1984 rich gossage

hall of famer rich gossage traded in his yankees pinstripes for the padres' brown and yellow uniforms when he signed with san diego as a free agent prior to the 1984 season. here's his 1984 o-pee-chee card.

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

gossage had saved 150 games for the yankees during his tenure, and had 206 for his career when he joined the padres. the 1984 season was a good one for the goose, as he won 10, saved 25, threw over 100 innings for the first time since 1978, made the all star team, and finished 5th in the cy young voting and 13th in the mvp race. it was also a good season for the pads, who won the national league pennant for the first time in franchise history. gossage, who was dominant against the dodgers in both the 1978 and 1981 world series, didn't fare quite as well in 1984 against the tigers who were heavily favored over the padres. he only had one bad inning - the 8th inning of the 5th and final game of the series - wherein he gave up a monster 3-run home run to kirk gibson.

in 1987, he took over the mantle of the active career saves leader from bruce sutter, but after being traded from the padres to the cubs prior to the 1988 season, gossage bounced around a bit - from chicago to the giants and then back to the yankees for the end of the 1989 season. gossage remained the career saves leader for active players through 1990, which is strange because he was an unsigned free agent that year. he ultimately signed with the rangers for the 1991 season, followed by a two-year stint in oakland before ending his career with seattle for the 1994 campaign.
 
voici à vous, 1984 rich gossage!