OPC IMAGE VARIATION: 1977 TONY PEREZ

Today we take a look at the image variation between the great Tony Perez's 1977 OPC and Topps cards after his shocking trade to the Montreal Expos, the beginning of the end for the juggernaut Cincinnati Reds "Big Red Machine" dynasty:

OPC edition

Topps edition

OPC managed to get him out as a member of "their" Montreal Expos, something I am sure the Canadian baseball world was excited about.

Perez was sent to Montreal along with pitcher Will McEnaney for two guys out of the bullpen: Woodie Fryman and Dale Murray.

Now, I don't really remember the reasoning for this trade (Tony! Help me out here!), but it seems ABSURD all these years later.

Nevertheless, the "Big Dog" kept on producing for the next four years (three with the Expos and one with the Boston Red Sox in 1980) before becoming a solid veteran bat off the bench between 1982 and 1986 with Boston, Philadelphia and back in Cincinnati before retiring.

All told, he put together a magnificent 23 years career, collecting over 2700 hits, 375 home runs, 1600 runs batted in, and a .279 lifetime batting average.

He was also named to seven all-star teams and got Most Valuable Player attention in seven seasons.

It took a long while, but he was eventually elected into the Hall of Fame in 2000, joining former teammates Joe Morgan, Sparky Anderson and Johnny Bench, with Dave Concepcion and Pete Rose still out in the cold.

As I've stated earlier on this blog, I was always fascinated that former "Big Red Machine" skipper Anderson considered the Perez trade a severe blow to the Reds' continued dominance of Major League ball after 1976.

Here's a team that pretty much had their entire squad intact, and even picked up TOM SEAVER in June of 1977, but could never make it back to the top of the baseball world.

A good idea of how important Perez was…

 

"CLASSIC BASEBALL" CUSTOM WTHBALLS SET: WARREN SPAHN

Time to add one of my favorite subjects for the blog to my custom "Classic Baseball" set, the great Warren Spahn:

Anyone who has followed this blog long enough knows by now that any time I can create a card for the mighty lefty, I will take it!

The man was amazing, flat out, and by the time he retired in 1965 he posted a 363-245 record, with a 3.09 ERA, 63 shutouts, 28 saves and 2583 strikeouts over 750 appearances, 665 of which were starts.

Oh yeah, he also hit 35 career home runs along with 189 runs batted in with (coincidentally) 363 hits!

And remember he didn’t win his first game until he was 25 years of age, as he served in the military from 1943 to 1945.

His first 20-game season was 1947 (at the age of 26), and he kept right on rolling until his final 20-game season in 1963!

In between, he ended up posting 13 such campaigns, leading the league eight times (with five of those coming consecutively from 1957 to 1961).

 

REVISITING A POST FROM 2015: MISSING IN ACTION-"IN ACTION" #27: 1972 AL OLIVER

Fun card to revisit that I originally created back in 2015, my "missing" 1972 In-Action card for "Scoop" Al Oliver, a Hall of Famer in my book:

Nice shot of "Scoop" at the plate!

Now, what do you call a guy who was a seven-time all-star, Silver Slugger winner at three different positions, collector of over 2700 hits, 200 home runs, .300 career average, 1300 runs batted in, and 500 doubles?

I call that a Hall of Famer, especially when you consider that the first nine years or so of his career were the "dead" 1970's.

Yes I know an argument can be made here for Oliver's Hall-worthiness.

But I have always felt that he fell into that Vada Pinson, Dave Parker, Steve Garvey crowd that should have gotten, at the very LEAST, more of a shot at Cooperstown.

I mean, when he was finally eligible for Hall voting, he only got 4.3% and was dropped just like that! THAT is just insane.

He won three consecutive Silver Slugger Awards in 1980-1982, as an outfielder, a designated hitter and a first baseman and he batted .300 or better eleven times in his 18-year career!

He finished in the top-10 in batting eight times during his career, in the top-10 in hits eight times in his career, top-10 in doubles nine times in his career, top-10 in total bases five times, runs scored four times, runs batted in four times, triples three times, extra base hits five times and slugging percentage twice.

Is THAT enough of a statement? His consistency was amazing.

And to top it off, he should have been the National League Rookie of the Year in 1969 but got ripped off, with the award going to Los Angeles Dodger Ted Sizemore.

Al Oliver is grossly overlooked as far as players of that era in my book.

THE WHOLE NINE: SERIES 2- MISSING IN ACTION: 1964 JOE MORGAN

Today's blog post has my "not really missing" 1964 card for all-time second baseman Joe Morgan, who made his Major League debut for the Houston Colt .45's in 1963:

Morgan appeared in eight games for the Colt .45's that season, hitting .240 with the first six hits of his illustrious career over 25 at-bats, also stealing a base and scoring five runs.

For Mr. Morgan, the man was just beginning a run that would send him straight to the Hall of Fame, still with his original team before eventually helping to build a juggernaut of a team forever known as the "Big Red Machine" when he was dealt to the Cincinnati Reds before the 1972 season in a blockbuster trade.

Those Reds teams would win two straight World Series in 1975 and 1976, and field teams with the likes of Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, George Foster and Ken Griffey Sr.

By the time he retired after the 1984 season at the age of 40, he finished with two MVP Awards, 10 All-Star nods, five Gold Gloves, 2517 hits, 1650 runs scored, 268 homers and a cool 689 stolen bases with 1865 walks.
One of the all-timers right there at second base!

 

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION: 1975 ART HOWE

On the blog today, we have a 1975 "not so missing" card for Art Howe, his third such card created for the blog over the years:

Howe made his Big League debut in 1974, with 29 games for the Pittsburgh Pirates that saw him hit .243 with 18 hits over 74 at-bats, with a homer and five runs batted in.

The future Major League manager actually played in 63 games for the Pirates in 1975, gathering 162 plate appearances, so really he should have had a card.

He hit .171 for the year, with nine doubles and a homer along with 10 runs batted in and 13 runs scored.

His 11-year career as a player would really hit it's stride after joining the Houston Astros, as he'd play pretty much full-time between 1977 and 1982 before a couple of part-time years in St. Louis in 1984 and 1985 (he didn't play Major League ball in 1983).

As you all know, he'd really find his niche on the Major League level as a manager, guiding the Astros, Oakland A's and New York Mets between 1989 and 2004.

His real success was leading the young studs in Oakland in the late-90's/early-00's, winning 100-games in two seasons (2001 and 2002), but never being able to get past the N.Y. Yankees (remember the now-famous "Jeter-Flip"?).

All told, Howe would win 1129 games as a manager in the Big Leagues, finishing 2nd in "Manager of the Year" voting four years in a row from 1999-2002.

 

WTHBALLS CUSTOM SET SPOTLIGHT: 1890 "BASEBALL CHAMPIONS" KID NICHOLS

Today on the blog we take a look at my "19th Century Base Ball Champions" card for Hall of Fame pitcher Kid Nichols, from my custom set released back in 2018 in deluxe cigarette pack packaging:

Nichols was an absolute top tier pitcher over his 15 Major League seasons, ultimately winning 362 games and at one point stringing together seven 30-win seasons in eight years between 1891 and 1898 for Boston.

In his first season at the age of 20 in 1890 he posted 27 wins, followed by those 30 win campaigns with a 27-win year thrown in, then two more 20-win seasons over his last six seasons, one of which was a 21-win season in 1904 after missing two years as he played for Kansas City of the Western League in 1902 and 1903.

Incredibly, he posted 26 and 21 wins for K.C. those two years, and he easily could have been the second 400-game winner in baseball history had he not played those two years outside of Major League ball.

By the time he retired, he finished with a record of 362-208, good for a .635 winning percentage over 621 games, 562 of which were starts, with an incredible 532 complete games, tossing 48 shutouts while saving 16, with 1881 strikeouts over 5067.1 innings.

Just insane numbers for the "Kid" from Madison, Wisconsin!

In 1949 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, rightfully having his place among other 300-game winners from the 19th Century like Charles Radbourne, Cy Young and Mickey Welch, among others.

Over his 21-year professional career, he won 504 games against 264 losses, tossing over 60 shutouts and striking out just under 2500 batters!

Amazing!

 

OPC IMAGE VARIATION: 1977 DAVE ROBERTS

On the blog today, we take a closer look at the image variations for former #1 overall pick Dave Roberts and his 1977 OPC and Topps cards:

OPC version

Topps version

I covered the craziness of the Topps Blue Jays edition way back in 2013, explaining how Roberts never actually ended up playing for the them at all!

Funny story with that actually.
Roberts, who was the #1 overall draft pick by the San Diego Padres in 1972 out of the University of Oregon, never really panned out as the star infielder San Diego was hoping for.
In all fairness, that 1972 draft wasn't exactly teeming with stars. You have to go all the way to the third round to find a legitimate "star", those being Dennis Eckersley and Gary Carter. But you DID have Chet Lemon go late in the first round. Oh well...
Regardless, Roberts did manage to stick around with the Padres on the Major League level for four years, but in 1976 he spent the entire year in the minors, not really showing enough to be promoted before the year was up.
In October of 1976 San Diego sold Roberts, along with Dave Hilton and John Scott to the Toronto Blue Jays, seemingly giving up on their failed future star.
With that, Topps went ahead and airbrushed Roberts (along with Hilton, who I profiled earlier on this blog) in a Blue Jays uniform in anticipation of his new team for the upcoming season.
Only problem is Toronto then managed to turn right around and trade Roberts BACK to San Diego for pitcher Jerry Johnson in February of 1977, immediately making this an outdated card before it even came out!
Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Topps must have been scratching their heads with this one.
Check out the airbrushed Blue Jay logo on Roberts' cap...a bit on the small side don't you think?

As for OPC, they had him in the correct uniform, that of the San Diego Padres, for whom he'd go on to play another two seasons before putting in two years with the Texas Rangers, followed by a year with the Houston Astros and one final MLB season with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1982.

All told, the former top pick finished his 10-year career with a .239 average, with 483 hits over 2017 at-bats in 709 games, with 194 runs scored and 208 RBIs, putting in time out in the field at every position except for pitcher.