1981 jerry martin

in december of 1980, the cubs sent their center fielder, jerry martin, to the giants for phil nastu and joe strain.  here's martin's 1981 o-pee-chee card:

that's a wide stance.

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

i remember martin as the guy who hit a 9th inning pinch-hit home run off of bobby welch in the 1978 nlcs.  it didn't matter, though, as the dodgers still won the game. speaking of long balls, it should be noted that martin hit 5 of his 85 career home runs against john candelaria.  in fact, martin seemed to enjoy victimizing pitchers in spurts.  looking at his home run log, we see that 2 of his first 3 home runs were hit off of pete falcone, and 6 of his first 10 were hit against just 3 different pitchers (falcone, candelaria, and jon matlack).  later in his career, his 25th, 26th and 27th career home runs came at the expense of bob knepper in two separate games.  weird.

in 1981, martin lasted just one season with the giants (hitting .241 in 72 games), before he was traded again.  this time, he was headed to the american league and the kansas city royals.  unfortunately, he didn't make the cut for the o-pee-chee set in 1982, so we are denied another nice variation.

voici à vous, 1981 jerry martin!