1977 willie montanez

there is a slight difference in the cropping of willie montanez's photo, and his facsimile autograph is at a different angle on his 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

montanez spent the entire season with the braves in 1977 - the only full year that he spent in atlanta, and the first season since 1974 that he didn't split between two clubs.  he hit .287 with 20 home runs and 68 rbi over the course of the regular season, and was named to the all-star team for the first (and only) time in his career.  in the midsummer classic, he replaced steve garvey in the 5th inning and went 0 for 2 the rest of the way.  incidentally, i learned this summer that the phillies had tried to acquire steve garvey from the dodgers back before he became entrenched at first base for the dodgers, and the main player they were going to send to la was willie montanez.  luckily, al campanis said no to that proposal.

voici à vous, 1977 willie montanez!

1980 willie montanez

willie montanez was traded by the rangers to the padres in exchange for gaylord perry in february of 1980. here's his 1980 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

he had only been with the rangers for the last month or so of the 1979 season. that means that, in the span of about 25 months, montanez was involved in 3 trades, including trades with two pitchers (bert blyleven and perry) who totaled 601 wins and 7235 strikeouts in their careers. throw in the fact that montanez had previously been traded for the likes of garry maddox and darrell evans, and you could start to put together a pretty good team. at any rate, montanez once again failed to complete a full season with his new team as the pads sent him to montreal in august. he would continue this pattern for the rest of his career, splitting the 1981 season between montreal and pittsburgh, and the 1982 campaign between pittsburgh and philadelphia.

voici à vous, 1980 willie montanez!

1978 willie montanez

willie montanez was traded from the braves to the mets in the huge december 1977 deal that saw bert blyleven go from texas to pittsburgh and al oliver go from pittsburgh to texas. somewhere in there the braves and mets got involved. here's montanez's 1978 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

montanez had been named to the nl all star team in 1977, and he had another good year in 1978. he drove in 96 runs and had 32 doubles for the mets in 159 games. he suffered a bit in 1979, and they traded him midseason to the rangers where he hit .319 with 8 home runs and 24 rbi in just 38 games. too bad texas didn't get him in that 1977 deal. montanez was also the recipient of another 1978 variation - the topps zest card that showed him in full mets regalia.

voici à vous, 1978 willie montanez!