The Hall of Very Good’s inaugural celebrity inductee was “hatched” in front of more than 47,000 fans in 1979. A couple years later, he made his way on to baseball cards.
The San Diego Chicken appears on a card in four separate Donruss sets with an actual offer on the back of the card where you could send the card to The Chicken himself to autograph it.
In 1982, The Chicken appeared lounging in the outfield on the front of his card, while the back features ten chicken jokes squeezed into just four paragraphs and a stat line that lists him at 5’6”, 130 pounds and a switch-hitter.
In 1984, The Chicken was shown fielding a grounder on some little league dirt infield. The back is still whimsical but a lot less punny than two years prior. His stats are mostly the same, but he did gain five pounds (all muscle, no doubt) since his 1982 card.
In 1992 he appeared in Donruss’s short-lived Triple Play set, aimed at younger collectors. The front features a great action shot of The Chicken turning a double play at Anaheim Stadium. Unfortunately the back of the card plays it straight, without a single chicken joke.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bo Rosny is The Hall of Very Good’s resident baseball expert. You can read more from him at his website Baseball Cards Come to Life.
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The Hall of Very Good™ Class of 2014 is presented by Out of the Park Developments, the creators of the wildly popular baseball simulation game Out of the Park Baseball. Out of the Park Developments has made a generous donation to The Hall.
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