1976 Kellogg's #37 - Jim Palmer

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* What did he do to deserve a 1976 Kellogg's card?

    * Multiple Cy Young Award winner

    * Multiple 20 game winner

    * American League ERA leader

    * American League victories leader

* 1976 Highlights:

    * Won his third Cy Young award

    * Led the AL in victories for the second of three straight years

Twitter handle: @Jim22Palmer

1976 Kellogg's #55 - Pete Rose

* Another one of the "cards to get" for us in the mid 70s. This one definitely wouldn't have been put in the trade or flip piles.

* What did he do to deserve a 1976 Kellogg's card?

    * As the back of the card says, Pete bounced back from an off year (by his standards) to bat over .300 again.

    * World Series MVP in 1975.

    * Moved to third base partway through the 1975 season so that Sparky could put George Foster in the lineup and complete the Big Red Machine.

* 1976 Highlights:

    * Led the NL with 130 runs scored, 42 doubles, and 215 hits.

    * 4th in MVP voting

    * Started at 3B for the NL in the All Star Game and went 2 for 3 with a triple and a run scored.

    * Only batted .188 in the World Series, but got his second ring.

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1976 Kellogg's #54 - Steve Garvey

* I was a Reds fan at this time, so getting a Dodger card wasn't much fun. But Steve Garvey was one of the prime cards to get no matter what team he played for.

* What did he do to deserve a Kellogg's card?

- MVP award in 1974

- Had another good year in 1975, batting .319 with 210 hits.

- NL All Star both years.

* 1976 Highlights:

- Batted .317 with 200 hits, but it still seemed like an off year due to having only 13 home runs and only 80 RBI

- Made the NL All-Star team for the third straight year

- Third of four straight Gold Glove awards.

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1976 Kellogg's #2 Claudell Washington

 

• What did he do to deserve a 1976 Kellogg's card?
• Made the 1975 AL All Star team as a 20-year-old outfielder
• The A's didn't have many of their star players left
• Batted a career-high .308 in 1975
• Was 14th in AL MVP voting in 1975
• 1976 Highlights:
• Dropped to .257 but was still a valuable part of a team that was still a contender in the AL West.

1976 Kellogg's #40 - Lou Brock

 

• What did he do to deserve a 1976 Kellogg's card?
• Was an NL All Star in 1975
• Got some votes for 1975 NL MVP (21st place)
• Even though he wouldn't get his 3000th hit for a few more years, Lou was probably already pretty close to being a Hall of Famer.
• He didn't lead the NL in stolen bases in 1975, but he stole over 50 bases for the 11th year in a row. Lou led the NL in stolen bases in eight of those 11 years.
• 1976 Highlights:
• Stole 56 bases to extend his 50+ stolen base streak to 12 years.
• Batted .301, which was the sixth season over .300 in the last seven years

1976 Hostess #142 - Gary Matthews

* Gary Matthews was one of the really good outfielders that the Giants came up with in the early 1970s. Things could have been different if the Giants would have been able to keep Gary Matthews, Garry Maddox, and George Foster.

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1976 Hostess #41 - John Montefusco

 

Hello! I finally got to a place where I can spend a bit each month on cards. One thing I decided to do was to work on completing sets from my prime card collecting years (1974-1981). I'm a big Giants fan, so a lot of the first cards I get for these sets will be Giants.

John Montefusco didn't spend much time in the minors. He was dominant in A ball in 1973 and really rose through the system in 1974, going from AA to AAA to the majors all in the same year. I may have seen him pitch in Phoenix in 1974, but I was only seven and don't have any specific memories of the games my dad took me to that year.

John had great  years in 1975 and in 1976 before he started to tail off a bit. Injuries hampered him and by 1979 he was struggling to stay in the rotation.

By the way, the card is in better shape than the scan indicates. I'm still learning how to operate this thing.