Clyde's Stale News II

     For the first time ever, Panini is FINALLY issuing a baseball sticker set for a country other than the US or Venezuela.  Panini will be producing a sticker set and album for Liga de Beisbol Dominicano (LIDOM) this season.

Ralston Purina 1987 Collectors' Edition

     1987 saw a ramping up by a variety of companies using baseball cards as an enticement for purchasing their product.  Popcorn, breakfast cereal, iced tea and even the big mac & cheese lobby would get into the baseball card printing act.  Three years after their "First Annual" card set, the Ralston Purina Company produced a new set of 15 cards, in packs of three, buried in specially marked boxes of regular and vanilla Cookie-Crisp, and the less well known test run of Honey Graham Chex.

     Along with the cards was an instant win card for a "Win A Hero For A Day" contest.  There were apparently separate contest for Cookie Crisp and for Honey Graham Chex as the prize enumerations are different on each box.  From the Cookie Crisp rules, the grand prize being a visit from "a baseball hero" to your school or a Little League game.  Other prizes were 500 Rawlings gloves; 1,000 personalized Louisville Slugger bats; 10,000 Rawlings baseballs and 100,000  complete uncut sheets of the card set.  From the Honey Graham Chex rules, the grand prize being a visit from "a baseball hero" to your school or a Little League game (meaning there were actually two chances at this). The other prizes were 100 Rawlings gloves; 200 personalized Louisville Slugger bats; 500 Rawlings baseballs and 25,000 complete uncut sheets of the card set.

     As mentioned in an earlier post, lots of sets produced by Michael Schechter Associates (MSA) for various companies were also available in poster or sheet form as a mail-in offer.  If you weren't lucky enough to win one of the 125,000 posters, you could purchase one by sending in two non-winning game cards and $1 to Ralston Purina.  One has to wonder if the posters available for purchase came from the 125,000 instant win stash, or if there was a separate run of posters just for that.  I have to think it was all the same print run as I can't imagine Ralston Purina really thinking they would have to redeem 125,000 posters and still have people ordering more.

1987 Cookie Crisp Limited Edition Collectors' Sheet

1987 Honey Graham Chex Limited Edition Collectors' Sheet

     As with all of the previous MSA uncut sheets, a variation of the card set was introduced as collectors began to chop up the sheets into individual cards.  The actual cards were printed on gray cardstock, similar to that used for the cereal boxes.  The posters were printed on a lighter, beige cardstock and were missing the "1987 COLLECTORS' EDITION" wording on the left side of the crossed bats on front.  So, again, not a "RARE VARIATION", just a piece of a chopped-up poster.

     An interesting bit of text on the side of the box partially reveals the print run for this set.  The official rules for the promotion says of the prizes, "A total of 111,501 instant win prizes are available to be won in 3 million boxes of Cookie Crisp brand cereal."  It then goes on to list the prizes, totals and odds of winning.  As the cards were issued three per box, that means at least 9,000,000 cards were issued.  Assuming all cards were issued in equal numbers, that puts each card at a print run of no less than 600,000 cards.  The rules also mention that any unclaimed prizes would never be awarded, which invites the assumption that the unredeemed card sheets were eventually destroyed (assuming they didn't make it out the back door of the warehouse), so there are likely far fewer than the mentioned 100,000 sheets in circulation.  And that's just including the cards issued with Cookie Crisp.

[UPDATE - 25 May 2016]

     I finally found a Honey Graham Chex box and, as suspected, it had a smaller run than Cookie Crisp. The official rules for the promotion says of the prizes, "A total of 25,801  instant win prizes are available to be won in 1 million boxes of Honey Graham Chex brand cereal."  It then goes on to list the prizes, totals and odds of winning.  As the cards were issued three per box, that means at least 3,000,000 more cards were issued to cover the Chex production run.  Assuming all cards were issued in equal numbers, that puts each card at a print run of no less than 200,000 cards each.

    Combining the two products therefore gives us a total print run of actual cards as 800,000 per card and 125,000 posters.

     Both sets and uncut sheets are still readily available for cheap on eBay, usually under $10, though the Honey Graham Chex poster seems to be far less available than the Cookie Crisp, which stands to reason as only 1/4th as many were printed.  The checklist is as follows:

Card #	Player	Team
1	Nolan Ryan	Houston Astros
2	Steve Garvey	San Diego Padres
3	Wade Boggs	Boston Red Sox
4	Dave Winfield	New York Yankees
5	Don Mattingly	New York Yankees
6	Don Sutton	California Angels
7	Dave Parker	Cincinnati Reds
8	Eddie Murray	Baltimore Orioles
9	Gary Carter	New York Mets
10	Roger Clemens	Boston Red Sox
11	Fernando Valenzuela	Los Angeles Dodgers
12	Cal Ripken Jr.	Baltimore Orioles
13	Ozzie Smith	St. Louis Cardinals
14	Mike Schmidt	Philadelphia Phillies
15	Ryne Sandberg	Chicago Cubs

1987 Smokey Bear 38th Annual Fresno Hot Stove League Dinner

 

     Returning to the "I've never heard of that set" department, I present this set from 1987, apparently sponsored by the U.S. Forest Service and presumably handed out at the 38th Annual Fresno Hot Stove League Dinner.  The Fresno Hot Stove League Dinner, now officially the Hot Stove Gala, began in 1948, started by a gentleman by the name of Al Radka, as a fundraiser for local charities.  1990 was the first interruption after 41 years, when the function was cancelled on account of the expense of bringing in big name players (who had donated their time in years past).

     In 2003, the Fresno Grizzlies brought it back and established the Al Radka Award to bestowe on individuals who have made important contributions to local Fresno sports.  The 55th Annual event was just held this past February, with Tony DeFrancesco, manager of the 2015 Triple-A National Champion Fresno Grizzlies as the guest speaker.

     These cards are 4"x 6", feature black and white photos and fire prevention tips (or cheesy slogans) on the back in the form of cartoons.  The design is very similar to the 1987 Fire Prevention Team set which featured a much more prominent line-up of contemporary All-Stars.  For this set, it appears some, if not all, of the photos have been recycled from other cards or publicity photos.  The Rudy May photo was clearly copied from the 1983 Yankees Photo Album.

     The set is almost entirely comprised of players from West Coast teams or those simply from the West Coast, namely Rex Hudler, who wouldn't play in California until joining the Angels in 1994, but had been a local Fresno high school standout and Ron Robinson, who would never play on the West Coast, but was drafted out of Woodlake High School in Woodlake, California (about an hour southeast of Fresno).  This set caught my eye because it included a previously unknown (to me) card of Dave Henderson.  While Hendu is shown in a Boston cap, at the time of the Dinner, he had already been traded from Boston to San Francisco, granted free agency, and signed by Oakland.

     As of this posting, copies of the set are still available on eBay.  The checklist is currently assumed to be complete.  Scans of all cards are available at the Trading Card Database.

Smokey Bear

Mike Aldrete

Chris Codiroli

Dave Henderson

Rick Honeycutt

Rex Hudler

Reggie Jackson

Wally Joyner

Bill Krueger

Don Larsen

Rudy May

Bob Melvin

Tom Niedenfuer

Ron Robinson

Steve Sax

Dave Stewart

Franklin Stubbs

Jim Wohlford

Hobby Archaeology: 1983 Chicago Tribune White Sox Scrapbook

     1983 saw the Chicago Tribune issue another scrapbook series, this time for the White Sox.  The set was announced on page 17 of the September 11th Sports section, opposite a big article on hot hitting Sox rookie Ron Kittle.  Taking up the whole of the Focus page, the last page of the Sports section on weekdays, these scrapbook "cards" were large at three to a page.  At least for the first six installments, after which they were issued one per page on no apparent fixed schedule.  The set ran from 13 September to 1 October.

     Each entry included a fairly full biographical profile, abbreviated statistics through the previous day's game, a head shot and an action shot.

Hobby Archaeology: 1984 Chicago Tribune Cubs Scrapbook

     In 1984, the Chicago Tribune produced yet another series of "cards" for the Cubs.  The set was announced on the front page of the September 5th issue, to appear "intermittently" on the Focus page, which was the last page of the Sports section. This time around, rather than stringing them out one or two players per issue, they issued the set in full pages spread across five seemingly random issues from September 5th to 2 October, as the Cubs were making their push toward the post-season.

     The other big change with this issue is that the cards were presented in full color, and designed in a way such that the cut-out card can be folded in half to create a "card" with a front and a back.  The set introduction recommends folding the cut-outs around a piece of heavy paper or cardboard and gluing it in place to make them more card-like.

Image from Collecting Zim

Washington Nationals Inside Pitch Program Cards

     In these days of exclusive licensing deals, the "oddball" card has become something of an endangered species.  Gone are the sets issued with food products or the small boxed sets from drug stores and discount retailers.  About all we have left in the way of oddballs are the occasional sets issued by the teams themselves.   The Washington Nationals were one such team.

     From 2009 to 2014, the Nationals issued a pair of cards bound into their Inside Pitch game programs.  For each of those six seasons, the Nationals issued twelve programs resulting in a total of 24 cards each year.  Given that 2009 is Volume 2, I would not at all be surprised to learn that cards were issued in 2008's Volume 1, but so far I have found no evidence.  Also, in 2009, it seems the cards may have been inserted randomly and not sequentially as in later years.  As a result, I am not 100% confident in the numbering below.

     Someone asked about a few of these cards over on SportsCardForum.com and, as I started researching, I was surprised to find no other blog had covered these cards.  To fix that, I'm going to post what I found here and enlist the rest of you to help fill in the gaps.   If you can help out with additions or corrections, please drop me a line in the comments.

2009

© Nats320

Number	Name	Issue*
1	Elijah Dukes	Vol. 2, #1
2	Ronnie Belliard	Vol. 2, #1
3	Willie Harris	Vol. 2, #2
4	Ryan Zimmerman	Vol. 2, #2
5	Anderson Hernandez	Vol. 2, #3
6	Cristian Guzman	Vol. 2, #3
7	Austin Kearns	Vol. 2, #4
8	Ronnie Belliard	Vol. 2, #4
9	Jose Flores	Vol. 2, #5
10	John Lannan	Vol. 2, #5
11	Joel Hanrahan	Vol. 2, #6
12	Saul Rivera	Vol. 2, #6
13	Adam Dunn	Vol. 2, #7
14	Tyler Clippard	Vol. 2, #7
15	Josh Willingham	Vol. 2, #8
16	Sean Burnett	Vol. 2, #8
17	Nyger Morgan	Vol. 2, #9
18	Josh Bard	Vol. 2, #9
19	Wil Nieves	Vol. 2, #10
20	Mike MacDougal	Vol. 2, #10
21		Vol. 2, #11
22		Vol. 2, #11
23		Vol. 2, #12
24		Vol. 2, #12

*I'm not entirely sure the card pairings to issue numbers were consistent in the first year.  It is entirely possible the set was released jumbled throughout the year, rather than sequentially.

2010

© Nats320

Number	Name	Issue
1	John Lannan	Vol. 3, #1
2	Ivan Rodriguez	Vol. 3, #1
3	Adam Dunn	Vol. 3, #2
4	Ryan Zimmerman	Vol. 3, #2
5	Tyler Clippard	Vol. 3, #3
6	Willie Harris	Vol. 3, #3
7	Livan Hernandez	Vol. 3, #4
8	Tyler Moore	Vol. 3, #4
9	Stephen Strasburg	Vol. 3, #5
10	Drew Storen	Vol. 3, #5
11	Ian Desmond	Vol. 3, #6
12	Cristian Guzman	Vol. 3, #6
13	Matt Capps	Vol. 3, #7
14	Nyjer Morgan	Vol. 3, #7
15	Roger Bernadina	Vol. 3, #8
16	Michael Morse	Vol. 3, #8
17	Wil Nieves	Vol. 3, #9
18	Miguel Batista	Vol. 3, #9
19	Drew Storen	Vol. 3, #10
20	Ian Desmond	Vol. 3, #10
21	Roger Bernadina	Vol. 3, #11
22	Stephen Strasburg	Vol. 3, #11
23	Danny Espinosa	Vol. 3, #12
24	Wilson Ramos	Vol. 3, #12

2011

2011 New Era Inside Pitch Washington Nationals #3 - Wilson Ramos

Number	Name	Issue
1	Livan Hernandez	Vol. 4, #1
2	Ivan Rodriguez	Vol. 4, #1
3	Ian Desmond	Vol. 4, #2
4	Jayson Werth	Vol. 4, #2
5	Adam LaRoche	Vol. 4, #3
6	Ryan Zimmerman	Vol. 4, #3
7	Rick Ankiel	Vol. 4, #4
8	Drew Storen	Vol. 4, #4
9	Laynce Nix	Vol. 4, #5
10	Tom Gorzelanny	Vol. 4, #5
11	Jerry Hairston	Vol. 4, #6
12	Todd Coffey	Vol. 4, #6
13	Michael Morse	Vol. 4, #7
14	Jason Marquis	Vol. 4, #7
15	Ryan Zimmerman	Vol. 4, #8
16	Danny Espinosa	Vol. 4, #8
17	Wilson Ramos	Vol. 4, #9
18	Tyler Clippard	Vol. 4, #9
19	Alex Cora	Vol. 4, #10
20	John Lannan	Vol. 4, #10
21	Jesus Flores	Vol. 4, #11
22	Stephen Strasburg	Vol. 4, #11
23	Chris Marrero	Vol. 4, #12
24	Tom Milone	Vol. 4, #12

2012

Number	Name	Issue
1	Stephen Strasburg	Vol. 5, #1
2	Ryan Zimmerman	Vol. 5, #1
3	Brad Lidge	Vol. 5, #2
4	Adam LaRoche	Vol. 5, #2
5	Jesus Flores	Vol. 5, #3
6	Ian Desmond	Vol. 5, #3
7	Bryce Harper	Vol. 5, #4
8	Tyler Moore	Vol. 5, #4
9	Craig Stammen	Vol. 5, #5
10	Michael Morse	Vol. 5, #5
11	Ross Detwiler	Vol. 5, #6
12	Steve Lombardozzi	Vol. 5, #6
13	Gio Gonzalez	Vol. 5, #7
14	Jhonatan Solano	Vol. 5, #7
15	Sean Burnett	Vol. 5, #8
16	Roger Bernadina	Vol. 5, #8
17	Edwin Jackson	Vol. 5, #9
18	Drew Storen	Vol. 5, #9
19	Ryan Matheus	Vol. 5, #10
20	Jayson Werth	Vol. 5, #10
21	Danny Espinosa	Vol. 5, #11
22	Kurt Suzuki	Vol. 5, #11
23	Tyler Clippard	Vol. 5, #12
24	Jordan Zimmerman	Vol. 5, #12

2013

Number	Name	Issue
1	Davey Johnson	Vol. 6, #1
2	Danny Espinosa	Vol. 6, #1
3	Ian Desmond	Vol. 6, #2
4	Chad Tracy	Vol. 6, #2
5	Jayson Werth	Vol. 6, #3
6	Ross Detwiler	Vol. 6, #3
7	Stephen Strasburg	Vol. 6, #4
8	Rafael Soriano	Vol. 6, #4
9	Jordan Zimmerman	Vol. 6, #5
10	Kurt Suzuki	Vol. 6, #5
11	Ryan Zimmerman	Vol. 6, #6
12	Craig Stammen	Vol. 6, #6
13	Bryce Harper	Vol. 6, #7
14	Tyler Clippard	Vol. 6, #7
15	Jordan Zimmerman	Vol. 6, #8
16	Kurt Suzuki	Vol. 6, #8
17	Gio Gonzalez	Vol. 6, #9
18	Roger Bernadina	Vol. 6, #9
19	Anthony Rendon	Vol. 6, #10
20	Wilson Ramos	Vol. 6, #10
21	Ryan Zimmerman	Vol. 6, #11
22	Ian Krol	Vol. 6, #11
23	Dan Haren	Vol. 6, #12
24	Drew Storen	Vol. 6, #12

2014

Number	Name	Issue
1	Matt Williams	Vol. 7, #1
2	Tyler Clippard	Vol. 7, #1
3	Bryce Harper	Vol. 7, #2
4	Ross Detwiler	Vol. 7, #2
5	Adam LaRoche	Vol. 7, #3
6	Taylor Jordan	Vol. 7, #3
7	Anthony Rendon	Vol. 7, #4
8	Tanner Roark	Vol. 7, #4
9	Rafael Soriano	Vol. 7, #5
10	Drew Storen	Vol. 7, #5
11	Jordan Zimmerman	Vol. 7, #6
12	Kevin Frandsen	Vol. 7, #6
13	Jayson Werth	Vol. 7, #7
14	Danny Espinosa	Vol. 7, #7
15	Denard Span	Vol. 7, #8
16	Jose Lobaton	Vol. 7, #8
17	Ryan Zimmerman	Vol. 7, #9
18	Jerry Blevins	Vol. 7, #9
19	Stephen Strasburg	Vol. 7, #10
20	Racing Presidents	Vol. 7, #10
21	Wilson Ramos	Vol. 7, #11
22	Gio Gonzalez	Vol. 7, #11
23	Doug Fister	Vol. 7, #12
24	Ian Desmond	Vol. 7, #12

Mother's Cookies Dave Henderson (1984 - 1993)

In Memoriam
David Lee Henderson

1958-2015

1984 Mother's Cookies Seattle Mariners #3

  

1985 Mother's Cookies Seattle Mariners #4

  

1986 Mother's Cookies Seattle Mariners #4

  

1988 Mother's Cookies Oakland Athletcs #14

  

1989 Mother's Cookies Oakland Athletics #13

 

1990 Mother's Cookies Oakland Athletics #18

  

1991 Mother's Cookies Oakland Athletics #18

  

1992 Mother's Cookies Oakland Athletics #18

  

1993 Mother's Cookies Oakland Athletics #9

Thank you, Hendu, for all the smiles!

1986 Meadow Gold Dave Winfield

    One of the more frustrating aspects of being a player collector is chasing a card that, by all appearances, should be fairly easy to find yet ends up being one of the most elusive.  In 1986, Meadow Gold Dairy, a subsidiary of Beatrice Foods at the time, produced three series of baseball cards printed on the packaging of their various Double Play products.  The sets were produced in cooperation with MLBPA's main licensee, Michael Schecter Associates (MSA), so the logo-less photos are all familiar from other 1984-1986 MSA issues.  If you search eBay, you can usually find the boxes and wrappers for all of the 1986 Meadow Gold products.

     The first set issued came in packages of BubbleGum Coolers and Assorted Jr. Pops (basically popsicles and fudgesicles). The cards from this 20-card set came two cards to a box on a perforated strip, two cards folded around an offer card. These were what became known in the hobby as the "1986 Meadow Gold Stat Backs" because they feature biographical and statistical information on the backs of the cards.  These are by far the most common of the 1986 Meadow Gold issues.  Dave Winfield was paired with Pete Rose, but I haven't decided whether or not to pick up the intact cards, yet.

  

    The second set issued came printed on one of the end flaps of half gallon boxes of Double Play ice cream.  As anyone who grew up in the 1970s-1990s can tell you, those old rectangular boxes of ice cream were a real pain to scoop from, and when doing so, you almost always ended up getting ice cream all over the back of your scooping hand and all down the handle of the scoop.  Needless to say, the end flaps would be thoroughly coated in sticky, half-melted ice cream.  As a result, it should come as no surprise that this series is a little more difficult to find.  This 16-card set became most commonly known as the "1986 Meadow Gold Blank Back" set.  Not really surprising, given that the back of the card was part of the inside of an ice cream box.

    According to the 2004 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards (I just don't feel like pulling a newer copy off the shelf at the moment), Willie McGee was reportedly the toughest player to find from the set, but it took me the better part of a decade to track down Winfield without having to purchase a complete set of boxes.  I was lucky enough to find two flat boxes, so I can cut the card off one, and keep the other intact.  Most of the cards in these two sets feature the same photos, but the Blank Back cards have the backgrounds replaced with an empty sky blue backdrop.  Most of the cards use the same photos for both sets, but the Winfield card uses the older image for the Stat Back (seen earliest on his 1983 Topps Glossy Send-In card) and the Blank Back uses a newer image (seen first on the 1985 General Mills MSA issue, and later on his All-Star card, #717 from the 1986 Topps base set).  This card effectively completes 1986 for my Dave Winfield collection.

    Winfield wasn't part of the third Meadow Gold set of 1986. It was printed as line art versions of the player photos from the other two sets, and was printed on the backs of milk cartons.  This set was limited to 11 cards and was less popular than the other two sets, being both messy and ugly.

New Acereros de Monclova Stickers & Album

    The Mexican League's Acereros de Monclova have issued a new set of stickers and album covering their history from 1974 to 2015, to mark the team's 40th anniversary.  The new set looks very similar to the previous set issued in 2011, and if the images from their Facebook Page are any indication, some of the stickers may be repeats from the earlier set.  As before, there are both individual stickers of players, as well as 8-sticker puzzles, to fill out the 196-sticker set.

    This time around, instead of only offering the sets at the ballpark and through mail order, both the new and old sets are being sold on Mercado Libre, the main eBay-equivalent marketplace for most of Latin America.  The price for both sets, album included, is 200 pesos, which is about $13.50 US.  However, it would appear they are currently only shipping within Mexico.  Links to each album on Mercado Libre are below:

Álbum Y Estampas Acereros De Monclova 2015

Álbum Y Estampas Acereros De Monclova 1974-2011

Thanks to Mexican Super Collector Arturo for the news!