1983 steve garvey

well, what can i say about this card.  i saved it for the last of the 1983 o-pee-chee variations.  this card (and the events surrounding the need for it) broke my heart.  ultimately, it helped me realize that, more often than not, you cheer for the name on the front of the jersey rather than the one on the back.  which is not to say that i stopped cheering for steve garvey.  ever. 

in december of 1982, steve garvey, the anchor of the infield of my youth, signed a free agent deal with the san diego padres.  here is his 1983 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

1983 turned out to be a mixed bag for the garv.  in april, he passed billy williams to set the all-time national league record for consecutive games played at 1,118.  he did it, fittingly enough, in a game against the dodgers, at dodger stadium, with yours truly in attendance.  in game 1207, however, garvey was injured in the first inning on a play at the plate and was removed from the game, and he wound up missing the rest of the season. 

although he played in only 100 games, he had his groove back.  at the time of injury, he was hitting .294 with 76 runs scored, 114 hits, 22 doubles, 14 home runs, 59 rbi and 29 walks.  those numbers project out to 123 runs scored, 185 hits, 36 doubles, 23 home runs, 96 rbi, and 47 walks over 162 games, and it would have equated to his best season since 1980, at least.

garvey was back and healthy in 1984, playing in 161 of 162 games (and 153 in a row) and helping the pads get to the world series via a walk-off home run in the nlcs against the cubbies. 
 
voici à vous, 1983 steve garvey!

1983 randy jones

prior to the 1983 season, free agent randy jones signed a contract with the pittsburgh pirates. here is his 1983 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

unfortunately for jones, the pirates released him at the end of spring training, and he never actually took the mound for the bucs in the big leagues. that means that jones' final career appearance came on september 7, 1982 against the pirates, and that his 1983 card is a 'final tribute'. jones' career was over, with exactly 100 wins, a cy young award, and a penchant for bbq.

voici à vous, 1983 randy jones!

1983 mike krukow

mike krukow was traded by the phillies to the giants in december of 1982 after just one season in the city of brotherly love. here is his 1983 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

krukow was unable to post another winning record in 1983, going 11-11 with an era just under 4. in fact, he didn't have a winning record again until his marvelous 1986 season in which he was 20-9 and finished 3rd in the cy young voting. looking at his game log from 1983, i am intrigued by one of his starts. details are sketchy, but krukow was pulled for a pinch hitter from his may 12 start against the reds by manager frank robinson after 6 innings in which he had given up an unearned run, but no hits (he had walked 4). the giants were up 4-1 at the time and krukow wound up with the win (his first as a giant). he also threw a 2-hitter against the padres in june.

it is worth noting that krukow had 5 career home runs, 4 more than his position playing play-by-play partner, duane kuiper.

voici à vous, 1983 mike krukow!

1983 gene tenace

gene tenace, the hero of the 1972 world series for the a's, signed a free agent deal with the pirates in december of 1982. here's his 1983 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

he appeared in 53 games for the pirates in 1983 (his last season in the big leagues), but only 23 times did he actually play in the field. tenace hit .177 with 6 rbi, and was released at the end of spring training in 1984.

voici à vous, 1983 gene tenace!

1983 dave collins

what's more american to celebrate on the fourth of july than baseball and the yankees dumping a player with two years left on his contract?  that's what they did after the 1982 season, when they sent dave collins, a guy they signed to a 3-year deal a year earlier, to the blue jays (with mike morgan, fred mcgriff, and cash) for dale murray and tom dodd.  and you wonder why the yankees missed the postseason for 14 years.  here's collins' 1983 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

collins spent his first season in toronto as their primary left fielder.  he hit .271 in 118 games, and stole 31 bases.  in 1984, however, collins returned to the form he displayed with the reds in 1979 and 1980, hitting .308 and stealing 60 bases.  he also set career highs in doubles and triples (his 14 3-baggers led the league) and his .811 ops was the best of his career as well.  for his efforts, collins was named blue jays' player of the year, but was later traded prior to the 1985 season.

voici à vous, 1983 dave collins!

1983 steve kemp

after one season in chicago with the white sox, steve kemp signed a free agent deal with the yankees for the 1983 campaign. here is his 1983 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

kemp's numbers took a tumble in the bronx in '83. his average dropped from .286 to .241, and his rbi total was halved from 98 to 49. he rebounded a bit in 1984 when he hit .291 in 94 games, but his power didn't come back and he hit only 7 home runs.

voici à vous, 1983 steve kemp!

1983 joe morgan super veteran

joe morgan was traded from the giants to the phillies in december of 1982.  here's his 1983 o-pee-chee super veteran card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

it's not often you see three teams represented on one card as is the case with the opc version of this card (colt .45s, giants, phillies) so that is cool in and of itself.  i posted morgan's base 1983 card a while back, so i'll just focus on the milestones in this post, like i did with tony perez. 

morgan played just two more seasons after 1982, so he didn't rack up a lot of new milestones or new seasonal bests.  he did wind up with just over 2500 hits (steve garvey had more - ha!), getting number 2500 on july 23, 1984 at minnesota.  he is currently 91st on the all-time hit list and 179th on the all-time rbi list.

voici à vous, 1983 joe morgan super veteran!

1983 lee mazzilli

lee mazzilli was traded from the yankees to the pirates in december of 1982. here is his 1983 o-pee-chee card:

with a lurking robin yount!

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

mazzilli had spent time with both the yankees and the rangers in 1982 after spending the first 6 years of his career in new york with the mets. with the pirates in 1983, maz hit .240 with 5 home runs and 24 rbi in 109 games. he spent two more mediocre seasons in pittsburgh before being released by the pirates and subsequently picked up by the mets during the 1986 campaign, where he wound up winning a world championship.

mazzilli made me nervous in 1988 when he singled as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the 12th inning of the pivotal nlcs game 4 between the mets and the dodgers. that put the tying run on second with no outs. thankfully, tim leary got gregg jefferies to fly out, jesse orosco got darryl strawberry to pop out, and orel hershiser got the save by getting kevin mcreynolds to end the game with a fly out.
 
voici à vous, 1983 lee mazzilli!

1983 tom seaver

tom seaver was traded from the reds back to the mets in december of 1982.  here is his 1983 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

tom terrific had 264 wins when the mets reacquired him, and no doubt they were hoping to celebrate win number 300 in a couple of years.  however, seaver won just 9 games despite a 3.55 era in 1983 and was
saddled with 14 losses.  he did not throw any one-hitters as he had done many times for the mets during his first tenure with the team, but did have a 3-hit shutout against the pirates in april.  the mets figured seaver's age and his salary would ward off any takers in the free agent compensation draft after the season, and left him unprotected.  bad idea.

voici à vous, 1983 tom seaver!

1983 mike torrez

mike torrez was traded from the red sox to the mets in january of 1983.  here's his 1983 o-pee-chee card:

in a very non-opc move, they hid the text in a dark spot on the card.  not cool.

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

torrez's return to the national league did not go as planned, as he wound up leading the senior circuit in losses, earned runs allowed, and walks in 1983.  he did have 5 complete games, including a 10-inning affair against the braves which he won 2-1.  after a 1-5 start to the 1984 season, torrez was released by the mets.  he landed in oakland, but was released by the a's after just a couple of appearances.

voici à vous, 1983 mike torrez!

1983 joe morgan

lil' joe morgan was traded from the giants to the phillies in december of 1982.  here is his 1983 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

i was happy to get morgan out of the national league west in 1983, especially after he took terry forster deep in 1982 to squash the dodgers' postseason hopes. both the dodgers and morgan made it to the playoffs in 1983, but it was lil' joe going all the way to the world series with the phillies who brought together three members of the big red machine (morgan, pete rose, and tony perez).

after the phillies lost to the orioles, morgan, who had hit a career low .230 during the season, was released.  he eventually wound up in the american league with the a's.

voici à vous, 1983 joe morgan!

1983 leon roberts

leon roberts (not leon 'bip' roberts) was traded by the blue jays to the royals in february 1983 for cecil fielder.  straight-up.  here's his 1983 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

roberts, in my opinion, is a first ballot member of the reggie cleveland all-stars, but i digress.  roberts spent the last two seasons of his career in kansas city, playing outfield with an occasional dh appearance.  in 1983, he hit 8 homers, and in 1984, he made his only major league pitching appearance in a blowout loss against the indians.  in that game, roberts mopped up by allowing 3 runs in his lone inning of work, although he did strikeout mel hall, the first batter he faced.

voici à vous, 1983 leon roberts!

1983 alvis woods

alvis woods was traded from the blue jays to the a's in november of 1982.  here is his 1983 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

unfortunately, woods never appeared in a game for the a's as they released him towards the end of spring training.  he wound up re-signing with the blue jays, and spent two seasons in their minor league system.  he signed with the twins (who had originally drafted him in 1972) for the 1985 season, but again was relegated to the minors.  in 1986, however, woods finally made it back to the big leagues.  appearing in 23 games for the twinkies, he hit .321 with a couple of home runs. 

although 1986 turned out to be woods' last season, he went out with style, hitting a pinch-hit, game-tying home run in the bottom of the 9th in his second to last major league at bat, and then delivered a pinch-hit rbi single in his final big league at bat.

voici à vous, 1983 alvis woods!