1982 ozzie smith

in december of 1981, the padres traded ozzie smith to the cardinals. here is his 1982 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

i had always thought that the deal was ozzie for garry templeton, straight up. it wasn't. sixto lezcano and steve mura and a couple of other guys also changed teams. at any rate, the deal had an immediate payoff for saint louis as they won the world series in 1982. ozzie had won his second straight gold glove in 1981 (on his way to 13 straight) even though his batting average and ops were still low. as i understand it, templeton did not get along with whitey herzog, the cardinals' manager and so a trade was sought. even the padres made it to their first world series a couple of years later, there's little doubt that they would have been better off in the long run had they not traded ozzie away.

voici à vous, 1982 ozzie smith!