He was always known for being a great slugger who wasn’t a good hitter, and 1982 was the epitome of that, as he led the NL in homers with 37, but only posted a .285 OBP.

The home run race in ’82 was pretty exciting, and at times, appears as if Dave Kingman willed himself to be the leader that year. It started as a race between Dave, Dale Murphy, and the Pirates Jason Thompson. By May 1st, Dave led the league, but was only 1 HR ahead of Dale and Jason.

Then on May 24th, the Mets traveled to Atlanta to take on the Braves, pitting Kingman and Murph against each other for 3 games. It was the 2nd game, when Murph took the lead league with a 2nd inning blast on a 2-2 pitch over the right field wall. He now had 14 homers and Dave was still stuck on 13.

Four days later in Shea, Kingman finally hit his 14th off Houston pitcher Joe Niekro. They were tied again atop the NL leaderboard, but only until June 1 when Dale Murphy smashed another. Kingman would only hit 3 home runs from May 30 through July 3, while Murph hit 8. It looked as if Dave Kingman was just not going to keep pace.

Then Dave got hot, real hot. The next 2 weeks, he hit 8 home runs while batting .311/.380/.844, including a 2 HR game in Dodger Stadium to reach 25 homers on July 17, which was 1 more than Dale had hit. Dave Kingman not only led the NL but also the AL at this point too. Nobody else in the NL had reached 20 HR’s yet.

Dave being Kingman though, his hot streak couldn’t last. For a month following that (Jul 18-Aug 20), he only hit a pithetic .085/.214/.195, which included just 3 homers. Can you imagine hitting that for a month, and not being benched? I don’t know how the Mets kept him in the lineup. For the season as a whole, his batting average was .197 and OBP was .286. Yikes.

Meanwhile, Dale slumped at the same time. On July 28, they were both tied again at 26 round trippers each. The next night in Atlanta, Murph had a 2 homer game against the Padres, putting him 2 HR’s up on Dave. That’s how it stays until the Mets went to Pittsburgh a little more than a week later.

August 6, Kingman smacks #27 over the leftfield wall during the 6th inning of a nightcap.

August 7, Kingman smacks a 6th inning tie-breaking 2 run homer off Rick Rhoden to give the Mets a win and tie him for the league lead in home runs.

August 10, Dale Murphy regains the NL homer lead, with a 1st inning shot. So Dale had 29, and Dave had 28. It stayed this way leading into the Mets @ Braves series starting on August 20.

It was in the 2nd game of the series though, that someone finally slugged one out of the park, and it was Dave Kingman to tie Murphy yet again. Dave just wasn’t going to go away.

The next night, Murphy smacks his 30th of the season in the 7th inning, to regain the league lead yet again. Like they say though, it’s not over ’til the fat lady sings, and Kingman hadn’t heard nobody singing yet. In the top of the 9th, Dave slugs a pitch over the fence too. Tied again at 30 HR’s, Dave Kingman just wasn’t going away.

By the end of August, Murphy was leading Dave by 1 homer again, with Jason Thompson & Mike Schmidt sneaking into the picture.

By Sepember 3rd, neither Dale nor Dave hit a homer yet in the month, while Jason Thompson and Mike Schmidt each added another, putting them at 29, just 2 behind Kingman and 3 behind Murphy. The race was getting crowded and lookin’ like maybe there’d be a surprise winner to the NL home run title.

That’s when Kingman, went on a tear again. From September 4 – 17, he bashed 6 HR’s while posting a .304/.377/.761 batting line. At that point, Dave Kingman had finally gone up on Dale Murphy by 2 homers. He was no longer chasing to regain the lead, but being chased.

Nobody knew it at the time, but Dave wouldn’t hit another home run in 1982, but that he wouldn’t need to. Murph only hit 1 more homer that season, leaving him at 36, one short of Dave Kingman.

Willie was a decorated Pirate, who’d been the ’79 NL co-MVP, 7 time all-star, helped give the city of Pittsburgh 2 World titles over Baltimore, modestly embarrassed by his power at times, played great year in year out, and rewarded teammates with stars.

I remember the kids I traded cards with, telling me he was going to be in the Hall of Fame. It was just that obvious to everybody at the time. There was simply no doubt.

There’s so much talk about Stargell’s 1979 season, that people seem to forget that he was great before that too.

Earlier in the decade, he received the Roberto Clemente award, named after his former teammate and lost friend.

As far back as 1964, he was making people stand up and notice him, earning him a trip to the All-Star game.

As if that wasn’t enough, the next season he smacked 2 HR’s off Don Drysdale in his first 2 plate appearances on June 24, in Los Angeles and added another HR later in the game after Drysdale was showering. Don had a career 2.19 ERA in Dodger Stadium.

Even when the team wasn’t able to win, he’d come up with some colorful quotes like “Getting a hit off Koufax is like try to eat soup with a fork”.

In “the year of the pitcher”, 1968, Stargell pulled the Pirates out of a 5 game losing streak with a 3 homer day against in Chicago, driving in 7 runs as the Cubs whole team only scored 6. His fourth hit, bounced back onto the field after hitting the top of the outfield railing. You can’t come any closer to a 4 homer day than that.

The following year, on August 5th, he was the first player to hit a ball out of Dodger Stadium. To date, there’s been 4 HR’s hit out, and Willie launched 2 of them.

When the Pirates opened a new stadium (Three Rivers) on July 16, 1970, Willie was the first Pirate to hit a home run there. It wasn’t just a barely over the wall variety either, he deposited the ball in the upper deck! Even though Pittsburgh lost the game, Stargell’s home run had tied the game.

The next season Willie lead the majors with 48 home runs. He also posted a 185 OPS+, a .398 OBP, drove in 125 RBI’s, scored 104 runs, was worth 8.1 WAR, and led the World Champion Pirates with 131 RC (Runs Created).

In ’72, he made the All-Majors team for the 2nd consecutive season.

Then, in ’73, he managed the first 40 double 40 homer season since 1940. Nobody did it again ’til 1995, meaning Willie was the only one to do it in a 55 year period. He led the league in doubles, HR’s, RBI’s, SLG, OPS, and OPS+.

The next season, he led the league in OPS+ for the 2nd consecutive year.

In spring of ’75, he moved to a new position—first base. Largely due to learning a new position, he spent most of the first half of the season in a slump. He still finished the year with more than 20 HR’s, 90 RBI’s, and a slugging percentage over .500.

From ’76-’78, he averaged only 101 games, 20 HR’s, and 66 RBI’s a year. He was in his late 30′s, what do you expect? With his on-the-field talent slowing down, he became more of a motivator than he had already been. He would give out “stargell stars” to teammtes when they played a great game or made a fantastic play. They nearly made it to the playoffs in ’78 and Stargell said that was the best team he’d ever played on and predicted his Pirates would win the World Series the next season.

That’s when 1979 happened. The “we are family” Pirates, led by “Pops” Stargell, are still the last Pirates team to win a playoff series. If you ever get a chance to watch game 7 of the ’79 series on the MLB Network or somewhere, don’t miss it. Willie launched a pair of home runs, to bring Pittsburgh a championship.

After that, he had a lot of knee trouble the next couple years. Once healthy, he was back in action for a farewell tour in 1982.

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.

Probably the most glaring need at the time was the 1B position. After trading Chris Chambliss away in late ’79, they bought some time by signing verteran Bob Watson to fill the hole. This turned out to be a perfect strategy for the Yankees as Watson’s stats dropped dramatically in ’81, at about the same time Steve Balboni was ready for the major leagues.

Steve hit 26 HR’s in ’79 for the Ft Lauderdale Yankees in class A, and then spent 1980 in AA, hitting .301/.399/.553 with 34 HR’s and driving in a whopping 122 runs. That earned him a call up to AAA Columbus for 1981 where his batting average dropped but he still drove in 98 runs and whollopped 33 HR’s in just 125 games.

He made his major league debut on April 22, 1981, against the Tigers and then played against them a few days later before being sent back down to Columbus. At this point, the Yankees still had reason to think Bob Watson would have another good year and felt they could let Balboni develop a little more.

Probably because of his lowering batting average though, they left him in the minors for most of ’81 even while Bob stuggled. In AAA in ’82, Steve’s batting average and on base percentage bounced back up, while his slugging rose up to .632! Even though Steve got into 33 games as a New York Yankee that year, he still wasn’t the Yankees regular first baseman. The Yankees had traded for John Mayberry in May, to be their first baseman for the rest of the year.

By this time though, a young Don Mattingly was in AAA too and also got called up to New York in late ’82 for a few games. Donnie Baseball was playing more outfield than first base back then, but the Yankees must’ve started thinkin’ about Don as the future first baseman instead of Steve.

So in the offseason, the Yankees make one of the all-time horrible moves by throwing an 18 year old Fred McGriff away in a trade to Toronto. Fred just posted a .413 OBP in the Gulf Coast League as a first baseman in ’82. New York got Tom Dodd and Dale Murray in return. Dodd has a 16 plate appearance career in Baltimore in 1986, while the 33 year old Murray tosses an 80 ERA+ in just 121 more innings over the course of the next 3 seasons to finish his career.

So anyway, in ’83, Balboni and Mattingly were battling for the Yankees first base position, with Don Mattingly eventually winning the role and Steve Balboni being traded to the Royals. Steve might’ve gotten the better end of the deal though, as he was joining a Kansas City team that would win the World Series in his 2nd year with them. To this day, Steve Balboni’s 36 HR’s in that Royals Championship season of 1985, remains the Royals single season HR record.

The 2nd player on this card, Andy McGaffigan, made his major league debut on September 22, 1981 against the Indians, tossing 3 scoreless innings in relief of Dave Righetti. Andy would only appear in 2 games for the Yanks. He was traded to the Giants just before the ’82 season began, in exchange for Doyle Alexander.

He was a decent reliever for 11 seasons, posting s 38-33 record, 3.38 ERA, in 833 1/3 IP. That’s a lot of 3′s & 8′s. Anyway, his ERA+ was a fine 111. Andy finished his career with the Brewers but his final apparance in a game was with the Royals.

That brings us to the 3rd future star, Andre Robertson, who became a part time shortstop for 5 seasons in the Bronx. He went 2 for 3 against the Royals in his major league debut Sepember 3, ’81.

Andre was the reason the Yankees felt they could trade away a good 20 year old shortstop named Greg Gagne in April ’82 in part of a trade for Roy Smalley. The plan was to have Smalley, who was a better hitting shortstop than Bucky Dent, play shortstop until Andre developed into a major leaguer. This also freed up Bucky to be traded, which he was. Greg only went on to play solid defense for 15 seasons in the majors and help the Twins win their first 2 Championships.

Anyway, when I was a kid, I remember thinkin’ Andre was going to be a great player. The Yankees announcers talked him up a lot too. Then, Andre was in a bad car accident in August ’83 which broke his neck and separated his left shoulder. He was never the same after that. He finished his playing days in 1989 for Oklahoma City 89ers in the minors.

Meanwhile, the Yanks wouldn’t have a regular shortstop until Derek Jeter came along 13 years later.

The record had been set 66 years earlier in 1916 by Hall of Fame catcher Ray Shalk. The closest any catcher had gotten during that time was John Stearns of the Mets, with 25 swipes in 1978.

John’s achievement is even more amazing to me, after I found out that he fractured his ankle on July 5th of the season and spent 5 weeks on the DL. Yet still managed to break the record with more than a month to go and finish the season with 36.

He almost led the team in stolen bases too, but leadoff man Willie Wilson managed to steal his 37th base in the final week of 1982.

The following year, John did an encore by stealing another 28. Through 2009, those 28 steals are still the most any catcher has stolen since he broke the record himself.

John Wathan’s final appearance in the major leagues, was as a pinch runner in the bottom of the 9th of game 6 of the 1985 World Series. The Royals won the game, and the World Series. Nice way to finish a career.

In one of the coolest coincidences ever, Topps added a Larry Gura trivia note to the back of John’s ’82 card. Larry Gura ended up being the winning pitcher of the game in which John broke the steals record.

Random John Wathan facts and stats—

• Drafted by Royals, and played entire career with the team
• Total of 79 steals as a catcher
• Stolen base percentage was 76% as a catcher
• .363 OBP against the White Sox
• Slugged 40 points higher against lefties than he did against righties
• Slugged best when he was batting 4th in the lineup
• Stole 40 bases when was in the #2 slot
• Managed the Royals ’87-’91, to a 287-270 record (.515)

Originally a Tiger since the 4th pick of the ’72 Amateur draft, Dan was taken from Detroit by Seattle as the 9th pick in the expansion draft four years later. This makes him the 5th Mariner ever.

Sometimes I think about how cool it might’ve been if Meyer had become Seattle’s first star. I mean, look at the Mariners logo at the time… it’s a big ‘M’ with a star behind it, and Dan’s last name starts with ‘M’. I’m sure some smart marketer could’ve used that to promote the Mariners in the early days.

By the end of 1981 though, he’d only built up a .298 OBP and 89 OPS+ for his career. His only seasons hitting better than the average player were ’77 & ’79, but it still wasn’t much better than average.

In December ’81, he was traded to Oakland but didn’t hit much better there than he did in Seattle over the years. 1982 was the last time Dan would play in more than 83 games in a season, as he played multiple positions and pinch hit for Billy Martin’s A’s in 120 games.

Dan got to witness some history though, as he was the first baseman for the Athletics in the game where Rickey Henderson broke the single season steals record in Milwaukee.

Oddly, Dan went hitless in that game. I say “oddly”, because he smacked the Brewers around quite well that season. In 7 games, he hit .400 and slugged .600.

The highlight of his season was probably not against the Harvey’s Wallbangers though. On April 13, he smacked 2 home runs against the Twins. That would be the final time he’d ever have a 2 HR game.

Which brings me to what’s so curious about Dan Meyer. He wasn’t a power hitter (tho he twice posted 20 HR seasons), posting a career .379 slugging percentage, but that completely changed when he’d face the Brewers, Red Sox, or Twins. 1/3 of his 89 career HR’s came against those 3 teams. Every one of his 2 HR games came against them too.

1. In ’74: against the Brewers (County Stadium)
2. In ’77: against the Twins (Metropolitan Stadium)
3. In ’80: against the Red Sox (Fenway Park)
4. In ’82: against the Twins (Metrodome)

It wasn’t a ballpark effect either, as each of those games took place in a different stadium.

He somehow managed to drive in more than 1400 runs while posting an on base percentage below .320. In fact, he’s one of only 10 players to ever accomplish 1000+ RBI’s with an OBP under .320. There’s something to be said for that, since it’s nearly impossibly to bring runners home when you can’t hit or walk well.

He really didn’t have an exciting season in ’82, only coming to the plate 107 times. He did hit better in those appearances than any other season in his career though, posting a whopping .393 OBP.

He really loved facing the Indians that year though, putting together a .458/.440/.792 batting line in 6 games against them. He smacked 2 of his 3 HR’s against them, and a .600 BABIP.

Until recently, I’d completely forgotten that Lee May even played in the 80′s. I think of him more as a late 60′s to mid-70′s player. You know…the guy who hit the ball to Brooks Robinson in the 1970 World Series when Robinson made that spectacular play in foul territory and still threw the runner out. He actually hit very well in that Series, which is sad, ’cause we only remember a time when he got out.

Broderick Perkins also makes a cameo in the Joe Lefebvre card, staring from the on deck circle like he’s trying to figure out what’s going on. He’s just standing there, leaning on his bat. Shouldn’t he be warming up to hit?

He’s actually 1 of just 310* players since 1921, to have both a .352 SLG (or lower) & .313 OBP (or lower) in a minimum of 1300 plate appearances. Most of those 310 players were shortstops and players who were so good defensively that they were worth keeping around (Mario Mendoza, Mark Belanger, etc).

Brod Perkins on the other hand, played a position that doesn’t really require a great glove and is usually reserved for power hitters—first base.

The only time he ever had an OBP over .325 was in 1980, when he somehow managed a .423 OBP over 111 plate appearances. He also smacked out a .520 SLG. But like I said, that was in just 111 PA’s.

When ’82 started, the Padres must’ve been hopin’ his 1981 season was just a big slump and that he’d return to his 1980 swing, ’cause they had him play in 125 games.

To me, the most interesting statistic he put up in 1982 deals with how he hit the starting pitcher the 1st time at bat compared with the 2nd time he sees the pitcher.

How do you do that? I mean… the 2nd time you see a pitcher, you have a better idea what he’s dealing that day. the 1st time you see him, you’d have less idea what’s coming and have a harder time against him. Yet, in 1982, Broderick Perkins managed to have less of an idea how to hit a pitcher after he knew what was coming.

I mean, that’s not just a small dropoff in hitting ability, that’s a mammoth difference.

Of course, this got me curious to see if his whole career was like this. It turns out, that he hit like this in every season except 1980 and ’84. Remember, ’80 was the 1 year he showed All-Star potential. In ’84, he just didn’t seem to be able to hit a pitcher the 1st time he saw them either…not just the 2nd.

So I suspect he was just going up there guessing or expecting a first pitch strike & swinging at it. That’s not how to stay in the major leagues, and that’s why his career was so short and why he hit so poorly. It makes me wonder… if Broderick Perkins would’ve learned to outsmart a pitcher, he might’ve become one of the great hitters of all time. Perhaps if the Padres had a hitting coach who noticed this, Brod might’ve developed into a perennial All-Star, if not a Hall of Famer. Maybe.

* – 1,810 players from 1921-2009 accumulated 1,300+ PA’s. This means that 310 is 16.78% of those players. I started the count in ’21, to exclude the deadball era hitters.

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”.

Anyway, the 10 seasons leading up to 1982 were less boring for John Mayberry than this picture suggests. He averaged 23 HR’s, 82 RBI’s, 81 Walks, and a .266 BA that doesn’t look so bad when you notice the .366 OBP.

So the Yankees, needing to upgrade at first base, traded away first baseman Dave Revering & a few others to Toronto for Mayberry. Once they got him though, Mayberry suddenly turned into Dave Revering. Seriously. His average fell down by the Mendoza line for the rest of the season and his OBP was a piddly .313.

Here’s where there’s a little twist to things that provides amusement to me and probably only me. This turned out to be John’s final season… just like it was Dave Revering’s. So both guys involved in this trade, didn’t help their new clubs much and they both ended their major league careers after the season.

John finished his career with a very respectable .360 OBP and 123 OPS+, accented by 255 home runs.

How’d he get to this point?

Revering started his career as a Cincinnati Reds prospect in the mid-70′s. In ’76 & ’77, he began putting up some impressive numbers in AAA. Numbers like 29 HR’s, 110 RBI’s, and a .399 OBP. That grabbed the attention of the Oakland A’s, who tried to trade Vida Blue to the Reds for Dave Revering but the trade was vetoed by the commisioner. Eventually the A’s and Reds worked out a different trade that brought Dave to Oakland just around the start of spring training in ’78.

But he was junk that first year, but impoved a little in ’78 and a little more in ’79 and a little more in ’80. He was actually pretty good that season, hitting .290 and getting on base at a .344 clip, and his slugging percentage rose to .492.

Then teams began running out of patience for his potential to flourish. 31 games into 1981, he was hitting .230 and slugging a pithetic .333, so somehow Oakland tricked the Yankees into trading for him. Personally I can’t help but wonder if he was injured. He was steadily improving each year before this, and suddenly at age 28 he falls off a cliff.

Anyway, he split time with Bob Watson at first base for the Yankees the rest of the year, but he never came close to success, having only a single 3 hit game.

By the time the playoffs came, the Yanks knew he wasn’t helping the team so they limited his playing time. He only got 2 plate appearances in the ALCS and then didn’t bat in the World Series at all.

That brings us to 1982 when he started the year hittin’ .150 and gettin’ shipped off to Toronto on May 5 in a trade bringing John Mayberry to the Bronx. Truthfully, I imagine Dave was happy to get away from all that Steinbrenner stuff. I can’t imagine George wasn’t breathing down the team’s neck about how poorly the first baseman was hitting.

So, new life in Toronto, right? Uhhh…no. In 55 games he couldn’t slug better than .370 and his batting average was just .215.

So the Blue Jays outright released him on August 2. Now, you’d think it would all end there, but no. The Mariners picked him up 4 days later. Which meant that he quietly accomplished a rare feat, playing for 4 teams in less than 16 months. Even Seattle didn’t find him worth keepin’ around, and they released him after the season.

One thing he can be proud of though. He played in the major leagues, which is something most of us can’t claim.

The story of Larry Biittner is short but has some interesting quirks. It really starts after he was traded by the Rangers to the Expos just before the ’74 season. In Montreal he played with Steve Renko, and a couple years later on May 17, 1976, they were both traded to the Cubs. The Cubs must’ve thought they were gettin’ a deal ’cause in ’75, Biittner had a very good year, hitting over .300 and posting a .376 OBP. It’s also worth noting that Renko had a pair of 15 win seasons in Montreal.

In Chicago, Larry wasn’t anything special, but on July 4, 1977 he found himself in the rare spot of being one of the few position players in history to take the mound for a few outs against his old team. The Cubs were down 13-3 in the 8th inning and manager Herman Franks gave up on the game. Not wanting to waste a pitcher, he pulled Larry Biittner off the bench and stuck him on the mound in Wrigley to finish the game against a young Expos lineup.

The first batter Larry faced, was Larry. Larry Parrish. Parrish procedes to slam a 3 run HR, making it 14-3. I won’t go through all the gory details, but the final score of 19-4. It’s notable though, that he pitched to Gary Carter (single) and Andre Dawson (3 run HR). Let’s face it though, that was a tough Expos lineup for any pitcher….and Larry wasn’t a pitcher. He was a first baseman and outfielder.

A couple years later, Larry got to pinch hit in one of the highest scoring games ever. Yeah, I’m talkin’ about the infamous May 17, 1979 game between the Phillies and Cubs where the final score was 23-22 and took 10 innings. There’s that May 17 date again.

He lasted one more year in Chicago before signing as a free agent for the Reds.