1977 john lowenstein

today, let it be lowenstein.

this one hits all the bases as far as basic o-pee-chee variations go: team variation, text variation, photo variation, autograph placement variation.  the only thing missing is the position variation, but john lowenstein was primarily an outfielder, so there was no reason for o-pee-chee to make that change.  they changed pretty much everything else, however, as they caught lowenstein in blue jays' attire during spring training in 1977.  he had been traded by the indians to the blue jays with rick cerone for rico carty in december of 1976, but the jays dealt him back to the tribe towards the end of spring training.  luckily for us, o-pee-chee didn't slap his topps photo back on the card, but instead chose to use their photo with some good ol' traded text.  of course, they also unstacked his facsimile autograph and put it somewhere that made it legible.  here is lowenstein's 1977 o-pee-chee card: 

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

lowenstein hit .242 in 81 games for the indians in 1977, and was traded again prior to the next season.  this time, he went to texas where he played just one year before heading to baltimore.  there, he helped the orioles reach the world series in 1979 and again in 1983 when they won it all.

this is the last of the blue jays to be featured here on the blog from the 1977 o-pee-chee set, by the way.  we are really getting close to the end of the o-pee-chee variations.

voici à vous, 1977 john lowenstein!

1982 mark belanger

with cal ripken, jr. waiting to take over, the orioles let longtime shortstop mark belanger become a free agent after the 1981 season. belanger signed a deal with the dodgers, and we got this 1982 o-pee-chee team and text variation card as a result:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

tommy lasorda used belanger primarily as a late-inning defensive replacement, although he also pinch hit a few times and got a spot start here and there throughout the year. in all, belanger hit .240 in 57 games, with 12 hits and 4 rbi. he closed out his major league career on october 2 against the giants, with an rbi single off of scott garrelts.

belanger also closes out the 1982 variations, the set from the '80s with the most, i might add - we've now seen all of the variations o-pee-chee had to offer in the 1980s.

voici à vous, mark belanger!

1985 dave lopes

dave lopes didn't deserve an o-pee-chee variation in 1985, but he got one anyway (and i am thankful for it). here it is:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

lopes, of course, was traded to the cubs late in the 1984 season but topps didn't manage (or bother) to put lopes in a cubs uniform for the 1985 set (i put together a 1985 topps card that should have been for lopes a while back). instead, they opted to add the 'now with' text that we fans of o-pee-chee know and love. o-pee-chee, as they did with the 1989 jody davis card, came along and changed the text that was on the topps card.

o-pee-chee was pretty inconsistent in this regard, as they sometimes did nothing when a player switched teams late in the previous season and other times went all out.  see the 1987 daryl motley, 1988 doug decinces, and 1980 ralph garr cards as examples.

anyway, lopes spent all of 1985 in chicago and even stole 47 bases while hitting .284 with 11 home runs. he spent most of the season in the outfield, and played just one singular inning at second base - his last appearance there of his career.
 
this is also the last appearance of 1985 cards on this site - another year of variations is complete!
 
voici à vous, 1985 dave lopes!

1982 jorge orta

in december of 1981, the dodgers sent a disgruntled rick sutcliffe (along with jack perconte - the 'other guy' on fernando and mike scioscia's 1981 rookie card) to the indians in exchange for three players, including jorge orta. here is orta's 1982 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

the dodgers wound up flipping orta to the mets a year later for pat zachry, but first, he spent the 1982 season in la as a left handed bat off the bench. as a pinch hitter, orta was 9 for 60 (.150) with a home run and 5 rbi. that pinch hit home run turned out to be a game winner, as the dodgers beat the expos 2-1. orta, however, is best known for a different pinch hitting appearance, one that came in game 6 of the 1985 world series. pinch hitting for royals' darryl motley, orta led off the ninth inning with a grounder to jack clark and, according to umpire don denkinger, beat the throw to todd worrell covering first. orta was eventually forced out at third in the inning, but the royals scored two runs to force a seventh game.

voici à vous, 1982 jorge orta!

1985 don sutton

don sutton was traded by the brewers to the a's in december of 1984. here's his fantastically colorful 1985 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

sutton had bounced back from a bad 1983 season in milwaukee to post a winning record in 1984 while getting his era back under 4. he began the 1985 season 20 wins shy of 300 for his career, and he had earned 13 of those missing victories for the a's when they traded him to the angels in august. in five starts for the halos over the last month of the season, sutton was 2-2, meaning that his 300th win would have to wait until 1986. still, despite all the moving around, sutton was able to continue his record streak of seasons with at least 100 strikeouts, becoming the first to do so in 20 straight campaigns.

sutton's 1985 topps traded card showed him as an athletic - it's too bad o-pee-chee didn't step in and create a variation for that set, too.

voici à vous, 1985 don sutton!

1982 reggie jackson all-star

thanks to his departure from the bronx, reggie jackson had three variations in the 1982 o-pee-chee set. here's the third one to be featured on oh my o-pee-chee!, his 1982 o-pee-chee all-star card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

reggie had a ton of career highlights, and he accomplished a couple more items in 1982 that could be added to the back of this card. first, he again tied for the american league lead in home runs with 39. then, he hit his 18th career postseason home run to tie mickey mantle for the major league record in 1982 (since broken by manny ramirez, bernie williams, and even derek jeter thanks to additional playoff rounds). not a bad return for mr. autry, although a pennant would have been nice.

voici à vous, 1982 reggie jackson all-star!

1985 al oliver

al oliver brought his number '0' to the dodgers when the phillies traded him to la for pat zachry in february of 1985. here is his 1985 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

i was always a fan of oliver's. he looked so sad on his 1978 topps/o-pee-chee card despite having some good years for some good pirate teams, including having a world series championship under his belt. then he had some good years in texas and that monster 1982 season in montreal. if only he had played in a bigger market during those years. by the time he arrived in la, he was 38 years old and had split the previous season between san francisco and philadelphia.

oliver started the 1985 season as the dodgers' left fielder, but soon became a bat off the bench. in all, he hit .253 as a dodger - .258 in 17 games as a left fielder, and .235 in 18 plate appearances as a pinch hitter. in july, the dodgers sent scoop to the blue jays in exchange for the 'tuz - len matuszek. oliver helped the jays get to the alcs, but despite his .375 average in the series against the royals, the team was unable to advance to the fall classic.

oliver's career ended with the 1985 seasaon, and he seems destined to remain in the 'hall of very good' with his 2743 hits, .303 career average, 1326 rbi, and .986 fielding percentage. that's bad news for me, as oliver's closest career comparative is none other than steve garvey.

voici à vous, 1985 al oliver!

1982 reggie jackson in action

mr. october, reggie jackson, moved to the west coast in january of 1982. here's his 1982 o-pee-chee in action card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

let's see what we could add to the highlights on the back of reggie's card.

jackson made the all-star team three times during his time in orange county, including 1982. he was the starting right fielder for the american league that year, and went 0 for 1 with a sacrifice fly, driving in the al's only run of the game. he was named to the 1983 team, but did not appear in the game, and in 1984, his final all-star game, he was back in the starting lineup, but went 0 for 2.

as for the championship series, what he did in 1982 (.111 average, 1 home run) and 1986 (.192 with no home runs) wouldn't supplant any of his other accomplishments on the back of this card. and, as we all know, the angels failed to advance to the world series during reggie's tenure in southern california.

voici à vous, 1982 reggie jackson in action!

1982 larry bowa in action

as previously documented, larry bowa joined the cubs prior to the 1982 season. here's his 1982 o-pee-chee in action card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

after leaving philly, bowa didn't achieve anything to add to the highlights on the back of the card, although he did play good defense for the cubs. he helped them get to the 1984 nlcs, but he hit just .200 in the series, so that wouldn't trump his performances from 1978 or 1980. if only he could have hung on with the mets, whom he played for during the last couple of months in 1985, we might have been able to add another world series appearance to bowa's list of accomplishments.

voici à vous, 1982 larry bowa in action!

1985 howard johnson

 fresh off a world series victory, the tigers traded howard johnson to the mets in december of 1984. here's his 1985 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

hojo had just 1 at bat in the series against the padres and reached base on an error. turns out, the postseason wasn't johnson's strong suit. with the mets, it took a couple of seasons for him to blossom into a 30/30 threat (he achieved 30 home runs and 30 steals in a season three times), and he eventually led the league in home runs and rbi in 1991. in the meantime, he was 0 for 7 in the mets' championship postseason of 1986, and just 1 for 18 against the dodgers in the 1988 nlcs. not that i'm complaining.

voici à vous, 1985 howard johnson!

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!

1982 reggie jackson

reggie jackson signed with the angels as a free agent in january of 1982. here's his 1982 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

it's hard to tell here, but o-pee-chee would have benefitted from an autograph placement variation on this card, as the tail end of reggie's auto is covered by the o-pee-chee kiddie logo.  in fact, topps could have done a better job of placing the auto, too, instead of putting it over the darkest part of reggie's uniform.

things started slowly for reggie in anaheim, as he was hitting just .188 with one home run at the end of april. but, he wasn't known as mr. april, was he? jackson picked up the pace, and by late-july, he was hitting a lofty (for him) .280 with 25 long balls. he finished the season at 39/101/.275 (leading the league in home runs, by the way) to go along with an angels' division championship. unfortunately, jackson was no longer mr. october, and although he hit his 18th and final career postseason home run in the alcs against milwaukee, his average for the series was just .111 as the brew crew rallied to send the angels home in 5 games.

voici à vous, 1982 reggie jackson!

1985 rickey henderson

in december of 1984, the a's traded rickey henderson (!) to the yankees in a 2 for 6 swap. here's his 1985 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

free agency was looming for henderson after the 1985 season, and the a's decided to get something in return rather than keep him for one more year and get nothing when he left for greener pastures. as it turns out, although henderson performed beyond expectations in new york, it was the a's who returned to prominence a few seasons after trading rickey, while the yankees avoided the postseason for another decade. still, henderson was awesome as a yankee. he scored a career high 146 runs in 1985, to go along with his 80 stolen bases, 24 home runs, and .314 batting average.

rickey led the league in steals in 3 of his 4 full seasons in new york, and was a perennial all-star. ultimately, the yankees traded him back to oakland in 1989, just in time for rickey to dominate the postseason and get his first world series ring.

voici à vous, 1985 rickey henderson!