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1978 MSA Wiffle Ball Checklist - contributions welcomed

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sschauer

Member
Aug 7, 2008
242
1
Covington, KY
I'm posting this from collectors universe to see if you guys can help with this checklist

I would like to try and solve the confusion surrounding the obscure 1978 Wiffle ball set by putting together a firm checklist on this set. As I've mentioned in other posts, this set differs dramatically from the 1977 set in many ways. (distribution, size, player selection etc)

The 1977 set had 81 players in in and they were standard MSA discs (although smaller than usual) die cut, and inserted into boxes one card per box.

The 1978 set had the cards printed right on the box itself with three cards facing out and two facing in. Seven players were added to the checklist from the previous year (Candelaria, Cardenal, Joshua, North, Rodriguez, Spencer and Wynegar) Making 88 players in this set.

The cards were printed onto various styles and sizes of Wiffle Ball products. Four different styles exist. Ball boxes in sizes Junior, Regulation and Softball each contained five cards. A fourth version was a cardboard sleeve that held a bat and ball together. This version contained just two cards printed on the sleeve. Much like the distribution of Post cards in the 1960's and Hostess cards in the 1970's, one could surmize that less propular sizes of products might lead to some lesser quantities of cdertain cards. That's why it is important to understand how these cards were ditributed.

Below is a checklist of the cards, listed by the boxes or method they were released. There seems to be no doubling up of any players onto different size boxes so this seems to hold up.

This checklist is not complete. I do not have confirmation on 14 players. My guess is that means there are two boxes and two bat/ball sleeves to be uncovered. That's where input would be appreciated. Ths cards are listed below the checklist as "unidentified packaging"



Ball Size Player card facing

1) Junior Outside – Bert Campaneris/ Dave Lopes/ Mark Fidrych
Inside – Rennie Stennett/ Dave Kingman

2) Baseball Outside – Wayne Garland/ Frank Tanana/ TonyPerez
Inside – Larry Hisle/ Jim Rice

3) Baseball Outside – Randy Moffitt/ Gary Maddox/ Ted Simmons
Inside – John Mayberry/ Ellie Rodriguez

4) Baseball Outside- Lou Brock/ Dave Concepcion/ Mike Schmidt
Inside – Fred Lynn/ Dave Parker

5) Baseball Outside- Bert Blyleven/ Richie Zisk/ Lee May
Inside – Von Joshua/ Ralph Garr

6) Baseball Outside- Buddy Bell/ Willie Stargell/ Gene Tenace
Inside – Manny Sanguillen/ Greg Luzinski

7) Baseball Outside- Tom Seaver/ Craig Nettles/ Jon Matlack
Inside – Manny Trillo/ Sixto Lezcano

8) Baseball Outside- Jorge Orta/ Vida Blue/ John Montefusco
Inside – Pete Rose/ Carlton Fisk

9) Baseball Outside- Thurman Munson/ Steve Garvey/ Joe Rudi
Inside – Jose Cardenal/ Jim Spencer

10) Softball Outside- Sal Bando/ Jeff Burroughs/ Bob Watson
Inside – Jim Hunter/ Gary Matthews

11) Softball Outside- Luis Tiant/ Cesar Cedeno/ Jerry Koosman
Inside – Butch Wynegar/ Bill North

12) Softball Outside- George Bett/ Dave Cash/ Ray Burris
Inside – John Candelaria/ Ron LeFlore

13) Bat/ Ball Andy Messersmith/ Al Oliver

14) Bat/ Ball Chris Chambliss/ Gaylord Perry

15) Bat/ Ball Dennis Eckersley/ Bill Buckner

16) Bat/ Ball Reggie Jackson/ Tug McGraw

17) Bat/ Ball Rollie Fingers/ George Foster

18) Bat/ Ball Steve Carlton/ Reggie Smith

19) Bat/ Ball Nolan Ryan/ Ron Cey


Unidentified Packaging
Johnny Bench
Bobby Bonds
Rod Carew
Don Gullett
Al Hrabosky
Randy Jones
Ed Kranepool
Bake McBride
Hal McRae
Joe Morgan
Jim Palmer
Steve Rogers
Rusty Stab
Carl Yastrzemski
 

sschauer

Member
Aug 7, 2008
242
1
Covington, KY
They look like this by the way

1978wiffle.jpg

lf.jpg
 

carlitoson

Active member
Aug 7, 2008
1,813
0
Wow I certainly remember buying a lot of those. We probably went through at least a ball a week when I was a kid. Unfortunately I never saved the boxes...it wasn't something a kid would deem "valuable" at the time.

Judging by the photo, Yaz is in the Junior size(?)
 

bouwob

Active member
Administrator
Aug 7, 2008
4,612
0
carlitoson said:
Wow I certainly remember buying a lot of those. We probably went through at least a ball a week when I was a kid. Unfortunately I never saved the boxes...it wasn't something a kid would deem "valuable" at the time.

Judging by the photo, Yaz is in the Junior size(?)


The ryans go for quite a bit.

I have only seen 3 or 4 of them and would love to land one someday.


The MSA disks are tough to find in all of their variations and usually sell for way over their book price.
 

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