Rico Petrocelli for Kelly's Hamburgers

Here is another scarce regional issue uncovered by Florida collector Larry Serota. While it won't be included in the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards at this time, we're adding it to the vintage cards/memorabilia data base in case the day ever comes when a vintage-only book is published, or the data base is made available on line or on a CD.

This card is one of 10 issued in 1968, primarily in the Boston area but also, according to accounts found on the internet, also in other Northweatern locales that made up the Red Sox fan base. 

The 3" x 7" card, unlike the accompanying pictures here, is actually printed in yellow, red and green, with only the portrait of Rico Petrocelli in black-and-white. The two cards that Serota shared with us each had a different arrangements of the color scheme (yellow background vs. white background), but were otherwise similar.

The baseball quiz question cards were given away with the purchase of a Rico Power Pack meal (burger, fries and drink). Some persons reminiscing on the internet recall that Petrocelli made personal appearances at Kelly's locations to promote the Power Pack. He was a paid spokesman for the hamburger chain and may have had an ownership interest in some of the restaurants.

Kelly's was a competitor of McDonalds. Some say as a chain it even predated Mickey D's. It appears to have been principally an east-of-the-Mississippi thing, and some locations had car-hop service. Here's a sample of their menu, probably about the time the Petrocelli cards were issued:

Hamburger...............................15¢ 

Cheeseburger.........................19¢

Donut........................................ .08¢

Toasted Cheese.....................15¢

Fish Sandwich.........................25¢

French Fries.............................12¢
Apple Puffs................................15¢
Pepsi Cola....................10¢ & 15¢
Root Beer......................10¢ & 15¢
Orange...........................10¢ & 15¢
Vernor's..........................10¢ & 15¢
Thick Shakes............................20¢
Coffee.............................10¢ & 15¢
Milk......................................... .....20¢

Since we're not going to be printing the Kelly's Hamburgers trivia cards in the big book anytime soon, I can defer the questions of the cards' value. If pressed, I'd say $10-20 apiece in NM.