Two Dudes Wearin' Cubs Jerseys

 

Meet Rick and Paul.

 

They're certified public accountants who work in the greater Chicago area. For the past few years, they've helped a few of the Chicago Cubs players file their income tax reports. This year, as a way of saying thank you for the excellent financial assistance, Cubs management invited the two guys down to the field before a game, and even provided them with an an opportunity to put on a uniform and pose for a picture.

 

Rick and Paul were thrilled. 

Okay, I think most of you know none of that story is true. (That's not even Wrigley Field in the background.) And if you know what the photo was actually used for, give yourself five bonus points.

 

For those of you who don't know, here's the answer:

 

 

1977 Topps #634 Big League Brothers

 

It's Rick and Paul Reuschel, professional baseball pitchers! (The card contains a key error. Rick is actually on the left, while bespectacled Paul is on the right.)

 

And despite their "cubicle mate" appearance, they logged some good time in the major leagues, including a few seasons together in Chicago. I'll leave the details for a separate post in the Siblings on Cards category, so stay tuned.

 

In the meantime, I can ask these two questions:

 

Have any of you readers ever gone on a stadium tour, or had special behind-the-scenes access to a ballpark?

 

Do you own any MLB jerseys?

 

If so, share in the comment section.

 

Thanks for reading!

The Pirates? But I Don’t WANNA Be a Pirate!

Back in 2019, I created my first custom card. It featured George Costanza on the 1956 Topps design, and captured the hilarious scene where he barreled over Bette Midler at home plate. 

 

Well, it took a while, but in 2023 I came up with a second Seinfeld card based on the ’56 design. This one featured Elaine Benes, clad in a Baltimore Orioles uniform, doing her famous “little kicks” dance at home plate. 

 

It’s been a couple of years again, but now I’ve finished a third card in the ’56 Seinfeld set.

 

 

 

But why is Jerry wearing a Pirates helmet, with the position designation of "pirate"?

 

If you're a Seinfeld fan and take a close look at the "uniform" Jerry is wearing, you may have already connected the dots. If not, this 5-minute clip will do the trick. 

 

 

So now look back at the action on the card. There's Jerry, playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates, wearing the puffy shirt that he unknowingly agreed to wear. The game is about to start, but Jerry stands in protest, whining loudly to the umpire, “But I don’t wanna be a pirate!”

 

As a consequence of that whining, the umpire has just thrown Jerry out of the game. 

 

It was a fun way to tie the game of baseball into the card—especially because the George Costanza and Elaine Benes cards also have fun connections to the sport.

 

So that's card number three in this 1956-inspired set. There's a fourth card as well, but it deserves a post of its own. I'll leave it at that for now.

 

Thanks for reading. And if you know any low-talkers, don't be bashful to ask them to repeat themselves if you didn't hear them the first time. Otherwise, you might end up in a pickle like Jerry.

That Crow Just Stole My Pack of Cards!

Have I got a story for you.

A few weeks ago, my brother booked our first round of golf of the season. His best friend from childhood was going to join us, and when the three of us get together, it's always a great time.

 

Unbeknownst to either of them, I'd picked up some loose packs of golf cards over the winter, so I thought I'd add to our good time by bringing some of them to the course—one for each of us to open. After all, I'd done a couple of pack rips on the golf course with my brother in the past, and I knew his friend would be into it as well.

 

So, before we teed off, I brought out the packs. This time, they were 1991 Pro Set PGA Tour golf cards. The guys got a kick out of them, and we agreed that we'd open the packs at some point during the round—maybe as a little break after the first 9 holes.

 

Excited about the day, we got started. It was cold, windy, and rainy, but it didn't matter. We were just happy to be back on the course together. Some less-than-stellar scores on the first couple of holes didn't even faze us. Neither did the chilly and damp air.

 

After a little while, however, the good vibes began to diminish. Scoring proved to be really tough. By the time we reached the 6th green, those golf packs were the last thing on our minds.

 

Then, as we were finishing up on the green, my brother noticed a crow standing at the edge of one of the nearby bunkers.

 

"What does that crow have in its mouth?" He asked.

 

We all looked over. It was something shiny.

 

At that moment, the crow dropped the shiny object and started pecking at it. And that's when my brother realized what it was.

 

"That's my pack of cards!"

 

It turns out that while we were reading our putts, that sneaky bird had swooped down toward my brother's golf cart, noticed the shiny foil wrapper, picked it right up, and flew over to the green—almost as if to mock us. Immediately, my brother's friend jogged over, hoping that little jerk of a bird would drop the pack and fly away.

 

Well, it did fly away. But it did so with the pack firmly secured in its beak.

We didn't have time to snap a picture of the culprit, but it's quite likely that right now, in a crow's nest on that golf course, there's a shiny green and gold pack of 35-year-old golf cards.

Miffed at the events that had just transpired (including some missed putts for par), we walked back to our golf carts. That's when I noticed a plastic container turned upside down on the ground near my golf cart. It was the container that housed my peanut butter sandwich.

 

That pesky crow had tried to get into that, too! 

 

Thankfully, it couldn't open the top, so my sandwich was safe.

What an experience. 

 

But if you think that's all, just wait. Because a bit later in the round, another crow swiped an unopened hand warmer packet from my brother's cart and flew up into a tree with it. These little pickpockets were everywhere!

I guess we've got to give credit where credit is due. I mean, on both occasions we were completely oblivious to the thievery that Heckle and Jeckle were getting away with. It's a pretty good racket, when you think about it. They wait for golfers to leave their carts, and then they sneak down to root through the items inside, taking whatever they can fit in their beaks before the golfers return.

 

Ultimately, what it meant was that our hands would be a little colder, and we were down to two packs of cards. And that wasn't going to work. Thankfully, I had a few more packs of golf cards at home, and we were all planning to go there after the round for lunch anyway. I told the guys about the extra packs, and they were happy to hear it. From there, it was back to golf—keeping an eye out for any crows the rest of the way.

 

And that's how it happened.

 

Now let's talk a little bit about 1991 Pro Set PGA Tour golf.

 

The set is made up of a whopping 285 cards, which means that even back in 1991, avid golf fans wouldn't have recognized some of the professional golfers they found inside of packs. But there are still some good players in the set, for sure. 

 

Rookie cards include Fred Funk, Jeff Maggert, Brad Faxon, and US Open Winner Lee Janzen. You can also find plenty of notable stars of the era, like Payne Stewart, Davis Love III, Mark O'Meara, Fred Couples, Greg Norman, Fuzzy Zoeller, and Ray Floyd. And don't forget about some of the legends who were playing on the Senior Tour (now called the Champions Tour), like Tom Watson, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Gary Player, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, and Jack Nicklaus.

 

Oh, and perhaps the biggest card of all?

 

A John Daly rookie card. 

With that being said, let's finally get to the pack rip and see what we found.  

 

I'm not going to show every card. There are 12 in each pack, which makes 36 golf cards in total. That's too much to look at here, even for me. Instead, I'm going to show the best three cards that each of us pulled. Choices were based on the skill level of the player, the look of the photograph, or the awesome 1990s clothing and hairstyles on display. (Or, if we're lucky, all of those criteria.)

 

Let's get to it.

 

First, here are the top three from my brother's pack.

 

 

Gary McCord has the sweet CBS Sports baseball cap, the striped polo, and the mustache. Blaine McCallister is wearing a straw hat that could only be from the '90s, while Sir Bob Charles is sporting the classy sweater-vest and visor combination.

 

Next, here are the top three cards from my brother's friend's pack.

 

Wayne Levi shows us that visors and multi-stripe polos were a popular choice back then. Don Bies is grinding hard to read a putt. And there's the man, Arnold Palmer.

 

 

And here are the top three cards from my pack.

 

Brian Claar gets a nice action shot for his card, blasting the ball out of a bunker. Charles Coody and his caddie read the green in a classic pro golf image. And there's a Lee Trevino Player of the Year card. Woo-hoo!

 

I thought I might take home the "Best Mustache" title with that Brian Claar card. Check out the back for a different view.

 

 

But when my brother pulled out that Gary McCord card and we saw the handlebar, we knew it was over. Just look at this thing.

 

 

As for the other cards, I think I'll call it a draw between Lee Trevino and Arnold Palmer. But it's important to note that 1990 was Mr. Trevino's first year on the Senior Tour, and he absolutely steamrolled it to earn Player of the Year honors. Check out these stats from the back of the card:

 

• #1 in eagles made (14)
• #1 in scoring average (68.89)
• #1 in greens in regulation (76.7%)
  
• #1 in putts per GIR (1.736) 
• #3 in driving accuracy (74%)
• #4 in driving distance (267.9 yds)
• #5 in birdies (379)
• #5 in sand saves (53.1%)
  

 

As for how we did on the golf course?

The scores are not worth mentioning. Earlier in the post I alluded to the weather. Well, to elaborate, we teed off around 8:45 that morning. It was 39 degrees Fahrenheit. Windy. A little rain. And it actually got even colder during the middle of the round. Overall, it was just a rough day out there. We hardly saw another golfer anywhere on the course the entire time. In a way, that was amazing. In another way, it told us that maybe it just wasn't a day to be out playing golf for five hours.

 

Regardless, we had a great time, and we'll talk about the day for a long while. The pickpocket crow story just tops it off.

Now some questions for you readers:

 

Do you have a favorite golf card of the bunch?

 

What do you think about these pack rips on the golf course? Do we have a fun tradition in the works?

 

Let me know in the comment section, and thanks for reading. 

 

A Baseball Card and a Baseball Glove

What do you think about when you look at the player on this card?

 

 

 

If you grew up a baseball fan in the '70s or '80s, you might think of a slick-fielding shortstop whose dad was also Major League ballplayer. If you've been a Minnesota Twins fan at any point over the past 20 years, you might think of an insightful analyst for the team during television broadcasts.

For me, it's something else.

I think of my very first baseball glove: A MacGregor Roy Smalley signature model. 

 

For my first couple of years of Little League ball, that was my special piece of equipment. It's the classic story. Dad teaches you to take care of it. Keep it clean. Put a softball in the pocket and wrap some rubber bands around the outside to maintain the shape. Make sure you oil it every so often. The whole nine yards.

I only wish I still had that glove. But thanks to the internet, at least I've got this:

After a little searching, that image came up. And I was certain it was the same model as mine. One hundred percent certain. Those diamond cuts in the webbing. The red MacGregor tag stitched onto the wrist strap. The shape. No doubt about it. 

 

And this next image just helped confirm it.

 

 

 

 

The script MacGregor logo on the heel. The Roy Smalley facsimile signature. All the other branding.

 

Yep. That was my mitt, alright. I had it from about 1984 through 1986.

It took me right back to the cluster of Little League fields in my town. We mostly played on the smallest field during my first season. Jeez, I can smell the grass and feel the sun, and see our St. Louis Cardinals uniforms. (Back then, each team in our league was given a uniform that resembled an actual Major League team.) I was a pitcher and a shortstop. 

 

And it's funny what you remember just by looking at a piece of equipment like this. My very first season, I remember picking a grounder on a short hop with that Roy Smalley mitt, hearing the parents yell in excitement and surprise, and then throwing the ball from the hole at short all the way over to our first baseman, who scooped up my throw on a bounce to make the out. His scoop made the parents cheer even louder. I also remember turning a triple play with that glove.

I miss those days. But that's part of nostalgia. In fact, it's right there in the etymology of the word. (Greek: nostos = return home, algos = pain or longing.) And I've still got at least a few pictures from those Little League years, which is nice.

But let's get to Mr. Smalley for a moment.

He played from 1975 through 1987, and suited up for the Rangers, Twins, Yankees, White Sox, and finally the Twins again, winning a World Series with the team in '87 before retiring.

1979 was his best year. He played in all 162 games, was an all-star, and led the A.L. in plate appearances (729). he also set career-highs in runs (94), hits (168), doubles (28), home runs (24), and RBI (95). 

 

On the defensive side that year, Smalley led the majors in putouts (296), assists (572), and double plays (144), but was edged out for the A.L. Gold Glove by Boston's Rick Burleson, who had almost 90 fewer chances, but a higher fielding percentage. Smalley had similarly impressive (and league-leading) defensive numbers in 1977 and 1978, but was edged out of the award both years by Baltimore's Mark Belanger, who'd already won 6 Gold Gloves in his career, including 1973 through 1976. Smalley took on many more chances than Belanger those years—a whopping 237 more in 1978, in fact—but had a lower fielding percentage. Smalley's was .970, while Belanger led the league at .985.

 

Here's a quick video of his early days with Texas.

 

 

 

Post playing career, as mentioned a little earlier, Smalley was a baseball analyst for the Twins for 22 years. He just announced his retirement a few months ago. 

 

Congratulations to Mr. Smalley for a great career!

And now a question for you readers:

 

If you played Little League ball, do you remember the first "signature model" baseball glove you had? 

 

Share in the comment section—or create a blog post of your own.

The Importance of Bunting: A Trading Card Pictorial

A couple of summers ago, I shared a list of some big hitters who were shown bunting on one of their baseball cards. 

 

It was a fun exercise, and a few of the names were rather surprising. Bo Jackson? Sammy Sosa? Albert Belle??

 

But the photographs didn't lie. I even shared some stats to back them up.

 

Some of you readers shared similar feelings to the ones I had, lamenting how unpopular and scarce the bunt has become in the modern game. After all, there was a time not so long ago when bunting held a much larger value, and was a skill that practically every single player would practice. So I thought about that for a while. I thought about it as a collector:

 

Was bunting also more popular on baseball cards back then?

 

Well, since then I've done some research. And it turns out that yes, bunting did show up quite a bit on cards back then—so much so that some players chose to forego the standard "batting stance" pose and opted for a "bunting stance" instead.

 

You can find a few examples of players taking a bunting pose even way back in the 1950s. But as far as I can tell, it wasn't until the mid-60s that the bunt pose started showing up on at least one card in each consecutive Topps flagship set. So let's start off there, and choose one card per set all the way through 1990 (i.e., the "bubblegum" era). For fun, I've added each player's career sacrifice bunt totals in parentheses, after his name.

 

 

Zoilo Versalles (50) is almost bashful in getting his bat into the frame, Bernie Allen (24) gives us a better look from a side angle, and Glenn Beckert (58) asks the photographer, "Stand like this?"

 

 

 

Davey Johnson (26) gives us a serious pose behind the All-Star Rookie trophy, Ray Oyler (29) looks less enthused about the whole thing, and Jim Fregosi (79) makes up for it with a nice smile next to the batting cage.

 

 

Paul Blair (108, led AL in 1969) is happy to show you his bunting stance, Chico Ruiz (33) takes on a more studious pose, and Jackie Hernandez (22) looks like he's ready to actually tap the next pitch down the line. 

 

 

 

Jose Cardenal (37) gets a little more up-close and personal, while Pete Rose (56) gives us our first image of bunting in action. Bud Harrelson (94) looks a little weary of the bunt with his pose.

 

 

 

 

Dave Chalk (63) is pretty serious about bunting, Robin Yount (104) might have just executed one nicely, and Ivan de Jesus (87) shows us the batting-glove-on-right-hand-only method.

 

 

 

 

Mick Kelleher (35) is eager to bunt, Alan Trammel (124, led AL in 1981 and 1983) practices his craft in the batting cages, and Fred Lynn (25) is about to lay one down in a game. 

 

 

 

Rick Dempsey (63), Alex Trevino (27), and Alan Ashby (55) are all catchers, and they're all getting the job done on a sunny afternoon at the ballpark.

 

 

 

 

Kevin Bass (28) looks like he's squared around very early, letting everyone in the park know that he's going to bunt. Dick Schofield's (109) technique is not recommended, and Rick Burleson (84) is grinding hard to lay one down.

 

 

 

 

Pat Sheridan (25) just pushed one along the third base line, Randy Velarde (38) is about to try his luck at Yankee Stadium, and if you look closely at the Vince Coleman (48) card, you'll see that the ball has just left his bat and it seems to be headed in a good direction. I wonder if the speedster beat it out for a bunt single.

 

That's two and a half decades of bunting on cards. It's worth noting that other brands that got their start in the 1980s like Bowman, Donruss, Fleer, Score, and Upper Deck all featured some bunting players as well. And it's even nicer to know that they didn't stop there. You'll find players bunting on cards throughout the '90s, too, and even all the way to modern times!

 

"But the numbers and analytics show that bunting doesn't pay off." you say. "Why would modern cards show players bunting? It doesn't even happen in games anymore." you scoff.

 

Oh no? 

 

Take a look at these three. 

 

 

There's 2022 Yonathan Daza (8), 2023 Leody Taveras (9), and 2024 Nick Madrigal (8) showing that they can square around when needed.

 

And I do think bunting has been making a little bit of a comeback over the past couple of years. It's certainly an art and a skill. And a little bit of risk can lend excitement to the game. Look here. 

 

 

 

So how about you readers? 

 

Are you fans of bunting? Do you think the game could use more of it? Do you think it's been making a bit of a comeback lately? 

 

Leave some thoughts in the comment section. And thanks for reading!

 

A Cereal Box Prize Leads to a Card Purchase

 

A few months ago, this image—taken from the back of a 1980's cereal box—came up on a social media feed.

 

 

 

 

Nostalgia factor 10. 

 

I don't even think I had one of these bike reflectors when I was a kid. Doesn't matter. For some reason that image brought me straight back to the 1980s, and the cereal aisle at the supermarket. It also reminded me of riding bikes with my buddies. No helmets. No pads. No parental supervision. No questions asked on where we were going. Just be back before the street lights come on.

 

Imagine that? Just riding around with your friends. Pedaling fast for a few hundred feet, slamming on the brakes and skidding out, and looking back to see the skid-out you left on the asphalt. Stopping at the corner store for some baseball cards or candy. Riding down to the Little League fields with your mitt and a bat, and leaving your bike unlocked next to the backstop while you played baseball. Didn't have bases? No problem. You'd just use the end of your bat and scratch a square shape in the dirt at first, second, and third.

All those memories came straight to the front of my mind, thanks to a simple image on the back of a 1980s cereal box. The good feelings were so strong that I figured I'd do a quick eBay search to see if any of those bike reflectors were listed for sale.

Oh, they were. Quite a few of them. And because some of the prices were so good, I decided to purchase one that was still in the original, sealed wrapper. Here it is.

It turns out the reflectors were issued in specially marked boxes of Kellogg's cereals like Froot Loops, Corn Pops, and Raisin Bran. Here's a TV commercial with a promo for the bike reflectors at the end:

I don't like how those kids shirked their tent-pitching responsibilities to go back for another bowl of Raisin Bran, but I guess that's how marketing is done.

In any case, because this is a trading card blog, let's link some cards to the whole thing. After all, Garfield is a popular cat, and has been for quite some time. So I ran a quick search on Trading Card Database to see if any sets of Garfield cards existed.

And they do! More than one set, in fact. Skybox released a set in 1992, a company called Krome followed in 1995, and Pacific threw their hat in the ring in 2004. I looked through the checklists to see if any specific cards caught my eye. Soon enough, I found a few from the Pacific set and purchased them.

Here they are, front and back:

 

All three cards are from a little subset called "Then and Now". They highlight how the animation style of artist Jim Davis has changed over the years. (The Garfield franchise turned 25 years old in 2004, so the set was a nice little tribute.)

The characters I'm familiar with are the ones on the right. But I have to say, the 1978 versions of Garfield, Jon, and Odie are pretty great—Jon in particular. Just scroll back up and compare the two versions. 1978 Jon looks a lot less like a doofus.

Here's one more card I picked up.

 

I think most of us can relate.

Here are a few other memorable Garfield quotes that appear on cards in the set:

• I need less week and more weekend

• A diet is too little of a good thing

• One good meal deserves another

Classic Garfield. And it's really something—as collectors we never know what roads we'll travel during our collecting journey. Did I think I'd be buying a Garfield bike reflector? No. Did I think that reflector would lead to me purchase a few Garfield trading cards? No. But here we are. And the dose of nostalgia all this has given me was well worth it.

So let's go back to the bike reflectors, and not overlook how cool it was to find them in a box of cereal. It leads to a couple of questions for you readers and collectors:

 

What prizes do you remember getting from cereal boxes back in the good ol' days?

Are you a Garfield fan?

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading.

2023 Series Custom Cards: PRINTED (Plus a Giveaway)

The title above does not contain a typo.

 

This post is indeed about the custom cards that I created and printed in 2023. Normally I'd have showcased each of the 2023 cards here on the blog throughout that calendar year, and then had a summary and giveaway at the beginning of 2024. But here we are, four months into 2025, and I'm just now getting around to it. I guess you can say things have been busy in a good way.

And 2023 was a pretty good year for custom cards at Nine Pockets Headquarters. Let's look at the list:

 

1956 Elaine Benes

Thundercats Team

Mumm-Ra Team

Stevie Ray Vaughan In Action

Red Hot Chili Peppers

1973 George Costanza

1973 Elaine Benes

1973 Seinfeld Comedy Stars v1

1973 Seinfeld Comedy Stars v2 

New York Jets Superbowl III Champions

D-Generation X Future Stars

 

Classic Film Subset

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

The Breakfast Club

Fast Times at Ridgemont High

 

   

That makes 14 cards total, which is exactly the same number of customs I created the previous year. I'm happy with that.

 

Here's a closer look at a card front and a card back:

 

To keep the brand going, I used the same template that was used for the card backs from previous years, changing just the ink color. 

 

2019 = dark gray

2020 = indigo blue

2021 = maroon

2022 = green 

2023 = dark gray

 

I figured four colors was enough, so for 2023 I looped back to the dark gray color. (Spoiler alert: The 2024 custom cards continue the pattern, and they're indigo blue.)

Some of the cards, like the classic film subset, received special card backs that more closely resembled the style of the original set, like this one.

 

 

 

Those are always fun to do.

The 2023 cards are available for sale in my eBay store, but just as always, I'd like to get some of them into the hands of you fellow collectors, free of charge. So let's do a giveaway for the first five commenters.

Here's what to do:

(1) Find one card you'd like from 2023 list above. (Click on the links to visit the original blog post for each card.)

 

(2) Leave a comment that includes your card choice, plus one consolation choice just in case I'm very low on stock.

 

(3) If you haven't sent me your mailing address during a previous giveaway, or if your address has changed recently, please email me with that information. A link to my email address appears on my blogger profile page. You can also contact me on TCDB.

 

And that's all you have to do. 

 

Thanks so much to all you readers, fellow collectors, and fellow bloggers for spending some time here at Nine Pockets. You guys continue to provide great inspiration and entertainment, and I look forward to getting these custom cards out to you.

A Smorgasbord! 1986 Meadow Gold Milk Carton Sketches

From the 1970s through the 1990s, it seemed like you could find your favorite baseball stars on food product packaging everywhere you looked: supermarkets, corner stores, restaurants, and beyond. This past year, in an effort to capture a little more nostalgia, I set a goal to expand my own collection of these "food-issue" cards. In this series I'll show the specific examples I've acquired, and share a little bit of history about the food or beverage sponsor as well. 

Previous entries can be found here.

 

It's the last weekend in March, 1986. Baseball season starts next week. You should be excited, but instead you're trying to dig yourself out of a rut. 

 

It was a long winter. You struggled without baseball on TV, or at the park. There was only so much indoor "pretend" practice you we able to take. And worst of all, your grades have slipped a little.

 

As a result, you've got no Ding Dongs, no Ho Hos, no Drake's cakes. Even the cereal mom's been buying lately hasn't featured any baseball cards on the back panel, or inside. 

 

No doubt about it, you've been in a winter slump.

 

You shuffle down to the kitchen and grab a box of whatever cereal is in the cupboard, and mom takes out the carton of milk and puts it on the kitchen table. You pry open the triangular top, and halfheartedly pour the milk into your bowl. But then you put down the carton and get a big surprise.

Pete Rose is staring directly at you!

 

You see those dotted lines and know what you need to do. Well, first you point out to mom that Mr. Rose is back there. Then you ask her if you can keep the container once it's empty and cut out the card. She says as long as you finish your cereal and milk, it's a deal.

Can I go play baseball?

You don't even know where that second question came from. Your mouth just opened, and there it was. You're pushing it now, and sense mom's impending stare-down. Suddenly you're just hoping she doesn't take that milk carton away.

But she says yes.

 

Bolstered by the determined energy radiating from Pete Rose's illustrated face (and the promise of a new card for your collection), you wolf down your cereal, thank mom, grab your bat and mitt, and swing open the kitchen's screen door. There are buds on the trees. There's a scent of sweet dew and grass clippings in the air. And that little hint of warmth from the mid-morning sun reassures you. Spring is here. Baseball is back. Just thinking about the new Little League season that's going to start in a couple of weeks is giving you butterflies in your stomach. 

 

You hop on your dirt bike, start pedaling down to the baseball fields, and take in all that fresh oxygen with gusto. You didn't even call your friends before you left the house. Didn't need to. You know at least a few of them will be there.

 

You stow your bike against the backstop with the others, and as you wait for your turn to hit, you wonder what other players might be featured on those milk cartons. You might even ask mom if you can go to the supermarket with her next time. But the thing is, she'll know something's up. And she means business at the supermarket. The idea of you spending a minute or two flipping around carton after carton of milk to see which player is featured on the back? Probably not going to fly with her. But still, you might ask.

Regardless, a few hours pass, and you've gotten your fill of baseball for the day. (You hit a couple of good liners and picked some short-hops in the infield.) You get home, satisfied, happy, stained with grass and infield dirt, and see this waiting for you on the kitchen counter:

 

 

 

Mom washed out the carton and broke it down for you!

That mom, I tell you what. You'd better pick up your grades this marking period, that's for sure.

 

As for Meadow Gold Dairy, they've been around since 1901 (founded in Topeka, Kansas). Things really got swinging for the company in the 1940s, when refrigerated milk trucks came onto the scene, and the milkman became one of the most popular guys in town.

The company would then move headquarters farther west. Today they have a whole line of dairy products, and serve states like Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Nevada.

 

Check out this vintage ad from the 1950s.

 

 

Oh, and as for the Meadow Gold milk carton checklist? It was 12 players deep, and included most of the guys you'd expect to see in 1986: Boggs, Brett, Mattingly, Gooden, Ripken, Schmidt, and the like.

Have any of you readers seen these Meadow Gold milk carton cards before? Think you might pick one up for your collection?

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading!