Classic Ads from the 1976 NLCS Program

Last fall, I showed off the covers of some old Reds programs I unearthed while cleaning out the garage. I had plans then to go through and scan some of the old articles and show them off but then I sort of forgot about it. Now I finally have time to go revisit them. Flipping through them, I found I was more captivated by the old ads in them and not the articles and features ... so I've decided as sort of a fun little feature (and that's what this blog is about, fun stuff), I'll explore some of the ads in the magazines. Throw on your bell bottoms, let's travel back to the fall of 1976.

Mt. Lookout Savings and Loan

I found this to be pretty interesting. The Riverfront Coliseum (now U.S. Bank Arena) had opened the fall prior and must have been a pretty big deal. Having a big arena like that next to the stadium really made that area the place to go as previously, the only arena in town was the Cincinnati Gardens up on the northern edge of the city. The arena itself now is a little outdated but is still the main arena in the city, hosting Cyclones hockey, concerts, pro wrestling, and other events.

Johnny Bench's Home Plate Restaurant

Bet you never knew that Johnny Bench had a restaurant! I didn't until I found this ad. The restaurant was located in the Northgate area of Cincinnati at the corner of Colerain and Springdale, the major intersection of the Northgate Mall area. I found a photo online of the interior of the restaurant:

Photo from cincinnativiews.net

Today, the intersection has a Half Price Books, White Castle, Mattress Firm, Cheddars Cafe, and a Shell gas station. I'm not sure what building was the restaurant, if it was a part of the mall, or if the restaurant building is even still standing.

 Schoenling Little Kings Cream Ale

The Reds and local Cincinnati beers go back as far at the 1940s when announcer Waite Hoyt would plug Burger Beer on radio broadcasts. Burger was made by Hudepohl and was a main sponsor of the Reds until the late 1960s. Their main competitor was Schoenling, makers of Little Kings Cream Ale among other brews. In the mid 1980s, Schoenling acquired Hudepohl and ran as an independent distribution until 1997 when they were acquired by Boston Beer Company. Today, Hudepohl-Schoenling is part of Christian Moerlein and Little Kings is still able to be found on store shelves.

Restaurant Ads

This program had a plethora of local restaurant ads so I picked out the three best. Bonanza was a big steakhouse back in the day but I have no recollection of seeing any of them around. White Castle is very polarizing, some people love it and others can't stand it. Personally, their hamburgers make me sick but I'll gladly get some chicken rings and a sack of fries should the occasion call for it. There is one local Perkins left in my area and somehow it's still open. How? I'm not sure as the only time I see it busy is when I'm out on Sunday mornings and it's right after church. My Dad and I used to go to the only Perkins in our area on occasion for breakfast, mainly because my stepmom was a waitress there. From what I remember, they had a mean Belgian waffle.

Kenner Toys

Hey look, a Kenner Toys ad! Kenner was a huge toy company based out of Cincinnati that made toys for Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Real Ghostbuster, and of course the famous Starting Lineup figures! During this time, Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman were two of the biggest hits on TV and Kenner was doing the toy line. Kenner's Cincinnati operations was shut down by Hasbro in 2000.

Lick'n Good Stuff Ice Cream

Finally, Lick'n Good Stuff ice cream. If I had to guess, I'd say judging by the fact that the ad states there is only vanilla and chocolate available, that this was soft serve ice cream. I can't find any info of if this was a legit company or not, or perhaps just a name the stadium gave to the ice cream to make it more marketable. Regardless, I couldn't leave this out because the name was too wacky.

Hope you enjoyed these classic ads from 1976. While they might not be as appealing or eye-catching as comic book ads and magazine ads from the 1980s and 1990s, these are still pretty cool.

You've Got Mail #17: Infield Fly Rule

Besides myself, there is another guy named Adam in the Super Traders group, that being Adam of the Rockies-centric blog Infield Fly Rule. He sent a priority mail box that seemed like it was bursting at the seams when it landed at Casa de Clubhouse.

Let's start off with some 1993 Leaf. The thing that makes these cards stand out for me it is the marble style coloring on the bottom. Jeff Reardon looks really strange without his trademark beard. Smiley and Browning were two solid pitchers for the Reds, well at least Browning was until his arm snapped in 1994 throwing a pitch.

Awesome! A bunch more Barry Larkin cards for my collection! Plus, Leaf and 1993 Donruss, which as I mentioned in a previous post, is probably my favorite Donruss set ever.

Spuds!!! Sabo is one of my favorite Reds of all time. Any Chris Sabo card is a good card and after the 1993 season he jumped to the AL for a few years before coming back for a final year with the Reds. He doesn't get much love in the collecting world either I've noticed but Topps has included him in some recent products.

Hal Morris! This package just keeps getting better and better! Morris was the first baseman of my youth and always stood out to me for his wacky batting stance. 

A couple other random cards that were thrown in. The reason I collect Jeff Brantley is simple, he's a joy to listen to on TV and radio broadcasts.

No we come to the forgotten Reds portion of the program. I have zero recollection of these guys playing for the Reds in the 90s. Juan Samuel is the most notable player here and the photo looks to be from spring training.

Along with the Reds, Adam also sent along a nice mix of old Expos cards. There were some new, some old, and some guys I've never even heard of. These are definitely the best of the batch with some of the Expos biggest names in Tim Raines, Andres Galarraga, and Moises Alou.

Finally, not sure how these found their way into the package but they're definitely appreciated, especially the Palmeiro rookie!

This the second time I've received a trade pack from Adam and he never fails to load it up with great stuff. I'm definitely working on a return package, just waiting for my Rockies stack to get big enough to warrant sending out.

Retail Repack Adventures #4: Revenge of the Repack!

This is becoming a bad habit of mine. Not the fact that I can't leave these things alone whenever I step foot into Walgreens, but the fact that it seems that a new month of posts starts off with one of these! I bought this particular repack back towards the end of January and since then, I've been in a self-imposed drought in an attempt to stretch my card money as far as possible. Enough about me though! Let's dive in to this repack!

This repack was chock full of Topps from all eras, including these 2008 cards. My collection has a gaping hole regarding cards from 1994-2011 (I got back into collecting in 2012) and these repacks are helping to ever so slowly fill in that hole. I was pretty happy when the Mike Piazza card fell out of the box, especially considering that it's his sunset card.

As I mentioned, more Topps cards. The Cano was the cover card of the stack. I'm slowly learning to love the 2010 Topps design too.

Hey look! Parallels from the mid 90s! Bip is a foil version and big Cecil is from the Score Gold Rush line.

Here's something you don't see cards of every day, Wade Boggs in a Devil Rays uniform. This will get added to my personal stash as will the Pujols, even though I'm not a Cardinals fan at all.

Here's another 2010 Topps card, this one of Max Scherzer, before the Nationals backed up a Brinks truck to his front door a few years later. The Cabrera card is pretty cool. I remember Topps doing a bunch of the "Super Veterans" cards back in the day but don't remember many recently so this was a real treat to pull out of this package.

This 1992 Upper Deck pack I've already covered in the first edition of my new ongoing series called "Back Packs". Read about it here

Just like the last repack, this one was stuffed to the gills with 2012 Topps. I think I like these more than most people, simply because it was the first pack I bought when I got back into collecting. This was the best of the batch that was included, any duplicate will wind up in eventual trade packs.

Finally, the requisite Reds. Hatteberg played three seasons for the Reds at first and was Votto's backup during his final season in Cincy. To be honest, I'd kind of forgotten about him. Cairo was a solid player on the two Central Division winners in 2010 and 2012. It's also a sunset card as 2012 was his last season.

This was a nice solid repack and I'll be on the look out for another next time I hit up a Walgreens.