now the o-pee-chee back:
ewing was used mostly as a pinch hitter by the blue jays in 1977, although he did start the second game in franchise history in left field.  overall, he hit .287 in 97 games, and also saw action in right, at first, and as the blue jays' designated hitter.  he also hit the first four home runs of his career in 1977.  the first two came against future hall of famers jim palmer and dennis eckersley, and the last two came against guys with double-a's in their names - moose haas and don aase. too bad for ewing that jim kaat was in the national league.

voici à vous, 1977 sam ewing!

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!

doug howard did not get a card in the 1977 topps set (unless he is on the bloody indians team card), or any other set as far as i can tell.  he was included in the o-pee-chee set, however, thanks to his status of being one of their earlier acquisitions.  here is howard's 1977 o-pee-chee card:
now the o-pee-chee back:
so, yesterday i said to pay close attention to the cartoon on the back of tommy smith's cards.  does this look familiar?  it should, because it is the same cartoon used on smith's card with one big exception.  this version of the mickey mantle cartoon says that the commerce comet hit 17 world series home runs, while the one on smith's cards says the total is 18.  smith's card is correct, but i can't imagine what happened in the o-pee-chee offices that resulted in the same cartoon being used twice, and with different/erroneous copy to boot.  i mean, the o-pee-chee set was much smaller than the topps set, so there were plenty of unused cartoons to go around for these checklist variations.  furthermore, any record books that o-pee-chee might have consulted to confirm the number of postseason home runs the mick hit would have been up to date in 1977 given that mantle retired in 1968 and hadn't appeared in the postseason since 1964.  besides, they had it right on smith's card.  crazy stuff.

anyway, doug howard was acquired by the blue jays in the same 1976 trade that netted them alan ashby.  howard had played in 39 games with the tribe in 1976, but did not play for the blue jays at all in 1977 as they released him towards the end of spring training.  i think that it's pretty cool that baseball reference uses this card for howard's bullpen page, but then again, i think that it's the only card he was given.

voici à vous, 1977 doug howard!

mark grant, who did not pitch in the big leagues in 1991 due to injury, was left off of topps' checklist in 1992.  o-pee-chee didn't forget about him, though.  here's his 1992 o-pee-chee card; the front:

here's the card grant displaced from the topps set - bobby bonilla's all-star card; front:
and back:
seems about right - grant struck bonilla out in five of his sixteen match ups.

voici à vous, 1992 mark grant!

ron tingley is the second of the angels' backstops to get no love from topps in 1992. here is his 1992 o-pee-chee card:
and here's the back:
tingley and john orton both lacked cards in the topps set, and mike fitzgerald, their other primary catcher in 1992 was still with the expos (and failed to get a text variation indicating that he was on his way to california). that means that the three primary angels' catchers in 1992 were not recognized as such by topps. to answer the obvious question, lance parrish was the only catcher featured by topps as an angel in their 1992 flagship release, and he and greg myers were the only other catchers on the halos' roster that year.

as for tingley, he had played in 45 games for the angels in 1991, but like orton, he surpassed that total in 1992 as he saw action in 71 games. he hit 3 homers and threw out 45% of the runners who dared try to steal against him.

here's the topps card that tingly threw out of the o-pee-chee set - front:
and back:
too bad there was no inter league play in 1992 - tingley might have thrown hojo out for real!

voici à vous, 1992 ron tingley!

john orton came out of cal poly slo to play for the angels over the course of 5 seasons in the late 80's and early 90's. he didn't get a topps card in 1992, but o-pee-chee came through with one. here is his 1992 o-pee-chee card:
and the o-pee-chee back:
the california angels had mike fitzgerald and ron tingley ahead of orton on the depth chart, but he still played in 43 games for the halos in 1992. as a result, he set career highs in pretty much every offensive category that year, including home runs (2) and hits (25). he also threw out 45% of the runners who tried to steal against him, good for 5th in the league.

here's the card orton dislodged from the set, the 1992 topps julio franco all-star card.  front:

even though he appeared in almost half of the orioles' games in 1991, tim hulett was left off of the topps checklist in 1992. here's his 1992 o-pee-chee card:
here's the o-pee-chee back:
hulett wound up hitting .289 with 2 home runs for the o's in 1992 while playing in 57 games. he stayed with the orioles for a couple more seasons before finishing his big league career in 1995 with the cardinals.

here's the card that hulett replaced in the topps set - lee smith's all-star card.  front
and back:
hulett never faced lee smith during his career, and that may have been ok with him.

voici à vous, 1992 tim hulett!

wayne edwards appeared in 13 games for the white sox in 1991, but didn't get a card in topps' 1992 set. here is his 1992 o-pee-chee card:
with the back:
he was 0-2 for the chisox in 1991, and when they tried to outright him to their aaa affiliate in vancouver in march of 1991, edwards chose free agency instead. he wound up signing with the blue jays, but spent the entire 1992 season with their aaa team in syracuse. at least he didn't need a passport.

here's the card edwards bumped from the set, front:
 and back:
it was not a sure thing for edwards to get matt nokes out - nokes was 3 for 7 with an rbi and a strikeout against the lefty in his career - but he managed to do it in the 1992 o-pee-chee set.

voici à vous, 1992 wayne edwards!

mike brumley, who had a text variation in 1990 thanks to a trade between the tigers and orioles, is back with a different kind of variation in 1992.  he did not get a topps card that year, but o-pee-chee saw fit to recognize his service to the red sox in 1991.  here is brumley's 1992 o-pee-chee card, a checklist variation:
here's the back:
here's the topps card o-pee-chee booted to make room for robinson, bryan harvey's all-star card. front:
and back:
brumley had played in 63 games for the bosox in '91, hitting .212 with 5 rbi.  in 1992, however, he saw action in only 2 games and was hitless in his lone plate appearance.  after the season, he signed a free agent deal with the astros, and despite playing in the big leagues through 1995, never made it on to another topps card.

voici à vous, 1992 mike brumley!

ron robinson didn't get a card in the 1992 topps set, but o-pee-chee came through for the bearded one.  here is his 1992 o-pee-chee card:
and the back:
ron had the misfortune of being traded from the reds to the brewers during the reds' 1990 world championship season, so he missed out on the postseason.  he did pitch well for milwaukee, though, going 12-5 in 22 starts with 7 complete games and 2 shutouts, and he pitched well enough to win 4 more games but his offense let him down. unfortunately, robinson was injured in his first start of the 1991 season, and missed the rest of the campaign. topps dropped him from the 1992 checklist , and here we are. robinson did return to the mound for the brewers in 1992, but retired in july of that year as a result of his injuries.

here's the topps card o-pee-chee booted to make room for robinson, tom glavine's all-star card.  front:
and back:
voici à vous, 1992 ron robinson!

in 1989, o-pee-chee one-upped topps and included a 1988 world series subset on their checklist. we've seen all but one so far, and here is the last - it's the game 1 recap (sorry - premier match) featuring, of course, kirk gibson:
 here's the back:
what more is there to say about this card? it is awesome. it's also the last of the variations from the 1989 o-pee-chee set. another year down.

voici à vous, 1989 world series (kirk gibson)!

since it's a checklist variation, there is no comparable topps card.  instead, here's the o-pee-chee back:
the funny thing about this card is that it could easily have had some "now with" text as the orioles traded worthington to the padres in february of 1992.  they didn't hold on to him long, releasing him towards the end of spring training that same year.  three weeks later, worthington signed a free agent deal with the indians and made a few appearances for them.  he bounced around in the minors after the 1992 season, and made his way back to the big leagues with the reds and rangers in 1995. 

here's the topps card that worthington replaced in the o-pee-chee set, the cecil fielder all-star card
and its back
voici à vous, 1992 craig worthington!

here's the back:
although carter's 1992 topps card features the same photo, i am considering this to be a checklist variation only.  that's because the 1992 o-pee-chee set was a full 792 cards, just like topps, and this card is numbered 399, not 45 like carter's topps card (we will see next time around that the 5th carter tribute card in the o-pee-chee set is numbered 45).

anyway, here's the topps card that got kicked to the curb by this carter tribute:
and its back:
for the dodgers, carter played in 101 games and hit .246. he served primarily as a backup to mike scioscia, but also played a bit of first base. he hit only 5 home runs as a dodger, but one of them was a 9th inning shot that tied the game against the astros on august 17th, sending the game to extras in which the dodgers won on a walk-off single by eddie murray. the kid scored his 1000th career run and stroked his 2000th career hit with la, and was picked up on waivers by the expos after the season ended.



voici à vous, 1992 gary carter tribute (dodgers 1991)!

now here's the back:
here's the front of the topps card that carter's giants tribute displaced:
and its back:
one carter displaces another.  the kid had signed a free agent deal with the giants following his release from the mets after the 1989 season.  as the back of the tribute card states, he set a new national league record for games caught while playing for the no-cals.  he also had his second career 5-hit game and hit a game winning home run in the 9th against the dodgers.  all is forgiven, though, because carter signed with the dodgers for the 1991 season.

wishing him and his family all the best...

voici à vous, 1992 gary carter tribute (giants 1990)!

here's the o-pee-chee back:
dopson had missed most of the 1990 and 1991 seasons due to injury, so it's understandable that topps would overlook him, even though they had produced cards for steve busby in 1978 (he missed the entire 1977 season) and tommy john in 1976 (out all of 1975 for his eponymous surgery) among others, but they had shown more success prior to injury than did dopson.  i believe the stats are incorrect, as baseball reference shows dopson appeared in just 4 games in 1990 which makes sense as dopson was a starter.

anyway, dopson was back in 1992 and he posted identical 7-11 records for the bosox that season and the next.  in 1994, he signed a free agent deal with the angels and went 1-4 for the halos.  he pitched in the minors for a bit after that, but injuries won out and dopson was forced to retire.

here's the card dopson bumped from the set, the 1992 topps cal ripken jr all-star card:
in 1992, dopson faced ripken 9 times.  in those confrontations, ripken got two hits including a double (which is appropriate given the back of the topps card), but also struck out once.

voici à vous, 1992 john dopson!