1983 Seattle Mariners

We wrap up 1983 with the Seattle Mariners. After 1982, they had a 76-86 record, by far the best in franchise history. But going into their 7th season in existence in 1983, they returned to the womb. They actually ended up with a worse record than they had in their first season. Compared to their expansion brothers, the Toronto Blue Jays, who were starting to build a team that would lead to playoff appearances and eventually World Series titles, the Mariners were just spinning their wheels in these early years.

Best Player: Pat Putnam...well the best player was probably Matt Young, put Putnam led the team in HRs, RBIs, and run scored. Sounds impressive, but those numbers are 19-67-58. Not even impressive for 1983.

Best Pitcher: Matt Young, he went 11-15 for this team, which led the team in wins, and had an ERA of 3.27. Was two short of leading the team in strikeouts.

All-Stars: Matt Young

Hall-of-Famers: Gaylord Perry, although he didn't play the full season with the M's. He was basically signed to put fans in the seats for his 300th win. He got that in 1982 and stuck around until he was released in June 1983. For whatever reason, the Royals picked him up and that is where he finished his career later in the year.

Rookie Card of the Year: Mike Moore, first draft pick in the 1981 amateur draft, not the documentary film maker noted for Fahrenheit 9/11. He won 17 games for a bad Mariners team in 1985, went on to pitch for the great A's teams of the late '80s-early '90s and wrapped up his career for the Tigers from 1993-1995, ending up with 161 career wins.

Other rookies: Manny Castillo, Al Chambers, Dave Henderson, Jim Maler, Orlando Mercado, Bob Stoddard, Matt Young

First Mariner cards: Tony Bernazard, Todd Cruz, Steve Henderson, Pat Putnam, Dave Revering (listed under retired players), Rick Sweet

Most interesting non-Topps card: Earlier Mike Moore was noted as being the first pick in the 1981 draft. The first pick in the 1979 draft, Al Chambers, also taken by the Mariners, has his rookie card in the Donruss set. His career was not as solid, as he only played in 57 games in the majors and was done after 1985. He played in the minors through 1988 and that was it for the 1979 #1 draft pick.

Other notes: Larry Andersen is listed under the Phillies checklist and Bobby Brown is listed under the Padres checklist. Both players are shown as Mariners in the 1983 sets, and neither played for them in 1983. Also, neither one had cards in the traded set showing them with their new teams. Ron Roenicke signed with the Mariners after being cut by the Dodgers midway through the season. He got more playing time with the M's, so he is listed here, even though his card shows him as a Dodger.

Starters

__	TO	437	C	Rick Sweet	SEA
__	TT	89	1B	Pat Putnam	SEA
__	TT	9	2B	Tony Bernazard	SEA
__			SS	Spike Owen
__			3B	Jamie Allen
__	TT	42	LF	Steve Henderson	SEA
__	TO	732	CF	Dave Henderson	SEA
__	TO	763	RF	Al Cowens	SEA
__	TO	368	DH	Richie Zisk	SEA
__			OF	Ricky Nelson

Starting Pitchers

__	TT	129	SP	Matt Young	SEA
__	TO	675	SP	Jim Beattie	SEA
__	TO	195	SP	Bob Stoddard	SEA
__	TO	209	SP	Mike Moore	SEA
__	TO	463	SP	Gaylord Perry	SEA
__			SP	Glenn Abbott

Relief Pitchers

__	TO	78	CL	Bill Caudill	SEA
__	TO	789	RP	Bryan Clark	SEA
__			RP	Roy Thomas
__	TO	159	RP	Mike Stanton	SEA
__	TO	183	RP	Ed Vande Berg	SEA

Other Players

__	TO	113	CF	Ron Roenicke	LAD
__	TO	132	SS	Todd Cruz	SEA
__	TO	258	3B	Manny Castillo	SEA
__	TO	414	2B	Julio Cruz	SEA
__	TT	71	C	Orlando Mercado	SEA
__			UT	Ken Phelps
__			CF	John Moses
__			SS	Domingo Ramos
__			C	Jamie Nelson
__			3B	Darnell Coles
__	DO	649	DH	Al Chambers	SEA
__			CF	Phil Bradley
__	TO	54	UT	Jim Maler	SEA
__	TO	622	UT	Dave Edler	SEA
__			2B	Harold Reynolds
__			UT	Rod Allen
__	TO	519	C	Bud Bulling	SEA
__			RP	Ed Nunez
__	TO	106	SP	Gene Nelson	SEA
__			RP	Karl Best

Manager

__	TO	336	MG	Rene Lachemann	SEA
__			MG	Del Crandall

1982 Seattle Mariners

Since the Mariners came online in 1977, this was their best team recordwise. This would also be the team's best record until 1987. This team also had the first hall-of-famer in team's history, in Gaylord Perry. Perry was one of nine Mariners in the Topps Traded set.

He was picked up in one of those moves that many expansion teams make in order to create a history for their team because he won his 300th game shortly after joining the Mariners. Who did Wade Boggs get his 3000th hit with? The Devil Rays (or Rays) in 1999, which Boggs only played with for two seasons. Who did Pete Rose get his 4000th hit with? The Montreal Expos, who he played with for only 4 months in 1984. This may have all started with the '62 Mets who attempted to create an all-star team of over-the-hill players from other NL teams until they could get fully up and running in order to put fans in the seats.

MVP
Al Cowens, who came in 2nd in the MVP race in 1977 with the Royals, was purchased to by the Mariners prior to the '82 season. He led the team in hits and RBIs (even though it was only 78), was 2nd in runs scored, HRs, and slugging percentage, and was third in batting average and OBP. This wasn't a team known for it's offense. Al Cowens, Julio Cruz, Bruce Bochte, and Richie Zisk led this offense, but wouldn't have even come close to leading any other team in 1982.

Cy Young
This team was stronger in the pitching department. There wasn't any pitcher with a strong winning percentage, but alot of young pitchers (who either panned or didn't) with decent ERAs. The best pitcher though was actually the teams closer. Bill Caudill had 26 saves for this team to go with a 2.35 ERA.

Rookie Card of the Year
Another strong arm out of the bullpen was Ed VandeBerg, he was truly a 1st year player with a card in one of the sets. He had a 2.37 ERA as a set up man out of the pen. 1982 was his best year though and after leaving the Mariners in for the 1986 season to play for the Dodgers, Indians, and Rangers, he was out of baseball after 1988.

Most Interesting Non-Topps Card
I am trying not to use the manager cards that were in the Donruss set, so I am going with the only player who saw playing time with the Mariners in 1982 that didn't have a Topps card, Paul Serna. Serna was a backup middle infielder who signed with the Mariners as an amateur free agent in 1980 and was with the big club in 1981. 1982 was his last season in the majors, although he was in the farm system until 1985.

Note: Dave Revering played his final season in 1982. He bounced around between the Yankees, Blue Jays, and Mariners in 1982. He had a card as a Yankee in the regular Topps set and a card in the Traded set with the Blue Jays. He got 159 plate appearances with the Jays, 92 with the Mariners, and 44 with the Yankees, so I am placing his Yankees card on the Mariners checklist since he got more playing time with the Mariners.

Starters

__			C	Rick Sweet
__			1B	Jim Maler
__	TO	130	2B	Julio Cruz	SEA
__			3B	Manny Castillo
__			SS	Todd Cruz
__	TO	224	LF	Bruce Bochte	SEA
__			CF	Dave Henderson
__	TT	22	RF	Al Cowens	SEA
__	TO	769	DH	Richie Zisk	SEA
__	TO	382	OF	Joe Simpson	SEA
__	TO	523	1B	Gary Gray	SEA
__	TT	12	LF	Bobby Brown	SEA

Starting Pitchers

__	TO	468	SP	Floyd Bannister	SEA
__	TT	88	SP	Gaylord Perry	SEA
__	TO	22	SP	Jim Beattie	SEA
__			SP	Mike Moore
__	TT	80	SP	Gene Nelson	SEA

Relief Pitchers

__	TT	18	CL	Bill Caudill	SEA
__	TT	122	RP	Ed Vande Berg	SEA
__	TO	632	RP	Bryan Clark	SEA
__			SP	Bob Stoddard
__	TT	113	RP	Mike Stanton	SEA
__	TO	52	RP	Larry Andersen	SEA

Other Players

__	DO	567	IF	Paul Serna	SEA
__	TO	98	C	Bud Bulling	SEA
__	TT	31	C	Jim Essian	SEA
__			3B	Dave Edler
__	TO	109	1B	Dave Revering	NYY
__	TO	312	UT	Lenny Randle	SEA
__	TT	114	UT	Steve Stroughter	SEA
__	TO	350	OF	Thad Bosley	MIL
__			OF	John Moses
__			SS	Domingo Ramos
__			UT	Orlando Mercado
__			C	Dan Firova
__			UT	Vance McHenry
__			SP	Ed Nunez
__			RP	Ron Musselman
__			RP	Rich Bordi
__	TO	371	RP	Jerry Gleaton	SEA

Minor Leagues

__	TO	571	MN	Glenn Abbott	SEA
__	FL	515	MN	Casey Parsons	SEA

Manager/Coaches

__	DO	600	MG	Rene Lachemann	SEA
__	DO	445	CO	Vada Pinson	CHW

1981 Seattle Mariners

Who Are These Guys?
1981 was the 5th season of Mariners baseball, having joined the league for the 1977 season. They wouldn't have a winning season for another decade, until 1991 with a team led by Ken Griffey, Jr. Needless to say, none of these players would take part in that first winning season. In fact only Dave Henderson, who has no cards in any of the 1981 sets, and Jim Beattie would be the only Mariners to play with the team beyond 1984. Not too many played in the majors anywhere beyond 1984. This roster is much closer to an expansion team.

Team Collector Blog
Here is a link I found for the Mariners...Emerald City Diamond Gems.

Starting Players

__	TO	637	C	Jerry Narron	SEA
__	TO	723	1B	Bruce Bochte	SEA
__	TO	397	2B	Julio Cruz	SEA
__	TO	143	3B	Dan Meyer	SEA
__	TO	613	SS	Jim Anderson	SEA
__	TO	228	LF	Tom Paciorek	SEA
__	TO	116	CF	Joe Simpson	SEA
__	TT	745	RF	Jeff Burroughs	SEA
__	TT	857	DH	Richie Zisk	SEA
__	TT	817	IF	Lenny Randle	SEA
__	TT	767	UT	Gary Gray	SEA
__			C	Bud Bulling

Starting Pitchers

__	TO	699	SP	Glenn Abbott	SEA
__	TO	166	SP	Floyd Bannister	SEA
__	TO	443	SP	Jim Beattie	SEA
__	TT	747	SP	Ken Clay	SEA
__			SP	Jerry Gleaton
__	TO	187	SP	Mike Parrott	SEA

Relief Pitchers

__	TO	423	CL	Shane Rawley	SEA
__			RP	Larry Andersen
__			RP	Bryan Clark
__			SP	Brian Allard
__			SP	Bob Stoddard
__	TT	755	RP	Dick Drago	SEA

Other Players

__			CF	Dave Henderson
__			SS	Paul Serna
__			SS	Rick Auerbach
__	FL	610	3B	Dave Edler	SEA
__			UT	Casey Parsons
__			UT	Jim Maler
__			UT	Vance McHenry
__			C	Brad Gulden
__	FL	609	UT	Reggie Walton	SEA
__	FL	612	UT	Kim Allen	SEA
__			C	Dan Firova
__			RP	Bob Galasso
__			RP	Randy Stein
__			RP	Buddy Black

Manager/Coaches

__	FL	595	MG	Maury Wills	SEA
__			MG	Rene Lachemann