1977 gary carter

o-pee-chee didn't make a card for andre dawson in 1977, but they did make some changes for the other expo star, gary carter.  a different photo and a relocated facsimile autograph make for a very cool variation.  here is gary carter's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

i addressed (sort of) the different cartoons the other day at garvey cey russell lopes, if you're interested.  i have no idea why o-pee-chee switched the cartoons.

the expos switched carter to a full-time catcher in 1977, as he caught in 146 games and made only one partial game appearance in the outfield.  carter hit .284 with 31 home runs and 84 rbi.  he threw out only 33% of the base stealers who ran against him, but he did lead the league in putouts and assists by a catcher.

in april, carter hit three home runs in a game off of the pirates' jim rooker.  then, in september, he hit two more off of rooker in a different game.  he had 3 other multi-home run games to boot.  he was the first expo to have a three-homer game, and his 31 roundtrippers on the season was a franchise record at the time.

this is the penultimate card to be featured here, and the last of the expos.

voici à vous, 1977 gary carter!

1977 pepe frias

we get a little bit closer to pepe frias, and his facsimile autograph is not in the same spot that it was left by topps thanks to o-pee-chee in 1977.  here is frias' 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

there's not much to say about pepe.  he played slightly more second base in 1977 than he did shortstop, but he only appeared in 53 games total for the expos.  in those games, he garnered only 72 plate appearances, and hit .257 with 2 sacrifices, no walks, and just one extra base hit (a double).  frias was one of the initial wave of shortstops (along with frank taveras, ted martinez, and mario guerrero) to hail from san pedro de macoris in the dominican republic.

i did not realize that he had been in the dodgers' organization in the late 1960's (really just the offseason between the 1967 and 1968 seasons).  i had previously thought that his only turn with the blue was in 1980 and 1981.

voici à vous, 1977 pepe frias!

1977 larry parrish

o-pee-chee wanted to give us a closer look at expos' third baseman larry parrish in 1977, so that's exactly what they did.  in addition to cropping the photo more tightly than topps, they also moved his facsimile autograph.  here is parrish's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

as the text says, parrish did not play in aaa - he made the jump to the big leagues straight from aa in 1974.  maybe that was fairly rare back then, but it seems to be more commonplace now.  anyway, parrish was just 23 in 1977 and already he had a couple of full major league seasons under his belt.  in 1977, he hit .246 with 11 home runs and 46 rbi.  he hit two home runs in a game against the braves in mid-may, and then later in that month he launched three homers in a game against the cardinals.  parrish manned the hot corner in montreal until he was traded to the rangers in the spring of 1982, making way for tim wallach to take over.

voici à vous, 1977 larry parrish!

1977 bill greif

bill greif looks a lot better in real expos gear than he does in airbrushed attire.  he was traded from saint louis to montreal after the 1976 season, and o-pee-chee took the time to photograph him during spring training of 1977.  while they were at it, o-pee-chee also unstacked his facsimile autograph, and the result is a pretty decent card for the times in which it was created.  here is greif's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

i'm not sure what kind of jersey topps thought that the expos wore back then.

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

guess what? o-pee-chee and topps went and did all that work for nothing, as greif never appeared in the major leagues as an expo.  he was released by the team at the end of spring training and eventually signed on with the mets organization.  he pitched in a few games for their aaa team in 1978, but unfortunately never made it back to the big leagues.

voici à vous, bill greif!

1977 steve rogers

o-pee-chee used an updated photo of expos' ace steve rogers (and they also lowered his facsimile autograph) for his 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

as a kid, i found it funny that captain america (also named steve rogers) pitched for a canadian team.  the baseball playing rogers was selected by the expos in the first round of the 1971 draft, just a couple of picks behind the cubs who chose burt hooton.  that is interesting to me, because hooton is rogers' number one career comparable, according to baseball reference.

rogers had just the second winning season of his career in 1977, going 17-16 a year after leading the national league with 17 losses.  he had a 3.10 era in 40 starts, and threw 17 complete games with four coming via shutouts.  starting on three days' rest (the expos used a four-man rotation for much, if not all, of 1977) rogers threw a one-hitter against the cardinals in june of 1977 in which he also struck out 10 batters.

voici à vous, 1977 steve rogers!

1977 tim foli

i believe that o-pee-chee did nothing to tim foli's 1977 card except move his facsimile autograph a little bit.  here is foli's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

i guess there wasn't much going on in foli's 1976 season based on the text topps used.  in 1977, all four of foli's home runs came as a giant.  that's because the expos traded him for chris speier in late april.  prior to the trade, foli had appeared in 13 games and was hitting .175.  for the giants, he hit .228 in 104 games, and had his contract purchased by the mets after the season ended - a deal that gave us a better o-pee-chee variation.

voici à vous, 1977 tim foli!

1977 joe kerrigan

o-pee-chee used a more recent photo for joe kerrigan's 1977 card than topps had used, and they also moved his facsimile autograph slightly.  here is kerrigan's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

when i was a kid (heck, even now) i wanted to find ty cline's ice cream store.  va-va-voom!

as for kerrigan, he picked up 3 wins and 11 saves for the expos in 1977, and all of his wins came on different days, unlike in 1976 when he earned both of his wins for the season on the same day.  he was traded to the orioles after the season ended, but we already knew all about that.

voici à vous, 1977 joe kerrigan!

1977 chip lang

o-pee-chee committed a cardinal sin with chip lang's 1977 card, using a posed spring training photo in place of the in-game photo topps had used for their version of his card.  o-pee-chee also moved his facsimile autograph.

here's the topps front:

it looks like a yacht is sailing by as lang delivers his pitch.

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

chip spent all of 1977 in the minor leagues, pitching for the expos' aa and aaa affiliates in quebec and colorado.  one of his teammates in denver during the '77 season was tom walker.  lang eventually married walker's sister, and so is an uncle of pittsburgh's second baseman, neil walker. lang never did return to the major leagues, as he finished his career in the pirates' organization in 1979.

and, today just happens to be his 60th birthday.  happy birthday chip!

voici à vous, 1977 chip lang!

1977 dennis blair

there really isn't a whole lot of difference between the images on dennis blair's 1977 cards, but for some reason, o-pee-chee went with an entirely different photo than topps.  they also adjusted his facsimile autograph.  here is dennis blair's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

blair spent the whole of 1977 in the minor leagues, and in september he became the player to be named later in a deal between the expos and the orioles.  he stayed with the orioles organization until july of 1979 when he was traded to the padres for another minor leaguer.  the pads finally called him up for what amounted to a 5-game stint during the summer of 1980.  in those five appearances, blair made one start (it was a good one - 7.1 innings and only 2 runs allowed) and took the loss in one of his turns as a reliever.

voici à vous, 1977 dennis blair!

1977 expos coaches

i suppose since the blue jays were new to major league baseball, and were given a coaches card in the set, o-pee-chee felt obligated to do the same for the senior canadian team.  as a result, we get this beauty of a checklist variation - the 1977 o-pee-chee expos coaches card:

here's the back:

there is no topps equivalent (that's why it's a checklist variation), but boy do i wish topps had done this for all the teams.  or at least for the dodgers (as i did for my 1978 topps burger king dodgers/update set).  anyway, there are a couple of dodger ties to this card, the first being jim brewer.

brewer pitched for the dodgers from 1964 into the 1975 season.  he retired after the 1976 season and was immediately hired by (former dodger) dick williams to be the expos' pitching coach.  brewer served in that role for three seasons before turning to college level coaching.

billy gardner coached first base for the expos for two seasons (1977 and 1978) before being named manager of the team's aa affiliate.  gardner later left the organization for the twins, who pegged him to be their major league skipper in 1981.

mickey vernon is the other dodger link of the staff. he was a hitting instructor in the dodgers' organization prior to joining the expos as their batting coach for the 1977 season.  he replaced larry doby, who had replaced former dodger duke snider the previous season.  vernon, a former all-star and manager, spent two years in montreal and later finished his coaching career with a season as a yankees' coach in 1982.

ozzie virgil had joined the expos staff in 1976, and served as their third base coach for all of williams' run as manager.  that lasted into the 1981 season when williams was replaced by jim fanning, although virgil remained with the team through their postseason run.

voici à vous, 1977 expos coaches!

1977 record breaker (jose morales)

hey, here's an idea - how about we change the photo used for jose morales' record breaker card, on which we recognize that he now holds the record for most pinch hits in a season, from a shot of him actually hitting to a spring training portrait!?!  sound good?  man, i have no idea what was going on in ontario during the spring of 1977.  anyway, here is the 1977 o-pee-chee record breaker jose morales card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

52 of jose morales' 74 at bats in 1977 were made as a pinch hitter.  he had 10 hits and 7 rbi in those at bats, which was a far cry from his record breaking performance in 1976 when he was 25 for 78 as a pinch hitter.  in all, morales hit only .203 over 65 games for the expos in what would be his final season in montreal.  he was picked up by the twins prior to the 1978 season, and he rebounded nicely by posting a .316 average in 101 games.  although he was used by the twins largely as a designated hitter, he did manage a .298 clip (14 for 47) as a pinch hitter.  morales' single season pinch hit record was eventually broken by john vander wal in 1995, and lenny harris currently holds the record for number of pinch hit at-bats in a season.

voici à vous, 1977 record breaker (jose morales)!

1977 barry foote

for canada day, it's a bona fide and easy to spot photo and autograph placement variation, courtesy of the expos' barry foote and his 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

somewhat fitting that foote's card features a cartoon of an overused arm.

here's the topps back:

with gary carter's full-time conversion to catcher, foote was expendable, and the expos dealt him to the phillies after he had appeared in just 15 games of the 1977 season.  foote appeared in 18 more games as a phillie (where he was a back-up to bob boone), and finished the season with a combined average of .235 and 3 home runs.  his final home run as an expo was a game-tying 8th inning blast off of bruce sutter in a game the expos eventually won in 13 innings.  foote caught the entire game.

voici à vous, 1977 barry foote!

1977 dick williams

o-pee-chee gave the managers of the canadian teams their due in 1977, so here is dick williams' 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps 'equivalent', upon which williams gets a teeny tiny photo:

now the o-pee-chee back:

that's a pretty impressive managerial record.

and the topps back:

after not being able to get things going in anaheim, williams took the reins in montreal.  and, after two losing seasons (including a 75-87 record in 1977), williams led the expos to a 95-win campaign in 1979.  they won 90 games under williams in 1980, and then made the postseason for the first time in 1981.  unfortunately, williams had been replaced by jim fanning late in the strike-shortened season.  williams did eventually return to the postseason (and the world series) with the steve garvey-led padres in 1984.

voici à vous, 1977 dick williams!