A pair of future Hall of Famers dominate this card. Even when this card hit the public in ’82, we all knew these guys would be or at least could be in Cooperstown someday.

Of the two, Eddie Murray had the easier time winning his league’s RBI title, even though it was close. Although it was only close because he had a bad first half.

Through the All-Star break, Eddie was hittin’ just .259/.303/.442 with a mere 26 RBI’s. Fortunately for him the leader in the AL, Buddy Bell, wasn’t that far ahead of him with 42.

Contrast that with his 2nd half hitting — .331/.417/.635 and 52 RBI. He passed Buddy Bell on September 11, with only Ben Oglivie & Tony Armas ahead of him.

His 5 RBI night on September 19th helped him pass Oglivie, and left him just 2 behind Armas.

Eddie’s next big day was September 28th, when he drove in 4 runs against the visiting Tigers. His last RBI of the game put him past Armas.

That was that in the A.L.

Mike Schmidt didn’t have quite as easy a time winning the NL RBI title. When games resumed after the All-Star game, George Foster was leading the league in RBI’s, and Mike was a full 8 behind him and 3 behind Dave Concepcion.

He passed Davey within a week though, and from there (August 15), it was Mike vs George. Although, problem was, Foster had now extended his lead over Schmidt to 10 RBI’s.

Mike managed to chip only 1 RBI off that lead through the next week, before Mike suddenly got hotter than the astroturf at the Vet on a hot July afternoon. In the three games of August 22, 23, & 24th, Schmidty drove in 10 runs. That put them in a tie for the RBI lead.

Meanwhile, over in Cincinnati, Foster started a slump that would last him into the beginning of September where he’d hit an awful .122/.178/.324 with just 4 RBI’s over 11 games.

The fat lady wasn’t singin’ yet though, as Mikey didn’t stay hot either, and Georgey caught up with him again on September 2nd at 65 RBI.

This was perfect timing too, ’cause the Reds came to Philly for a four game series starting the next day. The teams split the series, but Foster came out with 6 RBI and Schmidt only 2.

George hung onto that slim RBI lead and widened the gap a little here and there over the next 2 weeks, giving him a 7 RBI lead on September 22. Foster 80, Schmidt 73.

But see, you could never count Mike Schmidt out. With the season winding down, they both got a bit hot starting on Sep 23th. For the next 5 days, both guys would hit over .400, get on base even better, and continue to prove their reputations as premiere sluggers. Schmidt managed to trim 3 RBI’s off Foster’s lead even though Foster drove in 5 runs in his 4 games.

When October started, there were less than a hand full of games & George Foster still had a 2 RBI lead. After Oct 2, Schmidt had his 2nd straight 3 RBI game, putting him 1 RBI ahead of Foster.

The next day, Schmidt drove in 3 more, but so did Foster. So, going into the final day of the season, Schmidt had 91 and Foster 90. Schmidt got the day off (in preparation for the playoffs), so it was all in Foster’s hands… but he couldn’t deliver.

Aaahhh ’81 was an awesome season for RBI races.

Obviously, this is one of the coolest cards in the set when you’re an eight year old and I dubbed it “the card of five stars”. You’ve got 5 of the best players AND they’re the home run leaders!

It all starts with Mike Schmidt, who led the National League in homers for the fifth time in his career. His 31 HR’s might sound like an unimpressive number, but he did it in only 102 games played as the Phillies played just 106 that year.

Just doin’ a rough estimate, 31 HR’s in about 2/3 the usual amount of games, means Mike was on pace for about 45 homers. Even if he slumped a little, he probably would’ve reached 40 for the second straight year.

At the mid-season break though, he was stuck in a three way tie that included George Foster and Dave Kingman. Another dangerous slugger and fellow future Hall of Famer Andre Dawson, was just 1 homer shy of them.

Mike wedged out a little breathing room after the All-Star game, smacking 9 HR’s in late August. He had a 4 HR lead over Andre & Dave when September began.

As this card tells us, Dawson and Kingman faded in the end while Schmidt left them all in the dust the rest of the season.

The A.L. race for the home run lead was a much more rabid affair. Actually, it was kind of like the A.L. batting race, with a pair of sluggers coming from behind.

Stormin’ Gorman Thomas led the major leagues with 15 HR’s at the break. Only two behind him in the A.L., were Tony Armas, Dwight Evans, and Gary Gray.

Gary Gray? Yeah, that’s right. A uniquely named nobody was finally getting some playing time in Seattle and making a run at being noticed.

Well, Gary Gray returned to being Gary Gray after the break, and didn’t hit another homer all year.

Meanwhile, after the break, three stars named Bobby Grich, Eddie Murray, and Greg Luzinski were heating up. By September 35, Gorman and Tony were leading the A.L. with 21 HR’s a piece.

It was really anybody’s to have, but Gorman just kept staying one step ahead of the pack. At the time, many figured he was going to end up with the most HR’s in the league. After all, he did it just two years earlier with 45.

But just like in the A.L. batting race, which was Richie Zisk’s to lose, this was Gorman Thomas’s to lose — and he did. He didn’t hit another homer for the rest of the season. He wouldn’t hit another home run til game 5 of the playoffs (the division series against the Yankees).

Greg Luzinski would only smack a pair before the season finished, and that just wouldn’t be enough in this race.

Now, I really should mention how hot Bobby Grich was. From September 20 – October 2, he hit .409/.449/.727 with 4 HR’s. He was just on fire. The 4th homer in that hot stretch came on October 2, and made Bobby the first to reach the 22 homer plateau in ’81. Oh yeah, it was an exciting one too, being a 1st inning 3 run blast.

The next night in Kansas City, Tony Armas joined him at 22, with a 2-run homer in the 6th.

With a day left to the season after that, both Tony & Bobby must’ve been thinkin’ they could win the HR title. The last day of the season though, neither of them would sneak ahead.

That last day of the season, at about the same time of the afternoon, Eddie Murray joined them with a 3rd inning blast and Dwight Evans hit his 21st.

You’d think that would be the end of it, but no. Dwight hits another homer in the 8th inning of his game, to make a four way tie atop the leaderboard!

Thus, Dwight gave birth to the awesome “card of 5 stars”.

The first month of the season, he showed everyone why he was 1980′s NL MVP, by producing a 13 game hitting streak in which he batted .327/.431/.755 with 5 HR’s and 14 RBI’s.

May didn’t cool him off any. On the 5th, he helped the Phillies win by smacking a 9th inning double that drove in a run to tie the game. A few days later against San Diego, he goes 4-for-5 with 2 homers and drives in 5 RBI.

He eventually ran into a short slump before picking himself back up again, and finished the first half hitting .284/.381/.582, 14 HR’s, 41 RBI, drawing 30 BB’s, and scoring 40 Runs, in just 52 games.

Mike was clearly one of the more deserving players to go to Cleveland and reboot the season on August 9th.

His first turns at the plate in the All-Star game didn’t amount to much though. There was a strikeout, and a groundout. Even after his 6th inning double, he ended up getting out on a fielder’s choice.

By the time he came to the plate again, it was the 8th inning and the National League was losing by a run. The Pirates Mike Easler had just gotten to first base on a walk.

The problem Schmidt had to overcome was future Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers standing on the mound. Rollie was in the middle of a season where his ERA would end up at a slim 1.04 and he was striking out 7 batters every 9 innings he pitched. So this was not just any ol’ season for the great reliever, it was arguably his best year.

Mike would win that Hall of Famer vs Hall of Famer battle, by launching a 2 run HR deep over the centerfield wall for the eventual game winning run.

Gary Carter would end up with the game’s MVP honors due to his pair of homers, but Mike Schmidt actually affected the game more, earning .479 WPA (Win Probability Added) compared to Carter’s .239 WPA.

The rest of the season, Mike was on a tear, batting .356/.495/.719, slamming 17 more HR’s and driving in 50 RBI in 50 games. Hitting like that also earned him respect by pitchers across the league, and when you combine that with his good batters eye, he drew 43 walks in those 50 games.

When the season was all said and done, Mike led the NL in twelve areas:

• Runs (78)
• HR (31)
• RBI (91)
• BB (73)
• OBP (.435)
• SLG (.644)
• OPS (1.080)
• OPS+ (199)
• TB (228)
• IBB (18)
• WAR (7.6 [B-R] or 8.0 [Fangraphs])
• WPA (5.9)

If the 1981 season wasn’t cut 50 games short by the player’s strike, people might look at Mike Schmidt’s 1981 as one of the historic seasons of all time.

When the strike hit, he was batting .330/.389/.421, riding a 14 game hitting streak, and on the verge of breaking the all-time NL hit record.

About a week after baseball had the pause button on, Pete got a base hit in a charity softball game, and stayed sharp by taking batting practice regularly. His attitude was classic Rose, “If it’s a long way (until the strike is settled), I want to come out smoking, like at the beginning (of the season).”

The next major league game was the midsummer classic which could be called the late summer classic in 1981. Sure enough, he came out smoking, slapping a hit off Jack Morris to start the game. Unfortunately his teammates couldn’t drive him in, as Jack Morris also started the game off sharply, striking out two of the next three batters.

After the game, good ol’ Charlie Hustle kept smokin’, going 42-for-123 (.341) and drawing 13 walks in the next month. Unfortunately the rest of his teammates weren’t doin’ so good and the Phillies went just 12-17 during that span.

Keith had played parts of four seasons for the Phillies as a backup player to Bob Boone, totally just 439 PA’s through ’81. Then he was traded to the Cubs in December, and found himself getting to the plate more times in 1982 than he had in his career before the season.

This paid off immediately for the Cubs, with Keith driving in 2 runs on opening day against the “perennially tough Reds”, leading the Cubs to a 3-2 victory. On May 8, he smacks 2 homers and drives in 7 runs against Houston. The Astros only scored 6, so Moreland was a real pain in their side.

Through May 21st, he was batting like a hall of famer, going .356/.389/.575 with 8 home runs and 33 RBI’s in just 39 games as he played catcher and corner outfield spots regularly.

Unfortunately that didn’t last, and Keith slumped down to a mere Mendoza-like .218/.299/.321 with just 7 home runs and only 35 RBI’s for the rest of the year.

Keith Moreland’s best times were still ahead of him when ’82 came to a close. In fact, in ’83, he came in 7th in the NL batting race. In ’84 he helped the Cubs to their first post-season appearance since 1945. In ’85, he drove in 106 RBI’s, placing him 4th in the NL in RBI’s. In ’87, he’d smack 27 homers (of course, everybody hit HR’s that year).

Before Mitch Moreland was called up to the major leagues in July 2010, Keith Moreland was the sole Moreland to play major league baseball. I tried to find out if they were related, but couldn’t find anything saying so… so I guess they probably weren’t.

Of course, he’s barely in action, but far more in action than anything else you’ll see in the ’82 Topps set.

What I really love about this card, is the way it reminds people that Mike wasn’t just a great slugger. Sure he slammed over 500 home runs, but he also won ten gold gloves (nine consecutively).

By the time this card was made, Mike Schmidt was a legend still in his prime. He’d already been an all-star six times, won two silver slugger awards, two NL MVP’s, six gold gloves, hit 4 HR’s in a single game, led the National League 5 times in homers, drew tons of walks, and he’d led his team to their first ever World Championship in 1980.

Since I loved playing infield positions, naturally he became one of my favorite players from the get go. Whenever I played third base in whiffle ball or kickball or softball or regular baseball or whatever else, I was either Mike Schmidt or George Brett. Depended on whether I was feeling AL or NL that day.

Nowadays when I see this card, it reminds me of the one time I was at Veterans Stadium. I was 14 (summer ’88), and we were there for a weekend religious convention. I never realized just how hot the astroturf magnifies the heat.

We only made it to the first day, ’cause my Mom, who’s epileptic, had a seizure from the heat. We were sitting a couple rows back from the field, near the visiting dugout, close to the third base area. During the lunch break, the heat triggered my Mom’s epilepsy and the medical staff had to take her on a stretcher through the dugout and up the hallway ’cause it was the fastest way to get her out of the heat and to the first aide room. They told Dad and I to follow along, and as much as I was worried about Mom, I suddenly had a shot of thrill about the idea of walking into the visitors dugout.

I remember walking into the dugout and thinking about all the great ballplayers who’d been right where I was at that moment. Everyone from Willie Stargell to Ozzie Smith had been there. Then I looked out to where third base would be if we weren’t in the middle of a non-baseball event, and stared at the field for a moment…

Before that though, Lonnie was nearly Rookie of the Year in 1980, helpin’ his Phillies become champions for the first time in their long history. He did his part, by producing a 130 OPS+, hitting .339/.397/.443, and earning 2.6 WAR in 100 games.

He continued to get better in ’81, hitting .324/.402/.472, increasing his OPS+ to 144. In a 162 games between ’80 & strike-shortened ’81, he stole 54 bases, as the Phillies made the playoffs once again.

All this made him a popular young player with a lot of upside, but the Phillies felt they needed to make some changes. Changes like a fresher catcher to replace the aging Bob Boone. To get that, they sent Lonnie to divisional rival St Louis as part of a three team trade that brought All-Star catcher Bo Diaz to Philadelphia from the Indians.

This trade worked out quite well for the Cardinals. By April 24, Lonnie had already matched his career high in home runs, and had 2 more RBI’s than he did in 1981′s entire season! The team was 13-3 by this point, and there was no doubt leadoff Lonnie was part of why they were leading off the season so hot.

This hot start featured a 3 game sweep of the Phillies from April 16-18, where Lonnie went 7-for-14, three of which went for extra bases. His very first time to bat against his former team, he smacks a triple and scored the first run of the game when the next batter (Tommy Herr) hit a sac fly. Next day he smacked a double in his first AB, stole third, and scored on another sac fly. He started off the 3rd game in a familiar way… single, and ended up scoring on another sac fly.

How’s that for making your old team wish they kept you? heh. This trade was already lookin’ like a bad deal for Philadelphia and it wasn’t even May yet.

Lonnie would have some other great games during the season too, like the 5 RBI day on April 10 against Pirates, the 5 runs scored game on July 4th against the Cubs, and the 3 walks on July 27 against the Mets.

None of them really compared to September 4, 1982 at Candlestick Park though, which helped earn him NL player of the week honors. Not only did Lonnie go 3-for-3 with a walk and a hit by pitch while scoring 3 runs, but he stole 5 bases in a single game without getting caught. From 1920 to 1982, this had only been accomplished twice. TWICE—Once in 1927 by Johnny Neun and once in 1971 by Amos Otis. Lonnie was the first to do it in the National League.

Five steals in a game was the record for steals in a single game at the time, and remained the record for another 14 years. Even now, only two players have swiped more than 5 in a game, Eric Young (6 steals on 6/30/1996) and Carl Crawford (6 steals on 5/3/2009).

By the end of the ’82 regular season, Lonnie had stolen 68 bases, which was good for 3rd in the majors that season behind only Henderson & Raines. He’d also scored 120 runs, hit .307/.381/.434, earned 5.9 WAR, led the league with 9 HBP, posted a 128 OPS+, and made the All-Star team. All this, helped him come in 2nd in the MVP voting. Oh yeah, and he continued to hit the Phillies fine— .361/.446/.472 in 83 plate appearances, and scoring 15 runs in 18 games.

He started the playoffs in a slump though, before he broke out of it in game 3 of the World Series, going 2-for-4 and scoring twice, including an exciting 7th inning triple that forced an error helpin’ him to score. He really did a number on the Brewers pitching in game 7, going 3-for-5, scoring 2 runs, and driving in another. One of his runs, was the tying run, and the other, was a bottom of the 8th insurance run putting the Cards up 5-3.

It all makes me wonder what the Phillies were thinking about all this…

See, Lonnie was worth 5.9 WAR in ’82 (meaning about 5.9 victories) and the Cardinals won the division over the Phillies by just 3 games. Would the Phillies have won the division if they didn’t trade him away?

Think about it. We know the Phillies went to the playoffs every year from 1980-1983, except in 1982, so they definitely had the talent and experience to win a division. If the Phils kept Lonnie and Bob Boone (’cause they wouldn’t have had Diaz so they wouldn’t have sold off Bob), they would have kept a few wins from St Louis. If we assume the Phillies would’ve played Lonnie instead of George Vukovich during ’82 (based on the fact Von Hayes replaced George’s spot on the field after one year)—

It looks like the Phillies actually gave away 8.7 wins and replaced it with 4.4, a difference of 4.3 wins. If Philadelphia hadn’t traded Lonnie, it appears they would’ve/could’ve won 4 more games in ’82 and they would have won the division by 1 game, even if the Cardinals found a way to win as many games.

Of course, if St Louis didn’t get Lonnie Smith on November 20, 1981, they probably wouldn’t have traded outfielder Sixto Lezcano for Ozzie Smith in December ’81. Sixto had a massive 7.2 WAR in ’82.

Figuring his WAR would stay the same even if he wasn’t traded, and adding Gary Templeton’s 2.7 WAR (who would’ve never been traded to San Diego either), the Cardinals would’ve gotten 9.9 WAR out of the LF & SS position. That happens to be exactly the same amount they actually got from Lonnie (5.9) & Ozzie (4.0) anyway.

So the Cardinals apparently wouldn’t have won more less in ’82 if this trade didn’t happen. Yet, the Phillies, arguably would’ve ended up winning 4 extra games (1 more game than St Louis), if the Lonnie Smith trade never happened.

This isn’t an exact science, ’cause there’s so many other factors involved (injuries, coaching, etc), but in general, it appears the trade affected the Phillies win total in a negative way, that may have cost them a division title and possibly a 2nd World Championship in early 80′s. Perhaps it might’ve resulted in an exciting one-game playoff between St Louis & Philadelphia that October.

Maybe in some alternate universe, I’m writing about how the Cardinals could’ve won the 1982 World Series if they’d pulled the trigger and traded for Lonnie Smith. Maybe…

As the ’81 season approached, everybody knew Pete was about to own the National League hits record. He only trailed Hammerin’ Hank Aaron by 43, and Stan “The Man” Musial by 73 hits. An intriguing twist to the story, was that in Stan’s final game, he banged out 2 hits while playing Pete’s Reds. Pete out hit him that day 3 hits to 2, and was now about to out hit him for his career too.

The only thing that might slow it down, was the looming possibility of the players strike if things didn’t get worked out in time. So the media began to follow this as a bit of a race against time, to see if he could do it before the strike, which was originally set to go on May 29.

Several days before the strike was to begin though, May 19, in Los Angeles, Pete passed Hank for 2nd place in NL history, with an RBI single off Bob Welch in the 1st inning. Now only Musial was ahead of him.

He was right on track. Before the season, Pete had calculated he’d set the new NL mark during the mid-June series against the Reds. Pete had also been quoted as saying he expect the players and owners to work things out and avoid a strike, so he wasn’t all that concerned….as long as the Phillies kept winning.

The strike date was moved back, to June 11, which helped Pete get a few more hits. Still not enough though, as the strike began with him just one hit away from the record, and 4 days before the Reds series.

So then everybody waited.

…and waited.

…and waited some more, for the strike to end.

Finally, on August 9th, play resumed with the All-Star game. The next day, the Phillies were hosting the Cardinals. In Pete’s first at-bat, he reached on the error. In the 3rd inning, he was thrown out on a hit that went straight back to the pitcher. In the 5th, he grounded out to 2nd.

Things just weren’t lookin’ good, ’til the 8th inning when Pete slapped a leadoff single to leftfield off an inside fastball thrown by Mark Littell. The chase was over.

The game was stopped for a few minutes for a ceremony, that included Stan Musial coming onto the field and telling Pete, “I couldn’t be happier for you”. As if that wasn’t enough, after the game, president Ronald Reagan called to congratulate him too.

After that game, people began to ask if Pete could pass Ty Cobb’s all-time hit record. He’d only need to climb over Hank Aaron again, who had 3,709 total hits (remember he played in the AL at the end of his career), and Ty Cobb’s 4,191 hits. All of a sudden, it seemed like Charlie Hustle might have a real shot at what many thought was one of the unbreakable baseball records….

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.