He’s even got this look on his face like he’s a little nervous, with this slouch that says “I’m not quite sure how to pose manly but I think this is it.”

Compared to his 1980 card, this one is just flat boring. A simple dull pose as opposed to firing a pitch to the plate in a game. Even the lettering on his jersey looks unfinished, as if nobody even bothered to care to color it in.

This makes for a very fitting card at this point in his career, as this was the season his career started downhill. Back in ’80, he was a big deal. He was now faltering with arm problems and wouldn’t get surgery to fix it. Stubbornness isn’t usually a good thing.

From ’81 to ’82, his ERA rose a full 1.66 runs. He went from leading the AL in shutouts to not throwing any at all.

Just like his cards, he went from interesting to boring. he wasn’t even a laughingstock pitcher who’d put up a 5.00-something ERA and make you laugh at the team. He was just suddenly a 97 ERA+…just about average. Dull. Nothing special, nothing horrible.

In fact, he had the exact same ERA in both ’82 and ’83… how dull is that? After posting a 2.33 ERA, you really shouldn’t be pulling off a pair of 3.99 ERA’s as an encore.

Random career facts & stats—

• Used a toy bat during a spring training game in ’82
• As of 2010, is the Washington Natinals pitching coach (hello Strasburg!)
• Allowed righties a .308 OBP, but .361 to lefties
• 7-1, 2.88 ERA against the ChiSox
• 1-7, 6.36 ERA against the Yankees
• 11-3, 3.39 ERA pitching on 3 days rest

I was wearing my plastic Oakland A’s helmet and tossing my whiffle ball up a little, waiting for it to slide back down into my swinging zone. Then I just smack it over my backyard fence into the left field upper deck. The upper deck was actually the roof of a neighbors garage, but not to a boy obsessed with baseball.

I still think of that moment when I think of Tony Armas. Always. It flashes through my head whenever I hear his name. Just like the image on this card. This is how I still picture him.

It was always one of my favorite cards from the ’82 set. It shows a star player looking like he enjoyed his baseball life & there’s glimpses of two other players. Two other All-Stars. That’s awesome!

Even when I was a kid, I knew this had to be a photo from the day of the ’81 All-Star game (August 9, 1981), ’cause you can see three different uniforms and one of them is definitely the sleeve of a Phillies player in his road uniform. I could always identify that Phillies sleeve as Manny Trillo, because Trillo’s card makes it obvious.

I could never figure out who the other player was though, until just a few days ago. I just had to look up each All-Star who wore the number 7 and a uniform with those colors. Turns out that player is California Angels SS Rick Burleson.

So this photo was shot on Sunday, August 9, 1981* just before the All-Star game, and gives us a trio of All-Stars—Tony Armas, Rick Burleson, and Manny Trillo.

Besides the card itself being one of the best cards out there, some on the field highlights of Tony’s 1982 include slugging a multi-HR game in Minnesota. This game featured Tony Armas whalloping a 2 Run HR in the top of the 12th inning for the win.

A couple months later he showed off his defense in Toronto when he made 11 putouts in a single game in rightfield. The ’83 Topps set made a record breaker card memorializing this performance, but the card’s photo isn’t from that day. You can tell because the card shows him playing on natural grass, and Toronto has astroturf.

In August, he smacked a grand slam off the Red Sox Bob Stanley in the 6th inning to give Oakland a safe 6 run lead. It’s probably no coincidence that the Red Sox traded for him after the season.

* – In ’81, there was no All-Star break. The players for the game weren’t in town the day before for any kind of home run contests or other usual All-Star festivities. The All-Star game was the first MLB event after the strike, and the next day everybody was off with their regular teams again. Therefore, we know this photo was from the day of the game, and not from any other.

Mike Davis didn’t hit well in short stints in 1980 or 1981 with Oakland, so the A’s left him in AAA Tacoma for most of the 1982 season, bringing him up in September. He did well in Tacoma, posting a .389 OBP. So once he got another chance in the AL, he went on a tear….hitting exactly .400, putting up a .909 OPS, and a 156 OPS+ in 77 PA’s between September 6 – October 3, 1982.

Sure, anybody can get hot for 77 PA’s so it wasn’t that hard, right? Well, I have a couple lists for you about this. First, here’s the entire list of batters 1942-2009 who’s hit .400+ with at least 70 PA’s for the season..

1. .411 – Todd Haney (81 PA’s in 1995)
2. .400 – Mike Davis (77 PA’s in 1982)
3. .403 – Bob Hazle (155 PA’s in 1957)
4. .407 – Ted Williams (110 PA’s in 1953)

Short list eh? Of course, this is short because anybody hitting .400 will continue to get more playing time until they cool off. Haney & Davis were September callups, Hazle filled in for an injury during the end of a season, and Williams I have no data for. So likely, if the end of the season didn’t stop these guys, we can be sure that more games would’ve pulled them beneath .400 eventually. That doesn’t remove its impressiveness though, ’cause hundreds of guys have been called up in September or come back from an injury to play the end of a season and none of them pulled this off.

Which leads to another question about batting .400. What’s the longest anyone’s hit .400 for, during a season? (by PA’s) I did a little research and compiled what I think is a complete list (1969-2009) since the mound & strike zone changes began favoring the batter more—

1. 455 PA’s, George Brett (1980)
2. 440 PA’s, John Olerud (1993)
3. 394 PA’s, Larry Walker (1997)
4. 385 PA’s, Tony Gwynn (1997)
5. 359 PA’s, Rod Carew (1977)
6. 316 PA’s, Nomar Garciaparra (2000)
7. 292 PA’s, Tony Fernandez (1999)
8. 290 PA’s, Chipper Jones (2008)
9. 290 PA’s, Rod Carew (1974)
10. 279 PA’s, Rod Carew (1983)
11. 268 PA’s, Andres Galarraga (1993)
12. 268 PA’s, Roberto Alomar (1996)
13. 249 PA’s, Rico Carty (1970)
14. 245 PA’s, Wade Boggs (1986)
15. 245 PA’s, Todd Helton (2000)
16. 244 PA’s, Carney Lansford (1988)
17. 238 PA’s, Paul O’Neill (1994)
18. 231 PA’s, Lenny Dykstra (1990)

That’s the most I’ve found.

These lists really punctuate how hard it is to hit .400, for anybody — great players, backups, fill-ins, call-ups, and recalls.

After 1982, Davis played several years in the majors as a regular, but never even hit .300. His last two seasons were for the Dodgers and this is how most people remember him — the man who drew a walk just before Kirk Gibson’s home run in the ’88 World Series. Maybe Mike Davis remembered the Rick Cerone trivia bit on the back of Mike’s card in ’82.