1977 jesse jefferson

jesse jefferson's 1977 o-pee-chee card featured an actual photo of him in a blue jays uniform, along with a slightly readjusted facsimile autograph when compared to the topps issued card. here is jefferson's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

jefferson was selected from the white sox in the expansion draft that followed the 1976 season.  he started 33 games for toronto, including the fourth game of their existence, and wound up with a 9-17 record.  surprisingly (to me, anyway) is that his loss total was only the 7th worst in the league in 1977, and the second worst on his own team!  well, maybe that last part isn't so surprising given that the blue jays were an expansion team.

even so, jefferson had a stretch of three straight wins at the end of may to even his record at 3-3, but then he lost four straight decisions and his record never really recovered. later in the year, he threw complete games (two of the 8-inning variety) in 5 of 6 starts, and he pitched into the 9th inning in the other start). 

voici à vous, 1977 jesse jefferson!