Monday, March 17, 2008

1993 Milkbone - Brett Butler

Puppies for sale. Two rambunctious dachshunds who love to play and cuddle. Named after a little cartoon blond boy and a sea serpent.

This is a cute idea for a card. Major League players and their dogs. What could be more American? Brett's mom needs to be behind the chair holding an apple pie to be more kitsch.

This reminds me of the WGN Sunday Afternoon Family Classics set from the early eighties. Somehow I can picture Brett hosting the movie at commercial breaks.

"And now we return to 'For The Love Of Benji' on Family Classics."

Somehow, when I think of Brett Butler, I don't think of cardigan sweaters, leather chairs and wood paneling. I think of a pesky slap hitter, who was a thorn in the side of many National League teams.

I can definitely see a reason for the product to exist. What better way to showcase a dog biscuit than to show cards of dogs. Cards of cute dogs doesn't really grab people. Let's put some baseball players on the cards and they can hold their dogs. Brilliant!

This was clearly the way to go with this card set. I really can't see a card set of famous dogs. Would there be two cards of Higgins? One for Petticoat Junction and one for Benji? How many Lassie cards would there be? One for each dog or one representing all the dogs who played Lassie. Would they draw the line before the set would include Santa's Little Helper, Astro and Dyno-Mutt?

Baseball players and their dogs was the way to go with this set. Now, we have a kitschy oddball set of some of our favorite players from the early nineties. Included in the set are Brady Anderson, Craig Biggio, Brett Butler, Ken Caminiti, Will Clark, Rob Dibble, Tom Foley, Joe Girardi, Tom Glavine, Wally Joyner, Barry Larkin, Ben McDonald, Mark McGwire, Paul Molitor, Rafael Palmeiro, Cal Ripken Jr., Bill Swift, Larry Walker, Matt Young and Todd Zeile. Not too bad for an oddball set.

3 comments:

capewood said...

I have a 1984 Ralston Purina card of Gary Carter (still with the Expos in those days). When I think if Ralston Purina I think of pet food which is why I thought if it when I read your post. But apparently they also made breakfast cereal. The back of the card says you can get all 33 cards of the set in "Cookie-Crisp, Donkey Kong and other fine Ralston cereals". I didn't have any kids to buy such stuff for in 1984 and wouldn't have bought them for myself (I was always more a Cheerios kind of guy). I got the card in some repackaged lot of cards in 2005. By the way, on the back of the card it says that Gary's hobby is collecting baseball cards.

Steve Gierman said...

I only have a couple cards rom that set. They all came second hand. I never reaized that they came in cereal. I probably did at one time, but forgot about it. I associate Ralston Purina with dog food too.

Luke said...

i have this card of butler, and as cape mentioned, i have the ralston purina cards as well. I have the Rod Carew, Steve Carlton, Andre Dawson and carter....