Friday, November 6, 2009

1978 Post Cereal Baseball -- Steve Garvey #5, Fielding a Pop-Up

I manned first base in little league and my dad's a huge Dodger fan, so Steve Garvey made a natural favorite player for many years. In the mid-70s, Garvey seemed almost more "traditionally American" than hot dogs and John Wayne. (Sport Magazine even featured him on a 1976 cover eating apple pie, don'cha know.) A star for several years, Steve fell just short of the HOF, though some think otherwise.

His personal foibles aside, Steve could hit the ball, won 4 straight Gold Gloves, and helped the Dodgers reach the playoffs several times, so Post Cereal saluted him with a 12-panel set in 1978. Each cut-away card includes Garvey's mug, several sentences about a particular skill, and baseball-stitch edging. They came on the outside of cereal boxes, so are blank-backed.

Card front (blank back)


Notice the upper-left corner, where Steve's head overlaps the top of this "card." Doesn't that invite well-meaning kids to simply chop off the top of his head? It's a fairly subtle curved cut around the cap. Think of the children!

Speaking of kids, check out the opening paragraph.

One of the easiest looking and potentially most embarrassing plays is the pop-up. It must be practiced continuously and an emphasis must be placed on proper body positioning.

The 1989 movie Parenthood included several baseball scenes, focusing on Steve Martin practicing pop-ups with his son, a key skill for middle infielders. The extra work eventually saves a game, as his son catches a pop fumbled by another (obnoxious) player, redeeming their time spent together. Baseball, apple pie, American families.

Single panels don't turn up often, so I purchased the entire set for $12 to obtain this #5. Don't see any Post panels in the market right now, but will include some search links, just in case.

1 comment:

gcrl said...

are you interested in trading the other 11 garvey cards?