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 time in his career. His 31 HR’s might sound like an unimpressive number, but he did it in only 102 games played as the Phillies played just 106 that year.

Just doin’ a rough estimate, 31 HR’s in about 2/3 the usual amount of games, means Mike was on pace for about 45 homers. Even if he slumped a little, he probably would’ve reached 40 for the second straight year.

At the mid-season break though, he was stuck in a three way tie that included George Foster and Dave Kingman. Another dangerous slugger and fellow future Hall of Famer Andre Dawson, was just 1 homer shy of them.

Mike wedged out a little breathing room after the All-Star game, smacking 9 HR’s in late August. He had a 4 HR lead over Andre & Dave when September began.

As this card tells us, Dawson and Kingman faded in the end while Schmidt left them all in the dust the rest of the season.

The A.L. race for the home run lead was a much more rabid affair. Actually, it was kind of like the A.L. batting race, with a pair of sluggers coming from behind.

Stormin’ Gorman Thomas led the major leagues with 15 HR’s at the break. Only two behind him in the A.L., were Tony Armas, Dwight Evans, and Gary Gray.

Gary Gray? Yeah, that’s right. A uniquely named nobody was finally getting some playing time in Seattle and making a run at being noticed.

Well, Gary Gray returned to being Gary Gray after the break, and didn’t hit another homer all year.

Meanwhile, after the break, three stars named Bobby Grich, Eddie Murray, and Greg Luzinski were heating up. By September 35, Gorman and Tony were leading the A.L. with 21 HR’s a piece.

It was really anybody’s to have, but Gorman just kept staying one step ahead of the pack. At the time, many figured he was going to end up with the most HR’s in the league. After all, he did it just two years earlier with 45.

But just like in the A.L. batting race, which was Richie Zisk’s to lose, this was Gorman Thomas’s to lose — and he did. He didn’t hit another homer for the rest of the season. He wouldn’t hit another home run til game 5 of the playoffs (the division series against the Yankees).

Greg Luzinski would only smack a pair before the season finished, and that just wouldn’t be enough in this race.

Now, I really should mention how hot Bobby Grich was. From September 20 – October 2, he hit .409/.449/.727 with 4 HR’s. He was just on fire. The 4th homer in that hot stretch came on October 2, and made Bobby the first to reach the 22 homer plateau in ’81. Oh yeah, it was an exciting one too, being a 1st inning 3 run blast.

The next night in Kansas City, Tony Armas joined him at 22, with a 2-run homer in the 6th.

With a day left to the season after that, both Tony & Bobby must’ve been thinkin’ they could win the HR title. The last day of the season though, neither of them would sneak ahead.

That last day of the season, at about the same time of the afternoon, Eddie Murray joined them with a 3rd inning blast and Dwight Evans hit his 21st.

You’d think that would be the end of it, but no. Dwight hits another homer in the 8th inning of his game, to make a four way tie atop the leaderboard!

Thus, Dwight gave birth to the awesome “card of 5 stars”.

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, weren’t hurting for offensive but for pitching. So none of these teams really had a solid place for Stan to play.

“Doctor” Stan finished his career with Tigers, as a backup infielder during ’80 and ’81. His final play was striking out as a pinch hitter in the 8th inning with his team down 4-0 and two guys on.

A couple months later, a leak to the press revealed the Tigers thought very little of Stan’s ability. This killed their chances to trade him, and they ended up releasing him outright, a month later.

Well, they put him on waivers for $1, and nobody was interested. Not much of a difference from being released outright.

In March though, the White Sox were talkin’ with Stan, but it never came to anything. He just leaves baseball. He probably still could’ve been a good defensive replacement in a game for many teams, at the least.

By April 1987, Stan was a delivery man for a bakery in his hometown of Fresno, California. Part of his delivery route took him to Rudy May’s store elsewhere in town. Small world.

I sometimes wonder if he’s still doing that job, or climbed up the ladder. I wonder what he thought of all his former teams having so much success throughout the 1980′s. I wonder if everytime Big Papi steps up to the plate in Fenway, if he tells whoever’s with him, “yeah, but he wasn’t the first Papi to play in Boston.”

Sometimes I wonder about Stan Papi… the guy with the big wad of gum in his mouth lookin’ cool when I was a kid.

The Pirates were pillaging the Cubs 8-0 with one out in the top of the 5th, when Joe drew a walk. He went to second when Ivan DeJesus followed Joe’s walk with another walk. Next batter, Steve Dillard, smacked a two-run double into left. When Joe crossed the plate, he finished his major league career.

Not a bad way to go out.

Of course, nobody knew it at the time and most people probably never noticed he was even in the show. He’d spent most of his 169 game career, as a backup infielder and pinch hitter. Only the most diehard fans remember this kind of player.

Yet here we are though, thirty years later, looking at a souvenir of a time when he was at his peak as a baseball player. Only 17,602 kids ever made it as far as the major leagues, and Joe turned out to be one of them. He must’ve been pretty good when you think about it like that.

He continued to play in AAA during ’82 & ’83, before retiring in ’84. At that point, Joe went to the Giants organization to be a minor league manager for several years. He started his playing career for San Francisco too, so there’s a nice symmetry there.

I wonder if he’d have stuck around in the majors longer if he hadn’t been traded or if he’d been traded to somewhere other than Chicago’s northside. Wrigley Field was actually one of the worst parks for him, where he hit just .160/.222/.180. He probably would’ve thrived in San Diego, Montreal, or Philadelphia. He hit well in those parks, with Montreal being the worst of them, where he managed to hit .318/.375/.455.

Like many of the All-Star cards I’ve featured so far, here’s another major star who just didn’t have a good year but got into the All-Star game because the fans voted him in. Really, he wasn’t having one of his better seasons at the time the strike hit.

At the plate, he was just .169/.280/.258 and on pace for more than 100 strikeouts if the season went 162 games. The only thing that would save his ’81 season from being a full on train wreck, was the fact his fielding percentage was a career high .993!

He didn’t even do much in the game itself. His only plate appearance, he drew a two-out walk. The next batter flied out to end the inning. Too bad, so sad. The NL won the game anyway.

The second half of the season, he was finally seeing the ball better, hitting .256/.302/.322. He didn’t see much playing time though, as the Dodgers called up their future second baseman Steve Sax to break him in. Poor Dave must’ve known his days in Dodger blue were numbered.

Better days were in store for Davey Lopes though, as his Dodgers would finally beat the Yankees in October to win it all. A few months later, he’d be traded to the Oakland A’s. This is where Davey, a great base stealer in his day, would get to help another great young thief to get even better and steal more than anyone had ever stolen before.

The White Sox were lookin’ pretty good in first half of ’81, then pretty bad in the second half. Still, they were a rising power in the American League at this time, culminating in their ALCS appearance a couple years later. In ’82 they finished third, just 6 games back of the Angels, due to a fine mix of veterans like Tom Paciorek, Carlton Fisk, and Greg Luzinski, with a couple youngsters like Harold Baines and Rudy Law.

The organization didn’t really have many realistic future stars for Topps to pick from yet, so they chose….

Jay Loviglio

From 1979-1981, Jay was getting on base at nearly a .360 clip, stole 128 bases (82% success rate!!), scored over 250 runs, and walked more than he struck out …in AAA. The White Sox, and Topps, saw him as the future leadoff man for the 1980′s southsiders. Unfortunately he just couldn’t get on base in the majors. Over the course of 56 career plate appearances, he managed a mere .236 OBP and 5 steals (50% success rate).

Reggie Patterson

Reggie had a cup o’ coffee in ’81, and promptly allowed 11 ER’s in just 7 1/3 IP. He spent the entire ’82 season exiled in AAA Edmonton, where he led the team in wins (14) but was giving up 6 runs per 9 IP. Somehow he managed to make it back to the majors after being traded to the Cubs, appearing in games in ’83, ’84, and ’85. Oddly, he posts a decent ERA of 3.00 in ’85 and never pitches in the majors or minors again. He finally does good, and then he’s gone. There’s a head scratcher for ya.

Leo Sutherland

Here’s another ChiSox prospect that was groomed to leadoff. He stole 51 bases in ’81 in AAA Edmonton, but he posted a low OBP around never cracking the .340 mark his entire time in AAA. When the White Sox called him in ’80, he hit .258 but struck out about 10 times more than he walked. When they brought him back up in ’81, it took 16 PA’s for the team to realize he wasn’t the answer to anything.

Leo played his final major league game in the Twins @ White Sox game on October 4, 1981. All three players on this card were in that game.

Angels second baseman Bobby Grich actually hit better than Willie leading up to the strike, but he broke a finger when a pitch struck his hand on June 6 against Baltimore. He probably could’ve played in the All-Star game, but I’m sure being on the DL made a lot of fans not bother voting for him.

There might’ve been some New York bias working it’s way into the vote too, but it’s hard to argue that’s the main reason he wound up starting the midsummer classic when you look at what he was doing.

Willie started off 1981 pretty slow, but was getting hot by the time June rolled around. Then, as the Yankees leadoff batter, he got busy posting a .407 OBP in front of future Hall of Famers Dave Winfield & Reggie Jackson. This enabled him to score 10 runs in those 11 games, helping the Yankees go from 4th place to 1st, ensuring a playoff spot.

That’s exactly what was asked of Randolph, and the fans noticed.

Dave Stapleton was beat out for AL rookie of the year in 1980, by Joe Charboneau, and it was all downhill from there.

He slapped 33 doubles and hit .321 that season, but his batting average and on-base percentage fell a little bit in each season he played. His slugging dropped every year except one (1985).

The front of this card says he played second base, but he actually played more games at third base & shortstop than second during ’81. Even in ’82, he played more first base & shortstop than second. Way more. He spent 106 games as first baseman in ’82 and only 6 games over at second base.

I wonder if Topps put 2B on here ’cause they saw a game with him playing 2B and wrote him down like that? If so, then I suspect this photo is from September 13, 1981 when the Red Sox were at Yankee Stadium. It’s a day game, he played 2B that day, & the background looks like Yankee to me. He didn’t play many road games at stadiums with blue outfield walls and blue bleacher seats.

Anyway, part of the reason his average dropped in ’82, was that his hand was banged up for a couple weeks. Makes me wonder how often he played through injuries.

Another reason, is related to his 4th inning at-bat on August 7, when Dave hit a foul line drive that struck a little boy, Jonathon Keane, in the head. Scary moment there, and Dave later admitted the event affected his hitting. He didn’t realize at first what happened, but fortunately Jim Rice came to the rescue (photo above article’s title), and the boy got medical help within seconds.

The boy turned out to be fine, thanksfully.

Before the incident, from July 17 thru Aug 6, Dave was hitting .347/.396/.510, but for nine days after it, his averages fell off the earth to a mere .172/.226/.172. It clearly affected him at the plate.

His defense stayed in tact even as his bat lost its value. After ’83, he became more of a backup player. by 1986, he was still playing for Boston, but used almost exclusively as a late inning defensive replacement for Bill Buckner…except for one infamous moment.

This is Dickie Thon— former Angels prospect, now future Astros star — in his first baseball card for Houston. In the background, we can see the back of Mets coach Rube Walker, who’d go with Joe Torre to Atlanta in ’82 and save the Braves season with his underwear. Yeah, you read that right.

Anyway, Dickie, had just been traded to the Astros a few days before ’81 started, after playing for coach Art Howe (Houston’s 3rd baseman) in the Puerto Rican winter league a few months earlier.

He played a limited role on the team that season, but still improved from the year before. In ’82 he got more playing time and was moved from 2B to SS, and began providing a sneak peek of the future by doin’ things like scorin’ the 1st Houston run for Nolan Ryan’s 200th victory, a 21-game hitting streak (Jul 28 – Aug 13), slammin’ a 3-run double to beat the Braves, leading the NL in triples, stealing at an 82% success rate, and posting a 110 OPS+.

Then in ’83, he became a bonafide star—smacking 20 HR’s, driving in 79 RBI’s, stealing 34 bases, increasing his OBP, and his fielding was comparable to Dave Concepcion. This earned Dickie a trip to the All-Star game and plenty of MVP votes. This may not seem like big numbers nowadays, but in those days, shortstops just didn’t do that very often. Right along with Cal Ripken, Robin Yount, and Alan Trammell, was Dickie Thon, as the upcoming crop of shortstops with a bat.

Unfortunately, just 6 games into 1984, Dickie was hit in the eye with a Mike Torrez fastball and it broke some bones near the eye. By the time he was able to play again (a year later), he just couldn’t quite see pitches well enough to hit like he used to.

The rising star, was suddenly barely more than a replacement level player for the next few years and just an average starter after that. Eventually people would forget how good Dickie Thon was, and just remember the ball he took to the eye. I can still see him lying there, hoping he’d get up.

Robin Yount and Cal Ripken Jr went on to become members of the Hall of Fame, and Alan Trammell is known as one of the best non-Cooperstown shortstops ever (tho he might still get in via the Veterans committee one day).

And this card…this card still has that prospect smile on a sunny day. This card reminds us to play like there’s no game tomorrow.

Despite that, I consider 1982 to be his breakout season. He led the world in runs scored with 136, which was the highest total by any player since 1970.

You might think he did that only because of the sluggers behind him in the order like Robin Yount, Gorman Thomas, or Cecil Cooper, but Paul did his part by knocking out 201 hits, 300 total bases, and stealing 41 bases (4th most in the American League).

In fact, Paul had a 3 homer game. One in his first at-bat, then smacking another in the 5th, while the last came off uber-closer Dan Quisenberry. That wasn’t easy back then, when the Royals had pitching and the KC on the Royals cap meant “Kansas City” not “Keystone Cops”.

Whether Molitor was scoring on his own or with a little help from his friends, the fact is, the Brewers were a totally different team on days Paul didn’t cross home plate. In games he scored at least 1 run, the Brew Crew were an unbeatable team, going 70-22. If he didn’t score, they were a weak 24-52! The winning percentage difference is .761 when he scored, and just .316 when he didn’t.

If we look at this from a slightly different angle, we find that the Brewers really couldn’t get the job done without him being on his game. Paul hit .327/.401/.509 in the Brewers victories in ’82, but only .268/.315/.370 in their losses. It doesn’t matter how good the middle of your order is hitting, if your leadoff man has a .315 OBP. Foretunately, Molitor was at his best far more often than he wasn’t.

The Brewers, often called Harvey’s Wallbangers at the time, made the playoffs for the 2nd season in a row, and this time they found themselves in the World Series. Paul, was a big part of Milwaukee’s success in the post-season, killing the Angels pitchers to the tune of a 1.065 OPS, and then got on base at a .394 clip against the Cardinals pitchers in the World Series.

Unfortunately for Paul and his team, they lost game 7 of that series….so close, but yet so far. It would be another 11 seasons before he’d find himself playing for a championship again, this time with the Blue Jays. That time, he won it.

A few years later he retired as one of the all-time great batters….scoring more than 1700 runs, collecting over 3300 hits, stealing more than 500 bases, hit over .300, and an OBP of .369.

Random Paul Molitor facts and stats—

• 39 game hitting streak in ’87 (7th longest to date)
• Hit for the Molitor cycle on May 15, 1991
• 1 of only 4 players with 1850+ RC without hitting more than 250 HR’s
• As of 2010, is a coach for the AAA Rochester Red Wings
• Posted a .521 OBP when the count was 3-2.
• Posted a .520 SLG in the Sky Dome

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.