o-pee-chee cropped out the grass and tilted the facsimile autograph when they created frank tanana's 1977 o-pee-chee card:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
it's weird that the back mentions the 10-strikeout game tanana had against the rangers when he had a few 12-strikeout games in 1976 and actually finished his season with a 14-k, 11-inning complete game shutout of the a's.  any of those games would seem more worthy of a mention than the 10-k game.

anyway, tanana went 15-9 in 1977 and led the league with a 2.54 era.  he was named to the all-star team, but didn't pitch in the game.  he also finished with five double digit strikeout performances, the best of which may have been a 3-hit, 11-k shutout against the tigers in may.

voici à vous, 1977 frank tanana!

 now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
o-pee-chee got the text right this time.  i also find it interesting that tanana is the last variation in the 1981 o-pee-chee set and the first in the 1982 set, numerically speaking. it's pretty safe to say that 1982 turned into the worst season of tanana's 21 year career. he lost 18 games, had a then career worst 4.21 era, and posted a career low k/9 ratio of 4.0. he turned it around in 1983, shaving over a run off of his era, and then continued his success in 1984 when he won 15 games for the lowly rangers who posted just 69 victories the entire season.

the rangers traded tanana to his hometown detroit tigers during the 1985 season, and he put up some good numbers there over the next 7 seasons. his biggest win as a tiger came on the final day of the 1987 season, when he shut out the blue jays to clinch the american league east championship. tanana finished his career in 1993 with the mets and yankees, and with 240 career wins, he stands as the winningest pitcher in major league history to never win 20 games in a season.

voici à vous, 1982 frank tanana!

shortly before spring training began in 1981, the angels sent frank tanana to the red sox, despite what the text on the front of his 1981 o-pee-chee card says. here's the card:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
white sox.  not quite.  this is the first of two text variation errors i am aware of, and i am fairly sure the error went uncorrected.  anyway, i wrote about tanana a while back on my other blog. he was socal personified, and he had put together a pretty good run in the mid to late 70's as one of the best pitchers in the game, but gene autry and company couldn't pass up the opportunity to acquire fred lynn from the red sox, and so tanana, along with joe rudi, headed east. as it turns out, tanana's lone season in boston was a disappointment, to say the least. injuries forced him to miss most of june and all of july and he won only 4 games (2 of which were shutouts) all season against 10 losses. the record is a bit misleading, as he actually lowered his era to 4.01 from the 4.15 he posted with the angels in 1980 when he won 11 games. still, boston allowed tanana to become a free agent after the season ended, and he would head back to the american league west, this time with the rangers.

voici à vous, 1981 frank tanana!