All about the base - 1977 Topps

Year: 1977

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Flagship

Card Number: 635

Card Type: Base

The late 70's Topps' sets all blend together for me.  When I'm looking through cards I continually have to look on the back to see what year it is sometimes.  The designs aren't terrible, but they don't show a lot of effort.  I guess that's what happens when you don't have much competition.  For Robin's third Topps card we get a nice action shot of what looks like Robin about to lay down a bunt.  

The overall card design, while pretty, basic has all the right elements.  The player name on the back of the card is huge. My one drawback is the card number is smaller this year and position pretty far down the card making box collation a little tougher.  I do like the that the back of the card is made to look like a billboard or scoreboard.  It's the little touches like that that makes me love the vintage Topps sets.  I also find it interesting that Topps mentions Robin's brother Larry, who has no baseball cards by the way and also has the distinct pleasure of being the only pitcher in MLB history to appear in the official record books but never faced a batter.

1977 Saga Disc

Year: 1977

Manufacturer: MSA

Set: Saga Discs

Card Number: NNO

If you collect MSA discs from the late 70's you know that these Saga discs are some of the hardest and rarest to find.  While MSA put out these kind of discs from 1976 to 1978, Robin is only found on 1977 issues and only on certain ones.  This was actually a found treasure for me, because I didn't have this on my inventory, but while rummaging though some boxes that I keep a lot of my oversized stuff in I came across this.  It's also one of the reasons one of my collecting goals this year is to really go back though my collection and make sure I have it inventoried correctly.  

The front of the disc is identical to a lot of the standard MSA discs that year with only the back telling you what set it came from.  These are considered some of the rarest discs, because they were regional giveaways.  These discs were given out with a purchased school lunch in Philadelphia.  How about that?!  Given out in one city to kids!  But through the miracle of the internet, while these are rare they are not impossible to find.  The information above was gleamed from the Standard Catalog, but what exactly the Saga Company was was not.  I have to assume it was a food provider or supplier in the Philadelphia area, but my searches have come up empty.  Anyone know?

Hostess variations

Over the past few months I've come across a couple Hostess oddballs I wasn't familiar with and figure I'd share what I found and what I learned for histories sake.

First up is this 1978 Hostess L shaped panel.  I think most of us are pretty familiar with the three card strip panels found on most hostess boxes from 1975 to 1979.  It's interesting to point out that there's not a ton of information about these.  It's also interesting that for as popular as Hostess cards were and are there really isn't a good source of information about the sets.  I figured one avid collector would have put together a website or blog, but alas most of my information was gathered from forum threads and poking around the internet for images. So if there is a Hostess expert out there and you read this feel free to chime in and correct anything and everything I'm about to say.

So what is an L shaped panel?  It's like the example below where two of the cards are vertical and the third is below oriented horizontally.

From what I pieced together Hostess issued some L shaped panels like the one below from 1976 to 1979.  One message board stated that the L shaped panels, at least in 1976, were only put on cupcake boxes on the east coast.  From some digging I was able to find an image of an intact specimen of a 1978 cupcake box also with an L shape card bottom.  So were all the L shapes only produced on the East Coast and only on cupcake boxes?  Maybe.  1978 is the only year I could find that Robin is featured on one of the L shaped boxes.  All the auctions I've seen fail to state the source of the panels. But these panels are much rarer than the normal strip panels, but the standard catalog doesn't mention this variation in configuration.  This panel is currently (at least at the time of writing) up for sale on eBay with a $50 price tag.

1978 Hostess Cupcake L shaped panel

Here's another interesting oddball I didn't know about. This is a 1977 Hostess cupcake single card.  According to the Standard Catalog the complete 1977 set was printing on these single card cake holders.  But they say cards 1-30 and 111-150 are Twinkies panels and 31-110 are cupcake panels. Robin's card number in the set is 34 so he should be in the cupcake set according to the Catalog.  The uncut cupcake cards are longer and skinner than their Twinkies counterparts. But I know for a fact that he's also has a single Twinkie card.  I've include a scan of my 1977 Twinkie card below.  The explanation in the Standard Catalog is either wrong or I'm reading it wrong. Either way I found a great post on a Net54Baseball forum.  It's also interesting to point out that the post also describes multiple other single card sizes, although I don't think Robin has an example in those variations.

1978 Hostess Cupcake Single front

1978 Hostess Cupcake Single Back

1977 Hostess Twinkie Single front

Well there you go a few more Younts to chase in the Hostess sets.  Oh and the cupcake single recently sold on eBay for $26.

1977 Brewers Official Program

Year: 1977

What: Brewers Official Program from 1977.

I figured I'd keep the theme of magazines up with this great collectible from 1977.  I have two people to thank for getting this Brewers Program into my hands first is Johnny over at Johnny's Trading Spot for trading it too me and the other is Tony over at Off Hiatus Sports Cards for hooking letting me know Johnny had another copy to trade.

I wish I'd have scanned more of the interior as there were some great ads and some great articles in the program.  The cover features a young, 21ish year old, Robin Yount.

The interior article featuring him with a Kinney shoe ad.

The other scan was a spread that featured the food and drink prices at County Stadium in 1977.

Check them out.  A bucket of beer for $2.70!!!!  I wonder if these prices seemed exorbitantly high like they do now.  Still seems like a deal that you could get a steak sandwich, chips and 16 oz beer for under $3.

1977 Topps

Card Manufacturer: Topps

Card Set: Baseball

Year; 1977

Card Number: 635

Card Type: Base

You know I realize I post a lot of the flashier, newer cards here.  It's hard not to show off the latest insert Robins been featured on.  But I have been trying to scan all my 70's and early 80's cards in and feature them as well.  

The 1977 Topps has a nice base design and if you were looking for a vintage 70's set to try and put together that won't break the bank this would probably be it.

This would be Robin's third Topps card and by this time he was a genuine superstar on the team.  He would be featured in a lot of the 1977 oddballs that were issued, like the MSA discs, Topps Cloth stickers, and Hostess panels.

1977 Pepsi Disc and Glove

Card Manufacturer: MSA

Card Set; Pepsi Disc

Set Type: Food Issue (Giveaway)

Year: 1977

Card Number: 1

Card Type: Base Disc

Note: Full Intact Glove

I know it seems like every time I put a post up I have a new favorite card.  But truly if you were to ask me what was my favorite oddball Yount card this would probably be it.

Robin has a bunch of 1977 MSA discs in various sets, but the Pepsi Disc/Glove just stands out.  Just a great all around oddball and I'm not sure, but I think this might have been the only baseball disc set that was featured and distributed this way.  Pepsi also released a football set like this.

Believe it or not but these full gloves aren't that hard to find still intact and that's nice to see.  Of course it's not hard to just find the disc either.  It's also great that each glove has the full checklist printed right on there.

This disc also stands out by having the Pepsi-Cola Collection printed across the top instead of the standard 4 stars that adorn a lot of sets.  

I ended up picking up a full set of these a while back for a decent price and they are a bitch to store and display. I should point out for the completists that Reggie Jackson and Mike Schmidt both have 4 color variations in the set.

1977 Burger Chef Triple Play Funmeal Tray

Card Manufacturer: MSA

Card Set: Burger Chef Triple Play Funmeal

Year: 1977

Card Number: NNO

Notes: Full intact Funmeal Tray with complete team discs

If you have never heard of Burger Chef I wouldn't be surprised.  But at one time Burger Chef was second only to McDonalds in the number of restaurants nationwide.  Eventually Hardee's bought the company and the last Burger Chef restaurant closed in 1996.

In the mid 70's you get a Funmeal with that featured different teams and 9 player discs.  It's not too hard to find the discs, but finding whole trays, especially ones as clean and intact as this one, can be hard, but not as hard as you think.  The MSA discs are smaller than a lot of the MSA discs issued at the time and feature a few players not featured in some of the other regional sets.

Besides Robin Yount, you got Jerry Augustine, Jim Slaton, Charlie Moore, Von Joshua, Eduardo Rodriguez, Sixto Lezcano, Sal Bando, and Bill Travers.  

Inside the tray there was a baseball game.

1977 Hostess Suzy Q's full box

Card Manufacturer: Hostess

Card Set: Hostess Baseball

Year: 1977

Card Number:34

Card Type: Full Box

The last of my complete Hostess boxes. Like my 1976 Twinkees box this one has been opened as well.  I've been looking for 78 and 79 boxes, not hard, but haven't found any. 

My 1975 box might feature Yount's rookie card, but this box has the best panel by far and probably the best panel out of the whole 1977 set. With this box you get two HOFer's and a guy that probably should be in the Hall of Fame.

I always  lump Robin Yount and George Brett together. They have so much in common. While George may have made the majors in 1973, both player's rookie cards are in the 1975 set, both players played for the same team their entire careers, both retired the same year, both were inducted into the Hall of Fame in the same year, and both continue to work with their old teams. Plus Brett is revered by Royals fans just as much as Robin is with Brewers fans.  And that Steve Garvey guy is pretty neat too.

Just a great box and panel set. Plus the box features Reggie Jackson and Jim Palmer too.

Here's a close up of the panel.