snack attack

i am no longer a steve garvey completist, not that i ever had any inkling of collecting every garvey item. there was a point, however, where i went after as much as i could, including endless parallels. even with my updated mindset, every so often i see something that makes me do a double take. one of those happened maybe a year ago when i saw a listing for a 1976 hostess "blue arrow" variation. i investigated and figured out that it was a box-cut card - not the actual hostess card that was also cut from boxes but rather one from the box top. i passed, although i used to cut out those sorts of things myself for various player collections.

the aversion to the "arrow variation" lasted until a month ago or so, when i saw a box top offered for sale at a very reasonable price. i went ahead and bought it. and so, here is the "arrow variation" (this one is red as i will explain in a moment)

that is just a cropped image. here is the full box top

you can see the arrow that penetrates the side of the garvey card there. the blue arrow was from a twinkies box, supposedly. it seems that the red arrow is more common, although i had never heard of "king dons" before seeing this item. king dons are obviously ding dongs. i guess kids in certain parts of the country were not allowed to be exposed to ding dongs and so got these poorly named items.

in an unrelated note, no kings!

behind the garvey on the box is the easily recognized vida blue card. i was curious about the third card, so i went looking for an actual 1976 hostess three-card panel

and found that the third card is dave rader's, making the box top consistent with the box bottom. i bought this panel for a low price thanks to the very poor cutting job on the garvey card. here's the back of the panel

stats intact!

the synchronicity between box top images and the garvey-blue-rader panel was not carried through to the comic book ads. i am sure that i have this ad

in one of my superman comics from the era, but i found this extricated image online (i did not purchase). here, garvey's card is shown with joe morgan's and carlton fisk's. this is appropriate from a star power angle, but i really have to question the drawing itself. it appears that there is someone behind the kid in the hat holding up those cards, and who knows how the morgan card is being supported.

other recent related pick ups include larger panels of hostess twinkie garvey cards from 1976

and 1975

the black bars are the tell-tale twinkie element, although the permeating grease stains are also a strong indicator.

one more card to share. it's not a hostess card, but it is more poorly cut than that panel up above

that is a glorious 1975 topps mini steve garvey miscut/diamond cut card. here's the back

the astro player sharing cardboard with garvey is bob watson. i'd love to see the other cards from this particular sheet.

i suppose what this post demonstrates is that i will never say never when it comes to collecting steve garvey items. who knows what the next out of the ordinary item will be. 

i should also note that this post marks the start of my 19th year as a baseball card blogger. my first (crappy) post went live 18 years ago yesterday, and 18 years ago today i posted the first image of a card in my collection - no surprise as to who is featured on that card. i feel like i have a bit more to share, so stay tuned!