1977 doug rau

i thought that topps did a pretty good job with the placement of doug rau's facsimile autograph on his 1977 card, but o-pee-chee saw fit to adjust its location slightly and slightly modify the photo cropping as well.  here is rau's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

nice to see walter alston get some love on a 1977 card (shameless plug for my card that should have been)!  rau had a decent year in 1977 - he won 14 games in 32 starts, posted an era of 3.43 and had 4 complete games and 2 shutouts. his most memorable moment of 1977 came in the postseason, however.


rau was called upon out of the dodger bullpen in the nlcs, making just one appearance in the series, which happened to be in game 3 when he retired larry bowa, mike schmidt, and greg luzinski in order, preserving what was then a tie game in the 7th inning.  then, in the world series, rau got the call to start game 4 and was famously pulled in the second inning after giving up three straight hits (a double to reggie jackson, a run-scoring single to lou piniella, and a double to chris chambliss) to lead off the frame. rau argued with lasorda about being relieved, stating that he could strike out the next batter, lefty graig nettles whom he referred to as a, well, to use the term dick williams coined, 'mawdicker'. indeed, it was "f-ing great for [rau] to be standing out [there] talking to [tommy] like that." rau came back to pitch 1.1 innings of scoreless relief in game 6 of the and did indeed strike that "m-f"er (nettles) out, but it was too late.


voici à vous, 1977 doug rau!