My First Cards

In 1982, the Orioles were still in the midst of their glory years. They’d spent the past 20 years winning 5 AL Pennants, 2 World Series, always being in the top class of the American League even when they weren’t winning a pennant, and still had many solid pieces for another championship run and some good young prospects in AAA.

I have to be honest though, I think I hate this card. First off, Cal Ripken Jr should’ve had his own card in ’82. He was the biggest prospect with the biggest potential and he’d already slipped into the Orioles roster the previous year. Everyone knew he’d be good, and he was already in Baltimore, so he deserved a card of his own.

That being said, I guess it makes sense he’s on the future stars card, since he was just starting out and Topps knew he’d be a star soon. I’m sure everyone reading this knows Cal was the ’82 Rookie of the Year and the ’83 MVP, so I won’t delve much more into him.

A bigger reason this card bothers me, is that the other two players never amounted to anything. I realize Topps couldn’t know for certain who’d be a future star and who’d be a future flop, but there were a few others to choose from the Orioles organization who could’ve been an easy choice for this card and would’ve made the card better.

See, I’d have put Mike Boddicker on it instead of Jeff Schneider. It’s very simple in hindsight, because Boddicker was a solid major league starter from ’82-’90, posting a 112 ERA+ and winning over 100 games. Meanwhile, Jeff toiled away in the minors. Yeah, seriously. Jeff made a few appearances for the Orioles in 1981 and then never made it back again. Why? Because he posted a fat 4.88 ERA in 11 appearances. Those stats won’t usually get you a rookie card, but it worked for Jeff Schneider.

Interesting trivia note… the Orioles went 1-10 in games that Jeff appeared in. The only time they won, was an extra inning game in Seattle on August 25, 1981, and even then, Jeff allowed 2 base runners before getting an out to finish with a save. The O’s were outscored 91-24 in those games.

Another thing I’d change about this card, is I’d replace Bob Bonner with John Shelby. Bob ended up playing in just 61 career big league games, while John was a regular on 2 World Series winning teams in his 11 major league seasons. Even before any of that happens though, John put up significantly better stats in ’81 than Bob. Which leaves me going “Huh? Why Topps? Why?”

Back to Ripken for a moment. If Topps had given Cal his own card in this set, who would’ve been a good choice to take Cal’s place on this future stars card? I think Floyd Rayford would’ve been a good choice. Floyd was a young base stealer with a little pop to his bat in AAA in ’81 and had a cup of tea with the O’s that year too, before going on to play almost 400 games in the majors…about 6.5 times as many games as Bob & Jeff combined.

So this card really should’ve had Mike Boddicker, Floyd Rayford, and John Shelby. Then a proper Cal Ripken card would be added to the set, which could replace some card of a random player who wasn’t very good anyway or was unlikely to play in the majors in ’82.

So that’s the skinny on why this is the one card in the set that really bothers me. I don’t think I’ve seen another future stars card with such a terrible mix of players on it. Although, it still gives me joy to own the Jeff Schneider rookie card.

PS. All 3 players on this card, played in the infamous Rochester @ Pawtucket game that went 33 innings.