1977 john lowenstein

today, let it be lowenstein.

this one hits all the bases as far as basic o-pee-chee variations go: team variation, text variation, photo variation, autograph placement variation.  the only thing missing is the position variation, but john lowenstein was primarily an outfielder, so there was no reason for o-pee-chee to make that change.  they changed pretty much everything else, however, as they caught lowenstein in blue jays' attire during spring training in 1977.  he had been traded by the indians to the blue jays with rick cerone for rico carty in december of 1976, but the jays dealt him back to the tribe towards the end of spring training.  luckily for us, o-pee-chee didn't slap his topps photo back on the card, but instead chose to use their photo with some good ol' traded text.  of course, they also unstacked his facsimile autograph and put it somewhere that made it legible.  here is lowenstein's 1977 o-pee-chee card: 

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

lowenstein hit .242 in 81 games for the indians in 1977, and was traded again prior to the next season.  this time, he went to texas where he played just one year before heading to baltimore.  there, he helped the orioles reach the world series in 1979 and again in 1983 when they won it all.

this is the last of the blue jays to be featured here on the blog from the 1977 o-pee-chee set, by the way.  we are really getting close to the end of the o-pee-chee variations.

voici à vous, 1977 john lowenstein!

1977 dave lemanczyk

dave lemanczyk was featured in real blue jays attire on his 1977 o-pee-chee card.  not an airbrushed version with his detroit tigers' collar improperly re-colored.  his facsimile autograph also got moved around.  here is lemanczyk's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

lemanczyk won a career high 13 games for the blue jays in 1977. he had an era of 4.25 and led the league in earned runs allowed with 119 (tied with vida blue, actually).  he threw the first ever blue jays complete game - pitching all nine innings in the team's second game - but took a loss in doing so.  lemanczyk threw a total of 10 complete games that year, including two 11-inning efforts.

voici à vous, 1977 dave lemanczyk!

1977 pedro garcia

pedro garcia signed as a free agent with the blue jays in january of 1977, facilitating a nice team variation and photo variation card.  o-pee-chee went ahead and moved his facsimile autograph around, too.  here is garcia's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

garcia was the blue jays' first second baseman, and he also hit the first rbi single in franchise history.  he was 3 for 4 in the team's inaugural game, and was the only second baseman the team used in their first 20 games.  at the end of april, however, garcia was batting just .205, and he started to see his playing time diminish.  he was hitting .208 in june when the blue jays released him and went with dave mckay and then steve staggs at second base.  garcia spent the rest of the season and all of 1978 with the padres aaa team, but never made a return to the big leagues.

voici à vous, 1977 pedro garcia!

1977 steve hargan

the blue jays plucked steve hargan from the rangers in the 1976 expansion draft.  and, while topps was able to airbrush hargan into a blue jay hat, o-pee-chee went a step further and fixed the coloring of his jersey's collar.  they also adjusted his facsimile autograph.  here is hargan's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

hargan earned a win in his first appearance as a blue jay.  it came in the team's fourth game as hargan threw 2.1 innings of shutout relief against the tigers.  hargan was moved to the starting rotation after that  appearance, and made 5 starts for toronto before he was traded back to texas in may.  hargan's last start for the blue jays was a complete game, although he took the loss at home against the twins.

the rangers used hargan exclusively in relief.  he appeared in six games for texas, and he picked up his second win of the season in a game against the brewers in which he threw 5.2 innings.  it turned out to be his final big league win as even though the rangers dealt him to the braves in july, he was unable to scratch out a victory in any of his 16 appearances for the braves.

voici à vous, 1977 steve hargan!

1977 pete vuckovich

o-pee-chee correctly determined that an actual photo of blue jays' pitcher pete vuckovich in uniform was better than a photo with an airbrushed cap.  they also unstacked his facsimile autograph, giving us a photo and autograph placement variation in their 1977 set.  here is vuckovich's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

vuckovich was selected by the blue jays in the 19th round of the 1976 expansion draft, and, while he was one of toronto's 'brightest pitching prospects of 1977', he didn't stay with the team for long.  after posting a 7-7 record with 8 saves in 53 games for the expansion jays, vuckovich was traded to the cardinals at the season's end.  he had earned the first save in blue jays' history, and recorded their first shutout and 12-strikeout game as well, but was dealt for victor cruz and tom underwood.

vuckovich enjoyed success in saint louis, but was eventually traded to the brewers where he led the league in wins in 1981 and won the cy young award in 1982.

voici à vous, 1977 pete vuckovich!

1977 jim mason

jim mason received an actual photograph of himself in blue jays gear, along with a relocated facsimile autograph on his 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

i guess topps was pretty confident that mason wouldn't make it back to the world series with toronto when they wrote the copy for the back of his card.  and, they were right, although he didn't spend the entire 1977 season with the blue jays.  after appearing in 22 games (mostly as their regular shortstop) and hitting an anemic .165, mason was dealt to the rangers along with steve hargan and cash for roy howell.

mason was the first pinch hitter in blue jays' history, coming to bat for hector torres in the fourth inning of their inaugural game.  he drew the first walk in team history in that at bat, and later in the game, he laid down toronto's first sacrifice.

voici à vous, 1977 jim mason!

1977 sam ewing

sam ewing was nowhere to be found in the 1977 topps set, but the former first round draft pick of the chicago white sox got some love from o-pee-chee, thanks to his status as a blue jay expansion pick.  here is ewing's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

now the o-pee-chee back:

ewing was used mostly as a pinch hitter by the blue jays in 1977, although he did start the second game in franchise history in left field.  overall, he hit .287 in 97 games, and also saw action in right, at first, and as the blue jays' designated hitter.  he also hit the first four home runs of his career in 1977.  the first two came against future hall of famers jim palmer and dennis eckersley, and the last two came against guys with double-a's in their names - moose haas and don aase. too bad for ewing that jim kaat was in the national league.

voici à vous, 1977 sam ewing!

1977 alan ashby

since he was one of the very first players in blue jays history, o-pee-chee in 1977 took the time to get a real photo of alan ashby in a toronto uniform.  they also not only unstacked and moved his facsimile autograph, it looks like they also obtained a different version of his signature.  here is ashby's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

did the blue jays even have dirty blue jerseys?  wouldn't topps have known?

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

nice cartoon.  ashby would later play in the astrodome as a member of the houston astros from 1979 through 1989.  first, though, he would spend two years with toronto as their primary catcher.  actually, after catching in 124 games for the jays in 1977, he and rick cerone platooned in 1978 with each starting almost exactly half of the team's games.

ashby was not the blue jays' first catcher (that honor went to cerone), he did get the start in their second game in franchise history and became the first blue jay backstop to throw out a runner trying to steal a base.

voici à vous, 1977 alan ashby!

1977 doug howard

doug howard did not get a card in the 1977 topps set (unless he is on the bloody indians team card), or any other set as far as i can tell.  he was included in the o-pee-chee set, however, thanks to his status of being one of their earlier acquisitions.  here is howard's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

now the o-pee-chee back:

so, yesterday i said to pay close attention to the cartoon on the back of tommy smith's cards.  does this look familiar?  it should, because it is the same cartoon used on smith's card with one big exception.  this version of the mickey mantle cartoon says that the commerce comet hit 17 world series home runs, while the one on smith's cards says the total is 18.  smith's card is correct, but i can't imagine what happened in the o-pee-chee offices that resulted in the same cartoon being used twice, and with different/erroneous copy to boot.  i mean, the o-pee-chee set was much smaller than the topps set, so there were plenty of unused cartoons to go around for these checklist variations.  furthermore, any record books that o-pee-chee might have consulted to confirm the number of postseason home runs the mick hit would have been up to date in 1977 given that mantle retired in 1968 and hadn't appeared in the postseason since 1964.  besides, they had it right on smith's card.  crazy stuff.

anyway, doug howard was acquired by the blue jays in the same 1976 trade that netted them alan ashby.  howard had played in 39 games with the tribe in 1976, but did not play for the blue jays at all in 1977 as they released him towards the end of spring training.  i think that it's pretty cool that baseball reference uses this card for howard's bullpen page, but then again, i think that it's the only card he was given.

voici à vous, 1977 doug howard!

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!

1977 dave w roberts

not to be confused with dave (arthur) roberts, featured here just a short time ago, dave (wayne) roberts earned his spot on this blog with an even better variation - team, photo, and autograph placement.  here is dave (w) roberts' 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

the joke was on topps in 1977 as they rushed to get roberts, acquired by the blue jays from the padres shortly after the end of the 1976 season, into some semblance of blue jay gear.  o-pee-chee, on the other hand, was able to wait until roberts was returned to san diego via trade in february of 1977 and then use a real photograph with no need for airbrushing.

at any rate, roberts saw action in the big leagues in 1977 after not getting a promotion in 1976.  in fact, he played in 82 games for the pads and played catcher with a little bit of second, third and short mixed in.  roberts' versatility was on display at the end of april when he caught a complete game and then spent the entire game the next day at shortstop.

voici à vous, 1977 dave (w) roberts!

1977 phil roof

another day, another 1977 o-pee-chee photo and autograph placement variation, although this one actually uses a completely different photo than its topps counterpart.  here is phil roof's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

that's a pretty bad photo that topps used.

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

that is cool - a double play turn cartoon!

phil roof was the very first toronto blue jay.  he was acquired by the blue jays in a trade after the 1976 season, obviously for a player to be named later as the blue jays didn't have any players at the time of the deal  (note - information regarding the roof trade comes from baseball reference.  bluejays.com states that roof was acquired by purchase).  unfortunately, the blue jays would soon acquire alan ashby and ernie whitt, and as a result, roof's time in toronto was short.

roof managed to make three appearances for the blue jays in 1977, including one start behind the plate.  he was 0 for 5 in those games which turned out to be the last of his major league career.  roof went on to manage in the twins organization for many years, most recently in 2005.

voici à vous, 1977 phil roof!

1977 dave mckay

as they often did, o-pee-chee opted for an actual photo of a blue jays player - in this case dave mckay - for their 1977 set.  they also moved his facsimile autograph around.  here is dave mckay's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

i featured alvis woods the other day - the first blue jay to homer in his first big league at bat.  the last person to do that before woods was dave mckay.

mckay, a vancouver native, was the first canadian to play for the blue jays, and he was also the first third baseman in their history.  he started the inaugural game on april 7, 1977 and was 2 for 4 with an rbi.  unfortunately, he finished the season batting just .197.

mckay is probably better known for being one of tony larussa's longtime coaches than he is for being a big league player, even though he managed to play in the majors for 8 years.  after larussa retired, mckay moved on to coach first base for the cubs in 2012.

voici à vous, 1977 dave mckay!

1977 alvis woods

alvis woods looks pleased as punch to have a card of his very own, complete with his facsimile autograph, thanks to o-pee-chee.  here is his 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

it's tough to soar like a blue jay when you are sharing space with three other guys.

now the o-pee-chee back:

walter johnson apparently hid home plate from the opposing base runners but must have flung it like a frisbee towards the catcher just before delivering each pitch.

and the topps back:

alvis woods was selected by the blue jays in the expansion draft from the minnesota twins.  he became the second pinch hitter in blue jays' history when he came to bat for steve bowling in the fifth inning of their inaugural game against the white sox.  moments later, woods became the first blue jay to hit a pinch-hit home run, as well as the first blue jay to hit a home run in his first major league at bat.  woods' second home run of the season (and his career) was also as a pinch hitter.  in fact, woods hit exactly four pinch hit home runs in his career - the first two and the last two.  quite a set of bookends.

voici à vous, 1977 alvis woods!