My First Cards

At the beginning of ‘82, nobody viewed the Yankees as a team in need of talent. They either had it, or could buy it when they needed it. Of course, history tells us that ‘82 was the start of the Yankees playoff drought and time for some rebuilding of the franchise during some dark years.

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August 24, 1982, John Wathan stole 3rd base in a game against the Rangers, to break the single season steals record for catchers.

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This card features the expression of a man playing for the Mariners in the early 1980’s, who wishes there’d never been an expansion draft. He was a below average hitter, who turned into a slugger against a certain three teams.

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Lee May’s another player who finished his career in ‘82. He’d played 18 years, and is probably most famous for hitting a ball in the 1970 World Series to Brooks Robinson.

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The expression of a player with a career .313 OBP & .352 SLG, staring at the ball as it’s crossing home plate. That look of fascination and utter confusion and amusement about it. Almost like he’s asking himself, “hey, am I a glazed donut?”. He also looks clueless in a cameo on Joe Lefebvre’s card in this set.

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Who’s idea was it to make all these hitters for the Blue Jays pose the same way for their 1982 cards? The expression on John Mayberry’s face says it all. He’s squinting in disbelief saying ” Uuuhh no. This is bad for my image. Why on earth are we all posing with a bat on our shoulder today? Huh? Eehhh I’m not feelin’ it Mr ToppsCameraman.” If this were a video clip, I bet we’d see he’s shaking his head “no”.

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Dave Revering wasn’t a very good player by this point in his career, but the photo on his card is a nice action shot. Former Big Red Machine prospect, who never lived up to his potential. Sad, but hey, they can’t all turn out like we’d like them to.

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During Larry Biittner’s 14 season career he was involved in a trade with Steve Renko, was one of the few position players to get some time on the mound, & played in one of the highest scoring games in history.

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During the late 1970’s, the era of big collars and shorts in Chicago, Lamar Johnson proved to be one of the best players on the White Sox. In January 1982, with his skills fading, he left Chicago behind and signed as a free agent with the Rangers. He couldn’t revitalize his career, and ‘82 became his final season in professional baseball.

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By 1982, the Minnesota Twins had to look to the future. The previous season was their worst since 1957 and if that wasn’t worrisome enough, they started ‘82 going 15-52. The franchise had been crumbling slowly since 1975 and had to rebuild using the draft.

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