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.

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.

Carney Lansford‘s first year in Boston and he leads the entire American League in batting average. Nice way to earn the respect of your teammates like Jim Rice, Dwight Evans, and Tony Perez, as well as win over any fans who might’ve thought “aahh this guy won’t be as good as Fred Lynn”.

Lansford was like the complete opposite of Lynn. Carney played for the Angels and came to Boston in a trade just before 1981. Fred played for Boston and came to the Angels in a separate trade just before 1981. Lansford became a better hitter after his trade to Boston, while Lynn became a worse hitter after his trade to California. When they switched places, it’s almost like each player picked up where the other left off. Carney comes to Boston and hits like Lynn. Lynn goes to California and hits like Lansford did. Oh, and both their last names start with L. Weird eh?

Most of that is just the result of what’s called “park effects” (hit .363 at home, .314 on the road), but in the early 1980′s, barely anybody had even thought of that concept. Very fascinating stuff, but I’ll get into that more in a few days. Carney Lansford was a pretty good hitter throughout his career, posting a 111 OPS+ and in 1988 he made a run at .400. During his two seasons in Boston (81-82), he hit .317, and then was traded to the Oakland A’s.

When you look at his home/road splits for his time in Boston, it’s clear that Fenway helped him a lot. During those two years, his BABIP (batting average on balls in play) at Fenway was way way higher than his road BABIP. For example, in home games, his BABIP was .379 in ’81 and .355 in ’82. On the road though, his BABIP was .330 in ’81 and .275 in ’82. It’s clear that even though Lansford was a decent hitter, the park effects in Boston were helping him the way they helped Fred Lynn. More about Lynn when I get to his card next week.

Unlike Lansford, the other guy on this card, Mike Torrez, had been in Boston since 1978. He got on this card because he posted his best ERA since joining the team, and nobody else with as many innings posted a better ERA during ’81. There actually were 5 pitchers on the staff with a better ERA. Which makes me wonder if Topps put him on this card partly because he was tied for the team lead in wins, but they don’t mention that at all on the card.

Although, it’s very clear the park effects of Fenway had its effect on Torrez’s stats too. In Fenway during 1981 was just 2-2 with a massive 4.74, but a fine 8-1 record due to his 2.72 ERA in the same number of games on the road. Make of that what you will.

Interestingly both players on this card left the Red Sox after the 1982 season.

This team had a number of great players on it. As of 2009, four of them are in the Hall of Fame, and another one of them, Dwight Evans, really should be. I’ve read some good arguments on the net showing that Evans was as good, if not better for the team, than Jim Rice. Maybe Dwight Evans will be inducted via the Veterans committee.

Evans really was the best player on the team in 1981, posting a massive 162 OPS+, tying for the league lead in HR’s, and driving in 71 RBI in just 108 games. He came in 3rd in the MVP voting for the year behind Rollie Fingers and Rickey Henderson (two future Hall of Famers). He didn’t stop there, as in ’82 he smacked 32 HR’s and 98 RBI, drawing 112 walks to push his OBP up to .402. How cool is that?

I always liked team leaders & checklist cards when I was a kid. I used to use them as the top card in my rubber band bundled set of team players cards. They had the team colors, team logo, and two of the teams best players from the previous season. How could you not love that? Then, right on the back, is a list of all the players.

The biggest reason people don’t know this guy, is that he only averaged 87 games a year during his 6 seasons in Toronto… at a time when the Blue Jays were still developing. I have to assume he was riddled with nagging injuries because he was just too good to be used in a platoon for 6 years, but I haven’t been able to find any information on that yet.

Anyway, 1982 was not a banner year for Otto The Swatto. He only played in 28 major league games, his smallest amount since 1975 when he played for the Yankees. His batting average dipped to an awful .192, though his OBP was still a fine .354. That’s pretty amazing actually. I mean, how many people bat sub-mendoza line, but still get on base better than some All-Star’s? I know it’s a small sample size, but you get the idea…it’s a big difference. Anyway, Otto also wasn’t slugging anymore in ’82, as his slugging percentage dropped 135 points from .404 in ’81 (which was his lowest since ’76) to .269!

The final home run of his major league career came on May 14th, leading off the 2nd inning against Texas pitcher Jon Matlack. After that at-bat, he’d finish the season hitting .133 (4 for 30).

Otto played a few games for the Blue Jays AAA team in Syracuse that season too, which is interesting because the last time he played in AAA it was also for Syracuse, when Syracuse was part of the Yankees organization. He’d end his major league career in 1983, at the age of 32, playing for Cleveland. Otto’s final major league game came on Sunday, August 7, 1983. He went 1 for 2 & scoring a run in a victory.

Besides his major league service time, he played winterball in the Puerto Rican league for years, finishing his baseball career in ’84-’85 with Santurce. He’d been playing in Puerto Rico since the early 1970′s, when he was in the Yankees organization. During these years, he got the chance to play with some Hall of Famers such as Gary Carter and Mike Schmidt, as well as players like Luis Tiant.