This week, the Pittsburgh Steelers have made their record tying 8th trip to the Super Bowl. Today we get to the black sheep of Pittsburgh sports teams, the Pirates. 1983 wasn't a bad season for the Bucs. They had an unexpected winning season. This would be the last Pirates team that didn't include Barry Bonds that had a winning season. In fact this would be their last winning season until 1988.
Best Player: Tony Pena
Best Pitcher: Rick Rhoden
All-Stars: Bill Madlock
Hall-of-Famers: none
Rookie Card of the Year: Cecilio Guante, pitched through 1990 with the Pirates, Yankees, Rangers, and Indians. Odd thing is, he never started until the very last game of his career against the Yankees.
Other rookie cards: Jim Smith (listed under retired players), Lee Tunnell
First Pirate card: Lee Mazzilli, Larry McWilliams, Manny Sarmiento, Gene Tenace
Most interesting non-Topps card: Cecilio Guante, appeared in only the Donruss set, but with the name "Matt Guante". Where did the Matt come from? His full name was Cecilio (Magallane) Guante. From my understanding of Spanish naming conventions, and this may be wrong, but Magallane would've been his dad's last name and Guante would've been his mother's. They really don't have middle names like Americans do. So it makes no sense to turn Magallane into Matt. Then again, this just may have been an error at the Donruss factory and nothing more.
Other notes: Bob Owchinko's card showing him as an Oakland Athletic is listed here.
Starters
| __ | TO | 590 | C | Tony Pena | PIT |
| __ | TO | 730 | 1B | Jason Thompson | PIT |
| __ | TO | 149 | 2B | Johnny Ray | PIT |
| __ | TO | 433 | SS | Dale Berra | PIT |
| __ | TO | 645 | 3B | Bill Madlock | PIT |
| __ | TO | 385 | LF | Mike Easler | PIT |
| __ | CF | Marvell Wynne | |||
| __ | TO | 205 | RF | Dave Parker | PIT |
| __ | TO | 69 | OF | Lee Lacy | PIT |
| __ | TT | 67 | CF | Lee Mazzilli | PIT |
Starting Pitchers
| __ | TO | 781 | SP | Rick Rhoden | PIT |
| __ | TO | 253 | SP | Larry McWilliams | PIT |
| __ | TO | 755 | SP | John Candelaria | PIT |
| __ | TT | 118 | SP | Lee Tunnell | PIT |
| __ | SP | Jose DeLeon |
Relief Pitchers
| __ | TO | 17 | CL | Kent Tekulve | PIT |
| __ | DO | 423 | RP | Cecilio Guante | PIT |
| __ | TO | 566 | RP | Manny Sarmiento | PIT |
| __ | TO | 355 | RP | Jim Bibby | PIT |
| __ | TO | 537 | RP | Rod Scurry | PIT |
Other Players
| __ | TO | 778 | 3B | Richie Hebner | PIT |
| __ | TO | 173 | IF | Jim Morrison | PIT |
| __ | LF | Brian Harper | |||
| __ | TT | 110 | UT | Gene Tenace | PIT |
| __ | LF | Doug Frobel | |||
| __ | TO | 462 | C | Steve Nicosia | PIT |
| __ | C | Milt May | |||
| __ | CF | Joe Orsulak | |||
| __ | C | Junior Ortiz | |||
| __ | MI | Ron Wotus | |||
| __ | SS | Rafael Belliard | |||
| __ | PR | Miguel Dilone | |||
| __ | TO | 44 | SP | Don Robinson | PIT |
| __ | TO | 329 | RP | Randy Niemann | PIT |
| __ | RP | Jim Winn | |||
| __ | RP | Dave Tomlin | |||
| __ | SP | Alfonso Pulido | |||
| __ | TO | 338 | RP | Bob Owchinko | OAK |
Manager
| __ | TO | 696 | MG | Chuck Tanner | PIT |
I've always been curious about the "Matt" Guante card. It's just so random. Maybe we would have heard more about this uncorrected error had Guante put together an All-Star career. If Albert Belle had never been an All-Star player, would we have ever heard the story behind his Joey Belle cards?
ReplyDeleteHis middle name was JoJuan, which is where the Joey came from...that makes a little more sense, and I am pretty sure he doesn't have a Latin background
ReplyDeleteGuante's card may have more in common with the "Jeff" Pendleton card Donruss put out in 1985.