1955 Post Sugar Crisp Cereal Commercial Featuring Ted Williams and Baseball Patches

I recently came across this great commercial for Post Sugar Crisp cereal from 1955 with spokesman Ted Williams talking about the the baseball team logo patches, and demonstrating how you can apply them:

For a detailed look at the 1955 Post Sugar Crisp cereal baseball patches including the never issued Kansas City A's patch, please take a look at my earlier post showing an uncut sheet of the patches.

A Very Busy Day for the Topps Photographer - May 28, 1972

A post on the great blog When Topps Had (Base) Balls! about the 1973 Gerry Moses card got me to thinking about the number of pictures in that set that show the Orioles playing at Memorial Stadium.  After looking through the set, I realized that there are a number of Orioles and Indians cards that appear to have been taken at the same game.  Doing some research on Baseball Reference.com, it looks like 11 different cards in the 1973 set came from a Sunday afternoon game played at Memorial Stadium on May 28, 1972. 

Two of the cards that clearly show this is a game between the Orioles and Indians involve Jack Brohamer.  In fact, I think both of these cards are from the same play:

In the top of the 3rd, Brohamer singled, and then was out on a double play on a ball hit to 2nd.  Jack's card shows him getting tagged out by 2nd baseman Bobby Grich.  I think the Mark Belanger card shows a photo of Brohamer at the conclusion of the play coming into 2nd, and Belanger jumping out of the way.

 

Brohamer did steal 2nd earlier in the game, but given that he isn't sliding, and Belanger isn't trying to make a tag, I don't think this card shows that steal.

In addition to the appearance on Brohamer's card, Grich's card also shows him at Memorial Stadium catching a infield popup.  Frank Duffy hit a popup to 2nd in the 2nd inning, and Tom McGraw popped up to 2nd in the 8th, so this card likely shows one of those 2 plays.

On the Gerry Moses card which started me on my search,  we can see an Oriole sliding in to home behind him.  The Oriole appears to be Mark Belanger, who wore # 7.  Gerry was traded along with Graig Nettles to the Yankees on November 27, 1972, which is why his cap has been airbrushed, and why his card lists him on the Yankees.

Belanger scored on a sac fly by Bobby Grich in the bottom of the 4th.  

Speaking of Graig Nettles, his picture was also taken at this game, and he received a rather poor airbrush job to show him as a Yankee:

These next 3 cards all show the same background as the Gerry Moses and Graig Nettles cards, so presumably they were all taken the same day as well:

 

 

We have one more card showing the Indians and the Orioles from this game.  Frank Duffy's card shows him making a play at 2nd with an unidentifiable Oriole sliding headfirst into the bag.  If I had to guess, I would say the Oriole is Don Baylor who was out at 2nd on a ground ball hit by Boog Powell to the 2nd baseman who threw to the shortstop to get the forceout.

Jim Palmer's 1973 card shows him pitching at Memorial Stadium.  While there is nothing to confirm that this was taken against the Indians, Jim did pitch a complete game against the Indians on May 28, and got the win 5 - 1.  Given all the other pictures that seem to be from this game, I would say the Palmer card is from that game as well.

And finally, we have Brooks Robinson.  While there is nothing in the photo to confirm that this great photo was taken during the same game, given that all of the other Orioles cards that show an action shot appear to be from this game, I think it is a safe bet to say this picture was taken the same day.

I'm not sure what the record might be for number of game used photos from a single game being used in 1 set, but having possibly 11 cards from the 1973 set coming from one game is pretty impressive!

Rare Padres Cap Pics from The Topps Vault

As I was checking out the latest negatives up for auction from The Topps Vault, I came across two new pictures showing the short-lived 1972 Padres wide-spanning yellow panel:

That is a whole lot of yellow!  The player in both pictures is Al Severinsen.

According to a story a few years back by Paul Lukas on his amazing Uni Watch site, these caps were only worn for Sunday home games during the 1972 season, which helps explain why there aren't that many pictures showing this unique cap.

Even though this was apparently only a "Sunday Special", the design does show up in a couple of other interesting places.  Here is a picture of the Padres Bullpen Buggy, and its got the wide-spanning panel on the cap:

 

And finally, here is a 7-11 Slurpee Cup featuring Leron Lee, who is shown sporting the wide-spanning panel cap:

What is Going On Here?

In looking over some negatives that The Topps Vault has up for auction, I came across this interesting shot of Willie McGee:

There are a number of rather strange things going on in this picture.

First, the mismatched uniform with the white home jersey and the blue road pants.   I've never seen the Cardinals wear this combination before.  I know its just Spring Training, but still this is a very strange look.  We can tell that this was just not a case of Willie being mixed up with what to wear since the other player in the picture also has the same combination.

Speaking of which - it looks like the other player is passed out or has been knocked unconscious!
 

What in the world happened to this guy?  Did he have a few too many the night before, or did Willie just take him out with his bat?


Finally, take a look at Willie's cap.  Lets take a closer look at what has been written:

It looks like Willie is keeping track of his stats on the underside of the brim of his cap, or perhaps those are his goals for the upcoming season.  It looks like he is shooting for 100 runs and 50 stolen bases.

Topps says the negative is from 1986.  If that is the case, then this picture would have made a much more fun choice than this:

UPDATE:

Thanks to madding from Cards on Cards for pointing out that Willie can also be seen wearing what appears to be this same cap on his 1985 Fleer card:

As this looks to be the same cap, it would appear that the picture that Topps indicated from 1986 is more likely from Spring Training 1984.

Thanks also to Paul Lukas from Uni Watch for providing the complete rundown of what is written on the cap.  According to Paul, "The stuff written on his underbrim is his uni number (51) plus his statistical goals for the year: a .320 batting average, 100 runs, 50 SBs, 15 HRs and 80 RBI."