Mets Card of the Week: 1973 Tug McGraw

1973 KELLOGG’S TUG MCGRAW

It seems really odd to see a Kellogg’s card without the 3-D treatment. Kellogg’s issued cards from 1970-1983 and then sets in 1991 and 1992. The series in 1973 is the only one that’s not in 3-D. There’s never been a definitive reason why, much like there’s never been a stated reason why from 1970-1976 there was no Hank Aaron Kellogg’s card.

Xograph, a company from Irving, Texas, and Visual Panographics, from New York, were the two companies that produced the 3-D cards for Kellogg’s. There’s no mention of Xograph on the 1973 cards. Perhaps there was a contractual issue or a cost-cutting measure in place here. All we can say for sure is that when Kellogg’s issued its 1974 set, the 3-D process was again in place.

So, the 1973 Kellogg’s cards hold a unique spot. And 50-plus years later, these are the only Kellogg’s cards where you don’t have to worry about curling or cracking. Also, it’s on the short side, even for Kellogg’s sets, with only 54 cards. There were 24 teams in MLB back in 1973, meaning that there should be two-to-three cards from each team. There are three Mets in this series, with Jon Matlack and Tom Seaver, in addition to our featured Tug McGraw.

The people who wrote the text that appeared on the Kellogg’s card backs had a nice time writing up McGraw. Among others, the words “effervescent,” “absolutely fearless” and “bat-breaking scroogie” were used to describe McGraw. And it’s kind of neat that they detailed that he threw a screwball. The text also mentioned that he threw a no-hitter in the minors and became the first Met to defeat Sandy Koufax.

I recall having a handful of these 1973 Kellogg’s cards in my collection at the time but they’ve been gone for a long time now. In these cases, my assumption is that my brother Gary traded them. Regardless, these will be back in my collection, as there have been two recent purchases on ebay – one a lot of 10 and the other a lot of 20. Unfortunately, McGraw’s not in either lot, although Seaver is one of the 30 that should be arriving soon.

Then why feature the McGraw instead of the Seaver? This is the only Kellogg’s card for McGraw while he was on the Mets and one of only two times that McGraw graced a Kellogg’s offering. The other was in the 1981 set, when he was on the Phillies. But my preference is to remember him as a Met, not much different than Seaver in that regard.