Did you ever attend Bat Day?

Whether it was the Phillies, Mets, or Yankees, it was a popular fan giveaway item that began in the 1960s. Even though it arguably was the most coveted item, most teams have discontinued the promotion due to the violent reaction from the fans.

In the mid-70s, the Phillies gave away the item sporadically.

In this week’s version of my Yesterday column – reminiscing about sports and pop culture back in the 1960s, 70s, 80s, 90s and sometimes beyond – I will look at various fan giveaways over the years as well as other promotional items. We all would pester our parents to take us to a Phillies game for that giveaway item.

In addition, I’ll look at some pop-culture giveaways items and some other items. And do you remember records on the back of cereal boxes, and McDonald’s football cards?

We Wanted Those Giveaways: Looking back at the Phillies older days prior to 1970, they didn’t list their promotions on their schedule. Pocket schedules were a hot item in the 70s.

When the Vet opened in 1971, the promotions featured T-shirt day, bat day, batting glove day (that was a favorite one to have), helmet day, cap day, poster day, and ball night.

In addition, there was the Old Timers Day, along with Ladies Night, College Night, Family Day, and Teen Night. The Phillies held a home run derby in which local celebrities and personalities participated.

Back then, the reverse side of the pocket schedule, there were instructions on how to order tickets from the Phillies (over the phone, of course) as well as ticket outlets from Allentown to Atlantic City. Legendary sporting goods outlet Witwer-Jones In Allentown was a popular outlet.

In the latter years, there have been hat giveaways for Father’s and Mother’s Day as well as a traditional golf hat.

Hard to Find Giveaways: Through the 70s, the Phillies had more elaborate and unique promotional items for the fans.

I remember getting a pair of flip-up, outfielder sunglasses (don’t remember the year). They never quite worked the way I wanted them to work, and I knew the pros had an easier time with them.

Over the years, I remember the Phillies giving away a jacket, and a patch. There also was an equipment bag day, photo album, and a flag day. They all may be hard to find today.

Along with the regular bats, the Phillies introduced a bottle bat, which was a safer item. During 1976, the Phillies unveiled their Bicentennial hats, and that was a giveaway item.

There also was the popular camera night, where fans stood behind roped-off areas on the field to take pictures of their favorite fans. Were you ever there?

In addition, the team introduced their “Businessperson’s Special,” which became a popular afternoon game as the last day before a road trip. There also were the appearances of Karl “The Great” Wallenda, who made his famous walks across the top of the Vet.

If I missed any giveaways, please let me know.

Those Tastykake Pocket Schedules: One of my favorite items to always pick up was the Tastykake pocket schedules that had the home games on a red side and the road games on a blue side.

I tried to collect as many as I could, and they were in my wallet.

There’s a Prize Inside: Back in the 70s and 80s, there were an abundance of cereals that were adapted from pop culture and they had a short shelf life. In a number of them along with the traditional ones, there was a prize inside the box.

Some of the better prizes were plastic Navy frogmen found inside Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, a Harlem Globetrotters T-shirt offer from Count Chocula, a skele-saurus inside Fruity Pebbles, a Star Trek badge inside Sugar Smacks, Stark Trek iron-ons inside Cheerios, a Beatles rub-on inside Rice Honeys, a whistling pop inside Corn Pops. There also were actual 33 ?records you could play from pop-artists (The Jackson 5, Bobby Sherman, and The Archies to name a few) on the back of some boxes (remember them or do you have any?).

As far as pop-culture cereals at the time, there was Pac-Man, Ghostbusters, Sir Grapefellow, Dunkin’ Donuts, Mr. T, C-3POS, Gremlins, G.I. Joe Action Stars, and the Smurfs.

I do remember trying a number of those, and had Corn Pops on a regular basis.

Hard to Believe Harry: In the words of the late, great Richie Ashburn, it is hard to believe that Carly Simon recently turned 80. Simon hit the top of the charts in 1972 with “You’re So Vain.” She also had the soundtrack for the Heinz ketchup commercial in “Anticipation” that was one of the bigger commercials of the decade.

McDonald’s Takes A Snap: Through the 60s, 70s, and the 80s, McDonald’s had their share of giveaways from erasers, rulers, stickers, and figures.

But do you remember when McDonald’s issued a set of football cards in 1986? They made a 24-card set for 27 of the 28 NFL teams, a 25-card set of the Dallas Cowboys and a 30-card “McDonald’s All-Star” set for a total of 703 different cards to collect.

Another Classic Game: In 1977, the Snap n’ Spin baseball game hit the market.

It was fully assembled in the box, and basically was a pinball game. There were various scoring features and as many as four players could be involved. It was among several games in the 60s and 70s that followed the pinball format.

Memory Lane: Every week, I will look back at a former player, coach, manager, or media personality from yesterday.

Do you remember Wally Backman? He will be remembered for his memorable days with the Mets from 1980 through 1986, and was an integral part of their ‘86 championship team.

But the infielder spent two seasons with the Phillies in 1991-92 and hit .249 overall in 136 games. Backman also had single years with Minnesota, Pittsburgh, and finished his 14-year career with Seattle in 1993. Overall, he hit .275. He currently is in his fourth season as the manager of the independent Long Island Ducks. Backman was in the national spotlight when he was cleared of charges for harassing an ex-girlfriend in 2020.