1980 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs - #16 - 18

 Working my way through the set that causes me more eye strain than any other.  Here are the next three cards to read.

#18 - Graig Nettles

Kellogg's starts with great compliments on his power, run production and defense.  The card mentions that the Yankees rewarded him with a long-term contract.  

I like that the card mentions that his defensive stardom was not even noticed when he played in Cleveland.

Not on the card - the Yankees traded nettles before the 1984 season.  

#17 - Jason Thompson

I don't remember seeing him play too often as a Tiger but I remember him as a Pirate.

Kellogg's starts the story, like it often does, by mentioning that he didn't do as well as in past seasons.  He was a pitcher in high school and he only played in 79 minor league games.  His home run power got him called up.  

He had a solid career with over 200 homers and three all-star selections.  

#16 - Bob Bailor

Bailor got on his second Kellogg's card in 1980.  He was the Blue Jays first pick in the 1976 Expansion Draft so his name was well known.  There were certainly some guys on the Blue Jays who had better seasons that Bob.  

He was a good base stealer in the minors.  His .310 average for the 1977 Blue Jays was the highest ever for a first-year team player.  Maybe that got him another Kellogg's card.

Not on the card - he stole 90 bases in 11 years with a season-best of 20. 

1980 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs #19 - 21

 Back to the Kellogg's card backs.  I am enjoying checking out my old Topps cards and sorting cards since track is starting 10 weeks later than usual this year.

#21 - Ellis Valentine

Valentine had three good seasons in a row even though Kellogg's noted that he had a bit of a drop-off in his performance in 1979.  He is noted as having power, speed and a great throwing arm.  He won a Gold Glove in 1978.

Not on the card - the Expos had quite a team with Valentine, Dawson, Carter, Tony Perez and Larry Parrish.  They did win 95 games.

He was traded in early 1981.  Injuries, a hit-by-pitch to his face and other issues meant that he didn't play much after turning 28.

#20 - Nolan Ryan

Unlike Valentine, Ryan played 19 years after he turned 28.  He led the league in strikeouts for the seventh time in eight years.   Even with that, Ryan didn't get a Kellogg's card in 1976, 1977 and 1979.  

At the time, he is already fourth on the all-time strikeout list with 2,909.

Not on the card - that is barely over half of his career total Ks.

The Ryan Kellogg's cards from the 1980s are the only cheap ones.  

Notice the Astros logo on the back.  The card mentions that he signed with them. 

#19 - Ron Cey

Kellogg's noted that Cey was one of the most consistent player on the Dodgers and it showed with his sixth consecutive All-Star game selection.  

In 1977 he had 29 RBIs in April.  That's a great start.

I couldn't think of how the Cubs acquired him.  The Cubs gave up two players to the Dodgers who never really made it big.  I also didn't realize that the Cubs traded him to the A's for Luis Quinones, who is famous in my house because I caught his first career home run.  

1980 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs - #22 - #24

 Back to more 1980 Kellogg's cards.  Kellogg's did a much better job with the text than Topps did in the 1978s that I looked at recently.

Two of the three cards in this group feature stars from the 1979 World Series.  

#24 - Eddie Murray

The card back mentions Murray's .154 average in the 1979 World Series and includes a note that he was hitless in his last 21 at-bats.  Ouch. 

I didn't know that he didn't start switch-hitting until 1975 as a minor league player.  

All five Murray boys played professionally. 

Not on the card - Murray had the highest average in the majors in 1990 but he didn't win the N.L. batting title.  How does that happen?  Murray ended the season with a .330 average but Willie McGee hit .335 in the NL before a late season trade to the A.L.  McGee went on to hit .274 in 29 games with the A's but he had enough plate appearances to qualify for the N.L. batting title.  McGee's total for the season was .324 and the A.L. leader was George Brett at .329.  

McGee and Murray are quite opposite when it comes to MVP voting.  Murray ranks 24th all-time in MVP shares making him the highest ranked player to never win an MVP award.  He was second twice along with seven other top-11 finishes in the voting.  McGee only got MVP votes in 1985, but he won that year.  

FYI - I was surprised to see the next highest names on the MVP list who never won the award - #31 Mike Piazza, #34 Manny Ramirez, and #39 David Ortiz.  Al Kaline, Mel Ott and Derek Jeter are not far behind.  

#23 - Dave Parker

Parker was on lots of commercials in the early 1980s.   He was one of the biggest stars in the game. 

6-foot-5 and intimidating at the plate.  That was fun to watch.

He hit .310 in 1979 after winning batting titles in 1977 and 1978.  

Kellogg's mentioned that Parker was a speedster with 20 stolen bases.  His numbers dropped off after 1979 and he ended up with 154 career steals.  

In 1979 he won a Gold Glove, All-Star Game MVP and his team won the World Series.  That was his third gold glove.   

#22 - Larry Hisle

Hisle was on Kellogg's cards twice - 1970 and 1980.  None in between.  Why?

It's odd that he got a card in 1980 after being injured for most of 1979.  He had great years in 1977 and 1978 so it is a surprise that he wasn't in the 1978 or 1979 sets.  

He starred in baseball and basketball in high school.  

Not on the card - Hisle never returned to full-time play after his injury in 1978.  Getting back to playing after a torn rotator cuff was not an easy thing to do in 1979.  

Not on the card - he was the first DH in MLB history - in the pre-season.  Sure, that doesn't really count and Ron Blomberg was the first DH in a regular season game.  

More about Blomberg.  The Yankees were at Boston so Blomberg got in the game before the Boston DH - Orlando Cepeda, who went 0-for-6 in the game.  

1980 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs - #25 - 27

I will check out three more card backs as I look forward to checking out another older Topps set on the weekend.  Back to the card backs that I cannot read easily.  

#27 - Carl Yastrzemski

Everyone already knows a lot about these guys.  In 1979 Yaz reached 400 homers and 3000 hits.  He was only the fourth player at the time to do this.  Nice that it mentions the other three at this point - Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Stan Musial.  

He signed after playing at Notre Dame.  

Those with 400/3000 since 1980 - Dave Winfield, Eddie Murray, Cal Ripken, Alex Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro, Albert Pujols, Adrian Beltre.  Did I miss anyone?

#26 - Reggie Jackson

Confession - I loved candy bars but I never ate a Reggie Bar.  How about you?  They ended up making them for Griffey Jr. and I think a few others but somehow I never tried one. 

Of course Reggie's hobby is automobiles.  I think he had a big fire problem with his car collection. 

I love that Kellogg's called him a "crowd-provoking performer".  That certainly goes along with one of his best quotes - "fans don't boo nobodies".

He was averaging 17 steals per year.  That's great for a power hitter.  I mentioned on someone else's card that Jackson had 228 career stolen bases.

The card mentions his .297 average and the fact that he had yet to hit .300.  

Not on the card - he never did end up with a .300 season.  

#25 - Willie Stargell

Great uniform for the Pirate who is coming off a World Series win.  

Bowling and dancing as hobbies.  I think Kellogg's kept track of this so it gets boring when the same things are mentioned.

He is coming off a season of being the N.L.'s co-MVP, with Keith Hernandez, as well as being the World Series MVP.  Throw in the NLCS trophy for him too.  

His output shows that he has some good years left.  He ended up playing three more seasons, none of them full-time.

Outside of baseball he was involved in Sickle Cell Anemia fundraising.

1980 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs - #28 - 30

 Time to read the back of more Kellogg's cards from the 1980 set.  Then it is off to remote school for the first week back.  The weeks teaching at home have not been as easy as one would think. 

Sorry about the poor backs.  I scanned them all at once so they might not be clear.  I will need to update that at some point for my files.   

#30 - Andre Thornton

I am old enough to remember his being on the Cubs.  Then I remember him going to Cleveland.  I didn't remember that he was on Montreal in between.  In May of 1976 he was traded to the Expos for Larry Biittner and Steve Renko.  Then Montreal traded him to Cleveland in December.  

I was wondering if he was pictured as an Expo or Indian in 1977.  To my surprise, he's not in the Topps set at all in 1977.

Now to the card back.  Kellogg's wasn't impressed by his average, but he did lead the team in many categories with his 26 homers and 93 RBIs.  The back mentions him being in the Philadelphia and Atlanta organizations before he made it to the majors with the Cubs.  The back of the card didn't add lots of other cool stuff.  

#29 - Davey Lopes

I remember his record-breaking streak of consecutive stolen bases getting its own Topps card for that 38-game streak.  He played a few years with the Cubs late in his career.  

Kellogg's started by saying that Lopes "never considered a long ball threat, really showed home run muscles last year when he tied for the club leadership with 28".  He had only 28 the previous two years combined.  

He moved up to second on the Dodger list of stolen bases, trailing only Maury Wills.  Lopes finished his career with 557 steals, 418 of them with the Dodgers.  He didn't catch Wills who had 490 as a Dodger, but he is 26th all-time in this category (Wills is 20th with 586).

#28 - Ken Singleton

Singleton got into a bunch of Kellogg's sets.  How did he do that?  First, his career went from 1970 to 1984 which fit the Kellogg's window perfectly.  Second, he was a consistent performer who earned MVP votes in seven different seasons.

He was on Kellogg's cards in 1974, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1981 and 1982.  Not many guys have more Kellogg's cards than that.  Try your luck with that.  I listed the nine players at the bottom of this post who have more than seven Kellogg's cards from 1970 to 1983.  

Answer - More than seven Kellogg's cards.  

Rod Carew, Pete Rose, Reggie Jackson, Tom Seaver, Jim Palmer, Steve Carlton, Willie Stargell, Nolan Ryan, Lou Brock

1980 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs - #31 - 33

 These 1980 cards are annoying to scan.  With that in mind I decided to just scan all of them so I won't have to be frustrated again.  I decided to not worry about whether they are perfect or not.  The more narrow card is not as easy to utilize in the scanner.  Back to look at three more cards from the set.  

#33 - Steve Kemp

Being in Chicago, A.L. East guys were the ones I knew the least about.  Kemp definitely fit into that group.   He did have one good season with the White Sox later. 

This the first year where I've struggled to get good scans of the card backs.  It's also the only year where I have trouble reading the backs on my own.

He only played 125 minor league games after being a first round draft choice.  Kellogg's said it would have been less had he not had an ankle injury in 1976.  

The card mentioned that he competed for batting honors (.318) in 1979.  He was eighth to Fred Lynn's .333.  

#32 - Dave Winfield

It is more fun to write about guys who only have one Kellogg's card.  That keeps me from repeating things.  Luckily, Kellogg's put lots of comments on the back so I will stick to those.  

The card reminded us that he was drafted by the NBA, ABA and NFL as well as being a first-round pick of the Padres.  I remember the ABA but I forgot about him being drafted there as well.   

Also mentioned on the back - his .444 average in all-star games, his NL RBI crown, his strong throwing arm, his Gold Glove award and his speed on the bases.  

#33 - Steve Garvey

Like Winfield, Garvey appeared on a bunch of Kellogg's cards.  At least I don't have to see him in a Padre uniform on any of them.  

I remember that he had a consecutive games streak going for a number of years.  Why do I remember that?  He eclipsed the mark of Cub Billy Williams, one of my favorite players. Garvey still holds the N.L. record in this category. 

"The Dodgers didn't do as well as Steve did...".  Nice way to start the story on the back.  The Dodgers were in the World Series in 1977 and 1978.  They finished 79-83 in 1979.  

Steve had a great career going.  He had 200 hits for the fifth time and he hit .300 for the sixth time in his seven seasons.  

His consecutive game streak is mentioned as well - 672 games and counting.  I think it was mentioned on another Kellogg's card but it is nice to repeat - he has a school named after him already.  

Garvey ended up being a 10-time all-star.  He was the 1974 N.L. MVP.  He received MVP votes in nine different seasons including eight in a row from 1974 to 1981.  

I'd always expected him to get more Hall of Fame votes.  He started out getting around 40% for a few years and then the numbers dropped.  In today's voting if he started over 40% on year one he'd have no problem getting enough votes in future years.  

1980 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs - #34 - 36

 Back for three more 1980 Kellogg's baseball cards.  Yes, I am sitting home on New Year's Eve.  Luckily, that is the norm for me and it has always been the case.  

#36 - Cesar Cedeno

Oops.  The auto-detect didn't recognize the white border as part of the card.  I didn't correct that until later.  

I remember him being very good in centerfield as well as being a regular all-star with lots of steals.  It turns out he was an all-star four times and he won five Gold Gloves.  He also had 550 career stolen bases, good for 27th all-time.  

The back is a bit blurry but I don't want to re-do it.  I didn't notice that the front listed him as playing first base and centerfield.  He starting playing first base in 1979 and that slipped by me.  The card mentions him recovering from knee surgery.  That explains the position switch.

#35 - Pete Rose

This is the first Pete Rose card that shows him as a member of the Phillies on the front.  He is listed as playing first base.  Unlike Cedeno, I remember Rose him switching positions throughout his career and being an all-star at each position.

Rose had his 15th season of hitting at least .300 in 1979.  Ty Cobb did it 23 consecutive times.  I like that Kellogg's called him "Charlie Hustle" with his pursuit of Stan Musial's N.L. hit record.  

He was the first play to get 200 hits in 10 seasons.  Ichiro Suzuki did that in his first 10 seasons but never was able to pass Rose.  Cobb did this nine times, but remember Cobb played 154 (ish) games in a season and there were two seasons where the Tigers played a lot less games (1918-1919).  

36 - Claudell Washington

I don't remember him being around the White Sox for very long.  Maybe I missed something since I was caddying a lot at this point.  When I looked him up on baseball-reference.com I figured there would be less Claudells than Washingtons.  I found out that he is the only Claudell on the database.

He had three years of injuries from 1977 - 1979.  He jumped to the majors with the A's after only 215 games in the minors.  Baseball-reference.com shows him still being 19 years old when he made that debut.

He only played 32 games with the White Sox in 1980 before being traded for a minor leaguer.  He played 17 years in the majors for seven different teams.  

He passed away this year.  Check out his 1976 Topps and Kellogg's cards where he can be found wearing the A's green and yellow uniform.  

1980 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs #37 - 38 Stearns & Mazzilli

I haven't done this since April.  I had two reasons for working my way through all of the Kellogg's cards and talking about the back.  First, I wanted to have a scan of every card.  Second, I want to go back to my early collecting days when I always read the back of every card - and everything on the cereal box too.

#38 - Lee Mazzilli

What do I remember about Lee Mazzilli?  One year he was near the lead league in batting average for a while.  It must have been 1979 to get him into this set.

I didn't remember hearing that his hobby was speed skating.  I read that he won some age-group nationals titles as a youngster.  

Back to 1979.  On July 4th he was hitting .336.  He did finish with a solid .303 for the season. 

That hot start in 1979 got him his only All-Star Game recognition.  He made the most of it.  Baseball-reference.com lists his two at-bats as the top two plays of the game.  In the eighth inning he tied the game with a solo homer and in the ninth he was walked and the go-ahead (and winning) run scored.  Dave Parker won the game's MVP award by throwing out a runner at third and another at home plate, the latter to end the eighth inning.    

I was surprised to find out that Mazzilli played for 14 seasons.  

Kellogg's reminded us about how the Mets had a "negative season".  Ouch, they won only 63 games.  Dave Kingman's 48 homers helped the Cubs finish 5th (of 6) and 17 games ahead of the Mets.

He added 34 stolen bases in 1979.  He notched a career-high the next year with 41.

My favorite comment on the back - "signed for a reported $50,".  Oh wait, they put the three additional zeroes on the next line.  

#37 - John Stearns

Two Mets in a row.  I don't like how that looks in my binder.  Stearns was a defensive back in college and had an offer from the Buffalo Bills.  

He was drafted out of high school but didn't sign.  Then was drafted in the first round of the June, 1973 draft as the second choice.  Lee Mazzilli was the 14th choice in the first round.  David Clyde was taken first and Robin Yount (3rd) and Dave Winfield (4th) followed Stearns.  A few other MLB guys were taken in that round including one of my favorites - Steve Swisher (21st to the White Sox).

The card notes that he can play almost any position.  

Stearns was a four-time all-star.  I would have guessed that Mazzilli had more than Stearns.  His football speed showed as he had 91 career stolen bases, which is solid for a catcher.  

Stearns came to the Mets from the Phillies in a trade that sent Tug McGraw to Philadelphia.

Opening a Single-Card Kellogg's Baseball Pack - 1980 Kellogg's Pack Mike Flanagan

In 1980 the Kellogg's packs were sealed differently than in other years.  It hasn't worked out well for those who collected unopened packs.  Why?  When I picked up a Rod Carew card the two pieces separated and the card was no longer in the package.  I have gotten these cards from at least five different sources where this happened, so I think this is a common problem.

As one can see from the video, the front and back wrappers can easily separate while the card is still inside.  I have a bunch of these cards that have this same problem.  Lots of these wrappers are also discolored which makes them look bad compared to a clean wrapper.  

I don't know what Kellogg's did differently but I suspect they did so to save money.  Does anyone know about this?

When opening a pack from any previous year one had to actually tear the wrapper.  Notice in the video how it easily separated into two pieces.  Luckily, there are not any expensive cards in this set because I wouldn't trust them as original packs.  

I am not really using the YouTube channel much, but I wanted to test it since I plan to do something big over the weekend.  I have an unopened 1973 Kellogg's set in the original mailer.  Why do I plan to open it?  The package has been severely damaged so I didn't pay much for it.  I thought it would be fun since my parents would never fork over money to get me a complete set when I was a kid.

Sometime around 1973 I wanted to send away for two Hot Wheels cards.  I remember that it was 25 cents for the Snake and Mongoose cars.  That never happened for me.  Did anyone get those?  

Here is the only video I put on this YouTube channel before today.  It's a great commercial.  

Dick Butkus Commercial

1980 Kellogg's Card Backs - #39 Larry Bowa

Kellogg's let it be known immediately that Bowa didn't have a great year in 1979.  Here is what they started the paragraph stating - "both Larry and his Phillies' employers are looking for him to rebound at the plate this year".  His great fielding was mentioned as he achieved many defensive records.

Let's check out his 1979 season compared to others.

In 1978 he was third in the MVP voting behind Dave Parker and Steve Garvey.  Only Parker (21 votes) and Bowa (3) received first-place votes.  He was an all-star, won a Gold Glove and hit .294.  He added 27 steals. 

In 1979 he dropped to a .241 average and all of his other stats were off from 1978.  He was an all-star, but he didn't win any Gold Gloves after 1978.  Dave Concepcion won the award in 1979 and Ozzie Smith took it the next 13 years.

Bowa didn't make any all-star games either after 1979. 

I was surprised to see how high Bowa ranked in some defensive categories.  As a shortstop, he is 9th in career assists, 11th in double plays and 16th in assists.  I was even more surprised to see that only six shortstops have played more games than Bowa.

6.  Jimmy Rollins - I would never have guessed him
5.  Cal Ripken
4.  Ozzie Smith
3.  Luis Aparicio
2.  Derek Jeter
1.  Omar Vizquel

I would have guessed Honus Wagner who played 21 seasons.  Nope.  He didn't play shortstop at all during his first four seasons and he played almost 900 games at other positions.  Wagner died on Bowa's 10th birthday.

The lockdown has allowed me to dig through lots of my cards.  Due to that, My Kellogg's sets are blocked from easy access.  I still wanted to do the post. 

1980 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs - #40 Fred Lynn

Lynn won his first batting title in 1979.  

Not on the card - he played 11 more seasons and never surpassed .301.  His career average was .283.

He only played 177 minor league games.  

Lynn's career is hard to define.  As a kid I was really excited to get his cards.  When I think about his career now, I think of his cards in the commons boxes at card shows.

He was a nine-time all-star.  Throw in four Gold Glove awards and his 1975 Rookie of the Year and MVP awards.

Since I've been looking at MVP votes to see what others thought of the player, I will do that with Lynn.  After his impressive 1979 season he was fourth in the MVP voting.  He received MVP votes in only two other seasons and neither time he finished in the top 20.

In 1979 Don Baylor won the MVP.  Ken Singleton and George Brett finished ahead of Lynn. 

Sadly, our hobby now sees guys as Hall of Famers or commons.  Lynn hit 306 homers to go with all of the other things mentioned above. 

1980 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs - #41 Carlton Fisk

I didn't know that Fisk had relatives in MLB (Rick Miller) and in the NFL (Dave Jennings).  

Not on the card - Fisk and Miller were teammates for six years in Boston.  

Fisk was always my sister's favorite player on the White Sox. 

I didn't remember Fisk missing so many games that year.  He missed a lot of games in 1974, 1975, 1984, 1988 and 1989.  Baseball-Reference.com always lists a player's 162-game average and Fisk's doesn't match up to his career numbers due to him missing so many games. I will compare him to a few others who played around the same time (same strike seasons, etc.).

Fisk

Home Runs - 378
Seasons - 24
Average per season - 15.8
Average per 162 games - 24  (51.9% more)

Mike Schmidt

Home Runs - 548
Seasons - 18
Average per season - 30.4
Average per 162 games - 37 (21.7% more)

George Brett

Home Runs - 317
Seasons - 21
Average per season - 15.1
Average per 162 games - 37 (25.8% more)

Ron Cey

Home Runs - 316
Seasons - 17
Average per season - 18.6
Average per 162 games - 25 (34.4% more)