1983 Boston Red Sox

The Red Sox had the two leading home run hitters in the AL in Jim Rice and Tony Armas, but 1983 was the coming out party for Wade Boggs, as he led the AL with a .361 batting average. But offensively, they were in the middle of the pack in runs scored as a team.

1983 is probably remembered by Red Sox fans mostly because this was the last season for Carl Yastrzemski, who had been a Red Sox player since 1961. He was 43 this season, and still served as the team's DH.

Best Player: Wade Boggs

Best Pitcher: Bob Stanley

All-Stars: Jim Rice, Bob Stanley, Carl Yastrzemski

Hall-of-Famers: Wade Boggs, Dennis Eckersley, Jim Rice, Carl Yastrzemski

Rookie Card of the Year: Wade Boggs, hall of famer with over 3,000 career hits...one of the key rookie cards to get in the 1983 sets

Other rookies: Luis Aponte, Mike Brown, Roger LaFrancois (listed under retired players)

First Red Sox cards: Tony Armas, Doug Bird, Ralph Houk, Jeff Newman

Most interesting non-Topps cards: all the players on cards had cards in the Topps sets

Other notes: counting Steve Crawford, who was in the Red Sox minor leagues, but had a card and the manager spot, there are only 33 slots to fill for this Red Sox team. This is the lowest amount for any team in 1983. With that said, there are still 8 players that don't have cards in any set.

Starters

__	TO	472	C	Gary Allenson	BOS
__	TO	239	1B	Dave Stapleton	BOS
__	TO	295	2B	Jerry Remy	BOS
__	TO	108	SS	Glenn Hoffman	BOS
__	TO	498	3B	Wade Boggs	BOS
__	TO	30	LF	Jim Rice	BOS
__	TT	4	CF	Tony Armas	BOS
__	TO	135	RF	Dwight Evans	BOS
__	TO	550	DH	Carl Yastrzemski	BOS
__	TO	446	UT	Reid Nichols	BOS
__	TO	188	OF	Rick Miller	BOS

Starting Pitchers

__	TO	318	SP	John Tudor	BOS
__	TO	82	SP	Bruce Hurst	BOS
__	TO	654	SP	Bob Ojeda	BOS
__	TO	270	SP	Dennis Eckersley	BOS
__			SP	Oil Can Boyd
__	TT	15	SP	Mike Brown	BOS

Relief Pitchers

__	TO	682	CL	Bob Stanley	BOS
__	TO	577	RP	Luis Aponte	BOS
__			RP	John Henry Johnson
__	TO	162	RP	Mark Clear	BOS
__	TT	12	RP	Doug Bird	BOS

Other Players

__	TO	602	C	Rich Gedman	BOS
__			IF	Ed Jurak
__	TT	80	C	Jeff Newman	BOS
__			UT	Marty Barrett
__	TO	628	UT	Julio Valdez	BOS
__			SS	Jackie Gutierrez
__			CF	Lee Graham
__			LF	Chico Walker
__			SP	Al Nipper

Minor Leagues

__

TO

419

MN

Steve Crawford

BOS

Manager

__

TO

786

MG

Ralph Houk

BOS

Sunday Extra - 1982 Brigham's - Coca Cola Boston Red Sox

I found out about this set listed on the wikipedia page for 1982 Topps. From what I can tell, it was a set sponsored by both Coca-Cola and Brigham's Ice Cream. Since I am from the midwest, I never heard of that brand of ice cream and apparently it is a New England brand. I have no idea how these cards were distributed. It appears very similar to the 1982 Topps set, except it has logos of the two companies on the card. Also, since I own none of these cards, I can't verify this, but looking at ebay auctions, it appears these cards are brighter than the regular 1982 Topps cards, perhaps they were printed on different card stock. Perhaps a Red Sox fan can fill in the blanks about this set.

I thought this may help my checklist for the 1982 Boston Red Sox, which I actually already posted. Although it is nice 22 card regional set, it is no use for this project. It actually has the same checklist for the Boston Red Sox as the regular Topps set, except there is no cards for Bill Campbell, Joe Rudi, or Frank Tanana in addition to the team leader card and future stars card. The reason for those three not appearing in the set? They were the only 3 Red Sox in the regular Topps set who didn't play for the Red Sox in 1982, so this set must've came out sometime during the 1982 season. There are also no cards for Red Sox players who appeared in the traded set, so it must've came out before the traded set.

1982 Boston Red Sox

A few of the '86 Red Sox got their first taste of major league experience on this team; Wade Boggs, Marty Barrett, and Oil Can Boyd. Unfortunately none had cards in 1982.

MVP
Dwight Evans led the team in home runs and RBI to go with a .402 OBP. Others to mention include Jim Rice who had one less RBI than Dewey Evans to go with a .309 batting average and Wade Boggs in about 2/3 of a season with a .349 batting average.

Cy Young
Can't decide who to choose here. Nobody really stands out. There were a couple of players out of the bullpen that put together solid years in Bob Stanley and Mark Clear, but Dennis Eckersley was the ace of this staff, so I will give it to him.

Rookie Card of the Year
This will go to Carlton Fisk's replacement at catcher, Rich Gedman. Gedman put together a few solid years, even being named to the all-star team in 1985 and 1986, but he fell apart after 1986.

Interesting Non-Topps card
Bruce Hurst was on the Red Sox prospects card in the regular Topps set in both 1981 and 1982, but finally got his own card in the 1982 Fleer set. He didn't do much for this 1982 team, but was a solid pitcher for the Red Sox from 1983-1988 and for the Padres from 1989-1992 before winding down his career as a Rockie and a Ranger in 1993-1994.

Starters

__	TO	686	C	Gary Allenson	BOS
__	TO	589	1B	Dave Stapleton	BOS
__	TO	25	2B	Jerry Remy	BOS
__	TO	91	3B	Carney Lansford	BOS
__	TO	189	SS	Glenn Hoffman	BOS
__	TO	750	LF	Jim Rice	BOS
__	TO	717	CF	Rick Miller	BOS
__	TO	355	RF	Dwight Evans	BOS
__	TO	650	DH	Carl Yastrzemski	BOS
__			CI	Wade Boggs
__	TO	59	C	Rich Gedman	BOS
__	TO	124	OF	Reid Nichols	BOS

Starting Pitchers

__	TO	490	SP	Dennis Eckersley	BOS
__	TO	558	SP	John Tudor	BOS
__	TO	225	SP	Mike Torrez	BOS
__	TO	522	SP	Chuck Rainey	BOS
__	FL	297	SP	Bruce Hurst	BOS

Relief Pitchers

__	TO	289	CL	Bob Stanley	BOS
__	TO	421	RP	Mark Clear	BOS
__	TO	455	RP	Tom Burgmeier	BOS
__			RP	Luis Aponte
__	TO	274	SP	Bob Ojeda	BOS
__			SP	Brian Denman

Other Players

__	TO	255	DH	Tony Perez	BOS
__			UT	Ed Jurak
__	DO	560	UT	Julio Valdez	BOS
__			2B	Marty Barrett
__	TO	322	RF	Garry Hancock	BOS
__			C	Roger LaFrancois
__			C	Marc Sullivan
__	TO	157	RP	Steve Crawford	BOS
__			RP	Oil Can Boyd
__			RP	Mike Brown

Minor Leaguers

__

TO

527

MN

John Henry Johnson

TEX

Manager/Coaches

__

MG

Ralph Houk

1981 Boston Red Sox

Trivia
Which team had the most hall-of-famers in 1981?
That would be the Boston Red Sox with 4.

Can you name them?
Jim Rice and Carl Yastrzemski come up right away because they are always associated with the Red Sox, but Dennis Eckersley and Tony Perez were also on this roster.

Funny thing is, the best player in 1981 for the Red Sox was none of those four. It was by far and away, Dwight Evans. It was the odd combination where some of the hall of famers were at the end of their career and others were at the beginning. Jim Rice may be the only one of the four who would be considered to be in his prime in 1981.

Purging
Before the season, the Red Sox got rid of a lot of their key players from the 1975 World Series runner-up team and the infamous 1978 team. Two separate trades were made that sent Butch Hobson, Fred Lynn, and Rick Burleson to the Angels. They received Carney Lansford, Frank Tanana, Joe Rudi, Rick Miller and a few others. Not sure if any of these trades made any difference to either team, because most of these players had no impact on either team after 1984, and the Angels only took one division title in that time. Carlton Fisk was also gone after 1980 to sign as a free agent with the Chicago White Sox. This move probably hurt as Fisk would go on to play as a solid catcher for another decade and the Red Sox struggled to find a good catcher until Tony Pena came around in 1990.

Starters

__			C	Rich Gedman
__	TO	575	1B	Tony Perez	BOS
__	TO	549	2B	Jerry Remy	BOS
__	TT	788	3B	Carney Lansford	BOS
__	TO	349	SS	Glenn Hoffman	BOS
__	TO	500	LF	Jim Rice	BOS
__	TT	803	CF	Rick Miller	BOS
__	TO	275	RF	Dwight Evans	BOS
__	TO	110	DH	Carl Yastrzemski	BOS
__	TO	81	IF	Dave Stapleton	BOS

Starting Pitchers

__	TO	525	SP	Mike Torrez	BOS
__	TO	620	SP	Dennis Eckersley	BOS
__	TT	841	SP	Frank Tanana	BOS
__			SP	Bob Ojeda
__	TO	14	SP	John Tudor	BOS
__			SP	Steve Crawford

Relief Pitchers

__	TT	748	CL	Mark Clear	BOS
__	TO	421	RP	Bob Stanley	BOS
__	TO	320	RP	Tom Burgmeier	BOS
__	TO	396	RP	Bill Campbell	BOS
__	TO	199	RP	Chuck Rainey	BOS

Other Players

__	TO	128	C	Gary Allenson	BOS
__	TT	826	DH	Joe Rudi	BOS
__			UT	Reid Nichols
__			C	Dave F. Schmidt
__	FL	229	UT	Garry Hancock	BOS
__			SS	Julio Valdez
__			2B	Chico Walker
__			LF	Tom Poquette
__			C	John Lickert
__			SP	Bruce Hurst
__			RP	Luis Aponte

Minors

__

TO

649

MN

Manny Sarmiento

SEA

Manager/Coaches

__

MG

Ralph Houk