BY TROY KIRK
The 1971 Milk Duds set is a much overlooked, but great set of baseball cards. There are 69 cards in this set, with a brown and cream color scheme that is the same color as a Milk Duds box (which makes sense considering the cards came as part of the back of the box). They are blank-backed and measure 1 13/16 by 2 5/8 inches. The pictures are all posed, mostly head shots, with a few players holding a bat or in some other type of posed action shot. Most of the cards have a vertical format, yet a few are horizontal.
Although 69 seems like a strange number of cards, the reason for this number appears to be that the boxes were made in three printings of 23 boxes. There do not seem to be any rare cards, although I have heard that some dealers ordered cases expecting to get cards of all 69 players and instead got many boxes of only 23 different. So in reality there may be more of certain players available to the card collecting hobby.
The most interesting thing about this set is the captions identifying the players. The caption contains the player’s name and something about him, usually a feat he performed in 1970. Some examples are: “A.L. Rookie of the Year, 1970” (Thurman Munson), “Won 23 Games in 1970” (Gaylord Perry), “Most Doubles in A.L., 1970” (Cesar Tovar), as well as numerous players designated “All-Star, 1970.” There are a few cards mentioning older feats such as “Most Valuable Player, N.L., 1967” (Orlando Cepeda), and “Pitched a No-Hit Game, May 8, 1968” (Jim Hunter).
There are also cards mentioning lifetime feats such as “168 Lifetime Victories” (Milt Pappas), and “1,051 Lifetime RBI’s” (Ron Santo). Some of the players only get identified by position and team such as “Inf. Boston Red Sox” (George Scott) or “Catcher, Chicago Cubs” (Randy Hundley). Only the players with captions such as Scott and Hundley get identified by team. The players are all wearing their caps, so their team can be identified in that way, though Milt Pappas is wearing an old Orioles cap – a team he hadn’t played for since 1965.
Error enthusiasts will be pleased to note that Claude Osteen is misspelled “Claud,” Glenn Beckert is misspelled “Glen,” and Mel Stottlemyre is misspelled “Stottlemyer.”
Most teams are represented by at least one player, with only Kansas City, San Diego, and Philadelphia left out. The Cubs got 10 players pictured, which is the most from any team by far. I don’t know why. The champions of the Cubs’ division in 1970, the Pirates, got only three players pictured. The World Champion Orioles and second-place Yankees each got six players pictured to lead the American League teams. The A.L. West Champion Twins got four players pictured: Harmon Killebrew, Jim Perry, Tony Oliva, and Cesar Tovar.
The cards can be collected by themselves or as complete boxes. The Beckett price guide lists the price for complete boxes at twice as much as the price for the cards alone. Although collecting complete boxes is kind of cumbersome, this is the only way the collector can see the Milk Duds name. The casual collector would probably not be able to identify them upon viewing just the cards.
This was Milk Duds’ only try at issuing baseball cards. It is a very unusual set, kind of a capsule of the 1970 season. There are numerous Hall-of-Famers and future Hall-of-Famers included, though a few were left out (Yaz, Carew, Kaline). Though it is not the most beautiful set and the cards are hard to find in decent condition, it is an interesting set and definitely a worthwhile set to collect. It is also surprisingly affordable, especially in relation to its scarcity. If you want an interesting departure from the deluge of lookalike Topps, Fleer and Donruss sets, give Milk Duds a try.
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• Originally Published in Mar. 1985 “Twin Times” •
THIS ARTICLE FROM THE “TWIN TIMES” NEWSLETTER – OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE TWIN CITIES SPORTS COLLECTORS CLUB – IS REPRINTED WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR. IT HAS BEEN RETYPED, BUT NO CONTENT HAS BEEN CHANGED (EXCEPT FOR VERY MINOR ADJUSTMENTS, CORRECTIONS TO ANY TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS AND THE ADDITION OF GRAPHICS). COMMENTS OR INFORMATION IN THE ARTICLE MAY BE OUT-OF-DATE.
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