1980 mike tyson

mike tyson was traded from the cardinals to the cubs in october of 1979.  here's his 1980 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

tyson was traded straight up for reliever donnie moore. after the trade, tyson never faced moore, although he was 1 for 7 with a walk against him prior to the deal.  tyson spent two years in chicago, and hit .226 in 173 games for the cubbies.  he was released by the cubs during spring training in 1982.

voici à vous, 1980 mike tyson!

1979 tom grieve

tom grieve was traded from the mets to the cardinals in december of 1978.  here is his 1979 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

grieve had been part of that massive four team trade prior to the 1978 season that saw bert blyleven, al oliver, and jon matlack among others change teams.  grieve did not get a variation in the 1978 o-pee-chee set, but he gets a good one here in 1979. 

grieve wound up playing in just 9 games for the redbirds in 1979.  he was 3 for 15 with a double when he was released on may 9th.  a couple of weeks later, the rangers re-signed him and sent him to aaa, but he never made it back to the major leagues.  instead, he must have gone home and taught his 3-year old son ben how to hit.

voici à vous, 1979 tom grieve!

1977 pete broberg

pete broberg's 1977 o-pee-chee card is a variation, but sadly o-pee-chee chose not to improve upon topps' poor airbrushing job.  instead, they slightly rotated his facsimilie autograph.  here is pete broberg's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

broberg got a proper variation a couple of years later when he joined the dodgers during spring training.  he wound up not playing for the dodgers that year which is no surprise since he never pitched for the mariners either.  broberg was picked by seattle in the expansion draft held in november of 1976 and then in april of 1977, he was traded to the cubs without ever throwing a pitch for the mariners.

voici à vous, 1977 pete broberg!

1992 john dopson

john dopson wasn't included in the 1992 topps set, but he did get a card in the 1992 o-pee-chee set:

here's the o-pee-chee back:

dopson had missed most of the 1990 and 1991 seasons due to injury, so it's understandable that topps would overlook him, even though they had produced cards for steve busby in 1978 (he missed the entire 1977 season) and tommy john in 1976 (out all of 1975 for his eponymous surgery) among others, but they had shown more success prior to injury than did dopson.  i believe the stats are incorrect, as baseball reference shows dopson appeared in just 4 games in 1990 which makes sense as dopson was a starter.

anyway, dopson was back in 1992 and he posted identical 7-11 records for the bosox that season and the next.  in 1994, he signed a free agent deal with the angels and went 1-4 for the halos.  he pitched in the minors for a bit after that, but injuries won out and dopson was forced to retire.

here's the card dopson bumped from the set, the 1992 topps cal ripken jr all-star card:

and its back:

in 1992, dopson faced ripken 9 times.  in those confrontations, ripken got two hits including a double (which is appropriate given the back of the topps card), but also struck out once.

voici à vous, 1992 john dopson!

1991 pat tabler

pat tabler signed a free agent deal with the blue jays 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:

tabler took his bases loaded prowess north of the border, and went 2 for 6 with 5 rbi, a walk, and a sacrifice fly with the bases full in 1991.  in 1992, his final season in the big leagues, tabler went 1 for 2 with 5 rbi and two walks with the bases loaded.  he finished his career 43 for 88 (.489) with the bases loaded, but more importantly, as a world champion with the 1992 toronto blue jays.

voici à vous, 1991 pat tabler!

1990 mark davis all-star

as previously mentioned, mark davis left the padres and signed a free agent deal with the royals in december of 1989.  here's his 1990 o-pee-chee all-star card:

here's the topps front:

i'm not sure how off the color is since i took the topps image from the mcg site which is pretty famous for its fluorescence.

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

as the card back says, davis pitched a scoreless inning in the 1989 midsummer classic.  he struck out bo jackson (who had earlier taken a rick reuschel pitch to the moon) and gary gaetti.  he had also appeared in the 1988 all-star game, pitching 2/3 of an inning in scoreless relief.  those were the only two all-star games of davis's career.

voici à vous, 1990 mark davis all-star!

1989 john dopson

john dopson was traded in december of 1988 from the expos to the red sox.  here's his 1989 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

dopson somehow managed to lose 11 games for the expos in 1988 despite a 3.04 era.  in boston, his era went up a bit 1989 - to 3.99 - but he earned 12 wins against just 8 losses.  he threw two complete games, both losses, in 28 starts.  in a june 13, 1989 start against the detroit tigers, dopson committed a major league record 4 balks in his 3.2 innings of work. 

voici à vous, 1989 john dopson!