1980 rudy may

the yankees, who had traded rudy may to the orioles in july of 1976, signed him as a free agent after the 1979 season concluded. here is his 1980 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

the orioles had previously sent may to the expos in the don stanhouse deal, and in 1979, the expos used him primarily as a reliever for the first time in his career. he thrived in that role, and the yankees used him the same way to start the 1980 season. may was pressed into starting duty the second half of the season, but still had one of his best seasons ever, winning 15 games and saving 3 others while leading the american league with a 2.46 era. he started game 2 of the 1980 alcs and pitched an 8-inning complete game as the yankees lost to the royals.

may and the yankees were back in the postseason in 1981, and he appeared in 3 world series games against the dodgers, surrendering just two runs (one of which came on pedro guerrero's 4th home run of the series) in a losing cause.

voici à vous, 1980 rudy may!

1979 alan ashby

alan ashby began his 11-year run with the houston astros in november of 1978 when he was traded by the toronto blue jays. here is his 1979 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

ashby would have his best seasons in houston where he was a mainstay behind the plate until his final season in 1989 when craig biggio took over at catcher. in the 1986 nlcs against the mets, ashby caught all 12 innings of game 5 (scoring the astros' lone run) and all 18 innings of game 6 the next day. he also had the honor of catching three no-hitters (ken forsch, nolan ryan, and mike scott) which tied a national league record, according to wikipedia, although they don't mention who the other catcher to do that is (jeff torborg caught sandy koufax's perfect game and bill singer's no-no, as well as nolan ryan's first - but that was in the american league).

voici à vous, 1979 alan ashby!

1978 tim blackwell

less than a month after being released by the expos, tim blackwell was picked up by the cubs, just in time for the start of the 1978 season. here's his 1978 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

blackwell served as a backup to dave rader in 1978 and then barry foote in 1979 before taking over as the cubs' primary receiver in 1980. playing regularly agreed with him, as he posted his career best batting average and ops that season. after 4 seasons in chicago, blackwell returned to the expos for the 1982 and 1983 seasons, his last in the majors. blackwell went on to coach and manage in the minor leagues.
 
voici à vous, 1978 tim blackwell!

1977 mike jorgensen

o-pee-chee thought we should get a closer look at the expos' mike jorgensen in 1977. here's his 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

this will qualify as a photo variation, although the variety is just in the cropping. it's also an autograph placement variation because o-pee-chee moved the auto further up the card so it was more noticeable.

mike went to the expos in 1972 as part of the deal that sent le grand orange to the mets. in 1973, he won the national league gold glove, becoming the spacer between dodgers wes parker and steve garvey and their gold glove reign from 1967 through 1977. right about the time this card was released, jorgensen was on his way again, this time to the a's in exchange for stan bahnsen. jorgensen would also play for the rangers, mets (for the second time), and braves before finishing his career with the 1985 national league champion cardinals.

voici à vous, 1977 mike jorgensen!

1974 hank aaron special (1960 - 1961)

here's o-pee-chee's 1974 hank aaron special (1960 - 1961):

here's the equivalent topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

card number 4 in the topps set was a hank aaron special (covering 1962-1965), so just as before, i'm not counting this card as a checklist variation.

it kind of seems they were stretching a bit for his most memorable home runs.  don't you think there was a game winner, a walk off, or even just a monster bomb that would have ranked ahead of hitting his 24th home run before june 30th?  just sayin.

voici à vous, 1974 hank aaron special (1960 - 1961)!

1971 jackie hernandez

jackie hernandez was traded from the royals to the pirates in december of 1970. here is his 1971 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

it's worth noting that there is also a 'red team text' variation of the hernandez o-pee-chee card.  i recently acquired one, and couldn't be happier with the variation within the variation:

that card has some 'pop' to it, unlike hernandez.

the pirates sent freddie patek to the royals in the trade (which also included a couple of other players), so hernandez played quite a bit, splitting time with gene alley at shortstop during the regular season. in the postseason, however, hernandez was the shortstop for the world champions, hitting .226 with 4 rbi. one of those rbi came on a suicide squeeze in game 1 of the world series. with manny sanguillen on third, hernandez laid down a bunt and made it to second on a throwing error by the orioles' catcher. hernandez later scored on a dave cash single, but the orioles won the game.

hernandez stayed with the pirates through the 1973 season, after which he was traded to the phillies. he never appeared in a game for philadelphia, however, as they released him just before the start of the 1974 season.
 
voici à vous, 1971 jackie hernandez!

1992 dave winfield

in his second shot at free agency, dave winfield signed with the toronto blue jays after the 1991 season. here's his 1992 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

and, like his first time around, his new team made it to the postseason. this time, however, the blue jays won the world series, unlike winfield's 1981 yankees. winfield, who was certainly on the downslope of his career, still managed to hit .290 with 26 home runs and 108 rbi (good for a 5th place finish in the mvp voting). he also redeemed himself in the postseason, hitting 2 home runs against the a's in the alcs and then hitting that huge two-run double off of charlie liebrandt in the top of the 11th inning of the final game of the series to break a 2-2 tie.

it should be noted that winfield was also featured on a record breaker card in the 1992 set (the o-pee-chee version is shown below), although o-pee-chee did not add the 'now with' text to it like they did to players' other cards (such as all star or in action) in the 1982 set.

voici à vous, 1992 dave winfield!

1991 dave smith

dave smith signed as a free agent with the cubs in december of 1990, after 11 seasons with the astros. here's his 1991 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

smith had saved 199 games for the astros when he departed, good for the top spot on their all-time leader board (he's now second behind billy wagner). he added 17 more saves to his totals in 1991 for the cubs, although he also lost all 6 of his decisions and posted an era of 6.00 that season. he returned to the cubs for the 1992 season, although there was more of a closer by committee that year, and he didn't record a save. his final appearance came in the second game of a double header on june 8 in saint louis. smith passed away in december of 2008.

voici à vous, 1991 dave smith!

1990 mark eichhorn

mark eichhorn was signed by the angels following his november, 1989 release from the braves. here's his 1990 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

eichhorn won 14 games and saved 10 others as a reliever in his 1986 rookie season with the blue jays, and just missed qualifying for the league era title. he had another good season in 1987, but after faltering a bit in 1988, his contract was purchased by the braves. as mentioned above, he was picked up by california prior to the 1990 season, as they needed someone to supplement bryan harvey in their bullpen. eichhorn delivered, notching 13 saves and re-establishing himself as a reliable reliever. a couple of years later, the blue jays reacquired eichhorn, just in time for him to be a part of their two world series championships.

voici à vous, 1990 mark eichhorn!

1989 todd benzinger

todd benzinger was traded from the red sox to the reds in december of 1988. here's his 1989 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

one of the pieces the red sox received in the deal was nick esasky, who didn't disappoint in 1989, hitting 30 home runs and driving 108 runs in his only season in boston. benzinger also put up career highs in 1989, although his 17 home runs and 76 rbi fell short of esasky's numbers. benzinger got the last laugh the following season, however, as esasky left the red sox, parlaying his career year into a multi-year deal with the braves, and benzinger and the reds won the world series in 1990. in fact, it was benzinger who caught the final out of their sweep of the heavily favored a's.

benzinger would go on to play for the royals, dodgers, and giants in his career. he currently manages one of the reds' minor league teams.
 
voici à vous, 1989 todd benzinger!

1988 alfredo griffin

alfredo griffin. making his second appearance on the blog this week, was part of the big three-team deal between the a's, dodgers and mets that saw bob welch, matt young, jay howell, jesse orosco, kevin tapani and a couple of other players switch teams. griffin, of course, went from the a's to the dodgers. here's his 1988 o-pee-chee card.

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

with the dodgers, griffin underperformed in 1988. he played in only 95 games that year, the first time he had played in fewer than 100 games since becoming a regular in 1979, due to a broken hand suffered in may after being hit by a dwight gooden pitch. for the season, griffin hit just .199 and then did even worse in the postseason, hitting .160 and .188 in the nlcs and world series, respectively. still, he won his first world series ring with the dodgers that year, and he went on to play in la for 3 more seasons. he returned to toronto after the 1991 season, and was a part of both of the blue jays' world champion teams. in fact, griffin's career ended in the on deck circle of the skydome when joe carter hit his series winning home run off of mitch williams.

voici à vous, 1988 alfredo griffin!

1987 kevin mitchell

less than two months after sparking the mets to their game 6 comeback in the 1986 world series, new york traded kevin mitchell to the padres in a multi-player deal that included 4 guys named kevin. here's his 1987 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

whether or not he was already out of uniform, mitchell was called upon to pinch hit in the bottom of the 10th inning of game 6 after gary carter singled with two outs. he also singled and later scored the tying run on bob stanley's wild pitch. mitchell spent just a short time in san diego before being sent up the coast to san francisco in another trade, and it was there that he would reach his full potential as the league's mvp in 1989. although mitchell was a masher, he may be best remembered for a defensive play - his bare handed catch of ozzie smith's fly ball in 1989.

voici à vous, 1987 kevin mitchell!