no coke pepsi

during the early years of my collecting, i looked on with jealousy as other teams were featured in fast food or other types of sponsored sets.  the dodgers didn't get a burger king team set in 1977 or 1978 or 1979, nor did they get a coca-cola sponsored team set in 1981 or 1982.  instead, their national league west rival reds were one of the teams that were featured in the coke sets those years, and they had also been the main recipient of a pepsi sponsored set in 1978.

while there were 25 reds featured in that 1978 pepsi superstars set, there was only one dodger - steve garvey.  i am guessing that these weren't available in southern california, but it wouldn't have mattered as we would have had coke products (or maybe shasta cola) in our home at the time - not pepsi.  anyway, it took me about 35 years to finally pick up a garvey from the set

in doing so, i actually bought a lot that had a few garveys, which means i can keep one or two in their full, uncut state. in addition to the reds set, you could also get a set of playing cards with reds players featured

here's the back with the mail-in information for that playing card set

i don't know if pete rose, johnny bench, and joe morgan were the only players to be featured on the backs of the cards.  that's how i read it, though.

the lot i purchased also had a few copies of dave kingman's card,

which i have cropped here to show that it's a better looking photo than what topps used for his 1978 card.  i guess for kong, it was 'have a pepsi and a smile.'

anybody need a garvey or a kingman from this set?  i have extras to trade.