Baseball Card Spotlight: Food Issues

In the last couple of decades, food issues have been decreasing dramatically. There was a time when you could get baseball cards in virtually any product, from magazines to frozen pizzas to pop to cereal to dessert cakes, baseball cards were everywhere. Unfortunately, that time has passed for the most part.  

Also unfortunately, I was never really all that much into baseball cards at the time that you could find them virtually anywhere. I do remember getting some cards from Tombstone pizzas and other places, but for the most part, I missed out on it. 

However, for a couple of years in the early 2000's, food issues were back. These five cards in the above scan are the only Red Sox I remember getting as food issues. All of these were easier to pick up due to working at Target at the time. 

2001 TOPPS POST PEDRO MARTINEZ 

Two cards came in a box of Post cereal brands. Luckily, one of them could be seen in a cutout on the front of the box. So, I knew exactly which box of Honey Grahams to get to get my Pedro Martinez card. The other card was the player who stole the AL MVP from Pedro in 1999: Texas's Ivan Rodriguez. 

2001 TOPPS CRACKER JACK PEDRO MARTINEZ 

When I noticed that baseball cards could be found in Cracker Jack packages, I decided to try them out. Well, it's a good thing that I found out that I liked the caramel popcorn and peanuts because it was several packages before I finally found this Pedro Martinez card. I don't remember who else I went through, nor do I know where the hell the rest of my cards went. 

2002 UPPER DECK TWIZZLERS NOMAR GARCIAPARRA (2) 

You could see these cards somewhat through the packages of Twizzlers. So I went through packages to find the two that had these two different versions of Nomar Garciaparra cards. Each package only had one card. 

2002 TOPPS CRACKER JACK PEDRO MARTINEZ 

I think I found this in only the second or third package I opened. So, I lucked out this time. I don't know of any other food issues out there at this time. I hope one day they make it back, because it's such a good feeling to open up a food item and find a Red Sox card staring at me.