Keep the Bologna

According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, Americans are expected to consume around 150 million hot dogs tomorrow in celebration of America's birthday.  Considering Oscar Mayer is one of the best selling hot dog brands, I figured I'd take the time to share a baseball card set the company produced back in 1994 to honor some American and National League baseball's superstars.

However before we start breaking down the set, I wanted to quickly thank Peter over at Baseball Every Night.  Last Friday he wrote about the John Kruk in this set... which inspired me to head over to eBay and purchase the complete 30 card set.

1994 Oscar Mayer #14

Based on what I read in the Sports Collectors Digest 2008 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards, Oscar Mayer included one of these discs (2.5" in diameter) into specially marked packages of bologna.

I originally fell in love with this set, because it's an oddball food issue with a nice design and well-cropped photographs.  Plus there's a creative action feature built into the card that I'll share in a little bit.  Before we check it out, let's look at the two boxes this set came in:

Oscar Mayer also offered collectors the opportunity to purchase American League and National League boxes which contained 15 cards (half the set) each.

Based on the order form included in each of these boxes, collectors could send in 3 UPC's and $1.95 for a box with a limit of 5 boxes of each league for every household or address.  Attached to the order form were a list of the players included in each box as well as directions for the previously mentioned action feature:

The same information was included on the back of the boxes:

Although each league was given their own box, the checklist is numbered as one set of thirty discs.  The first fifteen discs feature American League players and the National League players make up the final fifteen discs.

Here's a look at the set in its entirety:

At the time, each league had 14 teams... and Oscar Mayer made sure to include one player from each franchise.  With a 30 card checklist, that meant two lucky teams had two players representing them in the set:  Chicago White Sox and Philadelphia Phillies.

Although all thirty players on the checklist were indeed familiar names in the league... only ten of these guys went on to be inducted into Cooperstown:  Ken Griffey Jr., Paul Molitor, Kirby Puckett, Cal Ripken Jr., Frank Thomas, Jeff Bagwell, Tony Gwynn, Greg Maddux, Mike Piazza, and Ryne Sandberg.

If you're a player or team collector... singles are pretty affordable on COMC.  Personally I wanted the complete set, so I opened my wallet and pulled out $10.45 ($4.90 + $5.10 shipping + 45¢ tax).

One of the cards I picked up from the 8 for $1 card show box was an extra Frank Thomas... which allowed me to do this:

This is the pop-up feature that's built into each card.  As you can see, in addition to the card becoming three dimensional... statistics and player trivia are also revealed.  

I didn't photograph it, but the answer to the trivia question appears on the back of the question.

In case you're wondering... once you decide to utilize the pop-up feature, the card will never be the same.   The other major flaw is the lack of team logos on the player's photographs.  But personally, I think the pros outweigh the cons and was very happy to add this 90's oddball set to my collection.

What about you?

Any thoughts on these cards?  Anyone planning on eating hot dogs tomorrow?

I'm more of a burger guy myself.  Have a safe and fun 4th of July!  Happy Saturday and sayonara!