Renewed call for help - 1978 wiffle ball

[darkhorse9]

Awhile back I posted on this board for some help. I got a little bit, but I'm hoping for some more.

I'm trying to confirm all 88 cards in the 1978 Wiffle ball set. These are the ones that were printed directly on the box, not the die cut ones inserted inside boxes (those are 1977)

To date I have only been able to confirm 80 cards. They were issued on various sizes of Wiffle balls. (junior, regulation., softball and bat/ball sleeves.

The ones I have been able to confirm are:

Bell
Bench
Blue
Blyleven
Bonds
Brett
Brock
Buckner
Burris
Burroughs
Campaneris
Candelaria
Cardenal
Carlton
Cash
Cedeno
Cey
Chambliss
Concepcion
Eckersley
Fidrych
Fingers
Fisk
Foster
Garland
Garr
Garvey
Gullett
Hisle
Hunter
Jackson
Joshua
Kingman
Koosman
LeFlore
Lezcano
Lopes
Luzinski
Lynn
Maddox
Matlack
Matthews
May
Mayberry
McBride
McGraw
McRae
Messersmith
Moffitt
Montefusco
Morgan
Munson
Nettles
North
Oliver
Orta
Palmer
Parker
Perez
Perry
Rice
Rodriquez
Rose
Rudi
Ryan
Sanguillen
Schmidt
Seaver
Simmons
Smith
Spencer
Stargell
Stennett
Tanana
Tenace
Tiant
Trillo
Watson
Wynegar
Zisk


There were eight players who were issued in the 1977 set that remain unconfirmed for the 1978 sets (Bonds, Carew, Hrabosky, Jones, Kranepool, Rogers, Staub and Yastrzemski) but I can't be sure these players are the "missing" players.

If anyone has information on any 1978 Wiffle discs not listed in this post please let me know.

[steve B]

I found my ball/bat sleeves. And can confirm Carew/Yaz on the same sleeve.

I have two sleeves, Reggie Jackson/ Tug McGraw with maroon side panels on the discs and Carew/Yaz with white side panels.

I haven't found the boxes I have yet.

Steve B

[darkhorse9]

That's a huge help Steve (let me know if you're interested in selling that one)

With that confirmation I am now six cards shy of confirming the 88

(Bonds, Hrabosky, Jones, Kranepool, Rogers, and Staub)

[steve B]

Do you have the list broken down by source? It would be interesting to see if they were all available on each sort of package or if some only came one way.

I'm betting a few of the discs won't have been isued or that some are only on the bat/ball holder, since 5 doesn't go into 88 evenly

The Yaz/Carew may actually be from 1979. Pretty typical of the era some small stores and small distributors had inventory well after it had been discontinued, making it hard to tell. I think I bought the Yaz at a white hen pantry store. some time after I'd bought the Jackson/McGraw. It's torn, so it's also likely It came from one of the other kids in the neighborhood.

I recall some bat/ball combos with a corrugated holder, I think I have a partial one, but it's in the unsorted stuff maybe with the boxes.

That was a great couple years for disc locally. The White Hen had Chilly Willy and carried whiffleballs, and Papa Ginos was also in town. I managed to get advertising pieces for both of those full size sets.

Plus there were the RC cans.....
And Hostess.....

Steve B

[darkhorse9]

I didn't want to get to detailed and make a boring post, but the breakdown of the cards by package that I can confirm is:

Junior size (1):
Campaneris/Lopes/Fidrych/Kingman/Stennett


Regulation (8)
Garland/Tanana/Perez/Hisle/Rice
Moffitt/Maddox/Simmons/Mayberry/Rodriquez
Brock/Concepcion/Schmidt/Lynn/Parker
Blyleven/Zisk/May/Garr/Joshua
Bell/Stargell/Tenace/Luzinski/Sanguillen
Orta/Montefusco/Blue/Rose/Fisk
Seaver/Nettles/Matlack/Lezcano/Trillo
Munson/Garvey/Rudi/Cardenal/Spencer


Softball(3)
Bando/Burroughs/Watson/Hunter/Matthews
Tiant/Cedeno/Koosman/Wynegar/North
Brett/Cash/Burris/Candelaria/LeFlore


Bat/Ball Sleeve (11)
Palmer/Bench
Eckersley/Buckner
Oliver/Messersmith
Jackson/McGraw
Yastrzemski/Carew
Carlton/Smith
Chambliss/Perry
Fingers/Foster
Morgan/McRae
Gullett/McBride
Ryan/Cey

I personally own all but the last seven bat/ball sleeves. I have seen pictures of them to know they exist. That accounts for 82 cards. The boxes state that 88 players are in the set so I'm still looking for six more.

Each card appears only once in the set. When this set ever gets re cataloged they will clearly need to consider the scarcity of the issuing boxes, much like they do Post or Hostess. There are a TON more regulation cards out there than sleeves or junior balls.

(edited to account for one sleeve I missed)

[bsuttonosu]

Are the die cut cards and the box cards the same or is there a way to distinguish them other than the cut method? I'm a Brett player collector and have had one of these for years but never realized there were two versions. And I have the date listed (seemingly incorrectly) as 1976 on my checklist...probably from a Beckett list.

Thanks for the info on these...the checklist just keeps growing.

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by darkhorse9

That's a huge help Steve (let me know if you're interested in selling that one)

With that confirmation I am now six cards shy of confirming the 88

(Bonds, Hrabosky, Jones, Kranepool, Rogers, and Staub)

This thread is three and a half years old so I don't know if there have been any new discoveries of the six unconfirmed 1978 wiffle discs, but I found two of them, Ed Kranepool and Steve Rogers on a wiffle bat and ball holder. I think that it's pretty safe to say that the remaining four players, hitters Bobby Bonds and Rusty Staub and pitchers Al Hrabosky and Randy Jones, will eventually be found on two more of these wiffle bat and ball holders.

[darkhorse9]

Thanks for the new info. Going 3 1/2 years without new info shows how frustrating this set is.

If your interested in selling that sleeve let me know.

[toppcat]

Unrelated question - if the cards were MLB licensed, why are there no logos on the caps?

[Gr8Beldini]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

This thread is three and a half years old so I don't know if there have been any new discoveries of the six unconfirmed 1978 wiffle discs, but I found two of them, Ed Kranepool and Steve Rogers on a wiffle bat and ball holder. I think that it's pretty safe to say that the remaining four players, hitters Bobby Bonds and Rusty Staub and pitchers Al Hrabosky and Randy Jones, will eventually be found on two more of these wiffle bat and ball holders.

I own Palmer and Bench both cut off the same Wiffle Ball bat box (with the same factory folds as the ones pictured).

[bswhiten]

Thought I would share...PSA is now slabbing the complete header sleeve boxes.
This is for my Hrabosky Master set.

[steve B]

Only a 2?

I've never seen one that wasn't creased, that's how they put them on the bat and ball set.