1985 donnie moore

donnie moore was chosen by the california angels from the atlanta braves as a free agent compensation pick in january of 1985. here is his 1985 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

love the 'drafted' text!  the angels had lost fred lynn to free agency, and per the rules of the day, they were entitled to select an unprotected player from a list provided by each team. it was the same draft that resulted in angel salazar moving to the cardinals. anyway, moore took his 16 saves and sub-3.00 era to the west coast and turned in a season worthy of an all-star appearance, along with top ten finishes in both the cy young (7th) and mvp (6th) voting thanks to his 31 saves and 1.92 era.
in the midsummer classic, moore pitched two perfect innings in relief. he pitched well again in 1986, helping the angels to the postseason. unfortunately, that series was marred for moore by one pitch. even though he pitched for the angels again in 1987 and most of 1988, many believe the pitch he threw to dave henderson indirectly led to his death in 1989, less than a year after he was released by the angels.

voici à vous, 1985 donnie moore!

1985 argenis salazar

argenis (aka angel) salazar was chosen as a free agent compensation pick by the cardinals from the expos in january of 1985. here is his 1985 o-pee-chee card:

i believe this is the only o-pee-chee card to use the word "drafted" in the text variation.  here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

like all good venezuelan shortstops, salazar listed his baseball hero as dave concepcion.  here's the topps back:

salazar never played for the cardinals, however, as they traded him to the mets in april of 1985.  he never appeared in the big leagues for the mets, either.  instead, he spent the '85 season in aaa, and then they traded him to the royals in april of 1986. 

more interesting than all of that, however, is how salazar helped tom henke get to the blue jays.  the rangers signed former jay cliff johnson as a free agent prior to the 1985 season (variation to be featured at a later date) and so were allowed a compensation pick from the unprotected players on each team's roster.  they wanted donnie moore, but the angels picked him first (another variation yet to be featured here), and their backup plan was a guy named bill cutshall of the expos.  unfortunately, the cards (who got their pick by losing bruce sutter to the braves) took salazar from montreal, and because a team could only lose one player, the blue jays took henke from the rangers instead.

voici à vous, 1985 argenis salazar!