Mystery of the Mug - Solved!!!!!

I've probably had this Robin Yount Maxwell House mug in my collection for well over a decade.  I first featured it way back in 2012 when I did a post about all my Yount drinkables.  I then did a feature post about it back in December of 2013 after doing a little research, which didn't really help much.   So I hadn't give the mug much though, as a matter of fact it's still packed away currently waiting for me to find a spot to display it, that was until a few days ago.  Fellow Yountophile and Brewer's historian, fan, and collector Tony L., from Off Hiatus fame, contacted me on twitter to say he'd solved the mystery of the mug!  Let's take a look at the awesome mug one more time.

 Tony an image from this clipping from the August 1983 What's Brewing magazine.  As far as I know this is Robin's only Maxwell House mug so we can now date the mug to the August 19th giveaway in 1983.  How cool is that??!!??  Plus the clipping also talks about the previous mugs given away for Bamberger, Thomas, and Fingers.  Tony estimates the Bamberger was probably given away in 1979 to commemorate the Brewers first winning season, Thomas in 1980 to commemorate his AL leading home run record, and Fingers in 1982.  I think there was also a logo mug given away and that might be from 1981. 

Anyways all the credit goes to Tony for solving the mystery.  Thanks Tony!!!

Maxwell House Coffee Mug

Manufacturer: Maxwell House

Set: Maxwell House Mugs

Year: ???

Type: Stadium Giveaway

I featured this one back in November 2012 as part of my Yount drinkware post. You can find it HERE.

I'm sure I'll feature each one of those again here separately.  But I've never been able to find much out about this mug. There is no date anywhere on the mug. On the bottom it's stamped with the maker, Eagle, and a Made in the USA, but other than that it was a total mystery.  I even asked the guru of all things sportscards, Bob Lemke, if he knew anything about them, he didn't.  So now it's time to put on my deerstalker cap and channel my inner Sherlock Holmes as I play the Yount Detective.  

First lets have a look at the mug. Notice the clear handle, that's a clue.

After doing some research on the interwebs and combing threw ebay auctions and other sports related sites. I really couldn't find any good information on the origin of these mugs. But I did discover a few things. One there were two types of mugs. Ones with clear handles like Robin's here and one's with white rounded handles like this one..

featuring Gorman Thomas.  That's a clue.
Some of the mugs feature the 94 FM WKTI Logo on them. WKTI was a local Milwaukee radio station.. WKTI stopped using that call sign in 2008, but used the WKTI and WKTI-FM from 1974 to 2008...Ah.

But not all the mugs feature the logo, but both the clear plastic and white handles have some players that feature the logo.  Yount's does not feature it and I could find no version that does.

When I first got the Yount mug I had thought that these were possibly send away items you could get from Maxwell House, but the more I looked into it, it now appears that these were more likely stadium giveaways. Unfortunately I can't find any information on past giveaways from the 80's.

Searching the web I found the other players featured on both kinds of mugs.

The white handle mugs
- Manager George Bamburger -WKTI
-Gorman Thomas
-Rollie Fingers
-Brewers Logo

The clear plastic handles
- Robin Yount
-Paul Molitor
-Cecil Cooper - WKTI
-Jim Gantner - WKTI
-Dan Plesac

There might be a few others I missed, but these are the versions I could find.  From these people we can narrow down possible years.  First we have to assume that players that were featured were current or at least recent team members. If we do that we can place the first four mugs, the white handled mugs in the 1985 to 1986 realm. And I'm leaning on 1986. First George Bamburger was manager from 1985 to very close to the end of the 1986 season. Gorman Thomas came back to the Brewers in 1986 for his final year and while Rollie retired in 1985 I think that his mug might just be a carry over or a tribute.

The clear plastic handle mugs look to be about from 1987 or 1988 and I'm leaning on 1987 for a couple reasons. One, in 1987 everyone featured was on the team. 1987 was Dan Plesac's rookie year with the team and it was also Cecil Coopers last year. Two, it would seem plausible that the mugs were a continuation giveaway from the year before if the white handle mugs were from 1986.

Of course it's very possible that mugs were given out over multiple years.  And while I'd like to say that these were definitely stadium giveaways from the late 80's I just don't know. If anyone from the Milwaukee area remembers these and knows anything about them I'd love to know. Leave a comment or drop me an email.

Drinking with Yount

When I seriously started collecting Robin Yount stuff I decided not to limit myself to just baseball cards. So I have quite an eclectic collection of different stuff featuring his likeness.  Some of the neater stuff has been the drink ware.

First will go back to 1977.  RC cola feature all sorts of players on its cans in 1977 and 1978.  I'm still looking to pick up a cheap Rollie Fingers can. A heavy duty steel can, back when you could kill a man with a soda can.

7-11 featured ball players and other athletes on its Slurpee cups from the early seventies through the eighties.

1982 McDonalds put out a set of 6 Brewers Glasses in the greater Milwaukee area.  In my quick online search I really didn't find much out about the set.  But each glass features 2 players.

Yount shares his glass with Ben Oglivie.

I'm not sure if these came out before or after the Brewers won the AL championship.

Next we have the 1992 commemorative 3000th hit Coke Can.  Who ever saved this can wanted it to be closed on top so they punched two holes in the bottom to drain the soda.

And finally maybe just a cup of coffee.
I never have been able to find any really good information on these cups.

I know that there are at least 6 from searching on ebay
George Bamberger who managed the team from 1978 -1980 and 85-86.  I do believe these might be from the earlier tenure, but I'm not sure. Players also featured include:
Jim Gantner
Rollie Fingers (which I still want one of)
Paul Molitor and
Cecil Cooper
I'm not sure if they came out at the same time, where giveaways at the stadium, a mail in, or something else. I think I'm going to have to email Bob Lemke. There are some design differences between the cups as well.

There's a nice faxsimile autograph on the side of the cup.

There you have it my Robin Yount drinkware.