Thursday, December 30, 2010

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

2 comments:

  1. I never noticed before, but the headshots of Whitaker and Morris appear to be from the same photoshoot as their 1982 card photos.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is interesting...shows how difficult it may have been to take photos just 30 years ago.

    ReplyDelete