with cal ripken, jr. waiting to take over, the orioles let longtime shortstop mark belanger become a free agent after the 1981 season. belanger signed a deal with the dodgers, and we got this 1982 o-pee-chee team and text variation card as a result:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
tommy lasorda used belanger primarily as a late-inning defensive replacement, although he also pinch hit a few times and got a spot start here and there throughout the year. in all, belanger hit .240 in 57 games, with 12 hits and 4 rbi. he closed out his major league career on october 2 against the giants, with an rbi single off of scott garrelts.

belanger also closes out the 1982 variations, the set from the '80s with the most, i might add - we've now seen all of the variations o-pee-chee had to offer in the 1980s.

voici à vous, mark belanger!

in december of 1981, the dodgers sent a disgruntled rick sutcliffe (along with jack perconte - the 'other guy' on fernando and mike scioscia's 1981 rookie card) to the indians in exchange for three players, including jorge orta. here is orta's 1982 o-pee-chee card:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
the dodgers wound up flipping orta to the mets a year later for pat zachry, but first, he spent the 1982 season in la as a left handed bat off the bench. as a pinch hitter, orta was 9 for 60 (.150) with a home run and 5 rbi. that pinch hit home run turned out to be a game winner, as the dodgers beat the expos 2-1. orta, however, is best known for a different pinch hitting appearance, one that came in game 6 of the 1985 world series. pinch hitting for royals' darryl motley, orta led off the ninth inning with a grounder to jack clark and, according to umpire don denkinger, beat the throw to todd worrell covering first. orta was eventually forced out at third in the inning, but the royals scored two runs to force a seventh game.

voici à vous, 1982 jorge orta!

thanks to his departure from the bronx, reggie jackson had three variations in the 1982 o-pee-chee set. here's the third one to be featured on oh my o-pee-chee!, his 1982 o-pee-chee all-star card:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
reggie had a ton of career highlights, and he accomplished a couple more items in 1982 that could be added to the back of this card. first, he again tied for the american league lead in home runs with 39. then, he hit his 18th career postseason home run to tie mickey mantle for the major league record in 1982 (since broken by manny ramirez, bernie williams, and even derek jeter thanks to additional playoff rounds). not a bad return for mr. autry, although a pennant would have been nice.

voici à vous, 1982 reggie jackson all-star!

mr. october, reggie jackson, moved to the west coast in january of 1982. here's his 1982 o-pee-chee in action card:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
let's see what we could add to the highlights on the back of reggie's card.

jackson made the all-star team three times during his time in orange county, including 1982. he was the starting right fielder for the american league that year, and went 0 for 1 with a sacrifice fly, driving in the al's only run of the game. he was named to the 1983 team, but did not appear in the game, and in 1984, his final all-star game, he was back in the starting lineup, but went 0 for 2.

as for the championship series, what he did in 1982 (.111 average, 1 home run) and 1986 (.192 with no home runs) wouldn't supplant any of his other accomplishments on the back of this card. and, as we all know, the angels failed to advance to the world series during reggie's tenure in southern california.

voici à vous, 1982 reggie jackson in action!

as previously documented, larry bowa joined the cubs prior to the 1982 season. here's his 1982 o-pee-chee in action card:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
after leaving philly, bowa didn't achieve anything to add to the highlights on the back of the card, although he did play good defense for the cubs. he helped them get to the 1984 nlcs, but he hit just .200 in the series, so that wouldn't trump his performances from 1978 or 1980. if only he could have hung on with the mets, whom he played for during the last couple of months in 1985, we might have been able to add another world series appearance to bowa's list of accomplishments.

voici à vous, 1982 larry bowa in action!

jim kern was traded from the rangers to the mets in december of 1981. here is his 1982 o-pee-chee card:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
hold the phone - his o-pee-chee team and text variation shows him to be with the reds, not the mets. what gives? well, kern was traded twice in the offseason. a couple months after the mets acquired him, they sent him to the reds in the george foster deal. that february trade was made in plenty of time for o-pee-chee to get the card right and avoid a 1981 donruss bob owchinko moment.

with the reds, farmer somehow managed a nice 2.84 era in his 50 appearances despite a whip of 1.43 and a strikeout rate of less than 1/ip. that probably has something to do with the relievers who followed him and their inherited runners scored, as kern only finished about half of the game he pitched in. he did have a couple of saves to go with his 3-5 record when he was traded for the third time since the end of the 1981 season. the last trade, made in august of 1982, sent kern back to the american league where he joined the chicago white sox. he had a 2-1 record for them with 3 saves despite his era ballooning to 5.14. strangely, in his 13 games with the southsiders in '82, he lowered his whip to 1.14 and increased his strikeouts per inning rate to almost 2!

i want to point out that the 1982 topps jim kern card was one of the cards that introduced me to card blogging, thanks to a post on gem mint ten way back when.

voici à vous, 1982 jim kern!

reggie jackson signed with the angels as a free agent in january of 1982. here's his 1982 o-pee-chee card:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
it's hard to tell here, but o-pee-chee would have benefitted from an autograph placement variation on this card, as the tail end of reggie's auto is covered by the o-pee-chee kiddie logo.  in fact, topps could have done a better job of placing the auto, too, instead of putting it over the darkest part of reggie's uniform.

things started slowly for reggie in anaheim, as he was hitting just .188 with one home run at the end of april. but, he wasn't known as mr. april, was he? jackson picked up the pace, and by late-july, he was hitting a lofty (for him) .280 with 25 long balls. he finished the season at 39/101/.275 (leading the league in home runs, by the way) to go along with an angels' division championship. unfortunately, jackson was no longer mr. october, and although he hit his 18th and final career postseason home run in the alcs against milwaukee, his average for the series was just .111 as the brew crew rallied to send the angels home in 5 games.

voici à vous, 1982 reggie jackson!

ivan dejesus was traded by the cubs to the phillies in january of 1982 in the deal that sent larry bowa and ryne sandberg to the windy city. here is his 1982 o-pee-chee card:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
even forgetting about sandberg, the deal doesn't seem to make much sense for the phillies. sure, dejesus was younger than bowa, but he didn't offer any real upgrade offensively or defensively. bowa hit .247 with an ops of .604 and made 44 errors in just over 1900 chances for the cubs over the 1982-1984 seasons. dejesus, meanwhile, hit .249 with an ops of .637 but committed 73 errors in 2030 chances over the same timeframe. still, the phillies managed to get back to the world series in 1983 with dejesus at short, so it wasn't all a lost cause.

voici à vous, 1982 ivan dejesus!

greg "boomer" wells was sent from the blue jays to the twins in january of 1982 to complete the hosken powell deal from a couple of weeks earlier. here is his 1982 o-pee-chee card:
it's too bad o-pee-chee didn't include powell in the 1982 set, but at least we have this, quite possibly my favorite variation of the set. it's a text variation only, since it wouldn't make sense to change the team information when two-thirds of the players stayed put.

here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
the original boomer wells had played in 32 games for the jays in 1981, hitting .247 with 5 extra base hits (all doubles) as a first baseman and sometimes dh. things had started out well for the 27 year old rookie - in his first major league at bat, he singled in the tying run in the 9th inning of a game against the tigers. unfortunately, the tigers won the game in the bottom of the 9th. despite his successful debut, the blue jays had willie upshaw ready to take over first base in 1982, so wells was expendable.

for the twinkies in 1982, he was brought up in september and inserted into the starting lineup first as the dh and then as the first baseman to give kent hrbek some rest. he wound up playing in just 15 games and hit only .204, although he did have 2 triples. the second of those triples came in the 9th inning of game 162 against future cy young award winner lamarr hoyt, and was the last hit of the twins' 1982 season. it was also the last hit and last at bat of wells' major league career, as the twins released him prior to the start 1983 season.

voici à vous, 1982 boomer wells!

with exactly 100 home runs to his name, dan ford joined the orioles in january of 1982 when he was traded by the angels for doug decinces. here is his 1982 o-pee-chee card:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
ford hit only 21 more home runs in his career which spanned the four seasons following the trade. however, he did get to hit a home run in the 1983 world series against the phillies - a solo shot off of steve carlton in the 6th inning of game 3 to get the o's on the board. ford also figured in the play that gave the orioles the lead for good in the game and the series, as his ground ball in the 7th inning was booted by fellow 1982 variation subject ivan dejesus, allowing luis ayala to score what would become the game winning run.

voici à vous, 1982 dan ford!

bo diaz was acquired by the phillies from the indians in a november 1981 three-team deal that also involved the cardinals. here is his 1982 o-pee-chee card:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
diaz had his best season that first year with the phillies as he hit 18 home runs, drove in 85 runs and hit .288. in 1983, his production dropped off to the tune of a line of 15/64/.236, but the phils made the world series nonetheless. diaz himself hit .333 in the fall classic, but was relegated to backup duty behind ozzie virgil when the 1984 season rolled around thanks to his injuries and virgil's play while diaz was out. diaz was eventually traded to the reds in august of 1985 where he once again filled the role of starting catcher.

i was surprised to learn that diaz passed away in 1990, just over a year after a knee injury ended his career. i was further surprised to learn that his death was caused when the satellite dish he was working on fell and crushed him. yikes.

voici à vous, 1982 bo diaz!

ken griffey was traded by the reds to the yankees in november of 1981. here is his 1982 o-pee-chee card:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
the yankees moved griffey back to right field, and in return he rediscovered his power stroke. after hitting just 2 home runs in 1981, griffey hit 12 in 1982. he even victimized tommy john again for old times' sake in 1983. griffey lasted with the yankees until midway throught the 1986 season when he was dealt to the braves for claudell washington.

voici à vous, 1982 ken griffey!

larry herndon was traded to the tigers by the giants in december of 1981. here is his 1982 o-pee-chee card:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
i, for one, was happy to see herndon leave the national league as he terrorized the dodgers. he hit over .300 against them during his time with the giants and seemed to me to always be in the midst of some giant rally. with the tigers, he found his power stroke as he hit a career high 23 home runs. he also hit a personal best 13 triples and drove in 88 runs to lead the tigers. he hit three home runs in his first three at bats in a game against mike norris and the a's in may. in his fourth at bat, he grounded out to short, and then he was stranded in the on deck circle when the tigers made their last out of the game in the bottom of the 8th. pat underwood held the a's scoreless in the top of the 9th, so herndon didn't get another at bat in the game. two years later, he helped the tigers to a 35-5 start and a world series title.

voici à vous, 1982 larry herndon!