The Big Tipper?

When I was a kid, I ate a ton of cereal. For the most part, it was the sweet stuff that a lot of kids enjoyed (Apple Jacks, Fruit Loops, Trix, Frosted Flakes, Cookie Crisp..etc). On days when I felt like I was suffering from sugar overload and I wanted to eat a healthy cereal, I'd have Raisin Bran. Usually though, it was the Kellogg's variety which was a major reason why I'm very familiar with these. Once every while my mom would make a mistake and purchase the Post Cereal version of Raisin Bran. 

Post has had a few successful children's brands of cereal over the years. In my opinion, their most notably children's brands are Honeycomb, Cocoa Pebbles and Fruity Pebbles. Even with those successes, I always perceived Post Cereal to be more of a second tier imitator of Kellogg's and cut from the same mold of other second tier imitators as Hunts Ketchup (Heinz) and Keebler Cookies (Nabisco). Note: I'm leaving Pepsi and Burger King out of this conversation.

In 1979, Post Cereal hired Steve Garvey as a spokesman and produced twelve different of premiums on boxes of Post Raisin Bran titled "Steve Garvey's Baseball Tips". The first six were available on fifteen ounce boxes and the second six were available on twenty ounce boxes.

Below is a breakdown of what each looked liked.

#1 The Batting Stance

Instead of doing a breakdown of each card, I'd note the following specifics are found on each card.

• The cards are hand cut from the cereal box
• There's no writing on the back of the cards
• Steve's picture is found on the top left of each card
• Each card covers a specific baseball skill
• Steve provides his tip on the specific skill in two to three paragraphs
• A cartoon showing the skill is on the far right.

#2 Bunting

#3 Rounding First Base

#4 The Grip in Throwing

#5 Fielding a Pop-Up

#6 Proper Fielding Stances

#7 On-Deck Observation

#8 Sliding

#9 Hitting to the Opposite Field

#10 Throwing from the Outfield

#11 Mental Preparation for each Play

 #12 Total Conditioning