1977 ron cey

hey now!  the penguin makes (another) appearance on the oh my o-pee-chee blog thanks to the variant cropping and relocated facsimile autograph on his 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

you can see the difference in the photo left-to-right thanks to the white sleeve of the guy in the far right of the dugout on the topps card.

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

cey started the all-star game at third for the national league for the 3rd time in 4 years and finished 8th in the national league mvp voting.  in the midsummer classic, he was 0 for 2 with a walk and a strikeout, but he hit .308 when it counted - in the nlcs.  against the yankees, cey was just 4 for 21, but he did have a double and a home run to his credit in the series. cey also set a major league record for rbi's in the month of april with 29 in 1977.

voici à vous, 1977 ron cey!

1987 ron cey

in january of 1987, the cubs traded ron cey to the a's. here is his 1987 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

i've been saving this 1987 variation for last, and it is indeed the last of the 1987 variations. the penguin, who was the la dodgers' leading career home run hitter until eric karros surpassed him, spent about half the season with the a's in 1987. he was released in july of that year, right around the same time fellow infielder steve garvey went down for the season with an injury and former teammate bill buckner was released by the red sox. only buckner returned for more big league action.

cey had hit just .221 in 45 games for the a's, primarily as a dh, although he also played some first base for the first time in his career. he hit 4 home runs to give him 316 for his career, and one of those bombs was hit at yankee stadium off of dave righetti - the first time he had visited the bronx since clinching the 1981 world series title there in 1981.

despite being released in july, cey was still featured in the 1987 topps traded set which i appreciated. although steve garvey was my favorite player, it was the penguin's poster that was on my wall.

voici à vous, 1987 ron cey!

1983 ron cey

since i featured dave lopes yesterday, i might as well keep the infield thing going with ron cey and his 1983 o-pee-chee team and text variation card.

the penguin was traded to the cubs for dan cataline (a minor leaguer) and vance lovelace, a pitcher who appeared in a total of 9 games in the late 80's.  i think al campanis was losing his touch.

here's the topps front:

so, in addition to the 'now with' text, the name text and border colors are different, and the position gets the french translation on the o-pee-chee card.

just like 1982, the o-pee-chee set was limited to 396 cards, and, while there are some consistincies (as we will see shortly) between the checklists, the o-pee-chee set does not completely mirror the first 396 cards in the topps set.

here's the o-pee-chee back of cey's card:

and the topps back:

both number 15 in their respective sets.  i believe this is the exception, not the norm, but i haven't definitively reviewed things.

voici à vous, 1983 ron cey!