1988 los angeles dodgers

this post covers the 1988 world champion los angeles dodgers and cards numbered 275 to 281 in the set. here are the fronts:

and backs:

1988 was the year that was so improbable for the dodgers, that the impossible happened.  i love vin scully.

what team is this?: the 1988 world champion los angeles dodgers

why this team?: did i mention that they were the world champs? they went from 73-89 and 17 games out of first in the nl west in 1987 to 94-68 and 7 games ahead of second place cincinnati in 1988.  this dodger team was an underdog to the 100-win mets in the nlcs and the 104-win oakland a's in the fall classic but won both series.  the team featured the league's mvp, cy young award winner, and manager of the year, although only one of those guys are included in the set.

which players are featured?:  there are no new players to the set checklist here.  representing the 1988 dodgers, upper deck gives us alejandro pena, jesse orosco, john shelby, kirk gibson, mickey hatcher, mike scioscia, and steve sax.

why these players?:  aside from the ease of obtaining autographed cards to meet the demands of a fully signed parallel set(s) that comes with not adding new players to the checklist, each of these folks contributed to the dodgers' success in 1988.  let's break it down.

alejandro pena returned to the dodger bullpen full time in 1988.  he pitched in 60 games and was 6-7 with 12 saves and a 1.91 era.  he saved game 2 of the nlcs, lost game 3 of the series, but earned the win in the extra inning affair that was game 4.  he next pitched in game 1 of the world series and wound up as the winning pitcher thanks to kirk gibson's home run, just as he had in game 4 of the nlcs.

jesse orosco joined the dodgers as part of the three-team trade between the a's, mets, and dodgers prior to the 1988 season.  he teamed with pena and howell (also acquired in that trade) to form a closer tandem and earned 9 saves in his 55 appearances.  in the playoffs, orosco did not retire a batter (he faced 4) in his first two nlcs appearances.  in his next two against his former team, he didn't allow any runs in 2.1 innings pitched.  still, orosco did not pitch in the world series, and he left to join the indians as a free agent.

john shelby had a big season for the dodgers in 1987 after being acquired in a trade with the orioles.  his 1988 season was very similar, but with less power.  still, he played in 140 regular season games, and did not miss even an inning of the dodgers' postseason in '88.  he hit just .167 in the nlcs and .222 in the world series, but did provide the club with a very meaningful postseason walk.  in the 9th inning of the aforementioned game 4, the dodgers were down 4-2 with shelby leading off the inning.  he walked against dwight gooden and mike scioscia followed with his game-tying home run.  everybody remembers mike davis and his big walk, but shelby's was also hugely important to the dodgers' postseason success.

speaking of davis' walk, let's discuss kirk gibson next. gibby was the national league mvp in 1988, hitting .290 with 25 homers and 76 rbi, but instilling a focus in his teammates that was lacking in previous teams.  i have no problem with gibson winning the award over the statistically superior darryl strawberry, even though gibson won partly on 'intangibles'.  the dodgers would have been nowhere without him.  in the postseason, he had only 5 hits, but 3 were home runs.  he hit 2 of them in the nlcs, including the game 4 winner, a 12th-inning shot off of roger mcdowell, and a 3-run shot off of sid fernandez in game 5 that gave the dodgers a 6-0 lead that the mets could not overcome.  gibson had aggravated his already injured legs making a nice catch in game 3, but he still started every game of the nlcs.  unfortunately, he was unable to start game 1 of the world series, but famously came off of the bench in the 9th inning to hit the game winning home run off of dennis eckersley following a two-out walk issued to mike davis.  we all recall the hobbling and the fist pumping and the jumping up and down that ensued i am sure.  it was gibson's only appearance of the series, but the dodgers found a way to win 3 more games without him.

mickey hatcher returned to the dodgers as a free agent early in the 1987 season.  in doing so, he missed out on the twins' world series triumph that year, so i certainly was happy for him in 1988.  during the regular season, hatcher was used as a pinch-hitter and a sometimes first baseman/outfielder.  during the postseason, however, he was anointed by tommy lasorda to be the team's first baseman in place of franklin stubbs with mike marshall playing in the outfield instead of mike davis who had struggled all season.  then, when kirk gibson went down, hatcher moved to left field with stubbs taking over at first.  hatcher hit safely in every postseason game but one (in the nlcs), and his 2 home runs and 5 rbi in the world series led both teams (jose canseco also drove in 5).  speaking of hatcher's home runs - a 2-run shot in the bottom of the first inning in game 1 and a 2-run shot in the top of the first in game 5 - hatcher sprinted around the bases, almost catching up to steve sax following his game 1 blast.  if not for orel hershiser's pitching heroics in the series, hatcher may well have been the series mvp.

mike scioscia appeared in 130 regular season games (123 as a catcher) in 1988 and hit only 3 home runs.  that's why his home run in game 4 of the nlcs was so unexpected.  he did have a home run off of gooden earlier in his career, but still.  those two runs that scored on the homer were the only two rbi scioscia had in the nlcs, although he hit .364 in the series.  he only drove in one run in the world series, but it was a big one, too.  his 6th inning single in game 1 of the fall classic cut the a's lead to one run, putting the score at 4-3 and setting up gibson's two-run homer as the game winner.

steve sax began the 1988 season with a bang - he led off the bottom of the first in the season opener with a home run off of the giants' dave dravecky.  unfortunately, the dodgers didn't score any more runs that day.  1988 turned out to be sax's last season with the dodgers, and he hit .277 with 42 steals in 160 games in his regular season swan song.  in the '88 postseason, saxy hit .267 with 7 runs scored and 5 steals in the nlcs, then hit .300 in the world series.

the stadium on the back is...?:  dodger stadium, home of the dodgers since 1962 and site of gibby's game winning home run.

did upper deck get it right?: upper deck included both the mets and dodgers in the set, but surely the a's should also have been included.  as for the players upper deck chose, i think that they did ok.  the obvious misses are orel hershiser (the cy young award winner and nlcs and world series mvp) and tommy lasorda (the nl manager of the year), but one could make a case for tim belcher or jay howell, too.  on the flip side, upper deck could have included don sutton, who was already on the checklist, because he pitched for the club until his release in august.  kudos to upper deck for not including sutton - that would have been a pretty egregious checklist grab.

as for the photos, pena's is a head shot and certainly could be from 1988.  orosco's on the other hand looks more like the 2002 version of the dodger reliever (yes, he was a double dipper).  it's hard to tell about shelby, hatcher, and scioscia - they certainly look right based on the away grays that they are each wearing- and the dodgers didn't wear any sleeve patches during the 1988 regular season to help me know for sure (they did wear a vero beach 40th anniversary patch during spring training, and then the postseason patches on the right sleeve during the postseason).  we know that the gibby photo comes from game 1 of the world series, but i think that saxy's photo is from earlier in his career since it looks like there is a patch on his left sleeve.

is this team timeless?:  no doubt about it.

1986 new york mets

this post covers the 1986 new york mets and cards numbered 255 to 264 in the set. here are the fronts:

and backs:

it's all downhill from here - these 10 players represent the largest remaining team subset.  and, with 9 new players (plus ray knight), we get a boost to the checklist.

what team is this?:  the 1986 world champion new york mets

why this team?:  the 1986 mets won 108 games en route to the nl east title, beat the astros in an epic 6-game nlcs, and then defeated the boston red sox in dramatic fashion to win their second world championship as a franchise.

which players are featured?:  darryl strawberry, dwight gooden, gary carter, jesse orosco, keith hernandez, lenny dykstra, mookie wilson, ray knight, wally backman, and sid fernandez.

why these players?:  this is a good representation of the 1986 team.  pretty much all of the regulars (no rafael santana, though) plus three of the main pitchers on the staff.  still, let's break it down.

darryl strawberry was just 24 in 1986, yet it was his fourth full season in the majors.  he went 20/20 for the third straight year, with 27 homers and 28 steals.  on the down side, his batting average was just .259 and he struck out a career high 141 times.  he hit .227 with 2 homers in the nlcs against the astros (one off of nolan ryan), and .208 with a solo shot and 3 steals against boston in the world series.

dwight gooden had strawberry beat - he was just 21 in 1986, his third season in the majors.  after posting an insane 1.53 era and a 24-4 record in 1985, gooden came back to earth a bit with a 2.84 era and 17-6 record in 1986.  he made 4 postseason starts, two in each series, but was 0-3 overall.  he lost game 1 of the nlcs 1-0 against mike scott (who was named series mvp despite being on the losing end), and then pitched 10 innings in game 5, allowing just one run. the mets eventually won that game in the 12th inning.  in the world series, however, gooden didn't pitch as well.  he was the losing pitcher in both game 2 and game 5, allowing a total of 8 earned runs in 9 innings of work.

gary carter had joined the mets in 1985, and in 1986 he finished third in the league mvp voting.  he drove in over 100 runs for the third year in a row and the last time in his career.  the 1986 postseason was the first time carter had returned since the 1981 nlcs in which his expos lost to the dodgers.  he hit .207 against the astros in the nlcs, and then had 2 homers (both in game 4) and 9 rbi against the red sox in the fall classic.  his biggest hit may have been his two-out single in the bottom of the 10th in game 6 to start the mets' unbelievable comeback.

jesse orosco is the all-time leader in games pitched.  he was also the oldest player in the majors for a few years.  and, he was a dodger double dipper.  despite all that, jesse orosco is probably best remembered as the reliever who threw his glove to the sky at the completion of game 7 of the 1986 world series.  during the regular season, orosco was the southpaw part of a closer platoon with roger mcdowell.  he saved 21 games to mcdowell's 22, and had 2 more in the world series, including the game 7 clincher.  orosco also won 3 games in the nlcs, thanks to all the extra innings and late inning met heroics.

keith hernandez finished fourth in the league mvp voting, behind mike schmidt, glenn davis, and teammate gary carter.  he won his 9th straight gold glove (his streak started after steve garvey had won four straight), and also hit .310 with a league-leading 94 walks.  he hit .269 and .231 in the nlcs and world series, respectively, but that's ok - he's keith hernandez.

lenny dykstra was a 23-year old spark plug for the 1986 mets.  he hit .295 with 31 steals during the regular season, and in the nlcs the leadoff hitter hit .304 with 3 extra base hits and 3 rbi, including what turned out to be the series winning rbi in game 6.  he also hit .296 with 2 home runs in the world series.

mookie wilson made the move from center to left field in 1986 to accommodate dykstra.  he is best remembered for hitting (as vin scully said) 'a little roller up along first' that got 'through buckner' and allowed ray knight to score the winning run in game 6 of the world series.  he hit just .115 in the nlcs and .269 in the world series otherwise.

ray knight, as mentioned above, scored the winning run in that wild 10th inning of game 6.  he was also the mvp of the world series, hitting .391 with a home run and 5 rbi.  1986 was his third (and final) season with the mets, but the only season in which he was their full-time third baseman.

wally backman, the mets' second baseman, hit .320 in 124 games during the regular season.  in the postseason, he hit .238 in the nlcs and .333 in the world series.  despite the low average in the nlcs, backman contributed some key plays.  his bunt single in the 9th inning of game 3 sparked the game winning rally, although it was not so much of a rally as it was a two-run walk-off homer by dykstra, and backman also scored the winning runs in games 5 and 6.

sid fernandez won a career high 16 games in 1986.  nicknamed 'el sid' which is spanish for 'the sid' (thank you for the inspiration, chris farley), fernandez lost his only nlcs start (game 4) and then was moved to the bullpen for the world series.  after allowing a run and 3 hits in a third of an inning in game 2, fernandez was lights out.  he pitched 4 innings of shutout ball while striking out 5 in an appearance in game 5, and then turned in a key 2 and a third innings of hitless relief in game 7.

the stadium on the back is...?:  shea stadium.  in the 1969 mets post, i just noted that the photo wasn't from 1969 due to the presence of the diet coke sign.  let's try to figure out just when that photo was taken.  using the scoreboard, we know that the mets are hosting the astros.  it's 3:05 in the afternoon, and the game is in the top of the 6th.  it looks like the mets have only 1 hit and have yet to score, and the count is 1-0 on ed taubensee with 1 out.  ok baseball reference, do your thing!  and...my money is on april 11, 1993.

did upper deck get it right?: it's hard to argue with the player selection - sorry rafael santana.  certainly, bob ojeda and ron darling were also strong starters on the team (ojeda led the staff in wins and era), and roger mcdowell led the team in saves. any of those three would have also made sense.  the biggest headscratcher in terms of personnel featured however is davey johnson.  johnson was the manager of the team, and was included in the set with one of the orioles teams.  i am not sure why upper deck didn't add him to this team subset as well.

as for the photos, most of them match with the uniforms the mets were wearing in 1986.  in fact, backman's card shows what i believe to be a photo from the world series.  same for orosco.  there are two cards, however, whose images don't work with 1986.  keith hernandez's image is from no earlier than 1988 (that's when the team introduced the away grays with 'new york' on them, according to baseball reference), and mookie wilson's photo comes from 1980, 1981, or 1982 based on the collar and the lack of striping on the sleeves.

i would have liked the 1986 astros to have been included in the set, but you can't disagree with the angels, red sox, and mets.  still, with nolan ryan and personal favorite davey lopes already in the checklist, upper deck could have made it happen.

is this team timeless?:  no doubt about it - the '86 mets are a timeless bunch.