1984 San Diego Padres

A hard luck franchise
The San Diego Padres came to be starting in the 1969 season. Padres baseball is perhaps best known for Tony Gwynn and having arguably the worst uniforms in the history of the major leagues. One thing that is often overlooked is that when they were at their best, they came up against some of the best teams in the history of the game in the post season. Their best season as a franchise came in 1998 when they won 98 games in the regular season and made it to the World Series. Unfortunately, they came up against the best team of the 1990s record wise, the 1998 New York Yankees, winners of a then AL record 114 games, and got swept in the World Series.

1984 was their second best season, having won 92 games and made it to their first World Series as a franchise. It was just the second above .500 team in their history. They would, of course, lose to the team tied with the second best record of the 1980s, 4 games to 1 in the World Series. This was a solid young team that with some veteran leadership sprinkled in, that did little else in the 1980s.

Tony Gwynn
This was Tony Gwynn's third season in the big leagues. He is the most well known Padre and the 2nd to go into the hall-of-fame with a Padres logo on his hat. (Can you name the other?) He was the only player to play on both Padres teams that went to the World Series.

1984 was his breakout year. He was easily the best player on this team, leading the team in batting average and hits. He was also 2nd on the team in stolen bases and 3rd in RBIs. What put him on the national radar in 1984, was that he won the first of his eight batting titles and also led the league in hits. He ended up 3rd in the MVP voting.


Veteran Leadership
In 1982 and 1983, the Padres completed back to back .500 seasons. They were both very youthful teams and they came together in 1984. What may have helped was some of the veteran leadership brought in that had connections to the 1977-1978 World Series, both won by the Yankees over the Dodgers. Steve Garvey, formerly of the '77/'78 Dodgers, was brought in prior to the 1983 season. Garvey would lead the 1984 team in RBIs to go with a good .284 batting average. Prior to the 1984 season, a couple of former Yankees from those late '70s teams were brought in, Graig Nettles and Rich Gossage. They all had plenty of gas left in the tank. Gossage was probably the best pitcher on this team and solidified the bullpen. Nettles took over at third base from Luis Salazar who manned the position the previous season. This allowed Salazar to do what he did best throughout his career, be what I call a supersub, play many positions and be a 9th regular.

The Cards
We are only 4 players short of being able to complete this roster's checklist. 21 Players on this roster could be found in the regular Topps set in a Padres uniform. Ron Roenicke is listed here as he only played for the Padres in 1984, but his Topps card shows him as a Mariner. He did not have a card in the traded set. The Topps Traded set gives us 5 more players, including cards of Nettles and Gossage and two players in their rookie card year picked up from the Cubs, Carmelo Martinez and Craig Lefferts. Finally we get 1 more player from the Donruss (or Fleer set), the rookie card of outfielder Kevin McReynolds. McReynolds was also one of the key players to this Padres team, as he was 2nd on the team in RBI. He never gets a card in a Topps set until he shows up in the 1987 Traded set after he was traded to the Mets.

Starters

__	TO	455	C	Terry Kennedy	SDP
__	TO	380	1B	Steve Garvey	SDP
__	TO	693	2B	Alan Wiggins	SDP
__	TO	615	SS	Garry Templeton	SDP
__	TT	83	3B	Graig Nettles	SDP
__	TT	75	LF	Carmelo Martinez	SDP
__	DO	34	CF	Kevin McReynolds (or FL 307)	SDP
__	TO	251	RF	Tony Gwynn	SDP

Starting Pitchers

__	TO	532	SP	Eric Show	SDP
__	TO	481	SP	Mark Thurmond	SDP
__	TO	277	SP	Ed Whitson	SDP
__	TO	644	SP	Tim Lollar	SDP
__	TO	778	SP	Andy Hawkins	SDP

Relief Pitchers

__	TT	43	CL	Rich Gossage	SDP
__	TO	290	RP	Dave Dravecky	SDP
__	TT	72	RP	Craig Lefferts	SDP
__			RP	Greg Booker

Other Players

__	TO	68	3B	Luis Salazar	SDP
__	TO	261	OF	Bobby Brown	SDP
__	TO	674	IF	Tim Flannery	SDP
__	TO	571	C	Bruce Bochy	SDP
__	TO	346	UT	Kurt Bevacqua	SDP
__	TO	94	SS	Mario Ramirez	SDP
__	TT	113	1B	Champ Summers	SDP
__	TO	647	OF	Ron Roenicke	SEA
__			OF	Eddie Miller
__	TO	753	C	Doug Gwosdz	SDP
__	TO	38	RP	Luis DeLeon	SDP
__			RP	Greg Harris
__			RP	Floyd Chiffer
__	TO	224	RP	Sid Monge	SDP

Manager

__

TO

742

MG

Dick Williams

SDP

1984 Detroit Tigers

Memories of a 10 Year Old
Joe Posnanski, one of my favorite blog writers, has a theory on his blog that most fans want baseball to remain the same as it was when they were 10 years old. It is the age when you really discover and start to understand the game. I think the key to this is that at about 10 years old, you start to look at the world a little differently. I have a 10 year old daughter and she is now aware of events that go on around the world and has an interest in what is going on outside of her immediate surroundings. She is concerned about what is happening in Japan and Libya right now. As a sports fan, she is more aware of the strategies that go into a game. Meanwhile, whenever I take my 7 year old to a game, he is more concerned about when the cotton candy vendor is going to come around. He has barely any idea what is going on in the game, but he can spot the cotton candy vendor all the way across the field and then proceeds to pester me for the next three innings wondering if he is going to run out of cotton candy before he gets to our section.

Anyway I ramble a bit, but I grew up in suburban Detroit and was born in late 1973. In 1984, I was 10 years old and 1984 represents baseball as the perfect way it is to be played. What a time to come of age as a fan of the Detroit Tigers. My dad took me to games at the old Tiger Stadium before this season, and much like my son now, I think I was more concerned with the concession stand. I had baseball cards from before this year, but I think I bought alot of them thinking I was getting real baseball gum. But in 1984, I started following every game on the radio (yeah every game wasn't on TV then) and learned more about the players and where they came from and their stats. Anyway, who knew that your hometown team doesn't win the World Series every year. In fact I am still waiting for them to come around again. I wonder if I had turned 10 in 1994 during the beginning of the Randy Smith era if I would've even cared about the Tigers. But the events in 1984 set me up as a Tiger fan for life.

How Good Was This Team?
This team was tied for the 2nd best record of the 1980s. Only the 1986 Mets were better with 108 wins and the 1988 Oakland A's also had 104 wins. Looking at all three rosters, it seems like both the Mets and A's had an all-star (or near all-star) at every position and a solid pitching staff from 1-5. Beyond the first 3 starters, the '84 Tigers really didn't have much. This may be surprising, but no player on this roster is in the Hall-of-Fame. Only the manager is in the Hall-of-Fame. There were issues all season trying to find a third baseman. But everything went right in 1984. They were an up and coming team for awhile. The core players mostly all came up together in the late 1970s and by 1984 were in the prime 26-32 age range, with Alan Trammell being the 2nd youngest of the starters, but probably the real team MVP. It seems that alot of these players may have had their best seasons career wise in 1983, but they were real close in 1984. Chet Lemon may have had his best season ever in 1984 and Kirk Gibson and Alan Trammell probably had their 2nd best seasons. The bullpen with a one-two punch of Aurelio Lopez and Willie Hernandez was lights out. The bench led by Barbaro Garbey, Ruppert Jones, and Marty Castillo was excellent.

Willie Hernandez - Cy Young & MVP
The final piece of this puzzle came in the last week of spring training. The Tigers traded long time player Johnny Wockenfuss and probably the only player of value to come through their farm system in the 1980s, Glenn Wilson, for Willie Hernandez and Dave Bergman. This trade made the bullpen lights out as Willie Hernandez was probably the best pitcher on this team. He would win MVP and Cy Young. I think what won him both of these awards is that the Tigers were close in 1983, and it did appear that he was the final piece in the puzzle. Plus it was noted that he only had one blown save for the year. His statistic line looked like this 32 saves, 1.92 ERA, 112 strikeouts in 80 games. He led the league in games pitched and games finished. I think the 32 saves is deceiving as the Tigers weren't in that many close games for the season. But was he really good enough to win both awards? I ask this question because the stats don't seem that eye-popping and he had a very average career besides 1984 and maybe 1985.

Here are the players in order who received Cy Young votes:
Dan Quisenberry - led the league with 44 saves, and a had a sub 3.00 ERA
Bert Blyleven - pitching for a last place team went 19-7 with a sub 3.00 ERA
Mike Boddicker - led league in wins with 20 and ERA with a 2.79
Dan Petry - went 18-8, best starter on best team, best season of his career
Dave Stieb - actually finished 7th in the voting, led the league in WAR, but only had 16 wins...this was significant in 1984

I would say Hernandez probably was the best pitcher, he did what he had to do and had a sub 2.00 ERA. Actually I probably would've voted for Boddicker, but not a bad choice.

Now for MVP
Kent Hrbek - not sure why he would've finished 2nd, even going with traditional stats, he was 7th in batting average, 7th in RBI
Eddie Murray - awesome season, .306-29-110 and led league in OBP
Don Mattingly - led league in hits, batting average, doubles, and OPS+, although nobody knew what that was then, also had 110 RBIs
Kirk Gibson - the Tigers leader in runs scored, 2nd in HR and RBI
Tony Armas - led league in homers and RBI with 43-123, best season of his career
Alan Trammell - finished 9th, led Tigers in OBP
Cal Ripken - if you buy into Bill James win shares, he was the league leader beating out Hernandez by 13 win shares...finished 27th in MVP voting...I could rant about win shares but maybe I will save that for another post

What may have given Hernandez this award is that no one stood out. Armas led the heague in HR and RBI, but has an awful batting average and the perception that Fenway helped. I think Eddie Murray may have been the best overall player, but the Orioles fell from World Champions to 5th place in the division, so they were ignored in award voting.

The Cards
18 players on this roster could be found in the Topps set in a Tigers uniform. Dave Gumpert was in the minor league system in 1984 but did appear on a Topps card. Another 7 could be found in the Topps Traded set, including the before mentioned MVP/Cy Young winner, Willie Hernandez. The only player on this roster with a card in a non-Topps set was Mike Laga. Laga had the least number of plate appearances for a position player on this team. He had been a member of the Tigers since 1982 and would go on to play for the Cardinals and Giants ending his career in 1990. This is his rookie card. He would only have one more card, in the 1987 Topps set showing him as a badly airbrushed member of the Cardinals.



Starters

__	TO	640	C	Lance Parrish	DET
__	TT	11	1B	Dave Bergman	DET
__	TO	695	2B	Lou Whitaker	DET
__	TO	510	SS	Alan Trammell	DET
__			3B	Howard Johnson
__	TO	333	LF	Larry Herndon	DET
__	TO	611	CF	Chet Lemon	DET
__	TO	65	RF	Kirk Gibson	DET
__	TT	36	DH	Darrell Evans	DET
__	TT	41	UT	Barbaro Garbey	DET
__	TO	14	IF	Tom Brookens	DET

Starting Pitchers

__	TO	147	SP	Dan Petry	DET
__	TO	195	SP	Jack Morris	DET
__	TO	588	SP	Milt Wilcox	DET
__	TO	174	SP	Juan Berenguer	DET
__	TO	457	SP	Dave Rozema	DET

Relief Pitchers

__	TT	51	CL	Willie Hernandez	DET
__	TO	95	RP	Aurelio Lopez	DET
__	TO	536	RP	Doug Bair	DET

Other Players

__	TT	59	OF	Ruppert Jones	DET
__	TO	42	UT	Johnny Grubb	DET
__	TT	66	RF	Rusty Kuntz	DET
__	TO	303	UT	Marty Castillo	DET
__			SS	Doug Baker
__			C	Dwight Lowry
__			2B	Scott Earl
__			UT	Nelson Simmons
__			DH	Rod Allen
__	DO	491	UT	Mike Laga	DET
__	TO	356	SP	Glenn Abbott	DET
__	TT	80	RP	Sid Monge	DET
__			RP	Roger Mason
__			RP	Bill Scherrer
__			SP	Randy O'Neal
__			RP	Carl Willis

Minor Leaguers

__

TO

371

MN

Dave Gumpert

DET

Manager

__

TO

259

MG

Sparky Anderson

DET

1984 Miscellaneous Cards

1983 was sort of a transition year in major league baseball. The baby boomers who had largely represented most of the players in baseball starting in the late 60s were now arriving at the end of their careers. Topps honored this generation in 1983 with the super veteran subset, and in 1984 we get cards of the players who were the current active career leaders. This was interesting as Pete Rose was nearing setting the record for most hits in a career and the active strikeout record was on its way to being obliterated, as Walter Johnson's record had been passed in 1983 by Nolan Ryan. Ryan and Steve Carlton passed the record back and forth for a while, but Ryan eventually made it maybe untouchable. It is also interesting that to note that the career home run leader going into 1984 was Reggie Jackson with 478 career home runs, which placed him about 90 home runs against the next closest player, Mike Schmidt. In the mid-80s, Hank Aaron's record was very safe. Greg Luzinski was 3rd on the active list with 294 home runs. I think that would place him about 50th today.

We also get the typical subsets...the all-stars, highlights, and team leaders. The team leaders were handled much like Topps has handled them in the past two sets with cards representing the team batting average and team ERA leader from the previous season. Fleer brought back cards noting the previous post season, something that hadn't been in set since the 1981 Topps set. Done a little different than Topps has historically handled postseason cards by creating a card for each game, or at the very least for the entire series, Fleer had cards that honored a few of the players and individual performances from the '83 champion Orioles.





Highlights

__	TO	1	HL	Steve Carlton	PHI
__	TO	2	HL	Rickey Henderson (Steals 100 Bases for the Third Time)	OAK
__	TO	3	HL	Dan Quisenberry	KCR
__	TO	4	HL	Strikeout Record (Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton, Gaylord Perry)	XXX
__	TO	5	HL	1983 No-Hitters (Dave Righetti, Bob Forsch, Mike Warren)	XXX
__	TO	6	HL	Superstars Retire (Johnny Bench, Gaylord Perry, Carl Yastrzemski)	XXX
__	FL	626	HL	Fred Lynn ('83 All-Star Game Record Breaker)	CAL
__	FL	627	HL	Manny Trillo ('83 All-Star Game Record Breaker)	XXX
__	FL	638	HL	The Pine Tar Incident 7/24/83 (George Brett, Gaylord Perry)	KCR
__	FL	641	HL	Gaylord Perry (Going Out In Style)	KCR
__	FL	642	HL	Steve Carlton (300 Club & Strikeout Record)	PHI
__	FL	628	HL	Steve Garvey (NL Iron Man)	SDP

Mascots

__

DO

651

SS

The Chicken

XXX

League Leaders

__	TO	131	LD	Batting Leaders (Bill Madlock, Wade Boggs)	XXX
__	TO	132	LD	Home Run Leaders (Mike Schmidt, Jim Rice)	XXX
__	TO	133	LD	RBI Leaders (Dale Murphy, Cecil Cooper, Jim Rice)	XXX
__	TO	134	LD	Stolen Base Leaders (Tim Raines, Rickey Henderson)	XXX
__	TO	135	LD	Victory Leaders (John Denny, LaMarr Hoyt)	XXX
__	TO	136	LD	Strikeout Leaders (Steve Carlton, Jack Morris)	XXX
__	TO	137	LD	ERA Leaders (Atlee Hammaker, Rick Honeycutt)	XXX
__	TO	138	LD	Leading Firemen (Al Holland, Dan Quisenberry)	XXX

All-Stars

__	TO	386	AS	George Hendrick	STL
__	TO	387	AS	Johnny Ray	PIT
__	TO	388	AS	Mike Schmidt	PHI
__	TO	389	AS	Ozzie Smith	STL
__	TO	390	AS	Tim Raines	MON
__	TO	391	AS	Dale Murphy	ATL
__	TO	392	AS	Andre Dawson	MON
__	TO	393	AS	Gary Carter	MON
__	TO	394	AS	Steve Rogers	MON
__	TO	395	AS	Steve Carlton	PHI
__	TO	396	AS	Jesse Orosco	NYM
__	TO	397	AS	Eddie Murray	BAL
__	TO	398	AS	Lou Whitaker	DET
__	TO	399	AS	George Brett	KCR
__	TO	400	AS	Cal Ripken	BAL
__	TO	401	AS	Jim Rice	BOS
__	TO	402	AS	Dave Winfield	NYY
__	TO	403	AS	Lloyd Moseby	TOR
__	TO	404	AS	Ted Simmons	MIL
__	TO	405	AS	LaMarr Hoyt	CHW
__	TO	406	AS	Ron Guidry	NYY
__	TO	407	AS	Dan Quisenberry	KCR

Active Career Leaders

__	TO	701	LD	NL Active Batting Leaders (Bill Madlock, Pete Rose, Dave Parker)	XXX
__	TO	702	LD	NL Active Hit Leaders (Pete Rose, Rusty Staub, Tony Perez)	XXX
__	TO	703	LD	NL Active Home Run Leaders (Mike Schmidt, Tony Perez, Dave Kingman)	XXX
__	TO	704	LD	NL Active RBI Leaders (Tony Perez, Rusty Staub, Al Oliver)	XXX
__	TO	705	LD	NL Active Stolen Base Leaders (Joe Morgan, Cesar Cedeno, Larry Bowa)	XXX
__	TO	706	LD	NL Active Victory Leaders (Steve Carlton, Fergie Jenkins, Tom Seaver)	XXX
__	TO	707	LD	NL Active Strikeout Leaders (Steve Carlton, Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver)	XXX
__	TO	708	LD	NL Active ERA Leaders (Tom Seaver, Steve Carlton, Steve Rodgers)	XXX
__	TO	709	LD	NL Active Save Leaders (Bruce Sutter, Tug McGraw, Gene Garber)	XXX
__	TO	710	LD	AL Active Batting Leaders (Rod Carew, George Brett, Cecil Cooper)	XXX
__	TO	711	LD	AL Active Hits Leaders (Rod Carew, Bert Campaneris, Reggie Jackson)	XXX
__	TO	712	LD	AL Active Home Run Leaders (Reggie Jackson, Graig Nettles, Greg Luzinski)	XXX
__	TO	713	LD	AL Active RBI Leaders (Reggie Jackson, Ted Simmons, Graig Nettles)	XXX
__	TO	714	LD	AL Active Stolen Base Leaders (Bert Campaneris, Dave Lopes, Omar Moreno)	XXX
__	TO	715	LD	AL Active Victory Leaders (Jim Palmers, Don Sutton, Tommy John)	XXX
__	TO	716	LD	AL Active Strikeout (Don Sutton, Bert Blyleven, Jerry Koosman)	XXX
__	TO	717	LD	AL Active ERA Leaders (Jim Palmers, Rollie Fingers, Ron Guidry)	XXX
__	TO	718	LD	AL Active Saves Leaders (Rollie Fingers, Goose Gossage, Dan Quisenberry)	XXX

Team Leaders

__	TO	126	TM	Atlanta Braves Team Leaders (Dale Murphy, Craig McMurtry)	ATL
__	TO	426	TM	Baltimore Orioles Team Leaders (Cal Ripken, Mike Boddicker)	BAL
__	TO	786	TM	Boston Red Sox Team Leaders (Wade Boggs, Bob Ojeda)	BOS
__	TO	276	TM	California Angels Team Leaders (Rod Carew, Geoff Zahn)	CAL
__	TO	456	TM	Chicago Cubs Team Leaders (Keith Moreland, Fergie Jenkins)	CHC
__	TO	216	TM	Chicago White Sox Team Leaders (Carlton Fisk, Richard Dotson)	CHW
__	TO	756	TM	Cincinnati Reds Team Leaders (Ron Oester, Mario Soto)	CIN
__	TO	546	TM	Cleveland Indians Team Leaders (Mike Hargrove, Lary Sorensen)	CLE
__	TO	666	TM	Detroit Tigers Team Leaders (Jack Morris, Lou Whitaker)	DET
__	TO	66	TM	Houston Astros Team Leaders (Jose Cruz, Nolan Ryan)	HOU
__	TO	96	TM	Kansas City Royals Team Leaders (Hal McRae, Larry Gura)	KCR
__	TO	306	TM	Los Angeles Dodgers Team Leaders (Pedro Guerrero, Bob Welch)	LAD
__	TO	726	TM	Milwaukee Brewers Team Leaders (Ted Simmons, Moose Haas)	MIL
__	TO	11	TM	Minnesota Twins Team Leaders (Kent Hrbek, Ken Schrom)	MIN
__	TO	516	TM	Montreal Expos Team Leaders (Al Oliver, Charlie Lea)	MON
__	TO	246	TM	New York Mets Team Leaders (Mookie Wilson, Tom Seaver)	NYM
__	TO	486	TM	New York Yankees Team Leaders (Don Baylor, Ron Guidry)	NYY
__	TO	156	TM	Oakland Athletics Team Leaders (Rickey Henderson, Tim Conroy)	OAK
__	TO	637	TM	Philadelphia Phillies Team Leaders (Gary Matthews, John Denny)	PHI
__	TO	696	TM	Pittsburgh Pirates Team Leaders (Bill Madlock, Rick Rhoden)	PIT
__	TO	366	TM	San Diego Padres Team Leaders (Terry Kennedy, Dave Dravecky)	SDP
__	TO	576	TM	San Francisco Giants Team Leaders (Jeffrey Leonard, Atlee Hammaker)	SFG
__	TO	336	TM	Seattle Mariners Team Leaders (Pat Putnam, Matt Young)	SEA
__	TO	186	TM	St. Louis Cardinals Team Leaders (Lonnie Smith, John Stuper)	STL
__	TO	37	TM	Texas Rangers Team Leaders (Buddy Bell, Rick Honeycutt)	TEX
__	TO	606	TM	Toronto Blue Jays Team Leaders (Lloyd Moseby, Dave Stieb)	TOR

Post Season

__	FL	643	WS	World Series 1983: The Managers (Joe Altobelli, Paul Owens)	XXX
__	FL	644	WS	Rick Dempsey (World Series 1983: The MVP)	BAL
__	FL	645	WS	Mike Boddicker (World Series 1983: The Rookie Winner)	BAL
__	FL	646	WS	Scott McGregor (World Series 1983: The Clincher)	BAL

Checklists

__	TO	114	CH	Checklist 1-132	XXX
__	TO	233	CH	Checklist 133-264	XXX
__	TO	379	CH	Checklist 265-396	XXX
__	TO	527	CH	Checklist 397-528	XXX
__	TO	646	CH	Checklist 529-660	XXX
__	TO	781	CH	Checklist 661-792	XXX
__	TT	132	CH	Checklist 1T-132T	XXX