1989 willie randolph

it turned out that the dodgers and yankees essentially swapped second basemen prior to the 1989 season when yankee veteran willie randolph signed a free agent deal in december of 1988, a month after steve sax bolted for the bronx. here is his 1989 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

the two even faced off against each other in the 1989 all-star game, each earning a backup spot on the team. like sax, randolph was 0 for 1 in the game. randolph appeared in 145 games and hit .282 with 7 steals and negligible power. he also made 9 errors in 681 chances playing second for the dodgers, which is about the same performance the yankees got out of sax. in the end, maybe the dodgers should have tried harder to re-sign sax, if only to have avoided the merry-go-round that was the second base position in the early 1990's.

voici à vous, 1989 willie randolph!

1992 willie randolph

in december of 1991, willie randolph continued his tour of teams following his 13 years as a yankee. this time, he signed a free agent deal to return to new york, although as a met. here's his 1992 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

randolph, who had finished third in the american league in batting in 1991 with a .327 average, hit just .252 for the metropolitans. he retired at season's end, concluding essentially four one-season stops in his post-yankee career (1+ year in la, most of a season in oakland, and one season each in milwaukee and queens) to go along with his singular debut season in pittsburgh.
 
voici à vous, 1992 willie randolph!

1977 willie randolph

i think this is the first of the award variations to be featured.  it's willie randolph's 1977 o-pee-chee card

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

for whatever reason, o-pee-chee left off the topps rookie cups in 1977 although they didn't remove the reference to it from the back of the card.  the loss of the rookie cup allowed o-pee-chee to also move the autograph around.

randolph was acquired by the yankees from the pirates for doc medich.  medich was one and done for the pirates (although they did trade him away in the deal that sent phil garner to pittsburgh) while randolph went to play for a team that won 3 pennants in a row.  they also won the 1977 and 1978 world series, but randolph missed the 1978 fall classic due to injury.  randolph was able to avoid the sophomore slump, improving in every offensive category in 1977.

voici à vous, 1977 willie randolph!