1983 Detroit Tigers

Wait 'til next year Tiger fans. It is odd that I come to this team today, as Bill Lajoie, the GM that helped put this team and more importantly, the '84 team together passed away yesterday. The Tigers were almost there in 1983 and after some very big acquisitions in the off season between 1983 and 1984, the Tigers were ready to put together one of the most historic seasons in baseball. (I hope my homerism isn't showing through too much.)

Best Player: Lou Whitaker

Best Pitcher: Jack Morris

All-Stars: Aurelio Lopez, Lance Parrish, Lou Whitaker

Rookie Card of the Year: Howard Johnson...Imagine an infield through the 80s with Whitaker/Trammell, Johnson at 3rd and a platoon of Evans/Bergman at first. This could've been one of the most solid ever for about a 5 year stretch. All the Tigers got for Johnson after the '84 season was Walt Terrell. I guess they did have to shore up the starting pitchers as there was little after Morris and Petry, but it was often reported Johnson was in Sparky's doghouse.

Other rookie cards: Larry Pashnick, Dave Rucker (first solo card, will be listed under Cardinals roster), Jerry Ujdur, Glenn Wilson

First Tigers cards: Doug Bair, Johnny Grubb

Most interesting non-Topps card: Howard Johnson...the rookie card of arguably the best third basemen in the later '80s/early '90s, appears in both the Fleer and Donruss sets.

Other notes: As per the practice of trying to match up the players with the organizations they saw the most playing time with in 1983, Wayne Krenchicki, Bob Molinaro, Julio Gonzalez, and Bill Nahorodny are placed on this checklist, even though they all appear on different teams. Krenchicki did play with the Reds in '83, but received more playing time with the Tigers. Molinaro also played with the Phillies, and is shown in a Phils uniform on a card in the traded set, so his regular Cubs card is placed here. I've probably talked more about Bob Molinaro on this blog than anybody else. But he had an odd career in that he bounced around alot, and his cards almost never line up with who he is actually playing with. Gonzalez and Nahorodny played only with the Tigers, but never had cards in the traded sets.

Another interesting card is Aurelio Lopez showing up in the traded set. Senor Smoke had been with the Tigers since the 1979 season. His playing time was down in 1982, but he still appeared in 41 innings. He would be an all-star in 1983, and his Topps card shows up in the traded set.

Starters

__	TO	285	C	Lance Parrish	DET
__	TO	225	1B	Enos Cabell	DET
__	TO	509	2B	Lou Whitaker	DET
__	TO	95	SS	Alan Trammell	DET
__	TO	119	3B	Tom Brookens	DET
__	TO	13	LF	Larry Herndon	DET
__	TO	727	CF	Chet Lemon	DET
__	TO	332	RF	Glenn Wilson	DET
__	TO	430	DH	Kirk Gibson	DET
__	TO	536	UT	John Wockenfuss	DET
__	TO	147	1B	Rick Leach	DET

Starting Pitchers

__	TO	65	SP	Jack Morris	DET
__	TO	638	SP	Dan Petry	DET
__	TO	457	SP	Milt Wilcox	DET
__			SP	Juan Berenguer
__	TO	562	SP	Dave Rozema	DET

Relief Pitchers

__	TT	63	CL	Aurelio Lopez	DET
__	TT	5	RP	Doug Bair	DET
__			RP	Howard Bailey

Other Players

__	TT	38	UT	Johnny Grubb	DET
__	TO	374	3B	Wayne Krenchicki	CIN
__			3B	Marty Castillo
__	FL	332	3B	Howard Johnson	DET
__	TO	483	UT	Lynn Jones	DET
__	TO	613	1B	Mike Ivie	DET
__	TO	196	C	Bill Fahey	DET
__	TO	74	IF	Julio Gonzalez	STL
__			UT	Mike Laga
__	TO	67	C	Sal Butera	MIN
__	DO	596	DH	Bob Molinaro	CHC
__	TO	616	PH	Bill Nahorodny	CLE
__			SP	Glenn Abbott
__			RP	Dave Gumpert
__	FL	338	SP	Larry Pashnick	DET
__	TO	174	SP	Jerry Ujdur	DET
__			RP	John Martin
__	TO	588	RP	Pat Underwood	DET
__			SP	Dave Rucker
__			RP	Bob James

Manager

__

TO

666

MG

Sparky Anderson

DET

1983 Los Angeles Dodgers

Another solid Dodgers team that won the NL West division. In a rematch from both the 1977 and 1978 post seasons, the Phillies faced the Dodgers in the playoffs. Unfortunately for these Dodgers, unlike in '77 and '78, the Phillies won the NLCS. This was sort of a season in transition for the Dodgers as the long time infield of the '70s was gone, with the exception of Bill Russell at shortstop, as Steve Garvey left in '83 to go play for the Padres and Ron Cey left for the Cubs. A pitching staff was coming together that would lead them through the rest of the '80s.

Best player: Pedro Guerrero

Best pitcher: Bob Welch

All-Stars: Pedro Guerrero, Steve Sax, Fernando Valenzuela

Rookie Card of the Year: Candy Maldonado

Other rookie cards: Greg Brock, Alejandro Pena, Ricky Wright

First Dodger cards (other than rookies): Rafael Landestoy, Pat Zachry

Most interesting non-Topps card: Candy Maldonado
I also called this one the rookie card of the year for the Dodgers. It was either this card or Alejandro Pena's card in the Topps traded set. Both played until 1995 (Pena pitched in four games in 1996), neither one was ever an all-star, but both played very solid careers. Maldonado's rookie card was in both the regular Fleer and Donruss set for 1983. He would go on to play for the Giants, Indians, Blue Jays, Cubs, and Rangers before calling it a career, with his 1990 season with the Indians probably being his best season.

Other notes: Ron Roenicke was cut by the Dodgers in mid-July and was picked up by the Mariners after his release. He then finished out the season with the Mariners. He played in more games with the Dodgers, but had more plate appearances with the Mariners. Since I use plate appearances as the tie breaker in these cases, I will put Ron Roenicke's Topps card showing him as a Dodger in the Mariners checklist.

Starters

__	TO	555	C	Steve Yeager	LAD
__	TT	14	1B	Greg Brock	LAD
__	TO	245	2B	Steve Sax	LAD
__	TO	661	SS	Bill Russell	LAD
__	TO	425	3B	Pedro Guerrero	LAD
__	TO	220	LF	Dusty Baker	LAD
__	TO	376	CF	Ken Landreaux	LAD
__	TO	324	RF	Mike Marshall	LAD

Starting Pitchers

__	TO	40	SP	Fernando Valenzuela	LAD
__	TO	454	SP	Bob Welch	LAD
__	TO	90	SP	Jerry Reuss	LAD
__	TT	83	SP	Alejandro Pena	LAD
__	TO	775	SP	Burt Hooton	LAD

Relief Pitchers

__	TO	170	CL	Steve Howe	LAD
__	TO	477	RP	Tom Niedenfuer	LAD
__	TO	532	RP	Dave Stewart	LAD
__	TT	131	RP	Pat Zachry	LAD
__	FL	202	RP	Joe Beckwith	LAD

Other Players

__	TO	748	CF	Derrel Thomas	LAD
__	TO	63	RF	Rick Monday	LAD
__			C	Jack Fimple
__			OF	Ron Roenicke
__			SS	Dave Anderson
__	FL	212	OF	Candy Maldonado	LAD
__	TT	59	UT	Rafael Landestoy	LAD
__			OF	R.J. Reynolds
__	TT	75	1B	Jose Morales	LAD
__	TO	352	C	Mike Scioscia	LAD
__			C	Gil Reyes
__			3B	German Rivera
__			SP	Sid Fernandez
__			1B	Sid Bream
__			CF	Cecil Espy
__			C	Dave Sax
__			IF	Alex Taveras
__			SP	Rick Honeycutt
__			RP	Orel Hershiser
__			RP	Larry White
__	FL	226	RP	Ricky Wright	LAD
__			RP	Rich Rodas

Manager

__

TO

306

MG

Tom Lasorda

LAD

1983 Chicago White Sox

This was the first White Sox team to make the post-season since 1959 and the team with the best record percentage wise since 1920. It would be their best team until winning the World Series in 2005 with a similar record. This was a very successful team that seemed to have a bright future, as it was led by many young pitchers and players. The blew the competition out of the water in 1983, winning the division by 20 games. Unfortunately, the White Sox wouldn't see the playoffs again until 1993 with a team led by Frank Thomas. Another interesting note is that Tony LaRussa was manager of this team and Jim Leyland was a coach, they would meet each other as opposing managers in the 2006 World Series.

Best Player: Carlton Fisk

Best Pitcher: LaMarr Hoyt
I gave this award to Hoyt, as he led the team in wins and innings pitched and won the actual AL Cy Young in 1983. But Richard Dotson led this team in ERA, providing 20 wins himself, and Floyd Bannister led the team in strikeouts. This was a very solid starting 3.

All-Stars: Ron Kittle

Rookie Card of the Year: Ron Kittle
This is a tough reward to decide on...basically it was between Greg Walker and Ron Kittle. Both were solid rookies, but were done by 1991. Ron Kittle was basically done as a full time player by 1986, and Greg Walker was done by 1987. Kittle started out brighter, but this 1983 season was his best. Greg Walker had solid seasons in 1985 and 1987. Since this is a baseball card blog, I will give this reward to Ron Kittle because once upon a time, his rookie card was actually sought after, not sure anybody ever cared about Greg Walker's card.

Part of the problem I am having with good quality pictures of Topps Traded cards, is that this is one of the few 80s sets that I own not a single card from. So I am stuck using autographed card photos I took from ebay.

Other rookie cards: Salome Barojas, Chico Escarrega (listed under retired players), Greg Walker

First White Sox cards (other than rookie cards): Floyd Bannister, Julio Cruz, Jerry Dybzinski, Jim Kern, Rudy Law, Vance Law, Sparky Lyle (listed under retired players), Dick Tidrow

Most-interesting non-Topps card: - well, there is one non-Topps card in this checklist, mop-up reliever Salome Barrojas. Not to interesting of a career, would be traded to the Mariners in the next season and finally appear in 6 games with the 1988 Phillies.

I thought a more interesting career for this team is Jerry Hairston. Hairston came up with the White Sox in 1973 and was traded to the Pirates in 1977, then sent to the Mexican League. He came back to the White Sox in 1981 and would be a solid bench player through 1987 with the White Sox. Even though he came back in 1981, his first card back wouldn't appear until the 1983 sets. His last card before? That would be in the 1976 Topps set. So Hairston went 6 seasons without appearing in a baseball card set, which may be some kind of record.



Starters

__	TO	20	C	Carlton Fisk	CHW
__	TO	72	1B	Tom Paciorek	CHW
__	TT	23	2B	Julio Cruz	CHW
__	TT	27	SS	Jerry Dybzinski	CHW
__	TO	98	3B	Vance Law	CHW
__	TT	55	LF	Ron Kittle	CHW
__	TO	514	CF	Rudy Law	CHW
__	TO	177	RF	Harold Baines	CHW
__	TO	310	DH	Greg Luzinski	CHW
__	TT	124	UT	Greg Walker	CHW
__			SS	Scott Fletcher
__	TO	698	2B	Tony Bernazard	CHW

Starting Pitchers

__	TO	618	SP	LaMarr Hoyt
__	TO	46	SP	Richard Dotson	CHW
__	TT	7	SP	Floyd Bannister	CHW
__	TO	541	SP	Britt Burns	CHW
__	TO	153	SP	Jerry Koosman	CHW

Relief Pitchers

__	TO	434	CL	Dennis Lamp	CHW
__	FL	230	RP	Salome Barojas	CHW
__	TT	112	RP	Dick Tidrow	CHW

Other Players

__	TO	669	1B	Mike Squires	CHW
__	TO	487	UT	Jerry Hairston	CHW
__	TO	124	C	Marc Hill	CHW
__			3B	Lorenzo Gray
__			OF	Dave Stegman
__			CF	Rusty Kuntz
__			UT	Chris Nyman
__	TO	758	3B	Aurelio Rodriguez	CHW
__			C	Joel Skinner
__			UT	Casey Parsons
__			2B	Tim Hulett
__			UT	Miguel Dilone
__			RP	Juan Agosto
__	TO	278	RP	Kevin Hickey	CHW
__	TO	24	RP	Steve Mura	STL
__	OP	24	RP	Steve Mura	CHW
__			RP	Guy Hoffman
__	TO	22	SP	Randy Martz	CHC
__			RP	Al Jones
__	TO	772	RP	Jim Kern	CHW

Minor Leagues

__

TO

409

MN

Marv Foley

CHW

Manager

__

TO

216

MG

Tony LaRussa

CHW

1983 Philadelphia Phillies

This was a very old team, as they were referred to as the "Wheeze Kids". This was the last hurrah for the late '70s, early '80s Phillies. This may also be considered the last chance for the Big Red Machine as Tony Perez and Joe Morgan were brought on board and joined Pete Rose. But this wasn't a typical old team that played strong early and coasted to the playoffs. They actually finished very strong to finish 6 games up in the division, and carried that momentum into the playoffs against the Dodgers. But their luck would run out after game 1 of the World Series.

Best Player: Mike Schmidt

Best Pitcher: John Denny

All-Stars: Mike Schmidt

Rookie Card of the Year: Len Matuszek; there wasn't much to choose from on this team as it was either Matuszek or Porfi Altamirano. Matuszek had an unremarkable career playing for the Phillies, Blue Jays, and Dodgers from 1981 - 1987. But he can tell his grandkids that he replaced Pete Rose at first base for the Phillies and that he was once traded for someone who comes up in Hall-of-Fame arguments (Al Oliver) and not be lying.

Other rookie cards: Porfi Altamirano

First Phillies cards (other than rookie cards): Pat Corrales, John Denny, Kiko Garcia, Von Hayes, Willie Hernandez, Al Holland, Joe Lefebvre, Bob Molinaro, Joe Morgan, Tony Perez, Dave Roberts (listed under retired players), Ozzie Virgil (solo card)

Most interesting non-Topps cards: There were no cards produced for other sets that didn't appear in the Topps sets.

Other Notes: Steve Comer and Larry Andersen both played only for the Phillies in 1983 but didn't have a Phillies card, so I am putting their cards showing them with other teams in this checklist.

Starters

__	TO	175	C	Bo Diaz	PHI
__	TO	100	1B	Pete Rose	PHI
__	TT	77	2B	Joe Morgan	PHI
__	TO	587	SS	Ivan de Jesus	PHI
__	TO	300	3B	Mike Schmidt	PHI
__	TO	780	LF	Gary Matthews	PHI
__	TO	615	CF	Garry Maddox	PHI
__	TT	40	RF	Von Hayes	PHI
__	TT	61	RF	Joe Lefebvre	PHI
__	TT	85	1B	Tony Perez	PHI
__	TO	279	OF	Greg Gross	PHI
__	TO	43	OF	Bob Dernier	PHI

Starting Pitchers

__	TO	211	SP	John Denny	PHI
__	TO	70	SP	Steve Carlton	PHI
__			SP	Charles Hudson
__			SP	Kevin Gross
__	TO	199	SP	Marty Bystrom	PHI

Relief Pitchers

__	TT	46	CL	Al Holland	PHI
__	TT	45	RP	Willie Hernandez	PHI
__	TO	728	RP	Ron Reed	PHI
__	TO	510	RP	Tug McGraw	PHI
__	TO	668	SP	Larry Christenson	PHI

Other Players

__	TO	383	C	Ozzie Virgil	PHI
__	TT	36	2B	Kiko Garcia	PHI
__	TO	357	1B	Len Matuszek	PHI
__	TT	72	2B	Larry Milbourne	PHI
__			2B	Juan Samuel
__			OF	Sixto Lezcano
__	TO	664	PH	Bob Molinaro	PHI
__			IF	Steve Jeltz
__	TO	754	UT	Bill Robinson	PHI
__			RF	Alejandro Sanchez
__	TO	252	SS	Luis Aguayo	PHI
__			CF	Jeff Stone
__			C	Darren Daulton
__			1B	Tim Corcoran
__	TO	432	RP	Porfi Altamirano	PHI
__	TO	484	SP	Dick Ruthven	PHI
__	TO	459	RP	Ed Farmer	PHI
__	TO	234	RP	Larry Andersen	SEA
__			SP	Tony Ghelfi
__	TO	564	RP	Sid Monge	PHI
__	TO	353	RP	Steve Comer	TEX
__			RP	Don Carman

Managers

__	TO	637	MG	Pat Corrales	PHI
__			MG	Paul Owens