1979 derrel thomas

derrel thomas signed as a free agent with the dodgers after the 1978 season ended. here is his 1979 o-pee-chee card:

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now the o-pee-chee back:

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during his 5 years in la, thomas played everywhere but pitcher. in 1979, however, he was the dodgers' primary centerfielder while still making appearances at every infield position. he wasn't known for his power (he hit only 5 home runs all year), but he did connect for a roundtripper against jr richard, had a grand slam against bob knepper and the giants, and hit two home runs in a game off of bill caudill and the cubs.

thomas has proven to be the penultimate dodger player to wear the numbers 1 (he wore it when he first joined the dodgers in 1979, and it was retired in 1984 for pee wee reese after gary weiss wore it in 1980) and 34 (he wore it in 1979 after ken brett left). in 1980, thomas became the first dodger to wear number 30 after maury wills retired as he wanted to honor his long-time hero. that meant that number 34 was available for fernando valenzuela when he was called up late in the season, and no one else has worn it since.

thomas is still involved with the dodgers today, even though he played for the expos, angels and phillies after his days in dodger blue came to an end. speaking of ends, this is the last of the 1979 variations!

voici à vous, 1979 derrel thomas!

1985 fred lynn

fred lynn joined the orioles as a free agent in december of 1984. here's his 1985 o-pee-chee card:

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now the o-pee-chee back:

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lynn was a model of consistency during his early 30's, which included his first few years in baltimore. he hit 21 homers for the angels in 1982 at the age of 30. the next year, he hit 22. then, from 1984 through 1987, he hit exactly 23 home runs each year. otherwise, he didn't accomplish a whole lot in baltimore, and the orioles dealt him to the tigers in 1988.

voici à vous, 1985 fred lynn!

1979 tommy john

tommy john became a free agent after the dodgers lost to the yankees in the 1978 world series, and must have figured 'if you can't beat em, join em' because he signed a deal with the bronx bombers just before thanksgiving. here is his 1979 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

for me as a young dodger fan, seeing dodgers and yankees on the same card, especially on john's card, was a bitter pill to swallow.  john turned 36 a month into the 1979 season, but he continued his amazing comeback from his eponymous surgery by winning 21 games and finishing 2nd in the al cy young voting. unfortunately for him, the orioles won the al east.

john would return to the fall classic in 1981, however, and face off against his former mates. john had thrown 9 scoreless innings against the dodgers before his game 6 start. according to tommy lasorda, the dodgers couldn't hit john and he was worried about a game 7. so, in the 4th inning with the game tied 1-1, he had burt hooton intentionally walk larry milbourne with two outs and a runner on second to bring up john's spot in the batting order. bob lemon's hand was forced, and he pinch-hit for john with bobby murcer. john was done, murcer flew out, george frazier came in, and the dodgers went on to win the game 9-2.

voici à vous, 1979 tommy john!

1979 pete rose

in december of 1978, pete rose signed a free agent deal with the philadelphia phillies. immediate dividends were paid. here is his 1979 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

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actually, the phillies, who had won the nl east two years in a row only to fall to the dodgers in the nlcs, took a step backwards in 1979, losing the nl east to the pirates. they rebounded in 1980, however, to win it all for the first time in franchise history. i remember being perplexed when rose signed his deal with philly. they didn't need a third baseman, as they had mike schmidt over there. i was slightly horrified when rose moved to first base because i knew it wasn't good for steve garvey's all-star chances. still, the dodger fans kept garvey as the starting first baseman in the all-star game through 1980 before rose finally took over.

charlie hustle still made the all-star squad those first two seasons with the phillies, and deservedly so. in 1979, rose played in all 163 games for the phillies, and hit .331 with 208 hits and a career high 20 stolen bases. rose got 826 of his 4256 hits with the phillies, but was just 10 hits shy of 4000 when the phillies released him following their loss in the 1983 world series. rose, of course, wound up in montreal to claim that milestone hit before returning to the reds to finish out his career and time as a person in good standing with major league baseball.

voici à vous, 1979 pete rose!

1985 cliff johnson

cliff johnson signed a free agent deal with the texas rangers in december of 1984 after two productive seasons with the blue jays. here is his 1985 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

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after playing in 82 games for the rangers, the blue jays re-acquired johnson in an august deal. he hit just .274 for toronto down the stretch, but was 7 for 19 with 2 doubles and 2 rbi in the blue jays' 7-game alcs loss to the royals. he remained with the blue jays through the 1986 season, his last in the big leagues.

voici à vous, 1985 cliff johnson!

1979 bob robertson

although he never played for the royals, that's not why i think there might be an error on bob robertson's 1979 o-pee-chee card:

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now the o-pee-chee back:

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i am more curious about the text that was added.  although it technically states that robertson was a free agent on march 1, the implication is that he signed with kansas city on that date.  however, according to the ludington daily news on march 3, 1979, robertson had only earned an invitation to spring training with the royals.  he was cut from camp on march 30, so at least we know that o-pee-chee went to press in 1979 sometime in march.  don't worry about robertson, though, since on april 23, 1979 he signed a contract with the blue jays.

robertson, who had hit .230 in his lone year with the mariners after 9 seasons (and 11 years) in pittsburgh, managed just 3 hits in 32 plate appearances for the blue jays in 1979. he walked three times, and one of his hits was a home run. that home run was the back end of a back-to-back sequence against the brewers' bill travers in the bottom of the 8th of an april contest, and broke a 3-3 tie. the jays scored again later in the 8th and won 5-3. robertson failed to receive consistent playing time, and in late june he was released by the blue jays, ending his big league career.

voici à vous, 1979 bob robertson!

1979 mike lum

free agent mike lum returned to the braves after a 3-season stop in cincinnati, signing with atlanta in february of 1979. here is his 1979 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

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lum played mostly first base for the braves, and also was used quite a bit as a pinch-hitter by bobby cox. in fact, 3 of his 6 home runs in 1979 came as a pinch-hitter, including on consecutive days in september. first, lum hit a 5th inning roundtripper against the reds as a pinch-hitter for bo mclaughlin on september 4th. the next day, against rick sutcliffe and the dodgers, lum launched a tater in the 8th inning pinch-hitting for phil niekro. the braves wound up winning the game against the reds, but although lum's homerun against the dodgers started a game-tying rally in the 8th, the dodgers wound up winning in extras thanks to a steve garvey rbi single.


voici à vous, 1979 mike lum!

1985 sixto lezcano

sixto lezcano signed with the pirates as a free agent in january of 1985. here is his 1985 o-pee-chee card:

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now the o-pee-chee back:

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1985 would prove to be lezcano's final year in the big leagues. platooning in the outfield with steve kemp, lezcano appeared in 72 games for the pirates and hit just .207, mostly against lefties. with the acquisition of rj reynolds and the promotion of barry bonds in 1986, lezcano was expendable and eventually he was released just before the start of the 1986 season.

voici à vous, 1985 sixto lezcano!

1979 steve stone

steve stone signed as a free agent with the orioles in november of 1978.  here's his 1979 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

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that's one of the hairiest cards around, i believe.  you can see from the back that stone was a white sox 'double dipper', but what the card doesn't say is that the '5-player swap' back in 1973 was the deal that sent cub legend ron santo to the white sox.  anyway, stone pitched for the orioles for 3 seasons, losing 7 games each year.  in 1979, he won 11 games and in 1981 (his last year in the bigs) he won only 4 games.  in between those two seasons, however, stone won 25 games and was voted the cy young award as a result.

voici à vous, 1979 steve stone!

1979 joe coleman

joe coleman signed a free agent deal with the giants prior to the 1979 season.  here is his 1979 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

coleman is the son of joe coleman, a pitcher with the philadelphia a's of the 1940's and 1950's.  he is also the father of current cubs pitcher, casey coleman, who made his major league debut in august of 2010.  it's too soon to know whether casey will also pitch for the a's organization like dad and grandpa.

back to our o-pee-chee variant, joe coleman had split his 1978 season between the a's and blue jays, winning all 5 of his decisions.  with the giants in 1979, coleman appeared in a scant 5 games, pitched just 3.2 innings and gave up 2 runs - both unearned.  this resulted in his release at the end of april, but he was quickly signed by the pirates.  in pittsburgh, coleman appeared in 10 games with no decisions.  he retired at the end of the season.

voici à vous, 1979 joe coleman!

1985 eddie whitson

eddie whitson left the nl champion san diego padres as a free agent after the 1984 season, and signed a deal with the yankees. here is his 1985 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

whitson was 14-8 for the pads in '84 with a 3.24 era. in the postseason, whitson pitched really well in san diego's must win game 3, going 8 innings and scattering 5 hits and 2 walks while giving up just 1 run. in the world series, he started game 2, and although the padres won the game, whitson was terrible, allowing 5 hits and 3 runs in just two-thirds of an inning.

with the yankees, whitson got off to a terrible start and the boo birds came out. he got into a fight with manager billy martin (a fight in which martin's arm was broken) and then was demoted to the bullpen in 1986 before being traded back to the padres. up until carl pavano (or maybe javier vazquez), i believe that whitson was the poster boy for the player who can't handle playing in new york.
 
voici à vous, 1985 eddie whitson!

1979 jim todd

jim todd was released by the mariners prior to spring training in 1979, but was quickly signed by the a's.  here's his 1979 o-pee-chee card:

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now the o-pee-chee back:

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it was the second time around for todd and the a's, and it ended with his release about a year later.  todd went 2-5 with a 6.56 era and 2 saves for oakland in 1979 in a long relief kind of role. 

voici à vous, 1979 jim todd!

1979 darold knowles

former expo darold knowles signed with the cardinals as a free agent in february of 1979.  here's his subsequent 1979 o-pee-chee card:

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now the o-pee-chee back:

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knowles was quite the vagabond towards the end of his career, and saint louis would be the last stop.  in 1979, he went 2-5 with 6 saves in 48 games.  his era was 4.07 - a marked increase from his 2.38 era he posted with the expos in 1978.  the cardinals brought him back in 1980, but knowles had a really short leash.  in his first appearance he provided a perfect inning of relief, striking out willie stargell in the process.  his second appearance didn't go so well.  knowles came on with one out and a runner on base in the 6th inning of a game against the pirates who were down by a run.  knowles promptly gave up a home run to dave parker followed by a double, a run scoring fielder's choice, a single and a groundout.  he took the loss and shortly after that appearance, knowles was released.

voici à vous, 1979 darold knowles!