Tuesday, March 9, 2010

1981 Philadelphia Phillies



Hangover Season
This was the Philadelphia Phillies hangover season, having won the 1980 World Series. If you are a Phillies collector, 1981 was a good year as there were plenty of extra Phillie cards in all three of the regular sets. Topps had record breaker cards for Mike Schmidt and Pete Rose, plus there were 3 cards noting the Phillies 1980 post season. Fleer had many of the Phillies on second cards, such as Tug McGraw-Game Saver, and a Triple Threat card with Rose, Larry Bowa, and Schmidt. Donruss also had multiple cards of the big stars on the Phillies in 1980. I have all of these variations listed under 1981-Miscellaneous Cards.

As most teams seem to do that just win the World Series, they took no chances in the off season. They brought out the identical lineup from the 1980 team except in LF where they got rid of Greg Luzinski and brought in Gary Matthews, who happened to be the same age. This may or may not have been a good move as this Phillies team was an old team, but they did make it to the play-offs as the first half division winners and would return with many of the same players to the World Series in 1983. All of the starters were over 30, the ace of the pitching staff was 35, and the closer was 36. To make you feel old, this was the season Pete Rose turned 40...which means he is damn near 70 today...who knew?

Hall Of Famers
There were three hall of famers on this team...can you name them?

The first two come to mind quickly because they were always associated with the Phillies...Mike Schmidt, who in 1981 was playing his 2nd of 3 MVP seasons and Steve Carlton, who was in between Cy Young seasons in 1981.

The third one was Ryne Sandberg, who played in 13 games late in the season for this team and were the only games he played on a team besides the Cubs in his 16 year career. Unfortunately there were no Ryne Sandberg cards in the 1981 sets.

Starters
__ TO 290 C Bob Boone PHI
__ TO 180 1B Pete Rose PHI
__ TO 470 2B Manny Trillo PHI
__ TO 540 3B Mike Schmidt PHI
__ TO 120 SS Larry Bowa PHI
__ TT 800 LF Gary Matthews PHI
__ TO 160 CF Garry Maddox PHI
__ TO 90 RF Bake McBride PHI
__ TO 131 C Keith Moreland PHI
__ TO 317 OF Lonnie Smith PHI

Starting Pitchers
__ TO 630 SP Steve Carlton PHI
__ TO 346 SP Larry Christenson PHI
__ TO 691 SP Dick Ruthven PHI
__ TO 406 SP Dickie Noles PHI
__ TO 405 SP Nino Espinosa PHI

Relief Pitchers
__ TO 40 CL Tug McGraw PHI
__ TO 376 RP Ron Reed PHI
__ TO 719 RP Sparky Lyle PHI
__ TT 815 RP Mike Proly PHI
__

SP Marty Bystrom
__

SP Mark Davis

Other Players
__ TO 459 RF Greg Gross PHI
__ TT 753 RF Dick Davis PHI
__

MI Luis Aguayo
__ TO 566 UT Del Unser PHI
__ TO 644 IF Ramon Aviles PHI
__ TO 598 OF George Vukovich PHI
__

CI Len Matuszek
__

MI Ryne Sandberg
__

C Ozzie Virgil
__

CF Bob Dernier
__

C Don McCormack
__ FL 22 IF John Vukovich PHI
__

SP Dan Larson
__ TO 426 RP Warren Brusstar PHI
__

RP Jerry Reed

Manager/Coaches
__ FL 415 MG Dallas Green PHI

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