1977 pedro garcia

pedro garcia signed as a free agent with the blue jays in january of 1977, facilitating a nice team variation and photo variation card.  o-pee-chee went ahead and moved his facsimile autograph around, too.  here is garcia's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

garcia was the blue jays' first second baseman, and he also hit the first rbi single in franchise history.  he was 3 for 4 in the team's inaugural game, and was the only second baseman the team used in their first 20 games.  at the end of april, however, garcia was batting just .205, and he started to see his playing time diminish.  he was hitting .208 in june when the blue jays released him and went with dave mckay and then steve staggs at second base.  garcia spent the rest of the season and all of 1978 with the padres aaa team, but never made a return to the big leagues.

voici à vous, 1977 pedro garcia!

1977 ron leflore

ron leflore lost his rookie cup and had his facsimile autograph relocated by o-pee-chee in 1977.  here is his 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

we'll see a cartoon reference to leflore's hitting streak in a few days.  leflore followed up his 1976 all-star season with an even better one in 1977.  although he did not make the all-star team, he hit .325 on the year and was second in the league with 212 hits.  he also scored 100 runs for the first time in his career and set a career high with 16 homers.  he stole only 39 bases, however, and was caught 19 times.  i still remember reading leflore's autobiography and watching 'one in a million' on tv in 1978 while looking at this card.  or, a much more beat up version of it rather.

voici à vous, 1977 ron leflore!

1977 ben oglivie

o-pee-chee takes us closer to ben oglivie's winning smile by more tightly cropping the photo on his 1977 card.  they also moved his facsimile autograph around.  here is oglivie's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

that's a great cartoon.  joe niekro's 1976 home run off of his brother phil actually tied the game 2-2, and joe's astros went on to win 4-3.  that means it likely wasn't a grooved pitch for the sake of brotherly love.  it turned out to be the only home run joe niekro would hit in his career.  phil niekro hit 7 bombs in his career, none of off his brother although he did take fellow knuckleballer charlie hough deep in 1976.

this post is supposed to be about ben oglivie, so i should get back on track.  but, before i do, i checked oglivie's home run log and he hit his 216th career home run off of phil niekro in 1984.  as far as 1977 goes, oglivie was enjoying what would be his final season in detroit.  he hit 21 homers with 61 rbi and a .262 batting average in 132 games that year.  after the season, he was traded to milwaukee for a couple of pitchers and went on to lead the junior circuit in home runs in 1980 with 41.

voici à vous, 1977 ben oglivie!

1977 vern ruhle

in 1977, o-pee-chee gave us a closer look at vern ruhle while also adjusting the location of his facsimile autograph.  here is ruhle's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

1977 was ruhle's final season in detroit.  he appeared in only 14 games, four in relief, and had a record of 3-5 with a 5.70 era.  the tigers released ruhle in march of 1978 and he signed on with the astros shortly thereafter.  ruhle went on to play a big role in houston's postseason run in 1980, going 12-4 with a 2.37 era that year.

voici à vous, 1977 vern ruhle!

1977 john hiller

the photo on john hiller's 1977 o-pee-chee card was moved up in the card window ever so slightly, and his facsimile autograph also headed north by a greater degree.  this is another one of those 'why bother?' variations.  you would think that o-pee-chee might have done something more extravagant for a native son (hiller was born in toronto). anyway, here is hiller's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

between 8 starts and 37 relief appearances in 1977, hiller was 8-14 with 7 saves, a 3.56 era, and 124 innings pitched.  those 8 starts were the last starts of his career, and he actually threw complete games in three of them.  one of those complete games was a 4-hitter against the blue jays in which he struck out 12 batters.  that performance, which took place in detroit, was a far cry from his first two appearances against the expansion jays.  over the course of two games in an april series against the blue jays in toronto, hiller surrendered 5 runs in 2 innings of work and suffered the losses in each game.  so much for home cooking (although by then he was living up in duluth, minnesota).

voici à vous, 1977 john hiller!

1977 dave roberts

i wish all photo variations by way of cropping were as easy to spot as the one we get thanks to dave roberts' 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

o-pee-chee also messed with the placement of the facsimile autograph, for reasons known only to them.

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

just so we;re clear - this is david arthur roberts, not david wayne roberts who was a major leaguer during the 1970's as well (we will see him in a couple of weeks).  in fact, david wayne roberts debuted for the padres in 1972, the year after david arthur roberts left the team, so i am guessing that there were some confused fans in san diego when dave roberts was no longer a pitcher, but was instead playing the infield.

anyway, you may have guessed that my first impression of this dave roberts was not good, as topps was kind enough to let me know that he once retired 18 consecutive dodgers.  his streak began when he entered the game in the second inning and got willie davis to ground into an inning ending double play.  it continued until roberts walked maury wills with one out in the 8th.

roberts returned to the national league in 1977 when he had his contract purchased by the cubs near the end of july.  the cubs used him as both a starter and a reliever, and to my relief, he didn't get into a game against the dodgers that year.

voici à vous, 1977 dave roberts!

1977 aurelio rodriguez

the facsimile autograph slid down aurelio rodriguez's leg when you compare his 1977 o-pee-chee card to his topps card from the same year.  here is his 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

rodriguez was coming off of a 1976 season in which he had broken brooks robinson's string of 15 consecutive gold gloves.  rodriguez was unable to defend his gold glove title successfully, however, as he missed all of may and about half of june and wound up playing in only 95 games in 1977.  on the offensive side, rodriguez managed to hit 10 homers that year, the last time in his career he would reach double digits in that category.

voici à vous, 1977 aurelio rodriguez!

1977 rusty staub

rusty staub lost his all-star banner, had his photo shifted to the right slightly, and had his facsimile autograph tilted to boot on his 1977 o-pee-chee card:

 here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

1976 had been staub's first season in the american league, and it was his last season as an everyday outfielder.  voted to start the 1976 all-star game for the american league in right field (he was 2 for 2 in the game), staub was nonetheless shifted to designated hitter in 1977.  staub hit 22 homers and drove in 101 runs as the tigers' dh, but also led the league in gidp for the second straight year.

voici à vous, 1977 rusty staub!

1977 mark fidrych

so, here we are with a second straight 1977 post - proof positive that all of the non-1977 variations have been posted!  the end is in sight, or at least becoming more of a certainty.  today, we'll explore the dual awards being stripped from mark fidrych's card, as well as the adjustment of his facsimile autograph.  here is fidrych's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front, with the all-star banner and the rookie cup:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

maury wills gets a cartoon!  1962 was a big season for wills, and 1976 was a biggie for fidrych.  1977, not so much.  the bird followed up his rookie-of-the-year season by going 6-4 with a 2.89 era.  he had injured his knee shagging fly balls during spring training, and then suffered an arm injury after a handful of starts.  he was named to the all-star team, but did not appear in the game.  in fact, fidrych did not pitch at all after the all-star break due to his arm injury. unfortunately, fidrych would pitch in only 16 more big league games over the next 3 seasons before his career was over.

voici à vous, 1977 mark fidrych!

1977 jason thompson

jason thompson was stripped of his rookie cup by o-pee-chee in 1977.  don't believe me?  here is his 1977 o-pee-chee card:

his autograph also got moved further towards the left edge where the cup appeared on the topps card.  here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

thompson lived up to the rookie cup hype in 1977, hitting 31 home runs with 105 rbi and a respectable .270 batting average.  although he had some more good years in detroit and california, thompson wouldn't hit 31 homers with over 100 rbi again until 1982 when he was with the pirates.

voici à vous, 1977 jason thompson!

1977 tom veryzer

first, a shout out to dan meyer, whose 1977 post didn't get published last thursday like it was supposed to.  but, since i am obsessive about order, i published it in its original time slot.  you can go back and read it if you like, and if not, this one is not too different, although it lacks a reference to a certain movie starring levar burton as ron leflore.

o-pee-chee gave tom veryzer's facsimilie autograph a slight adjustment on his 1977 o-pee-chee card, seen here:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

after a down year in 1976, veryzer played in 125 games during the 1977 campaign.  unfortunately, he hit only .197 and found himself expendable.  he was traded to the indians after the season ended (and received a nice o-pee-chee variation as a result), opening the door for a rookie named alan trammell to take over at short for the tigers.

voici à vous, 1977 tom veryzer!

1990 fred lynn

fred lynn signed as a free agent with the padres in december of 1989 as they continued to revamp their outfield.  here's his 1990 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

the pads acquired joe carter on the same day that they signed lynn, and with lynn in left and carter in center, the padres hope for big things. they got 30 home runs and 138 rbi from the pair, but lynn played only about a quarter of the season in the field and contributed just 6 long balls and 23 rbi in what would be his final season in the big leagues.

voici à vous, 1990 fred lynn!

1977 milt may

milt may was lucky to get a card in the 1977 topps and o-pee-chee sets as he missed all but 6 games of the 1976 season.  o-pee-chee decided to rotate his facsimilie autograph as well.  here is his 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

i knew that bob watson was credited with scoring baseball's one millionth run, but i didn't know that he did so thanks to a milt may home run.  speaking of which, may rebounded in 1977 to set a career high in long balls with 12, including his second career grand slam.

voici à vous, 1977 milt may!