Sunday Extra - 1982 Brigham's - Coca Cola Boston Red Sox

I found out about this set listed on the wikipedia page for 1982 Topps. From what I can tell, it was a set sponsored by both Coca-Cola and Brigham's Ice Cream. Since I am from the midwest, I never heard of that brand of ice cream and apparently it is a New England brand. I have no idea how these cards were distributed. It appears very similar to the 1982 Topps set, except it has logos of the two companies on the card. Also, since I own none of these cards, I can't verify this, but looking at ebay auctions, it appears these cards are brighter than the regular 1982 Topps cards, perhaps they were printed on different card stock. Perhaps a Red Sox fan can fill in the blanks about this set.

I thought this may help my checklist for the 1982 Boston Red Sox, which I actually already posted. Although it is nice 22 card regional set, it is no use for this project. It actually has the same checklist for the Boston Red Sox as the regular Topps set, except there is no cards for Bill Campbell, Joe Rudi, or Frank Tanana in addition to the team leader card and future stars card. The reason for those three not appearing in the set? They were the only 3 Red Sox in the regular Topps set who didn't play for the Red Sox in 1982, so this set must've came out sometime during the 1982 season. There are also no cards for Red Sox players who appeared in the traded set, so it must've came out before the traded set.

Sunday Extra - 1981 Drake's

Another set I only know about because of a wikipedia entry. I have collected cards for nearly 30 years off and on, and I have never bought a Beckett or a larger price guide book. I have thumbed through them in book stores and that is about it. I have never been that interested in the value of my cards. The downside of that is that there are tons of sets like this I know nothing about. That is why I really like the blogs and other info I can find on the internet, as it helps me fill in the blanks.

Anyway, I came across this set under the 1981 Topps entry on wikipedia. Here is what the entry said...

Drake's Big Hitters

Topps produced for Northeastern regional bakery Drake's a promotional set of 33 cards. The cards were issued in boxes of Drake's Cakes and featured position players and no pitchers. The front of the cards have a design that differs from the Topps set while the backs resemble the Topps cards.

I thought aha, since this is a regional set, I may be able to find some rare players to fill in the blanks for my checklist. Nope this was another of those 33 card all-star sets issued with a consumable product. I have no cards in this set as they didn't sell these snack cakes in the region of the country I grew up in. I knew there were 33 players after looking on ebay, as the top front of the card has a line that says Card x in a series of 33. After searching through ebay and finding pictures of each card in the set, I found that this set has at least one player for each team, including the Blue Jays, which were shut out of the Squirt and Fleer Sticker sets I reviewed earlier with a card of John Mayberry. The set has multiple cards for the Angels, Yankees, Mets, Orioles, Phillies and Red Sox. The extra Angel was Fred Lynn who was just traded from the Red Sox, so having multiple players on all the teams in the northeastern region of the country is probably what makes it regional. A complete checklist of this set can be found here.

These cards must've been issued during spring training because we come across Dave Winfield on the Yankees and Jerry Mumphrey again being the token Padre, but as I've noted before, he was traded to the Yankees late in spring training of 1981.

So again, this is another set that will not help me with this project.

Adding after the original post..here is a link to a Night Owl cards blog entry that shows the photo variations between the regular Topps cards and the Drakes set. Also has more information, such as you were able to get this set by ordering it through the mail. I do know for a 29 year old set I thought was rare, there are a lot of these cards up for sale on ebay right now. I am also adding a link to Night Owl Cards on the side.

Sunday Extra - 1981 Fleer Star Stickers

While going through my 1981 cards for this project I came across the Ken Landreaux card shown above. I have no idea why I have it as I am not a Twins fan and was never a Ken Landreaux fan. I remember him as a Dodger outfielder, but really know very little about him as a player. I really don't remember where I picked this card up from.

It is from a 1981 set issued from Fleer. They are stickers, but the cardboard back and the stats on the back make it just like a baseball card if the sticker is left unpeeled. In fact the backs are identical to the regular 1981 Fleer set. I am not going to use stickers for this project, but I will make an exception in this case since these actually seem more like cards than stickers. They don't hide the fact that they are stickers, based on the tabs to let you peel the stickers away shown on each of the four corners of the card.

I didn't know much about this set at all, considering I had only 1 card, so I did some digging around on the internet. I came across an entry on a blog called The Fleer Sticker Project, which has all the information one would seem to need regarding this set, including a picture of each card. The only thing I would add is that this issue most likely came out at the same time as the regular baseball cards, as several of the players, including Landreaux and Dave Winfield shown above, played on different teams in 1981 than what they are pictured with on their stickers. Also every team, except the Toronto Blue Jays, has at least one player in the set.

After being able to see the pictures of every card, this is again another set that will not help me with the overall project as there are no players who don't have cards in any of the other sets, but it is an interesting issue from a company able to issue cards of current players for the first time in 1981.

Sunday Extra

One of the first posts on this blog was a list of all the players who made it into the 1981 sets that didn't play another game at the major league level after the 1980 season. On that list was Mark "The Bird" Fidrych. He had a card in all three of the base sets out in 1981. I am sure enough has been said about his short career and it is probably better summed up by looking at his wikipedia page then what I could write here.

Why I am posting this is I found this clip online yesterday showing actual highlights from a game he pitched in 1976 against the Yankees. I think this is a cool clip as it shows why the fans were enthusiastic about him, and it shows the 1970s in full display looking at the crowd in old Tiger Stadium - from the fashions and hairstyles to the transistor radios.