Thursday, July 27, 2023

SPECIAL 1969 "TEAM" CEREAL EXTENSION SET: FERGIE JENKINS

Good day all!

Today on the blog we have my "missing" 1969 Nabisco Team Flakes card for Hall of Fame pitcher Fergie Jenkins, a fun extension to the under-appreciated food-issue of my birth year:



This is going to be a unique WTHBALLS release in the coming months, in a full-sized cereal box with cut-out cards on the back as it was originally released, true to the box art!
As for the great Jenkins, he was smack in the middle of an incredible run of six straight 20-win seasons, as well as five straight 200+ strikeout campaigns.
For the 1969 season, Jenkins posted 21 wins for the Cubs, while leading the N.L. with 273 strikeouts, starting 42 games, completing 23 and tossing seven shutouts.
As we all know, he put together a Hall of Fame career, topping 280 wins, 3000 strikeouts, with 49 shutouts, a Cy Young Award in 1971 and four other top-3 finishes in the award voting.
In 1991 he capped off his career with an induction into Cooperstown on his third try, just getting the 75% of the vote with 75.4% support.
On a geeky side-note, “Fly” was also the first pitcher to ever register 3000+ strikeouts while issuing less than 1000 base on balls.
Love stuff like that!
Jenkins was just plain awesome. And he went about being awesome while pretty much performing under the radar.