Tag: Pat Zachry

Once upon a time, baseball cards were not limited to hobby shops and a small section of an aisle in Target.

All kinds of stores cashed in on the baseball card bubble of the 1980s, and manufacturers of other products found baseball cards a useful way to drive sales. And sometimes that meant you got baseball cards with your breakfast cereal.

I’m not sure how many people were happy to find Pat Zachry‘s baseball card in their Cornflakes in 1979, considering that the team narrowly avoided losing 100 games and finished last in the National League East. I don’t know – I don’t exactly remember 1979, but I do recall getting some of the later Kellogg’s cards as “prizes” with my breakfast.

Zachry himself was pretty much a non-entity one year after representing the Mets in the 1978 All-Star Game. An ulnar nerve injury limited him to just seven starts in 1979, though he did win five of them.

Outfielder Lee Mazzilli is the other Mets player included in the 60-card set. You could expect to spend $30 or less for a complete 1979 set, or about 25 cents for either Mets player’s card, should you find someone selling them.

However, if a piece of plastic and cardboard can bring back memories of a simpler time, maybe it’s priceless.