company puts out sets of cards featuring the former Reds player with all the logos removed from the cards.

2012 Leaf Living Legends Pete Rose Autograph 

While it's cool to see a Pete Rose autograph on a piece of cardboard, Leaf has produced a boat load of these autographs with all sorts of stickers, variations, and card types.  In simple terms, Pete Rose autographs have been overproduced and are basically a dime a dozen on Ebay.  Why buy a box of an unlicensed product from Leaf when you can just go on Ebay and get a Pete Rose autograph for $10 to $15 with no commons?  It's sad in many ways to see one of the greatest players in the history of the game down this low, but at this point nothing is really shocking when it comes to Pete Rose.  I am sure he will keep signing cards by the thousands and eventually his signature will be worth even less.

Luckily there is a silver lining to the dark cloud that is Pete Rose.  As a player Topps, Fleer, and Donruss all made plenty of cool Rose cards, especially the old Topps cards.  The cards are still worth something and are still desired by collectors.  One of my favorite vintage cards in my collection is an old 1975 Topps Rose card I picked up in a flea market in Southern Illinois during college.

1975 Topps Pete Rose

The card is definitely well-loved, but this is a great set and the Rose card is awesome.  I have picked up a much cleaner copy since, but these are the cards which still make Rose a relevant part of the hobby.  For card purists, Rose has kind of become a cool player over the past twenty years because the lifetime ban has prevented Topps and Upper Deck from flooding the secondary card market with a bunch of commemorative and reprint cards.  You are left with twenty-five years worth of player and manager cards only from the years that Rose played and managed (plus those Leaf cards)

1971 Topps Pete Rose

Rose is one rookie card that I have never owned, but someday I will have to pick one up for my collection.  If you ignore the Leaf cards, not a problem here, he's one of the few players left who you might honestly have a chance of collecting most of his entire run of cards.  1971 is my favorite in my collection, not issued in 1984 or 1975.

On the Field-
Rose is most famous for being the all-time hit leader of Major League Baseball passing Ty Cobb with hit number 4,192 during the 1985 season.  He did not play after the 1986 season, but remained with the Reds as the team's manager.  I don't remember much about Rose as player from my childhood, but I do remember going to a Cardinals/Reds game and seeing him break up an almost no-hitter by Danny Cox. Really, this is the moment as reported on by a local Cincinnati television station:

The real story about Pete Rose over the last thirty years began in the spring of 1989.  There had been rumblings that Rose might have a gambling problem, but Peter Ueberroth had initially cleared Rose of wrong-doing.  Then Sports Illustrated put out a detailed report about Rose's gambling and ran the story the first week of the 1989 Major League season.

Rose was banned from Major League Baseball on August 24th, 1989.  At times many have speculated about a Rose return from his ban, but at this point I am skeptical if we will ever see it as long as Pete Rose is living.  I am not going to delve into an entire essay on the matter, but if you are interested on my thoughts on Charlie Hustle you can check out my opinions on the matter here.  

Favorite Card-

Some Rose collectors are going to cringe at the pick for the best Rose card, but I have always loved this card.  Frankly, given that Rose played three-quarters of a season in Montreal makes me wonder why nobody else really managed to get a Rose card out as an Expo.  Donruss put out an Expo card of Pete in 1985, but he had already been traded back to the Reds (for Tom Lawless -48 seconds).  

1984 Fleer Pete Rose

Great card from an iconic 80s set.  If you do not have one of these in your collection I highly recommend search one out.  Inexpensive too.  

Facebook Goodness

The world of Facebook trading has slowing turned into some sort of raffle frenzy which has left me trading other places.  I do not chance on possibly getting a good card, I would much rather just go out and buy or trade for the pieces I want to add to my collection.  Luckily, I ran into one of my favorite Facebook card people a few days back in the way of Ryan Marcus King Dee.  He's one of the best card collectors on Facebook and always has plenty of cool cards for sale or trade.

This week I picked up four cards from Ryan which helped out my collection in several ways.  Let's take a look at the cards that I added:

2008 Topps Triple Threads Justin Ruggiano Autograph/Jersey

I have collected Justin Ruggiano cards for several years.  While Ruggiano is currently playing for the Marlins he spent quite a few years hanging out in the outfield for the Durham Bulls.  Ruggiano was always a pretty good player for the Bulls, but he always seemed to be blocked for one reason or another at the big league level.  Ruggiano left the Rays organization as a minor league free agent at the end of the 2011 season, played briefly in the Astros system, before landing some playing time with the Marlins.  Ruggiano leads the Marlins in almost every major offensive category this season.   While he has moved on to the Marlins, I still spend time searching out his cards and was happy to add another Triple Threads color variation to my collection.

2011 Bowman Platinum USA Baseball Autographs 

Stroman is one of my favorite all-time college players from the ACC.  He was a pitcher for the Duke Blue Devils and also played for the USA Baseball College Team.  Last year he was drafted by the Bue Jays and is currently playing for their AA team in New Hampshire.  Stroman should be a pretty quick riser to the majors and has tons of good, affordable autographed cards.  

2012 Leaf Valiant James Ramsey Autograph 

Ramsey is both a Cardinals draft pick and former ACC player at Florida State.  He was a nice player at FSU, but I think the first round was a bit of a stretch for the outfielder.  Ramsey has done a lot of signing since the draft and is a frequent user of inscriptions which are usually bible verses.  Interestingly, he rarely uses the same one very often.  I already had Romans 8:38, so this is a different (though slight) than the other version of this card that I own.  

20112 Leaf Pete Rose Autograph 

I have already given my two cents on Pete in this space before.  Cool that he signs so much stuff, but he signs so much stuff.  Might have to package a few of these together and see if I can get a non-licensed card of Pete in an Expos uniform.