1977 expos coaches

i suppose since the blue jays were new to major league baseball, and were given a coaches card in the set, o-pee-chee felt obligated to do the same for the senior canadian team.  as a result, we get this beauty of a checklist variation - the 1977 o-pee-chee expos coaches card:

here's the back:

there is no topps equivalent (that's why it's a checklist variation), but boy do i wish topps had done this for all the teams.  or at least for the dodgers (as i did for my 1978 topps burger king dodgers/update set).  anyway, there are a couple of dodger ties to this card, the first being jim brewer.

brewer pitched for the dodgers from 1964 into the 1975 season.  he retired after the 1976 season and was immediately hired by (former dodger) dick williams to be the expos' pitching coach.  brewer served in that role for three seasons before turning to college level coaching.

billy gardner coached first base for the expos for two seasons (1977 and 1978) before being named manager of the team's aa affiliate.  gardner later left the organization for the twins, who pegged him to be their major league skipper in 1981.

mickey vernon is the other dodger link of the staff. he was a hitting instructor in the dodgers' organization prior to joining the expos as their batting coach for the 1977 season.  he replaced larry doby, who had replaced former dodger duke snider the previous season.  vernon, a former all-star and manager, spent two years in montreal and later finished his coaching career with a season as a yankees' coach in 1982.

ozzie virgil had joined the expos staff in 1976, and served as their third base coach for all of williams' run as manager.  that lasted into the 1981 season when williams was replaced by jim fanning, although virgil remained with the team through their postseason run.

voici à vous, 1977 expos coaches!

1986 ozzie virgil

ozzie virgil was traded by the phillies to the braves in december of 1985. here's his 1986 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

after representing the phillies in the 1985 all star game (and driving in 2 runs), virgil was traded to make room, i believe, for darren daulton behind the plate. his numbers were down a bit in 1986, but he rebounded in 1987, making his second all star team and setting career highs in home runs and rbi with 27 and 72 respectively. he victimized his former team a few times, hitting his 50th career home run off of the phil's kevin gross in 1986 and then hitting 2 home runs off of gross in a game in 1987. virgil finished off his career in a backup role for the blue jays in 1989 and 1990.
 
voici à vous, 1986 ozzie virgil!