Not Much To Say
I don't have much to say about this team. The roster is led by a handful of players that were decent major leaguers, but weren't the most exciting to get in your packs of cards. This team had a nice little run from 1977-1981, hovering around 85-90 wins every year, but they would fall off a cliff in 1982, so it wasn't a team coming down or going anywhere. Even the lone Hall of Famer on this team, Fergie Jenkins, is well past his prime by 1981.
Buddy Bell
Seeing that Buddy Bell was probably the best player on this team brings back flashbacks for me of the god-awful mid-90s Tigers teams that he was manager of. Randy Smith was the GM of the Tigers then, and he would make a lot of awful trades that would send out garbage for more garbage, mostly from the Astros and Padres organizations. The worst trades centered around a player named Matt Drews, who never played in the majors. First Smith traded Cecil Fielder to the Yankees for him. Then they left Drews unprotected in the expansion draft when Arizona and Tampa Bay joined the league, and the Diamondbacks picked him up. To get him back, the Tigers sent out Travis Fryman to the Diamondbacks, who immediately traded him to a division rival. So in the end, the Tigers traded two all-stars away, and probably the only two Tigers worth mentioning from the 1990s, for a guy who never pitched in the majors. No wonder they nearly matched the 1962 Mets record just a few seasons later.
The Rangers of this era seemed to make a lot of similar pointless trades, mostly with the Cleveland Indians, that didn't seem to do anything. For example, in December 1980, The Rangers made this trade:
Traded Steve Finch, Brian Allard, Rick Auerbach, Ken Clay, Jerry Gleaton, and Richie Zisk to the Seattle Mariners. Received Larry Cox, Rick Honeycutt, Willie Horton, Mario Mendoza, and Leon Roberts. A largely pointless trade on both sides reminiscent of the Randy Smith era in Detroit.
By the way, if you are a Rangers collector...check out this blog.
Starters
| __ | TO | 95 | C | Jim Sundberg | TEX |
| __ | TO | 498 | 1B | Pat Putnam | TEX |
| __ | TO | 173 | 2B | Bump Wills | TEX |
| __ | TO | 475 | 3B | Buddy Bell | TEX |
| __ | TT | 801 | SS | Mario Mendoza | TEX |
| __ | TO | 283 | LF | Billy Sample | TEX |
| __ | TO | 145 | CF | Mickey Rivers | TEX |
| __ | TO | 545 | RF | Johnny Grubb | TEX |
| __ | TO | 70 | DH | Al Oliver | TEX |
| __ | TT | 825 | OF | Leon Roberts | TEX |
Starting Pitchers
| __ | TO | 702 | SP | Doc Medich | TEX |
| __ | TT | 772 | SP | Rick Honeycutt | TEX |
| __ | TO | 22 | SP | Danny Darwin | TEX |
| __ | TO | 158 | SP | Fergie Jenkins | TEX |
| __ | TO | 656 | SP | Jon Matlack | TEX |
Relief Pitchers
| __ | TO | 592 | CL | Steve Comer | TEX |
| __ | TO | 371 | RP | Charlie Hough | TEX |
Other Players
| __ | TT | 836 | UT | Bill Stein | TEX |
| __ | TT | 852 | SS | Mark Wagner | TEX |
| __ | TO | 153 | OF | Tom Poquette | BOS |
| __ | TO | 339 | 1B | John Ellis | TEX |
| __ | OF | Bob Jones | |||
| __ | IF | Wayne Tolleson | |||
| __ | OF | Rick Lisi | |||
| __ | UT | Bob Johnson | |||
| __ | UT | Dan Duran | |||
| __ | DO | 509 | SS | Nelson Norman | TEX |
| __ | TT | 749 | C | Larry Cox | TEX |
| __ | DH | Don Werner | |||
| __ | RP | Dave J. Schmidt | |||
| __ | TO | 197 | RP | Jim Kern | TEX |
| __ | RP | Bob Babcock | |||
| __ | FL | 635 | SP | John Butcher | TEX |
| __ | TO | 216 | RP | John Henry Johnson | TEX |
| __ | RP | Mark Mercer | |||
| __ | SP | Len Whitehouse | |||
| __ | TO | 481 | RP | Bob Lacey | OAK |
Manager/Coaches
| __ | FL | 230 | MG | Don Zimmer | BOS |
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