Kellogg's Glaring Omission

[orioles70]

I started collecting cards in 1969 but the hobby really gripped me in 1970 and has never let me go.

At that time, Topps was King of the card industry and there was little else to collect when it came to baseball cards for a 10 year old kid.

However, if you went to the grocery store with your Mom you could beg for certain cereals with a baseball card buried inside the box along with all those yummy breakfast flakes. You had to go with her as she could not be trusted to make such important buying decisions on her own.

Kellogg's issued baseball sets starting in 1970 and had a set each year thru 1983.*A total of 14 straight years of cereal gold.

The cards were proudly advertised as 3-D Superstars on either the front or back of the cards for all years except 1972.* I have no idea why they decided to omit the term Superstars from the card that year but that omission was forgiveable. Another they made is not.

The 1973 set was the only set that did not use their 3-D technology so the card fronts simply stated Pro Super Stars.

The sets ranged in size from 54 cards to 75 cards.

It is here that it should be noted sets issued by Topps during this era averaged over 700 cards so a set proclaiming it was comprised solely of Superstars must certainly have the best of the best, right?

I must now confess that these sets are some of my favorite sets of all time and I completed the run of all those Kellogg's sets many years ago.

A few days ago I was reading an article about a certain superstar of that era and tried to remember his Kellogg's card. I thought I was having another one of those senior moments as they seem to happen more frequently now that I have turned 60, and for the life of me I could not recall this superstar's picture on a Kellogg's card. I knew that had to be incorrect so I went to my shelving units holding my 300 plus albums and found the one marked Kellogg's and started looking for his cards.

His long career was winding down when Kellogg's started to issue cards but he was active from 1970-1976 and he made the All-Star team each of those*years except his final season in 1976. In 1969, the year prior to Kellogg's initial set, his team appeared in the playoffs where he went 5 for 14, all 5 hits were extra base hits with 2 doubles and 3 homers. And I think it would be fair to say no other baseball player received more press in the early 1970's than he did. I eagerly looked thru my notebook for his Kellogg's cards but found none. I said to myself that can't be right so I looked again, still no cards. After a 3rd review of the sets I pulled out my*Beckett Alphabetical Index of cards to look him up. No Kellogg's cards listed for him during that era. After all these years I had not realized he did not have a Kellogg's card. I feel a formal investigation should be launched to find out why.

He hammered a lot of fastballs in his career*but somehow he could not hammer his way into a cereal box!!

Surely you have guessed him by now.* Oh, Henry?

To quote Casey Stengel, "You could look it up".*Hank Aaron did not have a Kellogg's card.

Omitting him from even one set in that period should be considered incredibly negligent but to have no cards of him is down right suspicious.

My background is in accounting so I am by no means an advertising expert. But*do you really need a marketing degree to understand you may sell more of your cereal if you insert in the box a card of one of the greatest baseball players of all-time chasing the most hallowed sports record of all time? What could have been the reason for his omission in all these sets?

Did he have a corn allergy?

Was it the result of some disagreement with Tony the Tiger

Let's look a little further.

Not only did Hank Aaron not have a Kellogg's card but there was no Atlanta Brave on a 3-D card with a cap logo until the 5th year set was issued in 1974!

Why was*Atlanta so disrespected*at that time? Was it some elaborate conspiracy?

Was*it*some*disgruntled*employee seeking revenge after a visit to Atlanta where they were*served burned cornbread with a glass of unsweetened tea?

Consider this:

The 1970 set has 3 Washington Senators, 2 Seattle Pilots, and a card of Coco Laboy! No Braves included. Meanwhile, Hank finishes the '70 season ranked #3 All-Time in homers and is quickly catching up with the aging Willie Mays.

The 1971 set has 3 Phillies, 2 Padres, and even Tony Horton is included and he never even had a Topps card! Again, no Braves. Hank finishes the '71 season still 3rd all-time but is now just 7 homers behind Willie for 2nd and the whispers begin...can he really catch the Babe?

The 1972 set at only 54 cards, Kellogg's smallest set size, somehow makes room for Dick Drago, Bill Parsons and Cookie Rojas but still omits Hank Aaron. However, Ralph Garr of the Braves*gets a card but you can't even tell which team he plays for unless you turn the card over since his cap has been airbrushed. And since Garr was included as a Brave, I guess some team had to suffer so the Expos had no player in the set that year. As expected, during the season Henry passes Willie Mays to take over 2nd place and now has Babe Ruth on his radar.

The 1973 set has the first Atlanta Brave on a Kellogg's card in a Braves cap but it's their only non 3-D issue; there were 2 Braves in the set;* Phil Niekro and Ralph Garr appears again. Hank finishes the '73 season at 713 homers, 1 homer shy of the Babe, so he's gotta be in the 1974 set, right?

The 1974 set does have an Atlanta Brave and he hit a lot of homers in 1973. Unfortunately it's Dave Johnson! He is the first Brave on a 3-D card with the cap logo. Let me get this straight, everybody in the world knew that if Hank could hold a bat in 1974 he was going to break the Babe's record of 714 but Kellogg's still chose to omit Aaron and instead included his newly acquired second base teammate as the only Braves player in the set. I can hear Bugs Bunny describing the guy making out the Kellogg's card checklist...What a Maroon!

Even after Aaron's record breaking year he could have been included in the 1975 or 1976 set when he was with the Brewers.

He certainly would have been a better inclusion than the Brewers representative in the 1975 set, Johnny Briggs.

And I feel certain a card of Aaron would have been better received than a Brewers card of George Scott in 1976.

Kellogg's still had one final chance and could have included him in their 1977 issue as a tribute card showing his final lifetime stats on the back. What a great card that would have been.

Would someone really have complained if Kellogg's showed him as a Brewer in that 1977 set? I think his card would have brought more smiles than the Brewers that made the cut; Bill Travers and Sixto Lezcano.

I can only assume Hank patched things up with the cereal head honchos after his retirement because Kellogg's does include him in their 3-D 1991 Baseball Greats set.

He is also included in the box set of 1991 Baseball Greats where 6 different players are featured on the entire back of their very own Kellogg's box.

Kellogg's issued a total of 483 cards in their sets from 1970 thru 1977 and not a one of them was of Hank Aaron.

I feel those Kellogg's sets are a good example of the hobby respect given to Hank Aaron even to this day.

And you thought Rodney Dangerfield got no respect.



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[G1911]

I would imagine it had more to do with contracts than disrespect of Aaron.

[ALBB]

yea, those Kelloggs were pretty cool cards.....and that tidbit about ( I think) the 71 set was NOT avail in compl set form from Kelloggs... you had to piece that one together one by one

[Exhibitman]

He is also missing from most of the Hostess sets. It was undoubtedly contractual.

[orioles70]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

He is also missing from most of the Hostess sets. It was undoubtedly contractual.

Hostess didn't start their 5 year set run until 1975 and Aaron is in both the 1975 and 1976 sets as a Brewer...his last 2 seasons.

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[mrmopar]

I could look this up easily I suppose, but did Brooks Robinson have any Kellogg's cards? I can't picture one, but I am hardly a dedicated collector. My interest mainly started in 1978, when I first saw them in my own cereal boxes, amongst all the other cool toys and inserts that you got in those cereals. I also went back to get a few singles here and there, mainly Garvey. I would love to have all the sets, but just not willing to spend the money. I do have full sets from 79-83 and 78 is still my favorite design, maybe simply because it was the first one I saw, like the Topps cards of the same year. I just wish Garvey had a 78 Kellogg's. He was also missing from 79 too. Here are some customs someone in a facebook group whipped up when I asked if anyone had done any Kellogg customs. Man if only those were real!

[orioles70]

Yes, Brooks had a 1970 and 1975 Kellogg's...they are both nice but the 1970 Brooks is really nice and one of my favorites...here is his 1970 card and a complete 1970 box with his card pictured

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[darkhorse9]

Hank was awol probably for the same reason Mickey Mantle was absent from all years of Red Man cards.

[orioles70]

Originally Posted by darkhorse9

Hank was awol probably for the same reason Mickey Mantle was absent from all years of Red Man cards.

Mantle was just beginning his career when Red Man started their 4 year set run from 1952-1955. Aaron was at the height of his career chasing the most revered record in all of sports and was omitted from all of Kellogg's 1st 7 sets 1970-1976.

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[G1911]

Originally Posted by orioles70

Mantle was just beginning his career when Red Man started their 4 year set run from 1952-1955. Aaron was at the height of his career chasing the most revered record in all of sports and was omitted from all of Kellogg's 1st 7 sets 1970-1976.

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It’s contractual, in both cases.

[orioles70]

Originally Posted by G1911

It’s contractual, in both cases.

I would also assume it may have to do with money, contracts, etc. but I have never read that anywhere so I can't say for sure. Are you assuming that as well or do you have particular knowledge you can share?

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[G1911]

Originally Posted by orioles70

I would also assume it may have to do with money, contracts, etc. but I have never read that anywhere so I can't say for sure. Are you assuming that as well or do you have particular knowledge you can share?

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Well, there’s no documentation left by a contract that never existed. Do you really think it plausible that Kellogg’s got Aaron signed and then just chose to snub him and not issue a card? The answer is pretty clear here.

[mrmopar]

It is interesting what players ended up in the Kellogg's sets, especially considering how small they were in comparison to other sets of the time (Topps and then Hostess).

Hostess sets were quite a bit larger, but there are still some pretty good head scratchers too. In a 150 card set, they would have needed to include at least 5 players per team to be even. Maybe they did in some cases, maybe not. It did feel like certain players were excluded, but I guess they couldn't be in all sets, could they? I have never looked closely, but I wonder if anyone made all of the Hostess sets?

I know Garvey was absent from the 1978 set, but included in the other 4 years.

Same facebook customs for the missing Hostess.

[orioles70]

Originally Posted by G1911

Well, there’s no documentation left by a contract that never existed. Do you really think it plausible that Kellogg’s got Aaron signed and then just chose to snub him and not issue a card? The answer is pretty clear here.

I respectfully disagree that the answer is clear in this case.

I do agree with your premise that it is not plausible to think Kellogg's would intentionally snub him and not include him in the set after getting him to sign a contract.

However, I have no knowledge Aaron was ever contacted regarding his inclusion in Kellogg's sets or tendered a contract to turn down in any of those 7 years from 1970-1976. Do you?

We can assume all we want about money being the motivating factor in regards to Aaron's exclusion from the sets (and it may be) but without any evidence or knowledge of Kellogg's intention to include him in the set it remains just that...an assumption.

At this point it remains no different than the assumption Kellogg's may never have intended to include him at all and never contacted him.

I just happen to think it is interesting and I am simply curious why Aaron was not included in such a high profile set as Kellogg's for so many years when I can think of several other national sets in which he was included during this same era; 1970 Milton Bradley, 1970 Transogram, 1971 Dell Stamps, 1971 Milk Duds, 1971 Mattel Instant Replay, 1975 and 1976 Hostess, 1976 Isaly Disc, etc.

I met Aaron many years ago at a card show...wish I had thought about it then...I would have asked him.

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[orioles70]

After a little more thinking I thought of several more small sets from that era that I have that included Aaron; 1970 Action Cartridge set, 1972 and 1973 7-11 Slurpee Cup sets, and 1972 Audio Sports record set.

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[Exhibitman]

May not have been money, it may have been difficulty securing Aaron's permission to use his image. Kellogg's might have given up. There are quite a few regional and charitable issues with Aaron's imprimatur in the 1960s-1970s, so it isn't as though he was against any of it. I also don't think he was against Kellogg's, because he is in their 1991 set.

Good catch on the Hostess. My bad.

[Chris Counts]

I'm a big fan of the early Kelloggs cards, and I've noticed the 1971 baseball and football sets, to a large degree, are made up of players NOT included in the 1970 baseball and football sets. And yet some players are duplicated from year to year. Perhaps the strangest inclusion of all is Tom Barrington, who had never previously had a football card, and whose career was over by the time the '71 football 3D cards came out. He's card No. 1 in the set.

[orioles70]

Originally Posted by Chris Counts

I'm a big fan of the early Kelloggs cards, and I've noticed the 1971 baseball and football sets, to a large degree, are made up of players NOT included in the 1970 baseball and football sets. And yet some players are duplicated from year to year. Perhaps the strangest inclusion of all is Tom Barrington, who had never previously had a football card, and whose career was over by the time the '71 football 3D cards came out. He's card No. 1 in the set.

I have both the 1970 and 1971 football sets but did not know that about him...nice piece of info

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[mrmopar]

I meant to say something in my hostess post, but too bad that the other sports didn't get their shots at the later Kellogg's or any Hostess cards. Would have been cool to have some mid-late 70s hostess basketball, Hockey or football.

Stop N Go seem about as close as you could get, maybe the Slim Jin discs too (both FB only). I love all of that oddball stuff.

[orioles70]

Originally Posted by mrmopar

I meant to say something in my hostess post, but too bad that the other sports didn't get their shots at the later Kellogg's or any Hostess cards. Would have been cool to have some mid-late 70s hostess basketball, Hockey or football.



Stop N Go seem about as close as you could get, maybe the Slim Jin discs too (both FB only). I love all of that oddball stuff.

I love all that stuff too...my interests are all over the place.

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