before he became generally regarded as a bad third base coach and now the cubs' manager, dale sveum played some third base for the brewers. he was traded by milwaukee in december of 1991 to the phillies for bruce ruffin. here is his 1992 o-pee-chee card:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
sveum played in only 54 games for the phillies in 1992 before they sent him off to the white sox in august. it's understandable, as sveum was hitting .174 at the time of the trade. he managed to hit .219 for the chisox in the 40 games he played for them during the last couple of months of the season.

voici à vous, 1992 dale sveum!

steve finley was traded in january of 1991 with pete harnisch and curt schilling to the astros for glenn davis. the orioles got robbed. here is finley's 1991 o-pee-chee card:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
finley patrolled center field for the astros for four seasons, and in each season, he fielded the position better than he did when he won his first two gold gloves in 1995 and 1996 for the padres. go figure. during his time in houston, he hit .281 with 110 steals. he hit just 32 homers for the 'stros, but his power game changed after he was traded to the pads in that 1994 11-player deal.

voici à vous, 1991 steve finley!

larry sheets was traded by the orioles to the tigers in january of 1990. here's his 1990 o-pee-chee card:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
the tigers were hoping sheets would revert back to his 1987 form when he put up a line of 31/94/.316. instead, he went 10/52/.261 in 131 games. his last home run of the season, which also turned out to be the last of his career, was a walk-off job against michael (mike) jackson of the mariners.

after missing the 1991 season, sheets signed a deal with the angels but was released before the 1992 season started. undaunted, he signed with the brewers in december of 1992 only to be dealt to the mariners in september of 1993. at least the m's promoted sheets to the big leagues that season, as he played in the final games of his career.

voici à vous, 1990 larry sheets!

don sutton was traded by the brewers to the a's in december of 1984. here's his fantastically colorful 1985 o-pee-chee card:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
sutton had bounced back from a bad 1983 season in milwaukee to post a winning record in 1984 while getting his era back under 4. he began the 1985 season 20 wins shy of 300 for his career, and he had earned 13 of those missing victories for the a's when they traded him to the angels in august. in five starts for the halos over the last month of the season, sutton was 2-2, meaning that his 300th win would have to wait until 1986. still, despite all the moving around, sutton was able to continue his record streak of seasons with at least 100 strikeouts, becoming the first to do so in 20 straight campaigns.

sutton's 1985 topps traded card showed him as an athletic - it's too bad o-pee-chee didn't step in and create a variation for that set, too.

voici à vous, 1985 don sutton!

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!

gary woods was selected by the blue jays from the a's in the 1977 expansion draft.  here's his 1977 o-pee-chee card:
as a blue jay, woods was elevated to solo card status from his 4-in-1 card in the topps set.  speaking of which, here is the topps front:
that was a pretty well sought after card back in the day, with tony armas and steve kemp/lou ferrigno on it.  now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
so, not a checklist variation, but rather just a photo variation for gary woods.  woods was the starting center fielder when the blue jays took the field for the first time as a franchise.  the first hit for a blue jay, of course, was doug ault's first inning home run, but it was woods who got the second hit and first single in franchise history in the bottom of the second.  unfortunately, woods was sent down to the minors at the end of may and didn't return to the big leagues until september.  he reclaimed his starting spot, but wound up hitting just .216 on the year. 

in 1978, he spent pretty much the whole year in aaa, but was a september callup and played in just a handful of games.  woods was traded to the astros in the ensuing offseason.

voici à vous, 1977 gary woods!

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 december of 1990, rafael belliard signed with the braves as a free agent.  here's his 1991 o-pee-chee card:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
belliard replaced jeff blauser as the everyday shortstop in 1991 and had a pretty decent season.  he set career highs in games played (149) and hits (88) and helped the braves get to the postseason for the first time since 1982.  in the nlcs against his former team, belliard hit .211 but the braves beat the pirates anyway.  he hit .375 in the world series against the twins, but they lost in 7 games.  interestingly, when the braves finally did win a world series in 1995, belliard was 0 for 16.

voici à vous, 1991 rafael belliard!

john franco was obtained by the mets in december of 1989 in the randy myers deal. here is his 1990 o-pee-chee card:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
while franco missed out on the reds' 1990 world championship, he enjoyed a long tenure in the new york bullpen. he was an all-star in 1990 and led the league with 33 saves. a few years later, in 1994, he again led the league with 30 saves in just 47 appearances. he finished his career with a single season in houston in 2005, and his 1119 games pitched is good for third on the all-time list.

voici à vous, 1990 john franco!

al oliver brought his number '0' to the dodgers when the phillies traded him to la for pat zachry in february of 1985. here is his 1985 o-pee-chee card:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
i was always a fan of oliver's. he looked so sad on his 1978 topps/o-pee-chee card despite having some good years for some good pirate teams, including having a world series championship under his belt. then he had some good years in texas and that monster 1982 season in montreal. if only he had played in a bigger market during those years. by the time he arrived in la, he was 38 years old and had split the previous season between san francisco and philadelphia.

oliver started the 1985 season as the dodgers' left fielder, but soon became a bat off the bench. in all, he hit .253 as a dodger - .258 in 17 games as a left fielder, and .235 in 18 plate appearances as a pinch hitter. in july, the dodgers sent scoop to the blue jays in exchange for the 'tuz - len matuszek. oliver helped the jays get to the alcs, but despite his .375 average in the series against the royals, the team was unable to advance to the fall classic.

oliver's career ended with the 1985 seasaon, and he seems destined to remain in the 'hall of very good' with his 2743 hits, .303 career average, 1326 rbi, and .986 fielding percentage. that's bad news for me, as oliver's closest career comparative is none other than steve garvey.

voici à vous, 1985 al oliver!

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!

well, we know that jim rice never changed teams during his hall of fame career, so that must mean that this is either an award variation or an autograph placement variation.  and, since he didn't make the all-star team until 1977, it must be the latter.  here is jim rice's 1977 o-pee-chee card:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
i guess to be fair i should also note that the o-pee-chee photo is cropped just ever so slightly differently from the topps issue.  the noticeable variation, however, is the facsimilie signature.

in 1977, rice led the american league in home runs with 39.  three of which came in a single game - 8/29 against the a's.  it was a nice touch by topps to feature a ted williams cartoon on the back of another sox left fielder's card.

voici à vous, 1977 jim rice!

kevin mcreynolds was part of the december 1991 trade that brought bret saberhagen to the mets.  kevin went the other way, leaving new york for kansas city.  here's his 1992 o-pee-chee card:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
mcreynolds spent two mediocre yet consistent years with the royals.  his basic line was 13/49/.247 in 109 games in 1992, and 11/42/.245 over 110 games in 1993. he did manage to hit his 200th career home run as a royal in 1993 off of david wells.  in january of 1994, the royals sent him back to the mets in exchange for vince coleman and cash.

voici à vous, 1992 kevin mcreynolds!