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 was only close because he had a bad first half.

Through the All-Star break, Eddie was hittin’ just .259/.303/.442 with a mere 26 RBI’s. Fortunately for him the leader in the AL, Buddy Bell, wasn’t that far ahead of him with 42.

Contrast that with his 2nd half hitting — .331/.417/.635 and 52 RBI. He passed Buddy Bell on September 11, with only Ben Oglivie & Tony Armas ahead of him.

His 5 RBI night on September 19th helped him pass Oglivie, and left him just 2 behind Armas.

Eddie’s next big day was September 28th, when he drove in 4 runs against the visiting Tigers. His last RBI of the game put him past Armas.

That was that in the A.L.

Mike Schmidt didn’t have quite as easy a time winning the NL RBI title. When games resumed after the All-Star game, George Foster was leading the league in RBI’s, and Mike was a full 8 behind him and 3 behind Dave Concepcion.

He passed Davey within a week though, and from there (August 15), it was Mike vs George. Although, problem was, Foster had now extended his lead over Schmidt to 10 RBI’s.

Mike managed to chip only 1 RBI off that lead through the next week, before Mike suddenly got hotter than the astroturf at the Vet on a hot July afternoon. In the three games of August 22, 23, & 24th, Schmidty drove in 10 runs. That put them in a tie for the RBI lead.

Meanwhile, over in Cincinnati, Foster started a slump that would last him into the beginning of September where he’d hit an awful .122/.178/.324 with just 4 RBI’s over 11 games.

The fat lady wasn’t singin’ yet though, as Mikey didn’t stay hot either, and Georgey caught up with him again on September 2nd at 65 RBI.

This was perfect timing too, ’cause the Reds came to Philly for a four game series starting the next day. The teams split the series, but Foster came out with 6 RBI and Schmidt only 2.

George hung onto that slim RBI lead and widened the gap a little here and there over the next 2 weeks, giving him a 7 RBI lead on September 22. Foster 80, Schmidt 73.

But see, you could never count Mike Schmidt out. With the season winding down, they both got a bit hot starting on Sep 23th. For the next 5 days, both guys would hit over .400, get on base even better, and continue to prove their reputations as premiere sluggers. Schmidt managed to trim 3 RBI’s off Foster’s lead even though Foster drove in 5 runs in his 4 games.

When October started, there were less than a hand full of games & George Foster still had a 2 RBI lead. After Oct 2, Schmidt had his 2nd straight 3 RBI game, putting him 1 RBI ahead of Foster.

The next day, Schmidt drove in 3 more, but so did Foster. So, going into the final day of the season, Schmidt had 91 and Foster 90. Schmidt got the day off (in preparation for the playoffs), so it was all in Foster’s hands… but he couldn’t deliver.

Aaahhh ’81 was an awesome season for RBI races.

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”.

When all was said and done in 1981, a pair of third baseman won the batting titles. For Bill, it was his third title, while Carney won his first and only one. They reached their crowns in two different ways though.

Rewinding back to September 7th in the American League, Carney Lansford was trailing Richie Zisk by 26 points. With a young Rickey Henderson and veteran Jerry Remy in the mix too, it didn’t really look like Lansford had much of a chance.

Zisk was on a tear at the time, batting .404 since baseball resumed after the strike. At that point, the American League batting title was basically his to lose.

And lose it, he did. The very next day, he’d pop out to 1st base before grounding out to shortstop his next three at-bats facing Chicago’s Steve Trout. He hit just .174 to finish the season, blowing the batting race.

In the meantime, Carney Lansford upped his game, hitting .365 from September 8 onward, helpin’ him leap over Rickey and Richie, to win the ’81 AL Batting Title.

§

Over in the National League, Bill Madlock wasn’t quite as much of a surprise. As I mentioned, Bill had won a pair of titles earlier in his career, though that was half a decade earlier when he played for the Cubs.

When you look at his month-by-month averages in 1981, it’s amazing how consistent he’d been.

Lookin’ at that, it’s easy to see that Madlock fell into a slump as the stresses of the baseball strike were looming. Look closer though, and we see that his BAbip was about 100 points lower than his usual, while his OBP rose up about 100 points.

That’s impressive. Usually the OBP drops when the BAbip drops, but here it does the opposite. So I don’t consider that a slump, ’cause he was clearly still seeing the ball well, but the defenses he faced were on fire.

So unlike Carney, it was Bill’s consistency throughout the ’81 season, that was the key to the NL batting crown.

The first month of the season, he showed everyone why he was 1980′s NL MVP, by producing a 13 game hitting streak in which he batted .327/.431/.755 with 5 HR’s and 14 RBI’s.

May didn’t cool him off any. On the 5th, he helped the Phillies win by smacking a 9th inning double that drove in a run to tie the game. A few days later against San Diego, he goes 4-for-5 with 2 homers and drives in 5 RBI.

He eventually ran into a short slump before picking himself back up again, and finished the first half hitting .284/.381/.582, 14 HR’s, 41 RBI, drawing 30 BB’s, and scoring 40 Runs, in just 52 games.

Mike was clearly one of the more deserving players to go to Cleveland and reboot the season on August 9th.

His first turns at the plate in the All-Star game didn’t amount to much though. There was a strikeout, and a groundout. Even after his 6th inning double, he ended up getting out on a fielder’s choice.

By the time he came to the plate again, it was the 8th inning and the National League was losing by a run. The Pirates Mike Easler had just gotten to first base on a walk.

The problem Schmidt had to overcome was future Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers standing on the mound. Rollie was in the middle of a season where his ERA would end up at a slim 1.04 and he was striking out 7 batters every 9 innings he pitched. So this was not just any ol’ season for the great reliever, it was arguably his best year.

Mike would win that Hall of Famer vs Hall of Famer battle, by launching a 2 run HR deep over the centerfield wall for the eventual game winning run.

Gary Carter would end up with the game’s MVP honors due to his pair of homers, but Mike Schmidt actually affected the game more, earning .479 WPA (Win Probability Added) compared to Carter’s .239 WPA.

The rest of the season, Mike was on a tear, batting .356/.495/.719, slamming 17 more HR’s and driving in 50 RBI in 50 games. Hitting like that also earned him respect by pitchers across the league, and when you combine that with his good batters eye, he drew 43 walks in those 50 games.

When the season was all said and done, Mike led the NL in twelve areas:

• Runs (78)
• HR (31)
• RBI (91)
• BB (73)
• OBP (.435)
• SLG (.644)
• OPS (1.080)
• OPS+ (199)
• TB (228)
• IBB (18)
• WAR (7.6 [B-R] or 8.0 [Fangraphs])
• WPA (5.9)

If the 1981 season wasn’t cut 50 games short by the player’s strike, people might look at Mike Schmidt’s 1981 as one of the historic seasons of all time.

So, here’s Graig Nettles – in action (’cause Topps really didn’t understand that action shots should be on every card anyway)

I remember being disappointed with this card after I found out from the other neighborhood kids that Graig was a really good fielder. I couldn’t help but wonder why the picture wasn’t showing him make a great play at third base.

I heard all about his great grabs in the ’78 World Series against the Dodgers. I heard all about a myriad of other fantastic plays he’d made too.

Year later, I found out he won only two gold gloves, which seemed like a lot less than he deserved when I think back to what I’d heard when I was eight.

Don’t get me wrong though, Graig wasn’t all glove, he led the American League in HR’s in ’76. That was six years before this card though, and to an eight year old, that was nearly a lifetime ago.

Topps probably showed him batting, ’cause he was the ALCS MVP in ’81, batting .500/.571/.917 against the Oakland A’s. Of course, without them noting anything recent on the back of this card, a new fan like myself had absolutely no clue about any of that.

He was also a very smart player, which is probably why he lasted 22 seasons in the major leagues. I mean you can have skills get you far but you need to be smart too, in order to be an All-Star at age 40.

Speaking of that, most people don’t realize that Nettles was a pivotal figure in the infamous pine tar incident with George Brett. Yep. Graig remembered a 1975 game where the Twins had used the rule to get Yankees catcher Thurman Munson called out.

Interestingly, Graig started his career in the Twins organization. They drafted him in ’65, and then he spent a year in each level of the minors before winding up pin 96 games for the Minnesota team that won the first AL West.

Right after that season he was traded to Cleveland, where he spent a couple seasons before finding his way to the Bronx to hold down third base as the Yankees came back from the dead.

He also had a reputation for being tough. Not only was he a part of the Yankees-Red Sox brawls in the 70′s, but he didn’t back down in the infamous ’84 Braves-Padres fight.

By the time his career was all said & done, he’d accumulated 2 gold gloves, was a 6 time All-Star, helped his team to the World Series 4 times, and held the record for most HR’s by a 3rd baseman in the AL with 390.

To this day, he holds that record. So in hindsight, the card I thought was stupid, turned out to be a good representation of Graig Nettles.

Whoever designed this card, had to be a perfectionist. Everybody’s facing the same direction like they’re some kind of singing group in the middle of a synchronized dance step, and their skin color gets darker from left to right. It’s like this card had to have some sort of orderliness. I used to think of it like one of those evolution charts. It’s like it shows us the stages of Jay Howell turning into a black guy with a mustache.

Anyway, the Cubs needed future stars when ’82 rolled around. They’d just spent the past two seasons being the worst team in the National League. Overall, only the Mariners were worse than the Cubbies in ’80, and only the Blue Jays in ’81. Both of them being expansion clubs, made the situation feel even worse. So Cubs fans needed new heroes.

Ty Waller

When you hit .268/.303/.451 in the majors, but hit .263/.307/.423 during the same season in AAA, it probably means you got “lucky” in the show during your 77 PA’s. Turns out, that’s exactly what it meant for Ty Waller. The Cubs didn’t realize that though, until about a month into the next season (1982) when they sent him back to AAA ’cause he just wasn’t hitting. He only got 9 more PA’s for the rest of his career. He wouldn’t make the majors again after ’82, ’til a brief stint with the Astros in ’87.

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]]> http://cards.devonyoung.com/cubs/chicago-cubs-future-stars/feed/ 0 http://cards.devonyoung.com/tigers/stan-papi/ http://cards.devonyoung.com/tigers/stan-papi/#comments Fri, 15 Jul 2011 04:03:25 +0000 Devon Young http://cards.devonyoung.com/?p=2076 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, 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.

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]]> http://cards.devonyoung.com/tigers/stan-papi/feed/ 0 http://cards.devonyoung.com/yankees/aurelio-rodriguez/ http://cards.devonyoung.com/yankees/aurelio-rodriguez/#comments Wed, 04 May 2011 12:36:47 +0000 Devon Young http://cards.devonyoung.com/?p=1994 The original A-Rod to man the hot corner in the Bronx, Aurelio Rodriguez is a lot more interesting than he might seem at first.

Not only did he play third base for the Yankees like Alex Rodriguez, but he came up to the major leagues as an infielder for a west coast AL team, batted over .400 in a post-season series, and his rookie card is sought after by collectors. All of that, can describe the A-Rod of old or the A-Rod of new.

The differences come in the details to the details.

Aurelio’s rookie card is valuable simply ’cause he doesn’t actually appear on it. The Angels batboy posed for the picture and ended up in the 1969 Topps set instead.

This A-Rod floated around the majors, spending time in Washington, Detroit, and San Diego, before landing in New York in August of 1980. A combination of the Padres wanting to rebuild their team and the Yanks needing a replacement for regular third baseman Graig Nettles, who was going to be out for a month with hepatitis.

The Yankees would’ve been better off calling up a corner infielder from Columbus, ’cause Aurelio was worth -1.3 WAR (B-Ref) for the rest of the ’80 season. Not much of a help. Didn’t really matter though, as the Yankees won 103 games and went to the playoffs against the Royals years before they turned into the Keystone Cop Royals.

Surprisingly, the next season, Aurelio turned out to be an excellent part time player, batting .346/.370/.500 in 55 PA. As if that wasn’t enough, he capped off the season batting .417 in 13 PA’s (4 games) against the Dodgers in his only World Series plate appearance. This is all the more amazing when you consider the Dodger pitching shut down most of the Yankees hitters.

In December, the Bronx Bombers realized they’d bought low and it was time to sell high, trading A-Rod to the Blue Jays in December. Toronto only kept him ’til the season was about to start though, sending him to the ChiSox for Wayne Nordhagen.

That 1982 season on the Southside of Chicago was a pretty forgettable one. According to Baseball-Reference, he had a 0.0 WAR for the season, while Fangraphs version of the stat gives him only a tad better at 0.7 WAR. He had his moments though.

Ironically, one of those moments came on August 4 against the Yankees, exactly two years after he was traded to the Bronx. He went 2-for-3 against his old team, including 2 RBI’s and a solo homer.

Three days later, in Boston, A-Rod would smack another solo shot, going 2-for-4, driving in a pair of runs, helping the White Sox beat the Red Sox 7-3.

After 1982, Aurelio signed on with the Baltimore Orioles until August when he was cut, and then signed with the White Sox again. The birds went on to beat the White Sox in the playoffs and then win the World Series. Since Aurelio had played 45 games with Baltimore, he earned a championship ring even though he didn’t play in that series. Interesting way to end a career really. Overachieve in a World Series that your team loses, and then win a World Series you don’t even play in.

Random Facts & Stats—

• Was the 14th major leaguer to have been born in Mexico.
• Fielding percentage of .964
• Won the 1976 AL gold glove
• Best season was 1970. 5.2 bWAR/6.1 fWAR (That’s B-R & Fangraphs)
• Had a .342 OBP with runners on 2nd & 3rd
• Slugged .609 in the Kingdome

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]]> http://cards.devonyoung.com/yankees/aurelio-rodriguez/feed/ 2 http://cards.devonyoung.com/angels/butch-hobson/ http://cards.devonyoung.com/angels/butch-hobson/#comments Sat, 01 Jan 2011 02:31:45 +0000 Devon Young http://cards.devonyoung.com/?p=703 Just before the 1982 season got underway, Hobson was traded to the Bronx. For the second year in a row, Butch appeared on a baseball card that wasn’t the team he actually played for.

That’s not typically a sign of your career going the way you planned it, and it certainly wasn’t going as planned for Butch.

See, about nine years earlier, Butch had been following his father’s footsteps as an Alabama University quarterback. He was better at baseball though, and in 1973 he set the SEC’s season home run record. Teams noticed, and the Red Sox drafted him just a couple months later.

He earned a cup of coffee in the majors for the ’75 Red Sox, and then got the fans very excited in 1977 when he smacked 33 doubles, 30 homers, and drove in 112 runs. He was just 25, so his future looked incredibly bright. He even earned some MVP vote points for his performance.

What people didn’t notice much at the time, was that his OBP was a flat .300 — a very bad sign for any hitter hoping to enjoy a lengthy career in the majors.

A couple years later in 1979, Butch would impress people again, with 28 HR’s & 93 RBI’s. Though those numbers weren’t better than his 1977 totals, further stats tell us this was the best year of his career. He had a career high 106 OPS+, and a career high WAR of 1.5.

The following season was much worse, and the Red Sox dealt him to the Angels in December of ’80. He rewarded California with his highest seasonal OBP of his career, a mere .312. Yes, .312. Continuing elbow problems made things even worse. All this led to the Angels sending him to New York for Bill Castro towards the end of spring training in ’82.

About a month later, Butch made his debut in pinstripes with a pinch hit double down the right field line in the eighth inning of a loss to the Tigers.

Sadly for Butch Hobson fans, he’d only get 9 more hits to finish his career.

That final base hit came in the bottom of the 1st off Floyd Bannister, on July 21st at the Stadium.

Less than two weeks later, he’d finish his major league career by striking out twice in a game against the White Sox on August 3, 1982, just a couple weeks short of turning 31 years old.

He spent the next 3 seasons in AAA Columbus, trying to get back to the majors, before moving on to other things, including being a minor league manager.

In the end though, yeah, Butch Hobson had a career in baseball and most likely—you didn’t. Good goin’ Butch.

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]]> http://cards.devonyoung.com/angels/butch-hobson/feed/ 0 http://cards.devonyoung.com/phillies/mike-schmidt-in-action/ http://cards.devonyoung.com/phillies/mike-schmidt-in-action/#comments Mon, 20 Sep 2010 01:32:28 +0000 Devon Young http://cards.devonyoung.com/?p=366 Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt, of the Philadelphia Phillies, in action!

Of course, he’s barely in action, but far more in action than anything else you’ll see in the ’82 Topps set.

What I really love about this card, is the way it reminds people that Mike wasn’t just a great slugger. Sure he slammed over 500 home runs, but he also won ten gold gloves (nine consecutively).

By the time this card was made, Mike Schmidt was a legend still in his prime. He’d already been an all-star six times, won two silver slugger awards, two NL MVP’s, six gold gloves, hit 4 HR’s in a single game, led the National League 5 times in homers, drew tons of walks, and he’d led his team to their first ever World Championship in 1980.

Since I loved playing infield positions, naturally he became one of my favorite players from the get go. Whenever I played third base in whiffle ball or kickball or softball or regular baseball or whatever else, I was either Mike Schmidt or George Brett. Depended on whether I was feeling AL or NL that day.

Nowadays when I see this card, it reminds me of the one time I was at Veterans Stadium. I was 14 (summer ’88), and we were there for a weekend religious convention. I never realized just how hot the astroturf magnifies the heat.

We only made it to the first day, ’cause my Mom, who’s epileptic, had a seizure from the heat. We were sitting a couple rows back from the field, near the visiting dugout, close to the third base area. During the lunch break, the heat triggered my Mom’s epilepsy and the medical staff had to take her on a stretcher through the dugout and up the hallway ’cause it was the fastest way to get her out of the heat and to the first aide room. They told Dad and I to follow along, and as much as I was worried about Mom, I suddenly had a shot of thrill about the idea of walking into the visitors dugout.

I remember walking into the dugout and thinking about all the great ballplayers who’d been right where I was at that moment. Everyone from Willie Stargell to Ozzie Smith had been there. Then I looked out to where third base would be if we weren’t in the middle of a non-baseball event, and stared at the field for a moment…

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