ron leflore returned to the american league as a free agent, signing with the white sox prior to the 1981 season. here's his 1981 o-pee-chee card:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
there's some good stuff in the cartoons on the back of leflore's 1981 card(s). he and teammate rodney scott stole a total of 160 bases (97 were leflore's) in 1980 which was a new record, apparently. better yet, the card references the made for tv movie 'one in a million' starring levar burton as leflore. i remember watching it as a kid and reading the book as well. there was some fairly graphic stuff in the book (for a 9-year old) but i enjoyed both versions of his story, and i soon had a vested interest in leflore's career.
that career was coming to a close when he joined the white sox. he played in 82 games in 1981 for the sox and stole 'just' 36 bases. his average hit a career low, and he failed to homer for the first time in his career. he bounced back a bit in 1982, but he was released by chicago towards the end of spring training in 1983. later, leflore tried to return to the big leagues as an umpire but fell short of qualifying for a position in the minor leagues after attending joe brinkman's school.
voici à vous, 1981 ron leflore!
Looks like we're on the same train of thought this week. LeFlore was always interesting to me too, even though I didn't really get into baseball 'til the ending bit of his career. Just seeing "97 steals" in the '80 season stats was enough to grab my curiosity when I was a kid. I always love stolen bases.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea LeFlore tried to become an umpire. It makes me wonder now, if any former players ever became ump's later on in the majors..
I remember as a kid watching LeFlore during his Expo tenure.... I thought he played a lot longer for Montreal... mind you, I watched aa LOT of their games that year.
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