Ya Get Whatcha Get: Four Airbrushed Hostess Cards

1976 Hostess Jim Wynn

On 11/17/75, the Dodgers traded Wynn, Lee Lacy, Tom Paciorek and Jerry Royster to the Braves for Dusty Baker and Ed Goodson.  Unlike his Topps card, Wynn was airbrushed into the blue road uniform.

1977 Hostess Bert Campaneris

Signed with the Rangers as a free agent.  The airbrush job is better on his Hostess card than on his Topps card.

1978 Hostess Bert Blyleven

On 12/8/77, Blyleven was involved in a complex trade by the Rangers, Pirates, Mets and Braves. Among the other players flying in every which direction were Al Oliver, Willie Montanez, Jon Maatlack, Ken Henderson and John Milner.

The airbrush artist gets major bonus points for doing the gold and black pinstripes, even if he did use a slightly dated cap design.  Blyleven’s Topps and Kellogg’s cards show him with the Rangers.

1979 Hostess Rod Carew

On 2/3/79, the Twins traded him for Ken Landreaux and three other guys.  Carew’s 1979 Topps and Kellogg’s cards show him with the Twins.

1976 SSPC #219 – Bert Blyleven (Twins)

Bert Blyleven… pitched for the Twins, Indians, Pirates, Angels and Rangers on his way to the Baseball Hall Of Fame. He had 287 wins, 242 complete games and 60 shutouts over his career. At the time he retired, he was 3rd on the all-time strikeout list.

In 1976, Blyleven… started the season with the Twins and then was included in a June 1st trade that sent him and Danny Thompson to the Rangers for Mike Cubbage, Bill Singer, Roy Smalley and Jim Gideon. Bert went 13-16, 2.87 for two middle-of-the-pack teams, and seems to have been the victim of some hard luck. In quickly scanning over his game logs, I see 7 complete game losses. He finished in a three-way tie for 2nd in the league with 6 shutouts (Nolan Ryan had 7) and was 3rd in the league in strikeouts

Editorial Comment…I’ve never been completely sold on Blyleven as a HOFer. To me, he was extremely good pitcher for a very long time, and his cumulative stats puts him in very good company… but I don’t know that he was ever a great pitcher. He got Cy Young votes multiple times, but was never all that close to winning. He was named to only two All-Star teams. I don’t feel like he was ever one of the most dominant pitchers of the game at any particular point in time. One could say that he would’ve garnered more attention had he played on better teams, but one could also say that he wouldn’t have gone as deep into games (and accumulated more stats in the process) had he played on better teams. I’m not saying that Blyleven doesn’t belong, just that I have my doubts. Sorry, Bert. You don’t have to circle me.

Shea-o-meter: Many of the photos in 1976 SSPC were taken in Shea Stadium; Every team came through Shea because the Yankees were temporarily playing in Shea while Yankee Stadium was being renovated. “Can two Major League teams share a ballpark without driving each other crazy?”

This is one of those Twins photos taken at the original Yankee Stadium.
Shea: 49
Pretty sure it’s Shea: 8
Can’t tell: 11
Not Shea: 7

1970’s Census
We’re going to keep track of all the instances of 1970’s facial hair and other 1970’s trends… Sideburns, afros, mustaches, Aviator glasses…

Bert doesn’t really have anything “1970’s” going on here.
Total Cards: 75
1970’s Sideburns: 37
Fu Manchu: 4
Mustache other than Fu Manchu: 23
Afro: 1
Perm: 2
Aviators: 6
Long Hair: 16

1975 Hostess Bert Blyleven; Weigh-In #32

Bert’s got a sort of Will Arnett look on this card.  Maybe if someone plays “The Final Countdown”, a small fireball will come out of his glove.

In 1975, which would be his last full season of his first go-round with the Twins (he was traded to Texas during the 1976 season), he went 15-10 with a 3.00 ERA, threw 20 complete games and 3 shutouts, struck out 233 and walked 84.  The Twins were 76-83 that year and finished 4th in the AL West.

Bert was inducted into the Hall Of Fame last year, is a two-time All Star and lead the AL in strikeouts in 1985 with 206.

His website, http://www.bertblyleven.com, has a 1974 Topps theme running through the whole thing.  It starts out with a sort-of-custom 1974 Topps card on the entry page which has an animation which runs through images of his delivery.

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Weigh-In numbers for this week:

Cards coming into the house:  0

Cards leaving the house:  89 (junk wax into the recycling)

Cards entering the collection: 0

Cards leaving the collection: 0

Cards moving from inbound to outbound without entering the collection: 0

To date:

Net change in the collection: -224

Net change to the # of cards in the house: -9,648

Total # of cards which have left the house: 12,368