The Cardinals made 2 trips to Wrigley in ’81, meaning this photo is either from late April or September 21-22. It’s possible this photo is from the day Bob blew a save against the Cubs on September 22, but there’s no way to tell. It’s notworthy though, that Bob didn’t pitch any games for St Louis until May 4, so perhaps he wasn’t even on the major league roster in April.

That blown save, was due to a solo shot by Leon Durham and was the only run Bob gave up after September 7, ’81. He finished the season tossing a scoreless 9th in Pittsburgh, finishing off a 4-0 Cardinals victory. That also finished his major league career.

Right after the season, he was traded to the Yankees for a young minor league outfielder named Willie McGee. Willie was a big part of the Cards championship run in ’82 and he had a massively impressive game 3 in that series. Meanwhile, Sykes began ’82 in AA and moved up to AAA where he imploded, posting a 8.03 ERA in 15 appearances.

The back of this card becomes very interesting now that we know he was traded to the Yanks right after the ’81 season. The Yankees pitching trivia tidbit is on here, almost as if Topps wanted to put a connection here to his new team since they didn’t have a photo of him in a Yankees uniform yet. It’s also in a different font face.

Perhaps they had a different trivia note set for the card but changed it sometime later but before printing the card? This makes me wonder if the other cards with this same unusual font face indicate a change in the trivia note before the cards were printed.

In that 5th start, he was shutting out the Pirates after 7 1/3, when Phil Garner came to the plate. Now, Garner was off to a very hot start in ’81, hitting the leather off the ball. He entered this game batting .429/.500/.714/1.214 in 9 games.

His first time up, Rincon got him to flyout to right field.

Next at-bat, Garner ran out an infield hit. He always did have a reputation as a scrappy little throwback player. Gotta love those.

So by the time he came to the plate in the top of the 7th, he had a good idea what Andy Rincon was dealing that day. When he hit the ball, it was a line drive straight back at Rincon. So fat and so quick, that it fractured Rincon’s arm.

And that was the end of Andy’s season, though he did pitch in the minors later that year, he never got back to the big leagues until ’82. Even then, he was not the same pitcher. He appeared in 11 games in ’82, 6 of them starts, posting a 4.72 ERA and a massive 1.500 WHIP. Needless to say, the Cardinals sent him down to AAA after May 22. he was no longer major league material.

The Cardinals went on to win the 1982 World Series, and Rincon got a championship ring for having played a part on the team.

He continued in the minors for a couple years after that, mostly in the Pirates organization. How’s that for irony? Anyway, he returned to play a little more later in the decade, finally ending his playing career in 1989 for the AA Arkansas Travelers.

All that potential, gone. Good thing baseball isn’t everything in life. I’m sure he made the most of his situation somehow, but it’s still sad when I look at this card.