Boston actually had a shot at a playoff spot in ’81 until an ugly 8th inning in Cleveland on October 2nd tore that dream to shreds.

When the following season started, they were seen as a mediocre team just trying to hang in there with Milwaukee, Detroit, Baltimore, and New York. The only reason the Red Sox would avoid fading into a rebuilding era during the 80′s, is thanks to future stars like Wade Boggs, Oil Can Boyd, Marty Barrett, Bob Ojeda, and Rich Gedman.

Of course, none of them appear on this card, making the card a bit of a disappointment. Sometimes I just don’t understand what Topps guidelines were for these future stars cards.

Right off the bat, he went 3-for-5 in the season opener against the defending champion Phillies. It wasn’t an empty 3 hits either, as he smacked an RBI double in the 3rd to break the 0-0 tie. The Reds won the game 3-2.

A week later in San Diego, Dave went 2-for-5, scoring 3 runs and driving in another trio of teammates. He’d have another 3 RBI day against the Astros about a week after that.

The Padres got sick of him faster than anybody though, ’cause when they came to Cincinnati for a three game series at the end of that April, Dave hit .778/.769/1.444 off their pitching. That included a 4-for-4 game where he smacked a pair of HR’s and drove in 6 RBI’s. Oh yeah, and his knee was giving him some trouble that day.

When May got under way, he began to fall into a slump. From the 1st through the 25th, he only really had a couple good games, as he batted just .221/.265/.263. He had to be thinking. “Where are the Padres when I need ‘em?!?” He did have a few moments though, like a 3-for-5 game against the Pirates and another in Wrigley.

On May 27th he’d start a 10 game hit streak, with a 3-for-4 game against the Giants. During the streak, Dave’s batting line was .452/.489/.738 over 45 PA’s. That included a 2-HR game off the Expos Steve Rogers, helpin’ the Reds to a 6-3 victory.

A few games later, the strike stopped the season. Concepcion’s first half was better than he did most years, totalling .306/.360/.447, 44 RBI’s (2nd in the majors to teammate George Foster), and a WPA of 2.049.

Needless to say, he deserved his vote into the midsummer classic. Unfortunately, when the game was finally played, he didn’t get a hit or draw a walk. He struck out, grounded out to second, and then grounded out to third. He didn’t even get a chance to show off his defensive skills, as none of the AL batters hit the ball to shortstop before Davey was replaced by Ozzie Smith in the 6th inning.

Don’t get me wrong, Bucky had his moments, but he was hitting .241/.297/.410 at the break. He’d never won a gold glove or proven to be a big hitter, so it’s not like he gets in on reputation. It’s not like fans all over the country are thinking “let’s vote in Dent, ’cause he might provide some excitement like he often does”.

No disrespect to Bucky, but just keepin’ it real. As one newspaper put it, “is Bucky Dent really better than Robin Yount?“. Robin had been leading all shortstops in votes on June 9th, but by August 4th when new vote totals were announced, Robin was suddenly fourth. Didn’t make sense to Milwaukee and it don’t make sense to me either.

Bucky made the most of his All-Star appearance though, going 2-for-2, with a double.

His first time up, he slaps a single to right, then moves over to 3rd base on Tom Paciorek’s single. Seemed like a great position to be in with Rod Carew coming to the plate, but Carew grounded out.

With the American League down 1-0 in the 4th, Bucky smacks a one out double down the other side of the field, moving Dwight Evans over to 3rd base. Gorman Thomas then pops out to 2nd and Rod Carew strikes out.

You just never know how it’s going to play out.

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

After 17 seasons in Baltimore, Mark Belanger signed with the Dodgers in December ’81, to backup Bill Russell at SS. The Dodgers really wanted Ozzie Smith, but Padres manager Dick Williams wanted 3 players in return for The Wizard, and Los Angeles just wasn’t willing to do that.

Mark didn’t have a great ’82, but that was expected. He was known for his glove (8 gold gloves), but at 38 years old, even your best skills will be fading away. His fielding % of .953 in 1982, was the lowest he’d had since 1967, when he was still trying to break into the majors and appeared in 38 games at short (310 innings).

His final appearance on a professional baseball diamond came on October 2, 1982 in the top of the 8th of a blowout game, Dodgers were leading 12-2. Ironically, despite being known as a terrible hitter, he gets a single in his final career plate appearance and drive in the last run of the game. A half inning later, he catches a pop fly for his final play of his career.

I think the most surprising thing about Mark though, is that he smoked. He smoked cigarettes and still ran around playing SS all those years at a high level. It really makes me wonder just how good he might’ve become if he quit smoking. Better lungs = better athlete.

Sadly, the smoking caught up with him a lot more later, killing him in October ’98 at just 54 years old. Cancer.

Random Mark Belanger Facts & Stats—

• .421 BA/.542/.579 vs Goose Gossage
• .357 OBP vs Nolan Ryan
• .346 BA & .433 OBP vs Bert Blyleven
• His .977 fielding % is best career mark for a shortstop

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.

In 1982, the Orioles were still in the midst of their glory years. They’d spent the past 20 years winning 5 AL Pennants, 2 World Series, always being in the top class of the American League even when they weren’t winning a pennant, and still had many solid pieces for another championship run and some good young prospects in AAA.

I have to be honest though, I think I hate this card. First off, Cal Ripken Jr should’ve had his own card in ’82. He was the biggest prospect with the biggest potential and he’d already slipped into the Orioles roster the previous year. Everyone knew he’d be good, and he was already in Baltimore, so he deserved a card of his own.

That being said, I guess it makes sense he’s on the future stars card, since he was just starting out and Topps knew he’d be a star soon. I’m sure everyone reading this knows Cal was the ’82 Rookie of the Year and the ’83 MVP, so I won’t delve much more into him.

A bigger reason this card bothers me, is that the other two players never amounted to anything. I realize Topps couldn’t know for certain who’d be a future star and who’d be a future flop, but there were a few others to choose from the Orioles organization who could’ve been an easy choice for this card and would’ve made the card better.

See, I’d have put Mike Boddicker on it instead of Jeff Schneider. It’s very simple in hindsight, because Boddicker was a solid major league starter from ’82-’90, posting a 112 ERA+ and winning over 100 games. Meanwhile, Jeff toiled away in the minors. Yeah, seriously. Jeff made a few appearances for the Orioles in 1981 and then never made it back again. Why? Because he posted a fat 4.88 ERA in 11 appearances. Those stats won’t usually get you a rookie card, but it worked for Jeff Schneider.

Interesting trivia note… the Orioles went 1-10 in games that Jeff appeared in. The only time they won, was an extra inning game in Seattle on August 25, 1981, and even then, Jeff allowed 2 base runners before getting an out to finish with a save. The O’s were outscored 91-24 in those games.

Another thing I’d change about this card, is I’d replace Bob Bonner with John Shelby. Bob ended up playing in just 61 career big league games, while John was a regular on 2 World Series winning teams in his 11 major league seasons. Even before any of that happens though, John put up significantly better stats in ’81 than Bob. Which leaves me going “Huh? Why Topps? Why?”

Back to Ripken for a moment. If Topps had given Cal his own card in this set, who would’ve been a good choice to take Cal’s place on this future stars card? I think Floyd Rayford would’ve been a good choice. Floyd was a young base stealer with a little pop to his bat in AAA in ’81 and had a cup of tea with the O’s that year too, before going on to play almost 400 games in the majors…about 6.5 times as many games as Bob & Jeff combined.

So this card really should’ve had Mike Boddicker, Floyd Rayford, and John Shelby. Then a proper Cal Ripken card would be added to the set, which could replace some card of a random player who wasn’t very good anyway or was unlikely to play in the majors in ’82.

So that’s the skinny on why this is the one card in the set that really bothers me. I don’t think I’ve seen another future stars card with such a terrible mix of players on it. Although, it still gives me joy to own the Jeff Schneider rookie card.

PS. All 3 players on this card, played in the infamous Rochester @ Pawtucket game that went 33 innings.

Even as early as his first season, he was a budding star, getting some votes for Rookie Of The Year that included a 1st place vote. He did about as well in that vote as George Brett.

Then on April 17, 1982 in a game against the Twins, Burleson was injured and didn’t play again ’til June 30 the next year.

To me, the expression on his face in the card sums up the shock of his career being derailed without warning.

After ’82, Rick only played 40 games until 1986, when he won the AL Comeback Player of the Year Award. That was his last good year though, as he played only one more year and was out of the majors. Eventually, he became a pretty good minor league manager.

Back to ’81 for a moment. In May, Rick pulled off a 15 game hitting streak, batting .375 during it.

It was the 7th best hitting streak that season. This no doubt played a big part in him getting to the All-Star game.

Speaking of the All-Star game, Rick makes a cameo on the Tony Armas card, which was photographed in Cleveland sometime before the All-Star game got started.

4 Random Rick Burleson career stats—

• Leading off an inning, he posted a .353 OBP
• Hit best in June: .301/.345/.404
• Was an awful pinch hitter, having a .280 OBP & slugged .238
• He scored more runs (68) against the Brewers than against anyone else

If not for the phrase “The Mendoza Line“, we’d probably all have forgotten about him by now. He’s the image of inept hitting, having hit just .215 for his career (thus a .200 BA being the Mendoza Line). Personally, I find it even more amazing that his OBP was a mere .245. That means he actually got out 3/4 of the time in his career. How he managed to play parts of 9 seasons is beyond me.

But little do people know, that there’s a great irony in how his career ended.

It was a Saturday night in Kansas City, May 22, 1982. The Royals and Rangers were tied 1-1 entering the 12th inning. The Royals had legendary closer Dan Quisenberry on the mound, during the peak of Quizz’s career.

The Rangers lead the inning off with a single. Then something off the wall amazing happens. Rangers manager Don Zimmer takes rightfielder Larry Parrish out of the game for a pinch hitter. The pinch hitter is Mario Mendoza.

Now, sure, Parrish was in a bad slump, batting around .100 for about a month, but he’s replacing a slumping hitter for a hitter who’s batting .118 for the year. On top of that, he has Mario in there to sacrifice the runner over. Uummm, couldn’t Parrish do that?

Then one of those amazing baseball moments happen. When Mendoza lays down a sacrifice bunt, something goes weird…and Mario Mendoza ends up safe at 1st and the lead runner is safe at 2nd. A couple batters later, Mario’s scoring the final run of the game to bring the Rangers to a 3-1 lead. Which is how the game ended.

When I think about it, I have to figure this was Zimmer’s plan all the way. He must’ve figured that if Parrish laid down a bunt, he’d have little to no shot at reaching safely because he’s slower than Mendoza, who had 48 career SH enterting this game. So Zimmer wasn’t actually trying to sacrifice the runner over, he was actually putting Mendoza in the game to get a hit. And he did it. If he wasn’t playing for Mendoza to get a hit, he would’ve just let Parrish stay in the game and sac bunt.

So, let’s recap. The guy who’s infamous for being unable to get base hits, ends his career by getting to pinch hit precisely because the manager believes he’ll get a hit and then he actually does get the hit, and then he crosses home plate for the final run of the game. How amazing is that? Oh and in the bottom half of the inning he catches a pop fly by Frank White for the final play of the game and his career.

Statistically it’ll always be counted a sacrifice, but in reality, I think it was a hit since he wasn’t really trying to sacrifice.

And was Topps being sarcastic by slapping 2 homer related trivia questions on the back of Mario’s card?

Mark was the regular shortstop through the first game of a doubleheader on July 9, 1982, although he shared some time in April and May with Mario Mendoza. A few others were used at the position during July and early August, when the Rangers acquired Bucky Dent from the Yankees for Lee Mazilli, and Dent took over the regular duties.

The highlight of Mark’s season was probably April 12, when he went 2 for 4, scoring 2 runs and driving in another 2. He was responsible for 4 of his team’s 7 runs. Usually that kind of offense will win you a game, but that day the Yankees hitters were hot and the Rangers pitchers were not.

That spring, May 30 – June 21, 1982, he had his last stretch of good hitting in his major league career, posting up a hitting line of .359/.388/.359. Less than a month later, he lost the starting SS job and would only play 2 big league games between July 9, 1982 and May 4, 1984. Not sure if that was due to injury or just lack of consistency in the lineup. in ’84, he had a 3 game hitting streak and after that season he never played in the majors again.

He spent most of ’83 and ’85 as a bench player in AAA, before reappearing on the baseball map in 1997 at the age of 43, finishing his professional career going 1 for 4 for the Chattanooga Lookouts in AA.