1978 new york yankees

this post covers the 1978 new york yankees and cards numbered 153 to 161 in the set. here are the fronts:

and backs:

back-to-back yankee posts.  almost as tough to take as the back-to-back world series titles they won at the expense of the dodgers in 1977 and 1978.  this is the only 1978 team featured in the set, too.

what team is this?:  the 1978 new york yankees, who defeated the los angeles dodgers 4 games to 2 to win their second straight world series title.

why this team?:  the 1978 yankees won 100 games, including a one-game playoff with the red sox to claim their third straight american league east pennant.  what's more, they overcame a 14-game deficit in july to force the game 163.  in the postseason, they beat the royals for the third straight year to win the pennant, and then beat the dodgers to win the title.  also, because they are the yankees.

which players are featured?:  we've got all the players that were featured as part of the 1977 team, except for don gullett whose career came to an end during the 1978 campaign, and we've added brian doyle and rich "goose" gossage to the checklist.

why these players?:  let's find out, shall we?

brian doyle was a rookie in 1978 who appeared in all of 39 games in the regular season.  he hit .192 with an obp to match, and was without an extra base hit.  in the postseason, he and fred stanley were called upon to replace the injured willie randolph at second base.  doyle responded by hitting .286 in the alcs and .438 in the world series with 2 rbi and 4 runs scored.

bucky dent gets a memorable moment card for his game 163 home run that beat the red sox.  he had only four other home runs in 1978 before he hit the 7th inning, three-run blast off of mike torrez.  he hit only .200 in the alcs, but won the world series mvp award thanks to a .417 average and a team leading 10 hits.

chris chambliss had the opposite results in the postseason.  he hit .400 against the royals, but just .182 against the dodgers.  during the regular season, he hit .274 with 12 home runs and 90 rbi.  he also won his first (and only) career gold glove.

ed figueroa won 20 games for the only time in his career in 1978.  he was 20-9 with a 2.99 era in 32 starts.  he won 8 of his last 9 starts, the final one being a 5-hit shutout of the indians in game 161 that preserved the team's one game lead over the red sox in the east.  figueroa's late season success didn't translate to the postseason as he took the loss in game 2 of the alcs, giving up 5 runs (3 earned) in 1+ innings of work.  he didn't make it out of the 2nd inning in game 1 of the world series, either, giving up 3 runs on home runs by dusty baker and davey lopes (with rick monday on base) in the second inning.  figueroa returned to start game 4 of the world series, and gave up a 3-run home run to reggie smith in his 5 innings of work.  he left the game trailing, but thanks in part to reggie jackson's hip, the yankees chipped away at the dodgers' lead and wound up winning the game.

graig nettles was an all-star and won his second straight gold glove at third base in 1978.  he hit 27 home runs with 93 rbi and a .276 batting average during the regular season.  he was 5 for 15 with a triple and a home run in the alcs, but went just 4 for 25 with no extra base hits in the world series.

lou piniella hit .314 for the yankees over 130 games while splitting time between left field, right field, and dh.  he had 7 hits in the world series, but they were all singles. still, he had 4 rbi and even stole a base in the fall classic.

roy white was one of the few yankees who was consistent in his play throughout the entire postseason. after appearing in 103 games and hitting .269 in the regular season, white hit .313 with a triple and a home run in the yankees' four game series against the royals.  he then hit .333 in the world series, scoring 9 runs and driving in 4 over the six games against the dodgers.

rich "goose" gossage joined the bronx zoo as a free agent from pittsburgh prior to the 1978 season.  in his first season as a yankee, gossage was 10-11 with 27 saves (the most in the league) and a 2.01 era over 134.1 innings of work.  after a shaky postseason debut in game 3 of the alcs (he blew the save but earned the win), gossage saved game 4 with a perfect inning of work to send the yankees to the world series.  there, he pitched in 3 games (he earned the save in game 4) and gave up just one hit and one walk in 6 innings of work.

sparky lyle was the reigning cy young award winner in 1978, but he was replaced as the team's closer with the arrival of gossage.  still, lyle appeared in 59 games (all in relief, of course) and posted a record of 9-3 with 9 saves.  he made just one appearance in the postseason - a 1.1 inning effort in game 2 of the alcs in which he allowed 2 runs on 3 hits.  that would be his last appearance in the pinstripes (so to speak - the game was in kansas city), as the yankees traded lyle to the rangers after the postseason.

the stadium on the back is...?:  yankee stadium, although not a photo from 1978.

did upper deck get it right?: i can understand why the royals (the team the yankees beat in the alcs in 1976, 1977, and 1978) weren't featured - the franchise was completely ignored by the set - and the 1977 and 1978 phillies are pretty similar teams to the 1980 team that we will see later on, but i think a case could have been made to feature the 1978 red sox.  they were a bucky dent home run away from making the postseason, and the beantown franchise has already been featured in the set.  also, i personally would have been ok with the 1978 dodgers being featured in the set, even though the players would likely be identical to the ones featured for the 1977 team except for the super cool bob welch memorable moment card that would have been made to commemorate his strikeout of reggie jackson to end game 2 of the world series.

as for the players, once again ron guidry should have been included.  he was 25-3 in 1978 for goodness sakes.  reggie jackson's absence is again conspicuous, and willie randolph and mickey rivers are probably the only other two guys who could have been featured but weren't.  kudos to upper deck for not going for a weak checklist grab and adding reserve outfielder paul blair (previously seen in the set with the orioles) or rawly eastwick (seen earlier in the set as a cincinnati red) to this team.  especially eastwick, as he started the 1978 season with the yankees, but was traded to the phillies during the season for jay johnstone. i would have been ok with johnstone being included, however, as long as he would have also been included with the 1981 dodger team.  but, he wasn't added to the checklist of either team, so it doesn't matter.

now let's talk about the photos.  doyle was with the yankees for parts of three seasons - 1978, 1979, and 1980.  for part of 1979 and all of 1980, the yankees wore black armbands, so there is a good likelihood that doyle's photo comes from 1978.  that same possibility exists for bucky dent, although i am disappointed that upper deck didn't use a photo from the actual home run he hit to beat the red sox.  that game was played at fenway park, so he shouldn't be in the yankee pinstripes.  the photos for chris chambliss, roy white, and sparky lyle are definitely from before 1978, and the images for graig nettles and rich "goose" gossage are from later because of the black armbands.  that leaves ed figueroa and lou piniella, but there's no real way to tell what year it was that their photos were taken.

is this team timeless?:  when i think of the yankees, i think of the 1977 team - not this 1978 squad.  still, the 1978 team is the one that won the second title in a row, so i guess this team is timeless.  what do you think?

1977 new york yankees

this post covers the 1977 new york yankees and cards numbered 145 to 152 in the set. here are the fronts:

and backs:

so, upper deck gives us our first look at the yankees, and it's their 1977 world championship team.  1977 was the first time the yankees had won the title since 1962, and it brought to an end a three-series losing streak, as they were defeated by the dodgers in 1963, the cardinals in 1964, and the reds in 1976.  notice the lack of a 'memorable moment' card - 3 home runs in one world series game certainly would have qualified had reggie jackson not been excluded from this set.

what team is this?:  the 1977 world champion new york yankees

why this team?:  the yankees won 100 games in 1977, and were the american league champions for the second year in a row.

which players are featured?:  bucky dent, chris chambliss, ed figueroa, graig nettles, lou piniella, roy white, don gullett, and sparky lyle.  gullett and lyle have been featured in the set before, but the other guys are all first timers here.

why these players?:  let's break it down.

bucky dent was the yankees' shortstop in 1977, as he was acquired from the white sox just before the start of the season.  he hit .247 with a career high 8 home runs during the regular season, and then hit .242 in the postseason.  nothing too exciting, and not even close to what he would do in the 1978 world series against the dodgers.  heck, even the back of his card ignores his 1977 performance and goes straight to the home run he hit against the red sox in 1978.

chris chambliss was in his fourth year of manning first base for the yankees in 1977, and he put up numbers that were nearly identical to those he attained in 1976 when he was named to the all-star team and finished 5th in the league mvp voting.  this time, however, he finished 29th in the mvp voting and was not part of the all-star team.  he struggled in the alcs, going 1 for 17 against the royals, after sending them home a year earlier, but came back to hit .292 with a home run (as alluded to on the back of his card) in the world series against the dodgers.

ed figueroa is kind of an odd choice for this set.  i get it - he was a 20-game winner in 1978 (as we will see in the next post), and his 16 wins in 1977 led the yankees' staff (tied with ron guidry, who frankly would have been a more sensible addition to this set).  however, figueroa made only one start in the 1977 postseason, and it didn't go well.  although the yankees won the game, the royals knocked figueroa out of game 4 of the alcs after 3.1 innings after being down 4-0 at one point.  you can tell upper deck didn't have much to say about figueroa in 1977 from his card back.  i'm not sure what they mean by 'sweep through' the regular season either.

graig nettles, the yankees' third baseman, led the team with 37 home runs in 1977.  that was five more than he hit in 1976 when he led the league, but jim rice hit 39 bombs for the red sox (bobby bonds also hit 37 in 1977).  nettles did make the all-star team and he won his first gold glove in 1977.  nettles was held without a home run while hitting under .200 in both the 1977 alcs and the world series, but the yankees won anyway.

lou piniella split his 1977 season between the outfield and the dh spot.  he was in a dh platoon with carlos may (who was picked up by the angels in september of '77), and usually played the outfield on days that may would dh.  he hit .330 with a career high 12 home runs in 103 games with this playing arrangement.  when it came to the 1977 postseason, piniella was the yankees' left fielder in all but one game (he was the dh in game 3 of the alcs).  the back of his card suggests that he 'achieved greatness' in the playoffs, and while piniella hit .333 with 3 doubles and 2 rbi in the alcs that year, i wouldn't say that he achieved greatness.

roy white had the misfortune of being the left fielder (and often best player) on the yankee teams that missed the postseason 11 years in a row.  he debuted in 1965, a year after the yankees lost the world series to the cardinals, and it wasn't until 1976 that white and the yankees reached the postseason together.  in 1977, white hit .268 with 14 home runs and 52 rbi as the team's regular left fielder.  for the postseason however, billy martin decided to replace white in the starting lineup with lou piniella.  white did get the start in game 3 of the alcs with piniella dh-ing, and he went to 2 for 4 with 2 doubles and a run scored.  in the world series, however, he was back on the bench, and was hitless in his two at bats.

don gullett makes his third appearance in the set, as he had won two straight titles with the reds in 1975 and 1976 when he joined the yankees as a free agent.  fighting shoulder problems, he wound up with a 14-4 record for new york in 1977, leading the league in winning percentage.  he made 3 starts in the postseason, including game 1 in both the alcs and the world series.  he lasted only 2 innings (and took the loss) against the royals, but pitched into the 9th inning (with no decision) against the dodgers in the kick off of the fall classic.  gullett later took the loss in game 5, as the dodgers scored 7 runs (6 earned) off of him in 4.1 innings.

sparky lyle has also been here before - as a member of the 1967 red sox.  lyle was traded to the yankees prior to the 1972 season, and he quickly took up residence at the back of the yankee bullpen.  in 1977, lyle appeared in 72 games (all in relief, of course) and pitched 137 innings.  he won 13 games and saved 26 others on his way to winning the cy young award.  in the postseason, he pitched in 4 of the 5 alcs games, earning the win in game 4 by pitching 5.1 scoreless innings of relief and then returning the next day to earn the series clinching win with another 1.1 innings of scoreless relief.  lyle actually blew the save in the 9th inning of game 1 of the world series, but remained in the game to earn the win in the 12th inning.  he also pitched in the second game of the series, and gave up a home run to steve garvey in what would be his last appearance of the postseason.

the stadium on the back is...?:  yankee stadium (post 1973 renovation) which would be the right venue for the 1977 team, obviously.  the photo is much more recent than 1977, however, as evidenced by the advertising (no 'brut' billboard).

did upper deck get it right?: from a player standpoint, each person featured in the set can be rationalized, but it would have made sense to include ron guidry (16-7, 2-0 in the postseason), newcomer reggie jackson (again), and maybe even willie randolph, too.  after all, reggie was the 'straw that stirred the drink', and hit 5 home runs in the world series to earn the series' mvp trophy, and randolph was an all-star in each of his first two seasons with the yankees, including 1977.  as for the photos, thanks to the yankees' consistency with their uniforms it could be tough to tell if upper deck used images from 1977 or not.  i will say that i believe the bucky dent photo to be from sometime later than 1977, and the chris chambliss to be from sometime prior to that year (thanks to the facial hair), but no earlier than 1974 which is when chambliss joined the yankees.  ed figueroa could certainly be from '77, but graig nettles and lou piniella are betrayed by the black armband on his left sleeve.  during piniella's time with the yankees, such an armband was only worn in 1979-80 for thurman munson, and in 1981 for elston howard.  the roy white photo is almost certainly from the late 1960's, and sparky lyle's photo looks to be from about the same time as chambliss's - say 1973-ish.  however, we do know that don gullett's photo is not only from 1977, but that it is from game 5 of the world series.  we know this because the photo was taken in dodger stadium (that's the visiting team's bullpen in the background) and gullett made only one appearance during the series at dodger stadium - his game 5 start.  and, while the dodgers and yankees would meet again in the world series the following year, gullett's career was brought to an end prior to the 1978 postseason due to injury.

is this team timeless?:  yes.  aside from being the first yankee team to win in the steinbrenner era, it was the bronx zoo!