1977 jim slaton

jim slaton was an original brewer, and he was still with the club heading in to the 1977 season.  still, he got a variation, however slight, in the 1977 o-pee-chee set.  here is his 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

so, you can see that the autograph is in a different spot to the photo, and the photo itself is cropped differently, ever so slightly.

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

it's a pretty tame variation, but at least they left bert blyleven's wooden shoes alone.

slaton pitched for the brew crew in '77 but was then traded to the tigers for the 1978 season.  he returned to the brewers the following season and stuck around for 5 more years before leaving milwaukee for the second time.  the cool thing about slaton is that each time he left the brewers, he got a cool o-pee-chee variation - 1978 and 1984.

voici à vous, 1977 jim slaton!

1984 jim slaton

jim slaton was traded from the brewers to the angels in december of 1983. here is his 1984 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

as previously mentioned, slaton had spent his entire career in milwaukee except for that one season in 1978 which spawned another o-pee-chee variation. in his last couple of seasons with the brewers, he had found some success in pitching out of the bullpen, but the angels decided to return him to the role of a starter after the first month of the 1984 season. he made 22 starts, going 6-10 with a shutout and 5 complete games. he started an additional 36 games for the angels over the 1985 and 1986 seasons before he was released partway through the '86 campaign.

voici à vous, 1984 jim slaton!

1978 jim slaton

jim slaton was traded by the brewers to the tigers in december of 1977.  here is his 1978 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

slaton was traded with rich folkers for ben oglivie.  folkers was released by the tigers prior to the start of the 1978 season, and while slaton spent just the 1978 season with detroit, he made it count, winning a career high 17 games.  he became a free agent after the season and re-signed with the brewers.  this means that the tigers really lost out on the trade as oglivie had some huge seasons for milwaukee.  he and slaton helped the brew crew make their first two postseason appearances in 1981 and 1982, and slaton was the winning pitcher in game 4 of the '82 world series.

voici à vous, 1978 jim slaton!