12 March 2016

At the Trade Deadline 44: The Prowling Cat Cleans Out His Clutter, and I'm Reaping All the Benefits, Part 4


A while back the Prowling Cat posted a bunch of stuff he was planning on donating if he couldn't find someone in the blogosphere to give it to, and I put my name in the hat for several of the items. He sent out one shipment of stuff to me near the end of 2015 and just recently I got hit with a second wave of cards. I think out of this batch I originally just requested two things, but he sent more than that. The really cool thing is that the bulk of these items were food issue sets from the 80's.


I don't know if there is anything better than food-sponsored baseball cards. I was going to buy food anyway, but packaging cards with that food makes things so much better. Unfortunately this kind of thing has mostly gone by the wayside these days, but food issues had a long hobby run. My kids got Pokemon cards in their Happy Meals recently and some Canadian coffee place gave away hockey cards with their drinks last year, but as far as I know those are some of the relatively few food promotions out there. When I was a kid it seemed like you couldn't turn around without finding baseball card in your cereals and snacks. This first set in my package from the Prowling Cat is a 1986 Topps Quaker Chewy Granola Bars issue that touts itself as the 1st Annual Collectors' Edition. The card fronts feature some pretty nice portrait photos while the backs have a good amount of biographical data, 1985 stats, career stats, and a bulleted list of career highlights.


There are plenty of stars in this checklist, some teams like the Mets and Cardinals receiving extra attention. That jacket that Dave Parker is wearing looks incredibly uncomfortable, like someone coated a trash bag in rubber and added a zipper and sleeves to it.


Normally I'd have more to say about these cards, but I've got like twenty minutes until midnight and if I don't hit publish on this thing soon I will break my streak of posting every day this year so far. I am thinking that the streak might break in April anyhow, but there's no use in breaking it before I have to. Nice to see Fernando Valenzuela wearing a helmet on a card. Nolan Ryan looks like he might be trying to suppress some kind of gastrointestinal issue long enough for the picture to be taken. Maybe he's looking into the sunlight or something.


Don Mattingly is one of the few people on this earth who should always have a mustache. There are all types of mustaches on this scan, from Saberhagen's barely-there look to Wade Boggs and his uber-stache. I'm guessing that bulge in George Brett's cheek is just him eating some tasty Quaker Chewy Granola Bars.


That whole top row of photographs is pretty good. Reggie Jackson looks surprised to be having his photo taken, Eddie Murray is rocking all kinds of hair, Phil Niekro looks like somebody's grandpa, and I think they must have borrowed Dan Quisenberry's mugshot from the local precinct.

Thanks for the cards, Prowling Cat! There is plenty more to post from this package over the next little while.

6 comments:

  1. Great bunch of cards. Now I'm hungry.

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    1. I'm always hungry. I've been on a diet since October to lose some weight for the Army. I'm down around 25 pounds so far, but it's tough to keep it up. We do have a big box of Quaker Chewy Granola Bars in the pantry right now. They're a pretty decent snack.

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  2. It's almost a surprise to see a set like this without airbrushed logos. If not for Topps, this would be just another MSA set with players in generic trucker caps. This set came out right before I started collecting, otherwise I probably would have had a ton of these.

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    1. Yeah, you do kind of expect them to all be wearing logo-less uniforms. I don't mind the lack of logos on food issues, even though it bothers me on Panini's recent releases. I guess because I grew up with Post food issues I expect the food cards to be missing logos while proper pack-pulled cards for the most part should have logos on them.

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  3. This is a pretty cool set.

    And that Lovitz video will never get old - you should just put it at the top of every single post from here on out.

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    1. I love those older Adam Sandler movies. He had a good run from 1995-2000, then he was hit or miss through 2008, and after that it just kept getting worse. Jon Lovitz played a great rival in The Wedding Singer. He plays a great creep.

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