My First Cards

It's funny how you view cards so differently now, than when they came out. In early '82, getting this card in your pack, was gold. You had the NL ROY and a guy who'd just thrown a perfect game. They were both young enough, to think they were going to be great throughout the 1980's.

Of course, that isn't how history played out. So now I see this card as a pair of young pitchers who had their moment. They were both at their peak's in '81, and neither had any trouble laying down the law from the mound.

Fernando, as I think everyone reading this knows, was the biggest thing since burritos that season (and I'm not talking about his weight). He tossed shutouts like Cesar does salads. He mowed batters down like he was part of the Dodger Stadium grounds crew. He deserved every ounce of that Cy Young award, and every vote of the NL Rookie of the Year award. He was still only 20 years old.

The only competition he had for the NL strikeout title, was in Philadelphia's Steve Carlton. They were only separated by 1 strikeout in the end. In fact, in many areas, they were pretty much the same pitcher (including the fact both were lefties), which is a testament to how great this 20 year old Mexican kid was—

The only significant differences between them was the fact Fernando led the world with 8 shutouts, while Steve managed just 1.

Carlton had a shot to surpass Fernando for the strikeout lead in his final start of the season on October 2, one day after Fernando threw his last game of '81. All Steve needed to do was strikeout 11 Cubs. This wouldn't be a problem for lefty, especially since he'd struck out 15 Mets, 12 Expos, and 11 Cubbies, in his previous three starts.

Steve managed to strike out 9 Cubs through the 7th inning. Unfortunately for him, he'd given up 4 runs and his team was losing 7-3, so he was replaced by a pinch hitter in the bottom half of the inning. Thus, Fernando won the strikeout title by a single K.

Over in the American League, it wasn't quite so down-to-the-wire. Len Barker snagged the title for the 2nd straight year, this time by 19 K's over the ChiSox Britt Burns.

Len sowed the title up early, racking up 46 strikeouts in his first six starts. Len's teammate and future Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven was actually his closest competition at the time, 39 strikeouts through May 21st.

At that point though, the 22 year old Britt Burns over in Chicago began to heat up. From May 22nd through the end of '81, Britt whiffed 80 batters.

That wasn't enough though, as Len kept pace with Britt, whiffing 81 batters through the same period. Bert stayed in the race, but came in just behind them both.

The rest is history.