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 [...]
What always fascinates me about Stan Papi, is that his career major league batting totals, are equivalent to a full single season of play. He had 562 PA’s, due to a combination of his playing skill and the teams he played for. All these teams, except for the Expos, were above .500 clubs. Those Expos, [...]
Joe Strain finished his major league career on June 2, 1981 as a pinch hitter. Scoring a run was the last thing he did in the show. He spent the next two and a half seasons in AAA before retiring and becoming an excellent minor league manager for the rest of the 1980′s.
Davey Lopes, doin’ his best impression of singer/songwriter John Oates, was no longer with the Dodgers in ’82, but he…
The White Sox were a rising power in the American League at this time, culminating in their ALCS appearance in ’83. In ’82 they finished just 6 games back of the Angels, mostly due to a fine mix of veterans like Tom Paciorek, Carlton Fisk, and Greg Luzinski. The organization didn’t really have many realistic future stars for Topps to pick from yet, so they chose….
Willie Randolph was only batting .171 with a .304 OBP at the end of May 3, but then he got hot. Hot enough to grab the starting spot in the All-Star game and help the Yankees win the first half of the season in the AL East.
When I see this, I can’t help but hope the ball doesn’t take a bad hop on his signature and dribble right between his legs.
Dickie Thon was a rising star in 1982, part of a group of young shortstops who could field AND hit. He might’ve gone on to the Hall of Fame if not for a nasty beaning in early ’84 that changed his career forever.
The leadoff hitter for the AL Champion Milwaukee Brewers, Paul Molitor had his first great season in ’82 on his way to a Hall of Fame career while scoring a career best 136 runs.
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.
Manny Trillo’s another one of the best cards in the set, as this also has 3 All-Stars in it (one of them being a Hall of Famer). How cool is that? Manny was one of the best gloves in his day, but he can sympathize with Bill Buckner …or laugh at him.
After nine years with the Pirates, Rennie Stennett left as a free agent to play in San Francisco. He experienced being part of two World Championship teams while in Pittsburgh. He’d been pretty good with the Pirates in 1970 and 1977 but was otherwise not a very good hitter. For his career, he got on [...]
Doesn’t he look like he was standing in his stance, but then he noticed something down towards 2nd base, and so he slooped to peer at it like he’s trying to look through the pitchers legs? Crazy stance. Beyond that, this card had just enough detail to help me figure out what game was being played when the photo was shot.
Aviles was a man who’d lived a dream by playing for the 1980 World Series Champion Phillies, even if it was just as a backup role. When I looked further into this player, I found he had some surprising statistics and a nephew playing in the major leagues 20 years after himself. I love this card, as the photo really captures a part of what the game is all about.
Heading into 1982, he was a solid pinch hitter during his career and was often used as a utility man. Then, suddenly, Lee Lacy became a real tough out and a good clutch hitter. Pittsburgh manager Chuck Tanner noticed this and Lacy played in more games than he had in any other season.