I always liked how Fleer put their cards in order by how the teams finished, so I am going to do that with my team checklists. I also am attempting to put the cards in order of the starting lineup, starting pitchers, then relief pitchers. I used http://www.baseball-reference.com/ for this. Since the Los Angeles Dodgers won the world series in 1981, finally getting revenge on the New York Yankees, I will start with them.
1981 was of course the year that a strike took out the middle of the season, so major league baseball created an extra round of playoffs. Even though the Dodgers weren't the best team record wise in their division, but since they won the first half of the season, they made it to the playoffs. This was the year of Fernandomania, where rookie Fernando Valenzuela started out 8-0 and went on to win both the Cy Young and Rookie of the Year.
This was also the last season with the famed Dodgers infield of Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell and Ron Cey which had been together since the 1974 season and led the Dodgers to be a competitive team throughout the late '70s, appearing in 4 World Series over that span. Other key cards in on this team include Mike Scioscia's rookie card and the first card of Pedro Guerrero on his own card.
Note that I am putting up the entire team roster and if there were no cards of that player in the 1981 sets, there is no number next to them. Also I am putting the team shown on the card after the player. Maybe someday I will include regional sets or other oddball sets to fill in these blanks.
Starters (played majority of innings at position for team or had 170 Plate appearances)
| __ | FL | 131 | C | Mike Scioscia | LAD |
| __ | TO | 530 | 1B | Steve Garvey | LAD |
| __ | TO | 50 | 2B | Davey Lopes | LAD |
| __ | TO | 260 | 3B | Ron Cey | LAD |
| __ | TO | 465 | SS | Bill Russell | LAD |
| __ | TO | 495 | LF | Dusty Baker | LAD |
| __ | TT | 787 | CF | Ken Landreaux | LAD |
| __ | TO | 651 | RF | Pedro Guerrero | LAD |
| __ | TO | 211 | MI | Derrel Thomas | LAD |
Starting Pitchers (majority of games started and at least 55 innings pitched)
| __ | TT | 850 | SP | Fernando Valenzuela | LAD |
| __ | TO | 565 | SP | Burt Hooton | LAD |
| __ | TO | 440 | SP | Jerry Reuss | LAD |
| __ | TO | 624 | SP | Bob Welch | LAD |
Relief Pitchers (at least 32 innings pitched)
| __ | TO | 693 | CL | Steve Howe | LAD |
| __ | RP | Dave Stewart | |||
| __ | TO | 548 | RP | Dave Goltz | LAD |
| __ | TO | 146 | RP | Bobby Castillo | LAD |
| __ | TO | 191 | RP | Rick Sutcliffe | LAD |
Other Players (doesn't meet requirements above)
| __ | TO | 726 | RF | Rick Monday | LAD |
| __ | 2B | Steve Sax | |||
| __ | TO | 318 | C | Steve Yeager | LAD |
| __ | TO | 372 | UT | Jay Johnstone | LAD |
| __ | OF | Ron Roenicke | |||
| __ | TO | 75 | 1B | Reggie Smith | LAD |
| __ | FL | 134 | IF | Pepe Frias | LAD |
| __ | UT | Mike Marshall | |||
| __ | FL | 130 | SS | Gary Weiss | LAD |
| __ | RF | Joe Ferguson | |||
| __ | OF | Candy Maldonado | |||
| __ | 2B | Jack Perconte | |||
| __ | OF | Bobby Mitchell | |||
| __ | OF | Mark Bradley | |||
| __ | C | Jerry Grote | |||
| __ | TO | 104 | RP | Terry Forster | LAD |
| __ | RP | Tom Niedenfuer | |||
| __ | RP | Alejandro Pena | |||
| __ | RP | Ted Power |
Minors
| __ | TO | 231 | MN | Joe Beckwith | LAD |
| __ | TO | 127 | MN | Rudy Law | LAD |
Manager/Coaches
| __ | FL | 116 | MG | Tom Lasorda (or DO 420) | LAD |
I remember when the Fernando card came out and how everyone wanted it but couldn't figure out how to get it.
ReplyDeleteI must have four Fernando Slurpee cups from that year as well.
I think this was the dawn of the collector market and less of baseball cards being thought of as just a child's toy. I could be wrong on that assumption, but I remember roughly around 1985 trading with kids who were more concerned about value of cards over completing sets or acquiring who was perceived as better players. I suspect Fernando Valenzuela may have been the first must have rookie card.
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