1970 All Star Game Program

With the All Star Game set to take place next week in Cincinnati, I thought it would be a great time to take a look back at one of my favorite baseball programs from one of the more famous All Star Games that happened to also take place in Cincinnati - the 1970 All Star Game Program:

 

I really like the fact that the program features the logos of all 24 teams, and that the colorful team logos really stand out against the all white background.  For the most part, these are the logos that these teams would use throughout the '70's, which is when I first became a baseball fan.

One of the interesting things on the cover is the Major League Baseball logo, which was only used occasionally during the 1970's.  This logo makes its first appearance on this program, and the program includes information about the creation and the meaning of what they call Baseball's "Bannermark":

  

Other than the cover of this program, the only place I recall seeing this logo is on All Star trophies from the 1970's, such as the 1971 All Star Game trophy that went to Hank Aaron for being the top vote getter

and the All Star Game MVP trophies, like this shot of Dave Parker from 1979:

One nice feature of the program is a year by year summary of each All Star game, including the box scores as well as a description of the game, such as this example from the 1955 game:

As Riverfront Stadium had just opened, the program welcomes you to the "Magnificent" ballpark, which had just opened earlier that year:

 

In an interesting case of foreshadowing, we also have an ad featuring future Reds owner Marge Schott, who  "really cares":

 
Of course, the reason this All Star Game remains so memorable is because of the play that ended the game in extra innings:

This fantastic custom card from Cards That Never Were would have been a great addition to the 1971 Topps set!

Avon NBA Decanters

As I mentioned in my last post about the Avon NFL Decanters, Avon also produced a set NBA Decanters.  Here is a look at the set of all 22 teams that were in the league at the time (1976 - 1977):

 

 

Just as with the NFL Decanters, the NBA Decanters contained Wild Country After Shave:

The box has information about the history of the NBA and instructions for applying the embossed team label

As with the NFL Decanters, the team emblem was packaged separately in an envelope with the team logo on the front as seen in this example: 

The embossed metal team logos make a nice collectible by themselves.  Here is a near set of all the labels:

Based on scanning ebay for pictures of the different teams, it looks like you can still find these Decanters without too much difficulty as I was able to find auctions for just about every team.

Unfortunately Avon did not produce an MLB set.  I would have enjoyed trying to collect a set of the MLB embossed labels.

Celebrating Father's Day in the 1970's with Avon NFL Decanters

With Father's Day coming up, I thought it would be a good time to take a look at something that would have been a great gift idea for Dad back in the late 1970's - Avon NFL Decanters:

I was not aware of these until a reader (Gary) brought these to my attention.  I'd like to say thanks to Gary for letting me know about these as I had never come across these before.

The decanter holds Wild Country After Shave

and comes with an embossed metal label of one of the then 28 NFL teams in the league which is applied to the front of the decanter.

Inside the box was the decanter, a top shaped like a football, and an envelope with the team helmet which contained the metal label to be applied to the bottle:

 

Here is a picture of the envelope with instructions for applying the label

 

As well as a shot of the back of label:

The decanter comes in a black box which contains team names

 

(which remind me of the classic NFL bed sheets from around the same time)

and information about the NFL and the decanter on the back:

 

Since the back of the box mentions the 1975 Super Bowl, these were likely produced starting in 1976.  I'm not sure how many years these were available, but given that I have not come across the Jets helmet that changed in 1978, I'm guessing these were available between 1976 and 1977.

The box indicates the team label is packaged separately, so I'm guessing when you placed your order, you could request which team decal you wanted, and it would be included with the box of aftershave.

Here is a look at all 28 teams:

 

 

  

 

 

 

  

 

  

 

 

 

  

  

 

 

 

 

 

  

  

  

If you don't have an interest in collecting the decanters, the embossed decals themselves still make a nice collectible:

 To wrap up, here is a look at a full set that someone has for sale:

 

Avon also did a set of decanters for the NBA, which I will cover next time.