1984 ray burris

the expos traded ray burris to the a's in december of 1983. here is his 1984 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

burris had split time between the bullpen and the starting rotation during his last two years in montreal. in oakland, he was primarily used as a starter after beginning the year in the pen. after his first 6 relief appearances resulted in a win and and era of 1.10, burris was added to the rotation. in his first start, he pitched a 4-hit shutout against the twins, and never looked back. he wound up making 28 starts, winning 12.

exactly one year after the a's acquired burris, he was traded again - this time to the brewers for don sutton.

voici à vous, 1984 ray burris!

1983 juan eichelberger

in november of 1982, the padres traded juan eichelberger to the indians in the deal that sent eddie whitson to san diego.  here is his 1983 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

i am guessing that there was some local joint in cleveland that immediately began serving an 'eichel' burger.  eichelberger himself served up 23 home runs in his final year in san diego, but he cut that number to 10 in '83 for the tribe.  he did have another losing season, though, going 4-11 in 28 games (15 starts). 

eichelberger was released by the indians just before the start of the 1984 season, and he bounced around in the minors after that with milwaukee, pittsburgh, and atlanta.  after 3 seasons in the braves' organization, he finally made it back to the bigs for 20 games in 1988, winning both of his decisions and posting a 3.86 era.

voici à vous, 1983 juan eichelberger!

1982 ozzie smith

in december of 1981, the padres traded ozzie smith to the cardinals. here is his 1982 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

i had always thought that the deal was ozzie for garry templeton, straight up. it wasn't. sixto lezcano and steve mura and a couple of other guys also changed teams. at any rate, the deal had an immediate payoff for saint louis as they won the world series in 1982. ozzie had won his second straight gold glove in 1981 (on his way to 13 straight) even though his batting average and ops were still low. as i understand it, templeton did not get along with whitey herzog, the cardinals' manager and so a trade was sought. even the padres made it to their first world series a couple of years later, there's little doubt that they would have been better off in the long run had they not traded ozzie away.

voici à vous, 1982 ozzie smith!

1981 rick honeycutt

the mariners traded rick honeycutt to the rangers in december of 1980. here is his 1981 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

originally drafted by the pirates, honeycutt made his debut for the mariners during their inagural 1977 season. he was 26-41 in his 4 years in seattle with a 4.22 era. in his first season with the rangers, he posted the first winning record of his career (11-6) with a 3.31 era. his best season (with the rangers or otherwise) was his 1983 season wherein he was 14-8 with a league leading 2.42 era. that was the year that he was traded to the dodgers in mid-august, and had the honor of appearing on cards in the 1984 set as both a dodger and a ranger.

in all, honeycutt spent parts of 21 seasons in the major leagues and amassed over 100 wins and 1000 strikeouts. he's currently the dodgers' pitching coach.
 
voici à vous, 1981 rick honeycutt!

1980 tom underwood

tom underwood went from the blue jays to the yankees in november of 1979 as part of the chris chambliss trade.  here's his 1980 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

underwood went on to win 15 games for the yankees in 1980, and made two appearances in the alcs against the royals.  he gave up a couple of unearned runs in 3 innings of work as the royals advanced.  the following year, he was traded to the a's in may and wound up facing the yankees in the alcs, and was once again on the losing end.

voici à vous, 1980 tom underwood!

1979 jim todd

jim todd was released by the mariners prior to spring training in 1979, but was quickly signed by the a's.  here's his 1979 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

it was the second time around for todd and the a's, and it ended with his release about a year later.  todd went 2-5 with a 6.56 era and 2 saves for oakland in 1979 in a long relief kind of role. 

voici à vous, 1979 jim todd!

1978 jim spencer

jim spencer was traded from the white sox to the yankees in december of 1977.  here is his 1978 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

spencer had just won his second gold glove as a first baseman when he was traded, but with chris chambliss at first in the bronx, spencer was used primarily as a designated hitter. he played in only 71 games for the yankees in 1978, and his numbers suffered for it, although he did play in the world series against the dodgers and won a ring as a result.  he bounced back in 1979 with a strong season - 23 home runs and a .288 batting average - in 106 games.  sadly, jim spencer died of a heart attack in 2002 at the age of 55.

voici à vous, 1978 jim spencer!

1977 ken brett

one of the weakest variations out there, the autograph placement variation, in its weakest form, is slightly noticeable on today's card - ken brett's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

can you tell?  i don't think the photo is cropped and differently, although o-pee-chee did lighten the background considerably. it simply appears that the o-pee-chee autograph placement is slightly further left on the card, and the crossing of the 'tt' in 'brett' is not as horizontal as on the topps version.  boring, i know, but still a variation.

voici à vous, 1977 ken brett!

1971 claude raymond

here's (one of) claude raymond's 1971 o-pee-chee cards:

here's the front of his (only) topps card from that year:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

now, while this may appear to be a clear cut case of a photo variation, it is not. not really.  that's because raymond has two cards in the 1971 o-pee-chee set.  o-pee-chee inserted the native canadian into an earlier series at the expense of this card (perhaps in an anti-communist protest of sorts)

with its stats on the back

raymond also had a card, identical to the photo on the topps issue, in the later series at 536, just like in the topps set.  thus, no photo variation.  unfortunately, i don't own a copy of the latter o-pee-chee card, but since it's not a variation i'm not too stressed about it.

voici à vous, 1971 claude raymond!  the checklist variation claude raymond.  not the same as topps claude raymond.

1992 matt young

matt young week comes to a close here at oh my o-pee-chee!  i hope you enjoyed it.

while matt young didn't leave boston after the 1991 season, he still managed to have a checklist variation card in the 1992 o-pee-chee set.  here is his 1992 o-pee-chee card:

now the o-pee-chee back:

here's the topps front of the card he replaced in the set:

and the topps back:

not sure what o-pee-chee had against the all star teams, but whatever.  young didn't win a game for boston in 1992, but he pitched one of their most memorable games of the season.  in the first game of a doubleheader at cleveland on april 12, young faced the indians and gave up no hits in 8 innings, although he allowed two runs on seven walks and an error by shortstop luis rivera.  the red sox scored only one run, so the game ended without the indians needing to bat in the 9th.  young got the loss and the credit for a complete game, but not for a no-hitter due to a then-new rule that did not recognize no-hitters of less than 9 innings.  interestingly enough, in the second game of the double header, roger clemens pitched a two-hit shutout giving young and clemens the record for the least number of hits allowed in a doubleheader.

young signed a contract with those same indians for 1993, but as we sadly know, there were no 1993 o-pee-chee variations of topps cards.

voici à vous, 1992 matt young!