1977 darrell porter

darrell porter was traded in december of 1976 from the brewers to the royals.  that means we get a team variation, a photo variation, and almost certainly an autograph placement variation from o-pee-chee.  let's find out.  here is porter's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

yup - team, photo, and the facsimile auto is moved and unstacked.

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

porter enjoyed a successful first year with the royals, hitting 16 homers while driving in 60 runs and posting a batting average of .275.  he helped kansas city reach the playoffs, and hit .333 with 3 runs scored in the 5-game alcs against the yankees.  porter helped the royals get back to the postseason in 1978 and all the way to the world series in 1980, but his fall heroics were at their peak in 1982 when he won both the nlcs and world series mvp awards as a member of the champion saint louis cardinals.

voici à vous, 1977 darrell porter!

1977 hal mcrae

it doesn't appear to me that hal mcrae's photo is altered, but his facsimile autograph is stacked and in a different spot on his 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

mcrae had led the american league in obp (.407) and ops (.868) in 1976, and that was before he found his power stroke in 1977.  in '77. mcrae hit 21 homers and lead the league with 54 doubles.  as a result, his slugging percentage increased to .515 and he posted an improved ops of .881.  unfortunately, that mark wasn't even good enough to crack the top ten in the league in 1977.

in the 1977 postseason, mcrae hit .444 with 3 doubles and a home run in the alcs as the royals fell to the yankees in five games.

voici à vous, 1977 hal mcrae!

1977 record breaker (george brett)

it's pretty slight, but if you look at george brett's left leg, you'll see the difference in the cropping between his 1977 o-pee-chee record breaker card and his 1977 topps record breaker card.  here is the 1977 o-pee-chee george brett record breaker card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

nobody has had 6 games with 3 or more hits since brett accomplished the feat in 1976.  for the record, brett had exactly three hits in each of the six games, with a double and a home run among them.  in 1977, brett twice managed to get at least three hits in two games in a row, but that was as far as he got.

voici à vous, 1977 record breaker (george brett)!

1977 amos otis

i think this is just an autograph placement variation, and even that is very slight.  it's amos otis' 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

you have to compare the armpits.

now the o-pee-chee back:

a nice ethnic cartoon - is that supposed to be rita moreno?  plus, we get the french translation of a spanish-named country.

and the topps back:

otis, who had hit second in the royals' batting order for most of 1976, was dropped to third to start the season, but wound up hitting 6th and sometimes 7th in 1977.  he still had a productive season, scoring 85 times while hitting 17 homers and driving in 78 runs, but his batting average dropped to .251 in 104 fewer plate appearances than he had in 1976.  he helped the royals return to the alcs, where he was held to a .125 average in their 5-game loss to the eventual world champion yankees.

voici à vous, 1977 amos otis!

1977 doug bird

another day, another slight cropping difference and relocated facsimile autograph.  today, it's doug bird's turn.  here is bird's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

doug bird bird was used mostly as a reliever in 1977, although he did make 5 starts while appearing in a total of 53 games.  this was a reversal from 1976 when he made 27 starts and 12 relief appearances, and bird responded with an 11-4 record and 14 saves.  his era was 3.88, however, which was half of a run higher than the 3.37 value he posted in 1976.  bird appeared in 3 of the royals' playoff games against the yankees in 1977, pitching a total of 2 innings while giving up just 4 hits and no runs (although he did allow an inherited run to score).

voici à vous, 1977 doug bird!

1977 freddie patek

o-pee-chee chose to show slightly more of freddie patek than did topps in 1977, and they also lowered his facsimile autograph, making it more difficult to see.  here is patek's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

check out that well dressed baseball card dealer.  or is he the collector?  where are the sweatpants and dirty t-shirt and the messy hair.  don't all baseball card collectors and dealers look like bill gaines?  all kidding aside, this is a pretty cool cartoon, even if the cards are more the size of those poker chips james bond uses in 'casino royale'.

and the topps back:

i would be breaking the rule of mentioning freddie patek if i didn't note that he was a smallish baseball player.  the back of the cards list him as 5'-4" and 140 pounds.  i think there is even a cartoon on the back of a 1977 card that addresses his diminutive nature.  regardless, patek led the american league in steals in 1977 with 53.  in the postseason, he didn't steal any bases, but he did hit .389 (7 for 18) in the alcs against the yankees for the second year in a row.  he also had 5 rbi and an ops of 1.067 in the 1977 playoffs with four of his seven hits being for extra bases.

voici à vous, 1977 freddie patek!

1977 dennis leonard

the difference in the photo cropping is very slight (compare the sleeves), but the facsimile autograph placement is a bit more noticeable on dennis leonard's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

nice to see a clem labine reference in the cartoon.  1977 was a big year for leonard.  he made 37 starts and won 20 games for the first time in his career.  he even picked up a save in his lone relief appearance.  leonard finished 4th in the cy young voting and helped the royals return to the postseason where, unfortunately, they once again lost to the yankees in the alcs.  leonard was 1-1 in a start and a relief appearance for kansas city, who would once again fall to the yankees in the 1978 alcs before finally beating them in 1980.

leonard suffered a knee injury in 1983 that kept him out of the big leagues in 1984 and most of 1985, although he did return to the royals for the 1986 season.

voici à vous, 1977 dennis leonard!

1992 keith miller

keith miller was part of the december 1991 trade between the royals and mets that also involved bret saberhagen, gregg jefferies, kevin mcreynolds, and bill pecota.  here's miller's 1992 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

miller played mostly second base for the royals in 1992, although he also saw time in left field and at dh.  he appeared in 106 games and hit .284.  of his 4 home runs on the season, one was a lead-off job against kevin tapani and the twins.

voici à vous, 1992 keith miller!

1977 george brett

george brett lost his all-star banner on his 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

brett was coming off his first batting title and again hit over .300 (.312 to be exact), but finished 9th in the league in 1977 - over 70 points behind title winner rod carew.  he was once again named to the all-star team and helped the royals return to the alcs for the second year in a row.  brett hit .300 in the series, but kansas city lost to the yankees for the second straight year (as they would in 1978 as well).

voici à vous, 1977 george brett!

1992 bret saberhagen

bret saberhagen was traded from the royals to the mets in december of 1991.  here is his 1992 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

1992 was an even year, so you know that saberhagen struggled.  he was 3-5 with a 3.50 era in only 15 starts.  he did throw a 3-hit shutout against the astros for his first win as a met, and was pitching very well when he was injured in mid may.  sabes missed all of june and most of july and august due to injury.  saberhagen pitched fairly well in 1993, and then bucked his historical trend by going 14-4 in the strike-shortened 1994 season, earning a third place finish in the cy young voting.

voici à vous, 1992 bret saberhagen!

1977 tom poquette

o-pee-chee may not have leveled off the field upon which tom poquette stood, but they did remove his topps rookie cup and move his facsimilie autograph around.  here is his 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

poquette's 1977 season was almost a clone of his 1976 campaign.  he played in two more games and had nine more plate appearances in 1977 than he had the previous year, scored an identical 43 runs with the same number of homers (2) and one fewer rbi, but his hit total dropped by four to an even 100, and his average wound up at .292, a ten-point drop.
he suffered through the royals' three consecutive defeats to the yankees in the alcs (1976, 1977, and 1978) but was not around in 1980 when they finally made it to the world series.  by then he had been traded to the red sox for george scott straight up.

voici à vous, 1977 tom poquette!

1990 gerald perry

gerald perry (i wonder if anyone every called him gerry perry) was traded from the braves to the royals in december of 1989 in the charlie liebrandt deal. here's his 1990 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

as a royal in 1990, perry hit .254 with 8 homers and 57 rbi. perhaps the highlight of perry's season was the grand slam he hit off of nolan ryan in texas on may 8th. it was the only home run perry hit that year with anyone on base. 1990 turned out to be his only season in kansas city, and the american league as well, as perry signed with the cardinals after the season ended.

voici à vous, 1990 gerald perry!

1991 willie wilson

willie wilson had spent his entire career with the royals until he signed as a free agent with the a's in december of 1990. here's his 1991 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

wilson hit just .238 his first year in oakland, the lowest batting average he had posted since his rookie year of 1978. he also stole 20 bases, which was the lowest full season total of his career. in 1992, the a's moved wilson back to centerfield full time, and he responded by hitting .270 and swiping 28 bases. he also returned to the postseason for the first time since winning the world series with the royals in 1985.

voici à vous, 1991 willie wilson!