My First Cards

Here we find a young future star, relaxed and smiling during the Astros road trip to Shea Stadium, August 25-27 1981.

This is Dickie Thon— former Angels prospect, now future Astros star — in his first baseball card for Houston. In the background, we can see the back of Mets coach Rube Walker, who'd go with Joe Torre to Atlanta in '82 and save the Braves season with his underwear. Yeah, you read that right.

Anyway, Dickie, had just been traded to the Astros a few days before '81 started, after playing for coach Art Howe (Houston's 3rd baseman) in the Puerto Rican winter league a few months earlier.

He played a limited role on the team that season, but still improved from the year before. In '82 he got more playing time and was moved from 2B to SS, and began providing a sneak peek of the future by doin' things like scorin' the 1st Houston run for Nolan Ryan's 200th victory, a 21-game hitting streak (Jul 28 - Aug 13), slammin' a 3-run double to beat the Braves, leading the NL in triples, stealing at an 82% success rate, and posting a 110 OPS+.

Then in '83, he became a bonafide star—smacking 20 HR's, driving in 79 RBI's, stealing 34 bases, increasing his OBP, and his fielding was comparable to Dave Concepcion. This earned Dickie a trip to the All-Star game and plenty of MVP votes. This may not seem like big numbers nowadays, but in those days, shortstops just didn't do that very often. Right along with Cal Ripken, Robin Yount, and Alan Trammell, was Dickie Thon, as the upcoming crop of shortstops with a bat.

Unfortunately, just 6 games into 1984, Dickie was hit in the eye with a Mike Torrez fastball and it broke some bones near the eye. By the time he was able to play again (a year later), he just couldn't quite see pitches well enough to hit like he used to.

The rising star, was suddenly barely more than a replacement level player for the next few years and just an average starter after that. Eventually people would forget how good Dickie Thon was, and just remember the ball he took to the eye. I can still see him lying there, hoping he'd get up.

Robin Yount and Cal Ripken Jr went on to become members of the Hall of Fame, and Alan Trammell is known as one of the best non-Cooperstown shortstops ever (tho he might still get in via the Veterans committee one day).

And this card...this card still has that prospect smile on a sunny day. This card reminds us to play like there's no game tomorrow.