Reader ashonk51 left a comment on Sunday, asking to see some Dave Kingman cards. Ask and it shall be given unto you!
Kingman was with the Cubs for just three seasons, 1978 - 1981. It was a homecoming of sorts as he grew up in the northwest suburbs and attended Prospect High School in Mt. Prospect. Expectations were high and early on things went well. We got lots of long home runs and lots of strikeouts. He led the league in both homers and strikeouts in 1979. He even hit for average. His average with the Cubs was 40 points higher than his career average.
But he was also moody, aloof, and didn’t get along with the media. He wore out his welcome in his home town after just three seasons. He was traded to the Mets during spring training of 1981.
I've got 33 of his cards in my collection. Most are from his playing days but a few came after he retired.
Thank you! I worked on the family farm as a youth and we would have a tractor radio with the abundance of day games the cubs played back then. Dave Kingman was the man and provided a ton of highlights in 1979. He was even fun when we drove to Wrigley. His big swing and miss would cause the crowd to gasp. He swing for the fences like Javy Baez and was a much larger man. Fun times!
ReplyDeleteThe Hostess and Kellogg's cards are awesome... but my favorite Kingman item in this post is the 1979 Topps gum wrapper comic. It's such an underrated oddball issue from the 70's.
ReplyDeleteI've got a Kingman PC too. Wonder what the ratio is of Cubs cards to the rest?
ReplyDeleteThe Kellogg's 3-D cards are fantastic. I don't think I've ever seen the one that looks like a poker playing card. Which set is that from?
ReplyDeleteIt's from a deck of cards from a company called HeroDecks.
Deletehttps://wrigleywax.blogspot.com/2011/08/cubs-heroes.html
Thanks, good stuff.
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