The Kid And The Pirates (Three 1976 Kellogg’s Cards)

Not a lot to say about today’s cards, other than they’re from the 1976 Kellogg’s set, and the players were chosen by Kellogg’s based on their 1975 season.

In 1975, Manny Sanguillen was an All-Star and hit a career-high .328.

In 1975, Jerry Reuss was also an All-Star and had 18 wins and 6 shutouts, both were career high marks he’d match – but not surpass – in later years.

In 1975, Gary Carter wa– OMG, LOOK AT HOW YOUNG GARY CARTER IS!!!!

“The Kid” truly is a kid on this card.

In 1975, the 21-year-old Carter was (surprise surprise) an All-Star, and finished second in the NL Rookie Of The Year voting to John “The Count” Montefusco. He also was more of a right fielder than a catcher, having played 66 games behind the plate and 92 out in right.

I Can See It In Your Eyes, You’re Ready For Another Cards & Songs Post

I hate to let more than one day go by without posting something, but nothing in my drafts folder is ready to go… And that’s where these “Playlists and unrelated cards” posts come into play. I come up with a playlist theme, gather some images of cards, mix well, bake in a 375 degree oven for 8-10 minutes, and serve.

So today’s theme is songs with “eye” or “eyes” in the title. Normally this would be a Top 5 or Top 10 list, but there were so many songs I liked that I’m just dumping them out here…

Joe Shlabotnik’s Top 28 Songs With “Eye” In The Title (in alphabetical order):

Behind Blue Eyes – The Who
Brown-eyed Girl – Van Morrison
Cross-eyed And Painless – Talking Heads
Cross-eyed Mary – Jethro Tull
Drunk-eyed Waltz – The Health & Happiness Show
Ebony Eyes – Bob Welch
Eye Of The Hurricane – The Drongos

Eye Of The Storm – Sara Hickman
Eyes Of The World – Fleetwood Mac
Far Away Eyes – Rolling Stones
Four-eyed Girl – Rhett Miller
Greeneyed Lady – Sugarloaf
I Can See It In Your Eyes – Men At Work  (Ooooh, the “title track”)
Killer’s Eyes – The Kinks

Lazy Eye – Hem
Lonesome Tears In My Eyes – The Beatles (“Live at the BBC” album)
Lyin’ Eyes – The Eagles
Narrow Your Eyes – They Might Be Giants
Old Red Eyes Is Back – The Beautiful South
One Long Pair Of Eyes – Robyn Hitchcock
Polka Your Eyes Out – “Weird Al” Yankovic

Rosalinda’s Eyes – Billy Joel
Sight For Sore Eyes – Aerosmith
Starry Eyes – The Records
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes – Crosby, Stills & Nash
Temptation Eyes – The Grass Roots
The Story In Your Eyes – The Moody Blues
These Eyes – The Guess Who

…And I’m going to wrap this up with one card that is appropriate for the musical theme, the 1972 card of Ross “Crazy Eyes” Grimsley

…and this is where you shake your head and rattle off the seven obvious songs I neglected to mention.  Give it to me with both barrels!

The Funny Hats Of ’76!!!!

Yesterday’s post was about America’s bicentennial in 1976.  Something else that happened in 1976 was the National League’s Centennial.  Several teams observed the Centennial in ways which people confused for observing the Bicentennial.

Of course, everybody knows the Pirates wore funny hats…

The Cardinals wore funny hats almost as much as the Pirates…

…and did the Pirates one better by wearing funny helmets to match their funny hats…

…The National League All-Stars wore funny hats (but not during the game)…

…The Mets wore funny hats (but not much, and the only image I could find in my collection was this shot from 1976’s Old Timers’ Day: This is Don Cardwell and Sal Maglie)…

The Reds and Phillies and NL umpires also wore funny hats, but I couldn’t find any decent images of them.

…and every team, funny hat or no funny hat, wore a “National League Centennial” patch like Manny Mota has.

Everybody but the Pirates would abandon the funny hats after the season.  The following year the Pirates would add funny uniforms to go with the funny hats, and would continue to wear those up through the mid-1980’s.

Different Years, Different Teams, Same Photo Session

I’d noticed something while looking at some Jerry Reuss cards… Check this out:

1973 Topps… Jerry Reuss with the Astros, standing in front of some half-filled stands

1974 Topps:  Jerry Reuss airbrushed into a Pirates uniform, standing in front of some half-filled stands.

You might think they were just similar photos, but look at the left-hand side of the card, just over Jerry’s shoulder.  Aren’t those the same people in both cards?

I dunno, I thought it was interesting.

Jerry, who threw a no-hitter and was a two-time all-star, was traded on 10/31/73 by the Astros to the Pirates for catcher Milt May.  According to his bio on http://www.jerryreuss.com, he’s a photographer whose work has appeared on Upper Deck baseball cards.