1977 jim sundberg

rangers' catcher jim sundberg got a slight left-to-right cropping photo variation and a autograph placement variation from o-pee-chee in 1977.  here is sundberg's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

sundberg caught in all 149 games in which he appeared  for the rangers in 1977, and hit a career high .291.  he had 6 homers, including his first walk-off blast, and his 65 rbi proved to be a career best.  he won his second consecutive gold glove (he would eventually win 6 straight), and finished 15th in the league mvp voting.

voici à vous, 1977 jim sundberg!

1977 gaylord perry

gaylord perry got the slight photo cropping and tilted facsimile autograph treatment from o-pee-chee in 1977.  here is perry's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

first things first - the cartoon.  darrell johnson won a pennant with the red sox and two years later found himself managing an expansion team.  he never faced gaylord perry as player, and while he later managed the rangers, perry was long gone by then, even after a second stint with texas.

1977 was perry's last season with the rangers for a couple of years, anyway.  he went to san diego for the 1978 season (and won his second cy young award, becoming the first pitcher to win the award in both leagues) before returning to the rangers for a short time in 1980.  in 1977, however, perry won 15 games, 4 by shutout.  he twice struck out 13 batters in a game; the second time came against darrell johnson's mariners in perry's final start of the season.

it's worth noting that perry was around 37 years old when the photo for his card was taken.  he looks at least 10 years older than that.  the ol' spitball must age a pitcher something fierce.

voici à vous, 1977 gaylord perry!

1977 toby harrah

toby harrah managed to get four variations from o-pee-chee in 1977.  first, they got rid of the all-star banner.  then, they moved his facsimile autograph.  they also slightly adjusted the photo left-to-right, but  most impressively, they also changed his position.  here is harrah's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

the rangers had picked up bert campaneris to play short for them in 1977, so harrah was bumped over to third base.  both topps and o-pee-chee were able to get campy on to a rangers' card in 1977, but only o-pee-chee bothered to follow through with the impact to harrah.

although he did not make the all-star team in 1977, harrah did have a good year.  he reached the 20/20 plateau for the second time, hitting 27 homers and stealing the same number of bases.  he also led the league in walks with 109, scored 90 runs, and drove in 87.  he also hit the only two inside-the-park home runs of his career in 1977, the first of which was also a walk-off (run-off?) against the indians.

voici à vous, 1977 toby harrah!

1977 bert blyleven

bert blyleven's facsimile autograph is slightly adjusted on his 1977 o-pee-chee card:

 here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

regarding the cartoon, james (deacon) mcguire may have played in 26 seasons from the late 19th century into the early 1900's, but in a couple of those he was a manager who put himself in the lineup once or twice.  blyleven wound up pitching for 22 seasons over 23 years (he missed 1991 due to injury), and as we all know, jamie moyer is pitching in his 25th season this year - and it could have been his 27th if he hadn't spent all of 1992 in the minors and then missed 2011 due to injury.  here's the topps back:

1977 was bert's first full season with the rangers, and his string of consecutive 200-strikeout seasons came to an end.  he went 14-12 in 30 starts and posted an era of 2.72 while leading the league in whip at 1.06.  he had 182 k's, 15 complete games, and 5 shutouts, and presumably led the league in flatulence as well.  by my estimation, there were at least four, and probably more, games that blyleven either lost or received no decision in 1977 alone that should have resulted in a win for the dutchman.  shoulda woulda coulda, but i have no doubt that bert could easily have been a 300-game winner with a bit more luck/offense/bullpen support.

blyleven's final start of the 1977 season resulted in a no-hitter against the angels, in which he faced just one batter above the minimum of 27.  in that game, blyleven gave up a lone walk with 2 outs in the 9th inning, although a rangers' error had allowed a runner earlier in the game (who was wiped out thanks to a double play).

voici à vous, 1977 bert blyleven!

1992 dickie thon

dickie thon signed as a free agent with the rangers in december of 1991.  here is his 1992 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

thon had re-emerged as a starting shortstop during his time with the phillies as he worked his way back from a horrible beaning in 1984.  with the rangers, thon began the season as the rangers' starting shortstop, but missed most of july and august.  in all, he appeared in 95 games and hit .247.  one of his 4 homers on the year came off of randy johnson, so at least he had that going for him.

voici à vous, 1992 dickie thon!

1991 charlie hough

charlie hough signed a free agent contract with the white sox in december of 1990. here is his 1991 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

hough left texas as the franchise's winningest pitcher, with 139 career victories. he wound up winning 9 for the chisox in 1991 while losing 10. he made 29 starts, and for the first time since 1983, hough appeared in a game as a reliever. in fact, hough, who began his career as a reliever with the dodgers, made two relief appearances in 1991, and they turned out to be the last two of his career. after a second year in chicago, hough joined the marlins, and was their inagural opening day starter when he beat the dodgers 6-3. in other news, this is the last of the 1991 o-pee-chee variations. we're down to 1977 and 1992.

voici à vous, 1991 charlie hough!

1991 scott coolbaugh

scott coolbaugh was traded from the rangers to the padres in december of 1990. here's his 1991 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

coolbaugh played in 60 games for the pads, and as he did in each season in which he played, he hit exactly two home runs. he spent the next couple of seasons in the minors without his 'usual' callup to the bigs. he did return to the majors in 1994 for the final time in his career with the cardinals. scott is also the brother of mike coolbaugh, the rockies' minor league coach who was tragically killed by a line drive while he was coaching first base in a 2007 minor league game.
 
voici à vous, 1991 scott coolbaugh!

1977 jeff burroughs

in december of 1976, jeff burroughs, the number 1 pick in the 1969 draft and 1974 al mvp, was traded from the rangers to the braves for 5 players and cash.  here's his 1977 o-pee-chee card, a seemingly straight forward team variation that, when more closely inspected, turns out to be more than that:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

it's almost as though topps knew he was not going to return to texas as they used a hatless, closely cropped photo.  still, o-pee-chee didn't just stop with a team variation.  no, they also modified the photo by darkening it, airbrushing out the striping around his neck, and changing the shadowing on burroughs' shoulder.  then, just for good measure, they moved his autograph around.  in a rare move, they put it in a darker spot than it had been on the topps version of the card.

anyway, burroughs enjoyed his first season in the national league.  he scored 91 runs, hit 41 home runs, had 114 rbi and even stole 4 bases.  still, the braves stunk and lost 101 games that year. burroughs spent the next 3 seasons in atlanta before he was traded to the mariners during spring training in 1981.

voici à vous, 1977 jeff burroughs!

1982 jim kern

jim kern was traded from the rangers to the mets in december of 1981. here is his 1982 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

hold the phone - his o-pee-chee team and text variation shows him to be with the reds, not the mets. what gives? well, kern was traded twice in the offseason. a couple months after the mets acquired him, they sent him to the reds in the george foster deal. that february trade was made in plenty of time for o-pee-chee to get the card right and avoid a 1981 donruss bob owchinko moment.

with the reds, farmer somehow managed a nice 2.84 era in his 50 appearances despite a whip of 1.43 and a strikeout rate of less than 1/ip. that probably has something to do with the relievers who followed him and their inherited runners scored, as kern only finished about half of the game he pitched in. he did have a couple of saves to go with his 3-5 record when he was traded for the third time since the end of the 1981 season. the last trade, made in august of 1982, sent kern back to the american league where he joined the chicago white sox. he had a 2-1 record for them with 3 saves despite his era ballooning to 5.14. strangely, in his 13 games with the southsiders in '82, he lowered his whip to 1.14 and increased his strikeouts per inning rate to almost 2!

i want to point out that the 1982 topps jim kern card was one of the cards that introduced me to card blogging, thanks to a post on gem mint ten way back when.

voici à vous, 1982 jim kern!

1977 bert campaneris

after 13 years with the a's, bert campaneris signed as a free agent with the rangers prior to the 1977 season.  topps was quick to the draw (literally) and so we were deprived of an o-pee-chee team variation here.  instead we got just an autograph placement variation. here's his 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

campaneris made the all-star team for the final time in his career in 1977, which also happened to be his final campaign as a full-time shortstop.  he hit .254 and scored 77 runs while stealing 27 bases.  unfortunately, he led the league in times caught stealing with 20.

voici à vous, 1977 bert campaneris!

1991 jamie moyer

after being released by the rangers following the 1990 season, jamie moyer signed a free agent deal with the cardinals. here is his 1991 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

moyer wound up making 7 starts for the cards, plus one relief appearance. he was 0-5 with a 5.74 era and the cardinals summarily released him after the end of the season. moyer went through the cubs and tigers' organizations in 1992 without getting back to the big leagues before signing with the orioles for the '93 season and pulling things together. hard to believe after his rocky first few years in the bigs that he would pitch for 24 seasons and rack up 267 career victories. and maybe even a couple more - moyer recently announced that he is preparing for a comeback after missing the 2011 season due to injury.

voici à vous, 1991 jamie moyer!

1989 jamie moyer

jamie moyer was traded to the rangers in december of 1988 in the rafael palmeiro deal. here is his 1989 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

moyer was coming off of consecutive 15-loss seasons for the cubs, but he managed to do better for the rangers in 1989. it helped that he only made 15 appearances (all starts). he was 4-9 in those games with a 4.86 era. the rangers split his time between the rotation and the bullpen in 1990, and moyer pasted a record of 2-6 with a 4.66 era that year. the rangers wound up releasing him at the end of the season.

voici à vous, 1989 jamie moyer!

1989 nolan ryan

in december of 1988, when he was one month from turning 42, nolan ryan signed a free agent contract with the texas rangers. here is his 1989 o-pee-chee card:

it's not as awesome as his 1980 o-pee-chee variation, that's for sure.

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

when ryan joined the rangers, he became the first player to play for all four of the original expansion franchises (the mets, angels, astros/colt 45s, and the rangers/senators). he also was 27 wins shy of 300, and 225 strikeouts shy of 5000 for his career. the strikeouts came easily, as they always had. ryan led the league with 301 k's in 1989, recording his 5000th strikeout on august 22 when he victimized rickey henderson. as for the wins, ryan had 16 in 1989 which was his highest season total since 1982.

although he didn't throw a no-hitter in 1989, he made the all-star team (he pitched 2 scoreless innings and picked up the win) and finished 5th in the cy young voting.

voici à vous, 1989 nolan ryan!