#738 Dave Engle
30 years ago today, The Minnesota Twins opened their new stadium, the Hubert H Humphrey Metrodome, on April 6, 1982. On that day, Dave Engle became the first player to hit a home run in it.
#272 Bump Wills
As the first batter to step to the plate in 1982, Bump Wills started the season off with a blast.
#520 Mike Flanagan
Mike Flanagan was pretty much a mystery entering ’82. You just weren’t sure what you were going to get from him. He was an All-Star in ’78 and won the ’79 AL Cy Young, but, he posted ERA’s over 4.00 in 3 of the past 4 seasons, and 1981 was his worst. His first 7 [...]
#347 All-Star Bruce Sutter
Bruce Sutter was a perennial All-Star by the time the 1981 season revved up and got going. he’d just been to 4 straight midsummer classics and won the 1979 Cy Young award. In fact, he was credited with the win for the ’78 & ’79 All-Star games, and then got the save in 1980. That [...]
#105 Kirk Gibson
And here we have the Kirk Gibson card where he looks like a stoner who’s just been asked “Quick Kirk, what color was Washington’s white horse?” Yeah, marvel at his reaction for a moment. Despite this being a ridiculous looking photo, he was a budding star coming off his breakout season where he batted .328/.369/.479, [...]
#177 John Ellis
John played in parts of 13 major league seasons, with his best years coming as a Cleveland Indian. By 1981, he was finishing up his career in Texas.
#7 Scott Sanderson
Scott Sanderson has one of the most boring poses I’ve ever seen on a baseball card. I am fascinated by how some poses in this set of cards seem to reflect the type of season the player had. I first noticed it with Steve McCatty’s card, and now I’m thinking about it again. Scott was [...]
#737 Reggie Cleveland
I’ve always thought this was a pretty cool shot of “Double Cheeseburger” Reggie Cleveland. A laid back guy in the dugout or the bullpen, sportin’ some big 80′s glasses, and a fine trimmed beard worthy of a country music star. Reggie didn’t have quite the career expected of him. He was 6 feet tall by [...]
#168 1981 Leading Relievers
A pair of Hall of Famers grace the final League Leaders card in this set. One lookin’ like the twin brother of Grizzly Adams, while the other looks like he just walked out of an old silent film. These were the days when relievers weren’t called closers yet, but firemen. They weren’t judged solely on [...]
#167 1981 Earned Run Average Leaders
Nolan Ryan was awesome, while Steve McCatty got credit for an ERA title he really didn’t win.
#166 1981 Strikeout Leaders
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. [...]
#165 1981 Victory Leaders
Every single one of the guys on this card had the exact same amount of wins in ’81, with 14. Another 4 pitchers were at 13, and could’ve easily had 14 too.
#164 1981 Stolen Base Leaders
Wow, now that’s a card. Two of the greatest base stealers of all-time, on the same baseball card. I absolutely loved this card when I was a kid, for that very reason. you can keep your home runs, steals and triples are far more exciting. Neither Tim Raines nor Rickey Henderson had any real trouble [...]
#163 1981 RBI Leaders
A pair of future Hall of Famers dominate this card. Even when this card hit the public in ’82, we all knew these guys would be or at least could be in Cooperstown someday. Of the two, Eddie Murray had the easier time winning his league’s RBI title, even though it was close. Although it [...]
#162 1981 Home Run Leaders
Obviously, this is one of the coolest cards in the set when you’re an eight year old and I dubbed it “the card of five stars”. You’ve got 5 of the best players AND they’re the home run leaders! It all starts with Mike Schmidt, who led the National League in homers for the fifth [...]