Willie Mays

Baseball For Breakfast: The 1954 ALAGA Syrup Willie Mays Postcard

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In the world of baseball collectibles, few items hold the mystique of the elusive 1954 ALAGA Syrup Willie Mays Postcard, a collectible so scarce that most collectors won’t ever lay eyes on one in person. Luckily, for avid fans of Willie Mays seeking a connection to the baseball legend’s collaboration with ALAGA, there exists a moderately more accessible treasure — an advertising poster. In this piece, I’ll chat about the details and scarcity of both items while also discussing a few of ALAGA’s magazine and newspaper ads featuring Mays and another baseball luminary, Hank Aaron. 

The Alabama-Georgia (ALAGA) Syrup Company

According to their website, the Alabama-Georgia (ALAGA) Syrup Company was established by Louis Broughton Whitfield, Sr., along with his wife, Willie Vandiver Whitfield, in 1906. The first can of ALAGA syrup was packed in January 1907, and by 1920, “Alaga Syrup had grown into a national brand thanks to the revolutionary manufacturing methods which brought ALAGA syrup to customers throughout the country in metal cans, a remarkable packaging and distribution feat for its day.”

ALAGA Truck

WSFA News 12 published a piece about the company in celebration of it being over a century old. In it, they mention that the company has had some pretty big names endorse the product over the years, including Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Clark Gable, Bear Bryant, Shug Jordan, and Nat King Cole.

1954 ALAGA Syrup Willie Mays Postcard

The year of issue of the 1954 ALAGA Syrup Willie Mays Postcard is approximate. Mays is pictured in a New York Giants cap (they moved to San Francisco in 1957), and ALAGA syrup ads featuring Mays started showing up in 1955 in Ebony Magazine, among other publications, making a 1954 date seem reasonable. 

The front of the 3-1/4″ x 5-1/2″ postcard features a borderless black-and-white portrait with a facsimile autograph.

1954 ALAGA Syrup Willie Mays Postcard – Front

The back has an advertisement for ALAGA syrup, which states, “Willie Mays says, ‘I was raised on ALAGA Syrup’ on the left side with a postage stamp square on the upper right and space to write a note to the right of the ad.

1954 ALAGA Syrup Willie Mays Postcard – Reverse

PSA has only graded the previously pictured example (it resides in the current number 1 ranked Willie Mays Master Set on the registry), and unfortunately, I can’t make out any postage cancels for dating. While the SGC Pop Report doesn’t include the card, and I haven’t run across any Beckett-graded examples, the Trading Card Database includes the following example:

1954 ALAGA Syrup Willie Mays Postcard – TCDB

Given the postcard’s rarity and Mays’s popularity, I couldn’t even begin to estimate its price.

1960s Willie Mays Alaga Syrup Advertisement Poster

Now, if you’re a Willie Mays fan and enjoy having syrup with waffles (order intended) as much as I do, you might want to try and grab one of the 1960s Willie Mays ALAGA syrup Advertising Posters for your collection. They’re approximately 10″ x 20″ and one-sided; it reads ALAGA Syrup along the top, followed by a picture of Mays in the middle with a quote from him reading: “Say hey! Love that real ribbon cane flavor”, followed by a bottle of soup with waffles along the bottom. Goldin sold the following example in April 2017 for $255. 

ALAGA Syrup Advertising Poster Featuring Willie Mays

The posters aren’t super common, but they aren’t as scarce as the postcard. There was a single copy on eBay in Nov 2023 for $539.99 (it was framed and JSA authenticated), and besides the Goldin copy I already mentioned, there have been a few other sales over the years, too. For example, SCP sold a framed copy in November 2010 for $428. Heritage has sold a handful of them, including a framed copy in October 2020 for $192, a lot of three in 2019 for $264, a single copy for $120 in October 2017, another for $199.50 in December 2016, and another in June 2016 for $203.15.

Willie Mays and Hank Aaron ALAGA Syrup Newspaper and Magazine Ads

I mentioned earlier that ads featuring Mays and ALAGA started appearing around 1955; they had quite a nostalgic appeal. In two of the following examples, Mays says he was “raised on Alaga Syrup.” And one says, “It brings back bright memories every time I taste it.” 

ALAGA Ads Featuring Willie Mays

I believe the ads ran for about ten years, starting in the mid-50s; the rightmost Mays Ad, dated to 1963, uses the same image of Mays but includes french toast instead of waffles.

Hank Aaron was featured in various similarly written ads for ALAGA syrup, and the right most of the following four was published in 1966. Unfortunately, I haven’t found any Hank Aaron postcards featuring the ALAGA brand. Also, the third Aaron ad may actually be a poster.

ALAGA Ads Featuring Hank Aaron

This ad featuring Mr. and Mrs. Aaron is my favorite; those pancakes look delicious!

ALAGA Ad Featuring Mr. and Mrs. Hank Aaron

Conclusion and Further Reading

I actually didn’t know the 1954 ALAGA Syrup Willie Mays Postcard existed until I stumbled upon it while flipping through the first few pages of the Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards. Though ownership remains a distant prospect for almost everyone, the poster is a more attainable quest—a cherished piece rumored to have found favor with Mays. I also love it when there are items that bridge the gap between collecting, baseball history, and Americana!

Early 1950’s P-F Canvas Shoes Advertising Sign Featuring Musial, Doerr, Campy, Lemon, and Rizzuto

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Here’s an awesome advertisement, scanned from a June 2005 auction catalog for B.F. Goodrich P-F Canvas Shoes featuing a slew of MLB legends.

A few years later, in 2013, Lelands sold a framed copy of the awesome stadium-designed cardboard ad, mentioning that it measures 19” x 25”. They also highlighted the inclusion of Sam Jethroe as an early African American promotion—that copy sold for $640.

If you look around, you’ll find several variations dating later into the ’50s that include legends like Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, and Willie Mays. However, if you want them in your collections, they’ll cost you many thousands of dollars. Luckily, they all feature floating heads!

1953 Topps #244 Willie Mays Original Artwork

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In July, I shared the original artwork used for Whitey Ford’s 1953 Topps baseball card; today, the details for Willie Mays.

Again, the original full-color paintings of Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Bob Feller, Jackie Robinson, and Roy Campanella’s 1953 Topps baseball cards were first made available to the hobby in Guernsey’s Topps Auction in 1989.

Here’s the section’s description in the catalog and the details for the 3 1/2″ x 5″ VG conditioned 1953 Willie Mays original color artwork. It sold for $80k (+10% Buyers Premium).

I’m curious if the owner of the original artwork has managed to pick up a copy of the original news photograph that inspired the piece. REA sold this circa 1951 PSA/DNA Type 1 example for $16,800 in the Spring of 2020.

And finally, here’s a fantastic example of the 1953 Topps #244 Willie Mays card.

1971 Milk Duds Giant Assortment of 661 Unassembled Complete Boxes

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Today, in hobby hoarding history, a visually stunning assortment of 661 1971 Milk Duds unassembled complete boxes.

REA offered this lot in July 2000 with a $1,000 reserve. Here’s the complete description:

In 1971 Milk Duds issued this unusual set on the back of five cent boxes of Milk Duds candy. This giant hoard of 661 complete boxes includes only 36 different cards. There are between ten and forty-eight of each of 11 players represented in the group. These are complete unassembled boxes which never made it to the candy store. 98% range from Ex-Mt to Nr/Mt-Mt (averaging Nr/Mt), 2% Vg to Vg-Ex/Ex. This is an incredible find of these candy cards in their most ideal complete box form. Assortment includes the following stars with the number in parenthesis indicating the quantity of that player: Aparicio (1). Brock (28), Clemente (34), Jenkins (44), Killebrew (4), Mays (41), McCovey (9), B. Robinson (19). F. Robinson (24), Rose (2), Williams (1). The Standard Catalog book value for this assortment is in excess of $11,000. Total 661 complete unassembled boxes.

While this hoard doesn’t include a complete set of full boxes, which command $3,000-5,000 these days, it did have 41 Mays and 34 Clemente boxes, which, in high grade, individually command >$1k each.

Signed 1952 Topps Monsters – Mays, Robinson, Mathews, and Mantle

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Mastro offered these four signed 1952 Topps monsters from the Mark Friedland Autographed Card Collection in their August 2006 catalog.

The complete collection was described to have been amassed in just a year and a half, as Mark acquired several prominent private holdings, like the McAllister Collection. Most of the collection’s 10k+ cards were authenticated by PSA/DNA, with the remainder by SGC and James Spence.

The next lot in the auction, 1103, was for 210 different signed 1952 Topps cards!

100 1989 Upper Deck High Number Factory Sets Or A 1952 Topps Willie Mays?

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Check out this advertisement from Kit Young from the September 1991 issue of Baseball Cards magazine.

At the time, a complete case of 1989 Upper Deck High Number Factory Sets was $1,495, and a 1952 Topps Willie Mays card in Vg-Ex condition was $575.

For context, REA sold this PSA 4 graded 1952 Topps #261 Willie Mays card for $8700 in December 2023.

And those 1989 Upper Deck High Number Factory Set cases? Well, Steel City Collectibles sold one on eBay for $659 in January 2024.