1978 - 79 Topps Hockey Stickers

As the LA Kings continue their amazing postseason run towards the Stanley Cup, I thought it would be a good time to look at the Hockey stickers that were inserts in packs of 1978 - 79 Topps Hockey cards:

In addition to team logo stickers, there were also 3 smaller stickers on each card which featured a piece of hockey equipment (such as a puck), a position (such as Center), and a number, which could go on your helmet or hockey stick.

Even though there were only 17 teams in the league at the time, there are 22 different stickers as 5 teams can be found with 2 variations of the 3 smaller stickers.

Here is a look at the complete set of 22 stickers:

 

 

The wrapper mentions there is a "Sticker In Every Pack!"

 

and finally, here is an example of what the 1978-79 Topps Hockey cards look like that came with the stickers:

 

Its too bad Topps didn't do something similar with their Baseball cards at the time, as it would have been nice to have a set like this with Baseball logos.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words, no I Mean Dollars

I have been following the ebay auction from The Topps Vault for the 1978 Topps Eddie Murray Rookie Card Match Print photo, and could not believe how the auction turned out.

The winning bid for this photo was $1,136 !  I realize this is a truly unique one of a kind item, but still, over a grand for a photo?  I'm not sure I could ever justify spending that much on a photo, even if it is what was used to create one of my favorite cards of all time of my favorite player. 

However, its not the original negative - its only a photo that Topps made as part of the production process.  Don't get me wrong - I would love to have the photo, but I just can't imagine spending that kind of money

Two things I find interesting about the photo:

1) It is nice to see a little bit more of the photo that was covered by the white border on the card.

2) The color is definitely not as vibrant on the Match Print.  While you can see Eddie's face more clearly, the colors are much more muted in the Match Print than how they show up on the card.

Lowell-a-paloza

Thanks to the Topps Vault, some new photos of Lowell Palmer have emerged, including some rare photos of him on teams that he only played briefly for in the early 1970's.

 

This first shot from 1969 is an alternate shot from the iconic 1970 card:

Going back to spring training from 1968, we see Lowell without his trademark shades, but with regular glasses:

 

I love the fact that the above picture shows Lowell winding up without a ball in his hand!

The next 2 shots are from Spring Training 1970, and Lowell is once again rockin the shades, and this time he's flashing some teeth:

The next 2 shots are from Spring Training 1973 when Lowell was with the Indians.

Lowell only pitched one game for the Indians in 1972, as he did not make the team for the 1973 season, and was traded to the Yankees for Mike Kekich in June of '73.  Unfortunately for Lowell, he never played a game for the Yankees.

Finally, we have Lowell in 1974 as a member of the Padres who acquired him from the Yankees.  Lowell pitched in 22 games for the Padres that year, but this was to be his last season in the majors.

Its great to finally have some shots of Lowell with some of the other teams he played for during his career.  Since he only had a few short stints with teams outside of his years with the Phillies, its nice to see some other shots from later in his career.

New Color Photo of the 1969 Orioles Vest

I came across this fantastic picture of Mike Cuellar pitching in the rarely seen 1968 -1969 Orioles vest:

According to the Getty Images photo credits, this picture was taken by famed Sports Illustrated photographer Neil Leifer on May 24, 1969.

With the scoreboard in the background, we can confirm that this picture was taken on that date as according to Baseball-Reference.com, the Orioles faced the Oakland A's, and won 2-1 as Mike Cuellar battled Catfish Hunter.

Thanks to this picture, we now at least we have one confirmed date when the vests were worn.

I love that this picture captures the old Memorial Stadium scoreboard in the background along with the great shot of Cuellar pitching.  I had originally thought that the picture showed Dave Johnson at 2nd, but according to Baseball-Reference, Johnson started the game, but was replaced by Bobby Floyd in the top of the 3rd.

Reggie Jackson in the All Green A's Uniform

I came across this shot of Reggie Jackson in the rarely used green jersey & green pants combination worn by the Oakland A's:

The photo credit indicates the picture was taken on June 6, 1973 (http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/oakland-athletics-reggie-jackson-in-action-at-bat-vs-news-photo/108898985)

While SI did not use the Reggie Jackson photo, two pictures from that day were included in a Sports Illustrated article in the June 18, 1973 issue:

Here is an uncropped shot of the Gene Tennace photo which better shows the green pants

and here is a shot of Ray Fosse that was not previously published:

According to Dressed to the Nines, 1973 was the only year they wore this combination:

Along with the Orioles all orange uniforms

and the Indians all red combination

the 1970's provided some very memorable monochrome combinations that we rarely ever see today.  Love them or hate them, they definitely stand out.

More Pictures of the 1971 - 1972 Orioles All Orange Uniforms

Thanks to Ron, we've got 2 more pictures from the Baltimore Sun archives to add to the collection of the All Orange Orioles uniform worn at the end of 1971 and the beginning of 1972.

We've now got a picture of Bobby Grich


as well as an individual shot of Dave NcNally in the all orange uniforms:


According to Ron, these pictures are from the 2nd game of a double header against the Red Sox at Memorial Stadium on September 28, 1971.

Thanks Ron for passing along these 2 pictures, and for helping identify another game where these were worn!

Also, I recently come across this picture of Don Buford that I have been meaning to post:


And finally, here are better shots of the pictures of Jim Palmer and Boog Powell which originally appeared in The Sporting News that I had previously posted:




These last 3 pictures are all from April 22, 1972 in Cleveland.

Since these uniforms only made a few appearances, its always great to have new photos surface. Here's hoping there are a few more of these pictures still to be found in the Baltimore Sun archives!

How a box of Post Rice Krinkles answered my questions about the 1963 Post Cereal Baseball Pennants

When I first reviewed these early 1960's mini baseball pennants


I wasn't sure whether or not they had been issued by Post Cereal. Nowhere on the front or back


is there any indication that this was a Post Cereal promotion. I had not been able to find a Post cereal box that contained any information about the pennants to confirm that these were offered by Post until Greg sent me some pictures showing a Post Rice Krinkles box with the pennant offer on the front:


and a picture of the RedSox pennant and information about the pennants on the back:


The box indicates there are 19 team pennants, which confirms that there was no pennant made for the Houston Colt .45s. In fact the box even says "Except Houston" right under the information about the stickers and just above Tom Cheney's card. For some reason, it looks like the National League pennant was issued in its place (which brings the set to 20 pennants). That would explain why there appears to be no corresponding AL pennant.

The Post Cereal cards have stats from the 1962 season, so this confirms that this would have been a 1963 release.

I'd like to say thanks to Greg for this fantastic find! This box answers all of the questions I had not been able to previously answer.

NFL Football Pennant Sticker Mystery

I recently received an e-mail from Pete asking if I had any information about some NFL Football Pennant stickers that he was trying to research:


My first thought was that these were the Leaf Football Pennants that were released in the early 1980's, but comparing them to known Leaf stickers, I found that they are not the same:


As the picture above shows, the Leaf pennants were cut in the shape of a pennant instead of a rectangle, and if you look at the Bills pennant, you can see that there is a difference in the color of the face mask as well as a difference in the red stripe running down the left side of the pennant.

The stickers in question certainly look very similar to the Leaf set, but do not appear to be the same. I'd almost be inclined to say that the rectangular stickers might possibly be cut from a proof sheet of Leaf pennants stickers except for the fact that the backs have instructions for affixing the stickers to some sort of box:


Looking at the die cut on the picture above, if these were going to be cut into the pennant shapes that were used for the Leaf set, part of the instructions would have been cut off, so I'm almost positive these are not a Leaf release.

Besides, the Leaf pennant stickers were meant to be stuck in the Leaf Pennant Fever Pennant Collector Book, not on a box:


Pete sent a few other pictures showing a nearly complete collection of stickers for all the teams in the league at the time:




If anyone remembers these pennant stickers or happens to know anything about them, Pete and I would greatly appreciate knowing more about them. I'm particularly curious about the "box" that you were supposed to decorate with the pennants if anyone happens to remember what that might be.

Football & Pizza - The 1986 Jeno's Pizza Rolls NFL Stickers

As we approach Super Sunday, I wanted to take a look at a set that combines the two elements that make the day so special - food and great football action! In 1986 Jeno's ran a promotion where they included NFL team action stickers inside their boxes of Pizza Rolls:

A number of the stickers feature great action shots from previous Super Bowls, such as Joe Namath leading the Jets over the Colts in Super Bowl III:


Thankfully Jeno's put their logo on the back of the sticker instead of the front so that we get a very nice clean uncluttered photo, that just happens to look exactly like the 1966 Philadelphia Football play cards:



Each team had 2 stickers, which means a full set consists of 56 stickers. Here is a look at the full set:








What I really like about the stickers is that the photos are not closely cropped shots just of a single player, but are a wider shot that allows more of the action surrounding the play to be seen, just like the Fleer Team Action cards of the 1970's & 1980's.

The backs have a writeup that describes the action on the sticker:


There was also an offer for "Terry Bradshaw's Action Play Book" on the box which was just a fancy title for "Sticker Album":


The album pages appear to include the same text that was on the back of the stickers, which was nice so that you didn't have to save the backing if you decided to put your stickers in the album:


Its too bad that with sports card licensing being so restricted nowadays that we don't see very many food sets like this any more. It really would be fun to open up a few boxes of pizza rolls this Sunday and get a few football stickers as a bonus.