1977 butch wynegar

as far as i can tell, the photo is the same, but the facsimile autograph is relocated and the rookie cup is eliminated on the front of butch wynegar's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

wynegar, who was all of 20 years old, definitely earned that rookie cup in 1976. as the twins primary catcher, he played in 149 games, hit 10 home runs and drove in 69 with a .260 average.  he finished 2nd in the league rookie of the year voting (he lost to the bird, mark fidrych) and was named to the all-star team.  i believe that he was the youngest position player ever to appear in the game (he walked) until bryce harper made the squad for the 2012 midsummer classic.

in 1977, wynegar put up just about the same numbers he had posted in 1976.  his slash line was 10/79/.261, and he had the exact same number of hits (139) as he had the previous year.  he was also named to the all-star team once again, and singled off of tom seaver after relieving carlton fisk behind the plate in the contest.

voici à vous, 1977 butch wynegar!

1987 butch wynegar

the yankees traded catcher butch wynegar to the angels in december of 1986 for ron romanick. here's his 1987 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

in anaheim, wynegar was reunited with manager gene mauch, who was his manager in minnesota back when wynegar first broke into the league. wynegar was brought in to compete for the job backing up veteran catcher bob boone (along with darrell miller and jerry narron), and did so successfully as narron was the odd man out and was released prior to the start of the season. it turned out that wynegar was the angels' starting catcher for the first month of the season because boone was out with an injury. once boone returned at the beginning of may, wynegar played very sparingly (and not at all after july 26). he returned to the angels in 1988, playing for the first couple months of the season, and was released at the end of the season.

voici à vous, 1987 butch wynegar!