That’s a funny thought really, Steve Carlton being unimpressive. I just didn’t know any better yet.

So anyway, this card is all about a moment in Montreal on September 21, 1981. Steve entered the game just 1 strikeout short of tying Bob Gibson’s National League strikeout record of 3,117.

Steve induced 3 groundouts and a pop fly to short, before getting his first strikeout victim, Larry Parrish for the 2nd out of the 2nd half of the 2nd inning. That tied him with Bob Gibson, at 3,117 strikeouts in the NL, but he’d have to wait ’til the next inning to grab the record for himself.

The bottom three of the Expos order was due up in the bottom of the 3rd, so it seemed that Steve would get one of them for the record breaker. That was before Chris Speier singled, Jerry Manuel popped out, Ray Burris bunted Speier over, and consecutive walks to Warren Cromartie and Jerry White, which brought future Hall of Famer Andre Dawson to the plate.

So the scene was set for a possible great moment—Loaded bases in a 0-0 tie; the battle had come down to two great players. The last 9 times they’d faced each other, Dawson had smacked 4 hits and drawn 2 walks. By the way, 3 of those 4 hits were doubles.

This time Steve Carlton reached back and pulled out history from his glove and tossed it out of his left hand, striking out Andre Dawson, to become the all-time National League strikeout king! Better yet for the Phillies, he finished the Montreal threat and kept the game tied at 0.

He finished the day with 12 strikeouts in 10 innings, but Philadelphia eventually lost the game in the 17th inning, 1-0., when Andre Dawson singled in the winning run with the bases loaded. So Andre got his revenge and won the day, but Steve still set the bar higher.

At the end of the day, the all-time strikeout list looked like this—

1. 3,508 – Walter Johnson
2. 3,326 – Gaylord Perry
3. 3,229 – Nolan Ryan
4. 3,128 – Steve Carlton
5. 3,117 – Bob Gibson
6. 3,067 – Tom Seaver
7. 2,962 – Fergie Jenkins
8. 2,855 – Jim Bunning
9. 2,832 – Mickey Lolich
10. 2,742 – Don Sutton

Interestingly, Steve had a 0.95 ERA in 19 innings against Montreal that season, and also earned his 3,000th career strikeout against the Expos on Apr 29. Tim Wallach was the victim that time.

By the end of ’81, with three active pitchers closing in on the all-time strikeout lead, it was not longer a question of “Can anyone topple Walter Johnson?”; The only questions left were— who, and when?

The transaction had it roots in a collision at the plate in the 9th inning of a Sept 13, 1979 game in Shea Stadium, when Joel Youngblood was trying to score the tying run. That play, did some nasty work on Boone’s left knee, forcing him to undergo surgery the following Monday.

Boone had been a budding superstar up to that point, getting key hits in the ’78 & ’79 midsummer classics, as well as being the NL gold glove catcher in ’78 & ’79. He’d increased his OBP each of the last 2 seasons leading up to the injury, from .343 to .348 to .367.

The 2 seasons after the knee surgery though, he was pithetic. Those two seasons combined, he was hitting .223/.293/.324. He wasn’t catching many base stealers anymore either. In ’79, he’d thrown out 44% of runners (his 4th season out of 8 with a rate over 40%) and in ’81 he was only catching 22%. What a drop! It was more than just the surgery that was affecting him though, as he had a load on his head being a player rep during the ’81 strike. Bob had a lot going on physically and mentally during that two year slump.

Philadelphia apparently didn’t take all that into account, and figured Boone was done. It amazes me they didn’t even try to get a player in return for him. Not even a minor leaguer. They just sold him off. And they sold him for just $300,000. That was a lot more in 1981 than it is now, but it still wasn’t that much for a catcher with so much major league experience. The GM could’ve easily marketed him for a trade as “a guy who could be comeback player of the year but we want to make our team younger now so we’re willing to trade him”

So anyway, the California Angels come knocking and buy Bob. This turned out to be as big a move for the team as signing Reggie Jackson and trading for Doug DeCinces. Bob not only has his best season since ’79 at the plate, but he wins a gold glove and throws out an amazing 58% of runners trying to steal. That includes throwing out Rickey Henderson 6 times out of 12 attempts during Rickey’s record breaking season. No other catcher did that well.

It’s probably not coincidence either, that the Angels pitching staff had an ERA+ of 106 in ’82, and ranked #2 in the AL in ERA, but the year before they had Bob, they ranked 7th in ERA and the staff ERA+ was 98 (below average). It seems he made pitchers, pitch better, and there’s some evidence to support this—

During the season, starter Ken Forsch told Sports Illustrated (June 14, 1982 article “Tools of Intelligence“) that he thought Bob’s game calling made him a better pitcher, “I used to think two or three pitches ahead and get in trouble with the one I was throwing. Now I can take Boonie’s sign and concentrate on the area of the plate I’m throwing to.”

That’s not all though, Forsch added “Boonie has a knack for catching pitches outside the strike zone without moving his glove, he holds his glove on the corner, and if the ball is a little outside, he’ll catch it on the webbing or let it bounce off when the bases are empty. You get a lot of extra strikes that way.”

In the same article, reliever Don Aase was quoted as saying about Boone, “Earlier in the season I threw a couple of curves in the dirt that got by him for wild pitches. Later he came to me and said, ‘I know how your curve breaks; that won’t happen again.’ So I wasn’t afraid to keep throwing curves. That made a big difference to me.”

An Associated Press article from October ’82, “Bob Boone’s been biggest boon for California’s rising pitchers“, credits him for improving Geoff Zahn’s win total and lowered ERA. Zahn even says “Boone seems to know what pitches to call…I shake off very few of his signs.”

After ’82, Bob Boone was an All-Star one more time and won 4 more gold gloves. That last gold glove coming when he was 41. How many catchers do you know that win a gold glove after 40? How many players are even catching after 40? He wasn’t just catching, but he posted a .351 OBP (in 469 PA’s) at age 41…..only 11 players have accomplished a .350 OBP at that age or older.

We see Tony Armas leaving the scene in the background, giving us a detail that confirms the Phillies sleeve in Tony’s card is indeed Manny. We also see part of Mike Schmidt’s back here! We can be sure it’s Schmidt, because it’s another Phillies uniform and the name begins with “S”. Schmidt was the only Phillies player at the All-Star game who name began with “S”.

So we get a Hall of Famer on this one, along with 2 other All-Stars, each completely candid and unposed. That is just awesome! Besides that, I always liked Manny Trillo….so this card is another favorite of mine.

Manny was one of the best gloves in the game for a few years and that made him fun to watch. In ’82 he was pretty much all defense. He won a gold glove, had a tiny .316 OBP, and didn’t hit a home run all season. In fact, he didn’t hit a single HR between Oct 3, 1981 and July 16, 1983!

His defense was so good that he even set a record for consecutive errorless chances by a second baseman. That came to an end though on July 31, 1982. The Cubs were in Philly and Manny Trillo had just fielded his 479th ball without an error in the 6th inning when Larry Bowa popped a ball to 2B.

All he needed to do was go 3 more games to take the record for consecutive games without an error by a second baseman. He was that close to achieving a very rare feat and slice of baseball immortality.

In the top of the 7th inning, Bill Buckner of the Cubs came up to the plate to start the inning. He slapped a grounder over to the sure handed Manny Trillo, and Manny goofed it up. Error. E4. Manny didn’t make the consecutive games record, in part because of Bill Buckner.

What comes around, goes around. Yep. Sorry Bill.

Manny Trillo finished his career as a 4 time All-Star with 3 gold gloves, a World Series ring, and even a couple silver sluggers to his name.

Ramon Aviles only got to play in 117 major league games, but he had the privilege of playing three years for the Phillies, during a time when they won their first World Series and had players like Pete Rose, Mike Schmidt, Greg Luzinski, Manny Trillo, and Steve Carlton. He even appeared in two post-season games for the Phils, drawing a walk in his only plate appearance in 1981 (NLDS vs Montreal), which turned out to be his final time at the plate in the major leagues.

He started 1982 playing for the Rangers AAA team in Denver before being traded back to Philadelphia, who kept him in their AAA club at Oklahoma City. Hitting .262 with a .331 OBP in the minors throughout that summer, didn’t get him back to the major leagues. 1983 was his final season in the MLB system.

Surprising Ramon Aviles facts & stats…

• Royals SS Mike Aviles, is Ramon’s nephew.
• Had .371 OBP in 1979.
• Very good hitter when there were 2 outs… .383 OBP
• .394 BA during the month of July.
• OBP of .436 with runners in scoring position
• Should’ve played for a team with a grass field, since he hit .404/.452/.509 on grass