A Smorgasbord! Drake's Big Hitters and Super Pitchers

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 beginning of February. Those snowball fights on the Little League fields have been fun, but you're getting the itch to play the sort of game those fields were meant for. 

 

Baseball.

 

You worry that the next time you go down there for a snowball fight, you'll start uncontrollably clearing the snow off the base paths and then pull out that mitt and hardball you smuggled inside your jacket. If everyone starts pegging you with snowballs in protest, at least you'll be able to catch some of them.

 

But really, who could blame you? Opening Day in the major leagues seems far, far away. So when you get back home, you just try to hang in there. And to help, you grab a snack from the cupboard.

 

 

 

That sweet chocolate cake and a cold glass of milk is just what you need.

 

And choice of snack was definitely intentional. Because on the back of the box, you've got these:

 

 

Baseball cards!

 

It's a new box, and mom won't let you cut out the panel until it's empty. But that's okay. You bring the individually wrapped Devil Dog and glass of milk up to your room, rest it on top of your dresser, and pull open the top drawer. That's where you keep the other Drake's panels and cards you've collected. 

 

You take them all out and compare them to the cards on the new box downstairs. 

 

Good. No duplicates. 

 

Poring over the stats on the back helps settle your baseball fever a little. You munch on that Devil Dog, and then flip the cards back over to look at the images on the front. There are your favorite players, out in the sun, ready to get their uniforms dirty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You finish your snack, and bolstered by the chocolate-induced endorphins, remind yourself that it's only a matter of time before you can take the field on that first glorious Spring day. Then you clean up the floor in your room, put on your mitt, and practice your fielding stance. You've got some work to do.

 

 

Let's talk about the people who made this all possible, though.

 

The N.E. Drake Baking Company was founded in New York City way back in 1896 by Newman E. Drake. His brothers, Charles and Judson, would soon join on. The brothers had enough baking success during their first two decades to build a new five-story bakery in 1913 with some pretty fancy accommodations, including a laundry facility to clean the bakers' uniforms, and a rooftop garden where employees could take their breaks and relax.

Some of their products, like Devil Dogs and Yankee Doodles, have been in production since the 1920s. Other well-known snacks like the Coffee Cake became popular in the 1930s. Ring Dings entered the scene in the 1950s. Funny Bones and Yodels were introduced in the 1960s.

The Drake's connection to trading cards is pretty deep, too, going back to 1932, when the company released a 64-card set of film stars. (Interestingly, a Babe Ruth card was included in the set.) On the back of each card was an advertisement for Drake's Cakes. In 1950 the company released a 36-card set specific to baseball, and then in the 1980s they started a run of baseball sets featuring "Big Hitters" and "Super Pitchers", including the cards shown above. The sets were released from 1981 all the way through 1988, and ranged from 33 to 44 cards per set. 

 

You've got to tip your cap to Drake's for managing to fit some advertising on the back of each card, even with all those stats. Just scroll back up and look at the variety of products! (I definitely had the occasional Devil Dog, Yodel, or Ring Ding back in the day, but I'm not sure I've ever had a Sunny Doodle, Donut Delite, or Fruit Pie.)

As for the players on the front, I wasn't exactly sure how the big hitters and super pitchers were chosen. I knew that the hitters, for example, couldn't have been selected based on power numbers alone. Guys like Rod Carew, Mookie Wilson, and Steve Sax make appearances over the years. 

 

Then I found an answer printed on the back of each card of the 1981 set:

WHAT MAKES A "BIG HITTER"?

A "big hitter" consistently produces that key hit for his team. He is a clutch player. He may smash a home run or hit a sacrifice fly. His dependable bat delivers the big hit.

 

So there you have it.

 

Because the Super Pitchers didn't make an appearance until the 1986 set, we've got no text on the card backs explaining how they were selected.

 

In any case, if you were a kid in a grocery store back then, you'd surely be excited when you reached the aisle of snacks and cookies. With two- or three-card panels printed on the back of each specially marked box of Drake's products, I'd bet a lot of young baseball card collectors were flipping boxes over and looking for their favorite players—if their moms allowed that sort of tomfoolery in the supermarket.

At the moment, I only have Drake's cards from the 1986, 1987, and 1988 sets in my collection. They were all acquired recently. I don't think I had any in my collection back when I was a kid. But now that I do have a few, I think I might try to add one or two examples from the earlier years, too.

 

So how about your readers and collectors? 

 

If you were collecting back in the '80s, do you remember these Drake's cards? 

Do you have any in your collection? 

Do you have a favorite Drake's Cake?

 

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading!