1980 bobby bonds

bobby bonds was traded in december of 1979 from the indians to the cardinals.  here is his 1980 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

this marks bonds' fourth consecutive year in which he had an o-pee-chee variation.  when i first started the blog, i predicted that bonds would prove to have more variations than anyone else, but i now see that to not be the case thanks to matt young and the hank aaron and gary carter tributes.  still, bonds was the poster child for o-pee-chee variations during those summers of my youth when i had the opportunities to buy packs north of the border.

anyway, bonds hit just .203 for the cards in 1980, who needed someone to help replace the retired lou brock.  bonds stole only 15 bases and hit just 5 home runs as a cardinal, but two of those 5 long balls were of the lead off variety (the final two of his career), giving bonds a total of 35 lifetime.

bonds could easily have had another variation in the 1981 set as he joined his fifth team in five years that season.  unfortunately, he signed with the rangers in april (and was acquired by the cubs in june) which was too late for the variation to be created.

voici à vous, 1980 bobby bonds!