1979 pete rose

in december of 1978, pete rose signed a free agent deal with the philadelphia phillies. immediate dividends were paid. here is his 1979 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

actually, the phillies, who had won the nl east two years in a row only to fall to the dodgers in the nlcs, took a step backwards in 1979, losing the nl east to the pirates. they rebounded in 1980, however, to win it all for the first time in franchise history. i remember being perplexed when rose signed his deal with philly. they didn't need a third baseman, as they had mike schmidt over there. i was slightly horrified when rose moved to first base because i knew it wasn't good for steve garvey's all-star chances. still, the dodger fans kept garvey as the starting first baseman in the all-star game through 1980 before rose finally took over.

charlie hustle still made the all-star squad those first two seasons with the phillies, and deservedly so. in 1979, rose played in all 163 games for the phillies, and hit .331 with 208 hits and a career high 20 stolen bases. rose got 826 of his 4256 hits with the phillies, but was just 10 hits shy of 4000 when the phillies released him following their loss in the 1983 world series. rose, of course, wound up in montreal to claim that milestone hit before returning to the reds to finish out his career and time as a person in good standing with major league baseball.

voici à vous, 1979 pete rose!