1975 Hostess Set Review and Checklist
In the spring of 2019, I loaded up a USPS medium flat rate box full of Cubs cards and sent it up to Madison, Wisconsin. A trade was in the works with Beau Thompson, the man behind the One Million Cubs project. I sent him the box of Cubs, and in return, he would be sending me a package of various “odd ball” issues from the 70’s-90’s!
This is part two of a multi-post series covering the odd ball sets I received in the trade. The first post covered the 1983 Topps Gardners set, and the 1975 Hostess set is the topic of today’s post.
Hostess created baseball cards as a promotional item for their snacks during a five year run in the 70s stretching from 1975-1979. The ‘75 set started things off and generated some excitement among kids who jumped at the opportunity to get dessert and cards at the same time(yeah I know Topps had gum, but it’s not quite the same).
The cards came in either a 3 card panel on the back of snack packages, or as an individual card that served as the backing for single Twinkie packages. Since the latter were in constant contact with the food, they are often found with some “character” that only 40 year old Twinkie grease can deliver.
The Twinkie singles set contains 60 cards, 1-36 and then a variety of numbers up to #150. I’m sure this created some confusion for collectors who seemed to never be able to find some of the cards when it first released. The “base” set which came from the three card panels consisted of 150 cards, which provided a pretty good challenge to build a complete set. That’s a minimum of 50 packages that would have been purchased to obtain 150 cards!
The cards were outlined with a dotted line, and as any elementary school child knows, dotted lines mean you get out the scissors. Although you can still find some panels intact, many of the cards you will find today are singles that were cut out of the panel. This can create some confusion between the “base” set and the “Twinkie” set. Apart from the telltale grease stain, the single Twinkie cards also had a black line which can be seen on the back of the card. Check out the picture to see what I mean. The Zisk is the regular card and the Brock is the Twinkie.
One more little known fact about these cards was pointed out on Twitter by my friend Mark Hoyle. Check it out!
A bunch of stars such as Nolan Ryan, Johnny Bench, Hank Aaron, Pete Rose, and Mike Schmidt have cards in the set, and they even managed to sneak in one of the two biggest rookies from that season. Robin Yount is card number 80 and gives fans a second rookie card from 1975 to add to their collection. Unfortunately, Brett would not make an appearance on a Hostess card until the following year in 1976.
When it comes to vintage odd balls, this set....wait for it.....takes the cake! Ba da boom!
Complete 150 card sets which have been cut out of the panel run around $150-175 on EBay, but full panels in good condition can run quite a bit more. One auction in Feb, 2019 completed at $350.
They are hard to find in good condition either way, but in my mind the combination of grease and self cut edges give these oddballs some character. I will be keeping my eye out for these as I’m digging in show boxes, and who knows, maybe I’ll end up with my own complete set someday.
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Thanks for reading!
Checklist
1 Bob Tolan
2 Cookie Rojas
3 Darrell Evans
4 Sal Bando
5 Joe Morgan
6 Mickey Lolich
7 Don Sutton
8 Bill Melton
9 Tim Foli
10 Joe Lahoud
11 Burt Hooton
12 Paul Blair
13 Jim Barr
14 Toby Harrah
15 John Milner
16 Ken Holtzman
17 Cesar Cedeno
18 Dwight Evans
19 Willie McCovey
20 Tony Oliva
21 Manny Sanguillen
22 Mickey Rivers
23 Lou Brock
24 Graig Nettles
25 Jim Wynn
26 George Scott
27 Greg Luzinski
28 Bert Campaneris
29 Pete Rose
30 Buddy Bell
31 Gary Matthews
32 Freddie Patek
33 Mike Lum
34 Ellie Rodriguez
35 Milt May
36 Willie Horton
37 Dave Winfield
38 Tom Grieve
39 Barry Foote
40 Joe Rudi
41 Bake McBride
42 Mike Cuellar
43 Garry Maddox
44 Carlos May
45 Bud Harrelson
46 Dave Chalk
47 Dave Concepcion
48 Carl Yastrzemski
49 Steve Garvey
50 Amos Otis
51 Rick Reuschel
52 Rollie Fingers
53 Bob Watson
54 John Ellis
55 Bob Bailey
56 Rod Carew
57 Richie Hebner
58 Nolan Ryan
59 Reggie Smith
60 Joe Coleman
61 Ron Cey
62 Darrell Porter
63 Steve Carlton
64 Gene Tenace
65 Jose Cardenal
66 Bill Lee
67 Davey Lopes
68 Wilbur Wood
69 Steve Renko
70 Joe Torre
71 Ted Sizemore
72 Bobby Grich
73 Chris Speier
74 Bert Blyleven
75 Tom Seaver
76 Nate Colbert
77 Don Kessinger
78 Doc Medich
79 Andy Messersmith
80 Robin Yount
81 Al Oliver
82 Bill Singer
83 Johnny Bench
84 Gaylord Perry
85 Dave Kingman
86 Ed Herrmann
87 Ralph Garr
88 Reggie Jackson
89 Doug Rader
90 Elliott Maddox
91 Bill Russell
92 John Mayberry
93 Dave Cash
94 Jeff Burroughs
95 Ted Simmons
96 Joe Decker
97 Bill Buckner
98 Bobby Darwin
99 Phil Niekro
100 Jim Sundberg
101 Greg Gross
102 Luis Tiant
103 Glenn Beckert
104 Hal McRae
105 Mike Jorgensen
106 Mike Hargrove
107 Don Gullett
108 Tito Fuentes
109 Johnny Grubb
110 Jim Kaat
111 Felix Millan
112 Don Money
113 Rick Monday
114 Dick Bosman
115 Roger Metzger
116 Fergie Jenkins
117 Dusty Baker
118 Billy Champion
119 Bob Gibson
120 Bill Freehan
121 Cesar Geronimo
122 Jorge Orta
123 Cleon Jones
124 Steve Busby
125 Bill Madlock
126 Jim Palmer
127 Tony Perez
128 Larry Hisle
129 Rusty Staub
130 Hank Aaron
131 Rennie Stennett
132 Rico Petrocelli
133 Mike Schmidt
134 Sparky Lyle
135 Willie Stargell
136 Ken Henderson
137 Willie Montanez
138 Thurman Munson
139 Richie Zisk
140 George Hendrick
141 Bobby Murcer
142 Lee May
143 Carlton Fisk
144 Brooks Robinson
145 Bobby Bonds
146 Gary Sutherland
147 Oscar Gamble
148 Jim Hunter
149 Tug McGraw
150 Dave McNally