1983 Milwaukee Brewers

Much like the team that made it to the 1982 World Series, very good offensive team. Unfortunately the pitching took many steps back and ended up in 5th place in the AL East in 1983. Considering how strong the AL East was in 1983, that still meant they ended up with a respectable 87 wins.

Best Player: Cecil Cooper

Best Pitcher: Moose Haas

All-Stars: Cecil Cooper, Ben Oglivie, Ted Simmons, Robin Yount

Hall-of-Famers: Paul Molitor, Don Sutton, Robin Yount

Rookie Card of the Year: Pete Ladd (first solo card)...Pete Ladd appeared on the Astros prospects card in the 1980 Topps set

Other rookie cards: Dwight Bernard (listed under retired players), Tom Tellman (first solo card)...Tellman's true rookie card was on the Padres prospects card in the 1981 Topps set...both Ladd and Tellman were out of the majors after 1986, I gave Ladd the rookie card of the year because he was the closer for the Brewers in 1983 while Rollie Fingers sat out the year with injuries (which is why he is listed in the minors in the checklist below).

First Brewer card: Jamie Easterly, Rick Manning, Doc Medich (listed under retired players), Don Sutton, Rick Waits...all of these players except Medich and Sutton came to the Brewers in a June 6, 1983 trade for fan favorite Gorman Thomas, who was sent to the Indians. This is the latest trade I've come across so far to be included in the traded set....Typical of most teams coming off success the previous season, few transactions were made. The Gorman Thomas trade was made to shore up the outfield defense, but probably just negated some of the offense. Sutton and Medich both came over during the stretch drive in 1982 and their first cards as Brewers show up in the regular 1983 sets.

Most interesting non-Topps card: the above mentioned Pete Ladd is the only card that isn't from a Topps set.

Other notes: Topps produced a regional set for Gardner's Bakery. The set consisted of 22 Brewers players, but is a redundant set because all of the players appear in the regular 1983 Topps set. A sample of the card is shown above (Robin Yount), but I pulled this off of ebay and it looks like something was cut off in the picture.

Starters

__	TO	450	C	Ted Simmons	MIL
__	TO	190	1B	Cecil Cooper	MIL
__	TO	88	2B	Jim Gantner	MIL
__	TO	350	SS	Robin Yount	MIL
__	TO	630	3B	Paul Molitor	MIL
__	TO	750	LF	Ben Oglivie	MIL
__	TT	65	CF	Rick Manning	MIL
__	TO	659	RF	Charlie Moore	MIL
__	TO	218	DH	Roy Howell	MIL

Starting Pitchers

__	TO	145	SP	Don Sutton	MIL
__	TO	142	SP	Mike Caldwell	MIL
__	TO	503	SP	Moose Haas	MIL
__	TO	62	SP	Bob McClure	MIL
__			SP	Chuck Porter

Relief Pitchers

__	FL	37	CL	Pete Ladd	MIL
__	TT	109	RP	Tom Tellmann	MIL
__	TO	114	RP	Jim Slaton	MIL
__			RP	Bob Gibson
__			SP	Tom Candiotti
__	TO	424	RP	Jerry Augustine	MIL

Other Players

__	TO	297	C	Ned Yost	MIL
__	TO	167	LF	Mark Brouhard	MIL
__	TO	10	CF	Gorman Thomas	MIL
__	TO	271	UT	Ed Romero	MIL
__	TO	608	DH	Don Money	MIL
__	TO	582	UT	Marshall Edwards	MIL
__			C	Bill Schroeder
__			UT	Randy Ready
__	TO	476	UT	Rob Picciolo	MIL
__			UT	Bob Skube
__			UT	Dion James
__	TT	123	RP	Rick Waits	MIL
__			SP	Jaime Cocanower
__	TO	375	SP	Pete Vuckovich	MIL
__	TO	528	RP	Jamie Easterly	MIL
__			RP	Andy Beene

Minors

__

TO

35

MN

Rollie Fingers

MIL

Manager

__

TO

726

MG

Harvey Kuenn

MIL

1982 Milwaukee Brewers

Here is the only Milwaukee Brewers team to make it to the World Series. Here is a video clip at MLB.com paying tribute to this team.

MVP
Well, the real AL MVP was Robin Yount. Can't say I disagree with that. He was 2nd in the league in batting average and 2nd on the Brewers in RBI. So I will give him the award. This was a monster lineup, arguably the best in the 1980s. It had two hall-of-famers in Yount and Paul Molitor, who led the AL in runs scored. It had three players hit 30+ home runs, which in 1982 was a big deal (Cecil Cooper, Gorman Thomas, Ben Oglivie). It had 4 players with 100+ RBIs (which again was a big deal in 1982) in Cooper, Yount, Thomas, and Oglivie. I give honorable mention to Cecil Cooper who had this line of stats in 1982; .313 (2nd on team), 32 (3rd on team), and 121 (team leader, 2nd in AL to KC's Hal McRae)

Cy Young
Pete Vuckovich was the real AL Cy Young winner. Although argued that he is one of the alltime worst selections for this award, mostly by people who invent new stats, he was the staff ace for the AL pennant winning team. He went 18-6 with a 3.34 ERA, which is not too shabby.

Rookie Of The Year
Not sure what the exact rules are that define a rookie in Major League Baseball, but I will give the award to Kevin Bass for this team, since he saw his first major league action on this team. He was a decent major league outfielder playing until 1995 mostly with the Astros, Giants, and Mets. He split the '82 season between Milwaukee and Houston, as he was traded late in the season to the Astros for hall-of-famer Don Sutton in a typical stretch drive trade where a young player is traded for a veteran player. He only got into 18 games for the Brewers and then 12 more for the Astros in 1982. Unfortunately, there were no Kevin Bass cards in 1982 in any of the sets. His rookie card was actually in the 1979 Topps set as one of the three players on the Brewers Prospects card that year. He didn't appear in another set until 1984.

Interesting non-Topps card
In the 1982 Donruss set, there were a handful of coaches thrown into the set. One of those coaches that got a card was Harvey Kuenn who was the batting coach for the 1981 Brewers. Buck Rodgers started out the 1982 season as the manager, but the '82 Brewers struggled to a 23-24 start and he was replaced as manager by Harvey Kuenn. In the 1982 Donruss set, you are able to get cards of both Rodgers and Kuenn.

Starters

__	TO	150	C	Ted Simmons	MIL
__	TO	675	1B	Cecil Cooper	MIL
__	TO	613	2B	Jim Gantner	MIL
__	TO	195	3B	Paul Molitor	MIL
__	TO	435	SS	Robin Yount	MIL
__	TO	280	LF	Ben Oglivie	MIL
__	TO	765	CF	Gorman Thomas	MIL
__	TO	308	RF	Charlie Moore	MIL
__	TO	68	DH	Roy Howell	MIL
__	TO	709	DH	Don Money	MIL

Starting Pitchers

__	TO	643	SP	Pete Vuckovich	MIL
__	TO	378	SP	Mike Caldwell	MIL
__	TO	12	SP	Moose Haas	MIL
__	TO	487	SP	Bob McClure	MIL
__	TO	466	SP	Randy Lerch	MIL

Relief Pitchers

__	TO	585	CL	Rollie Fingers	MIL
__	TO	221	RP	Jim Slaton	MIL
__			RP	Dwight Bernard
__			SP	Don Sutton
__			SP	Doc Medich
__	TO	46	RP	Jerry Augustine	MIL

Other Players

__	FL	140	RF	Marshall Edwards	MIL
__	TO	408	2B	Ed Romero	MIL
__	TO	517	RF	Mark Brouhard	MIL
__	TO	542	C	Ned Yost	MIL
__	TO	93	DH	Larry Hisle	MIL
__	TT	89	UT	Rob Picciolo	MIL
__			UT	Kevin Bass
__			UT	Bob Skube
__	TO	122	RP	Jamie Easterly	MIL
__			RP	Pete Ladd
__			RP	Chuck Porter
__			RP	Doug Jones

Manager/Coaches

__	DO	232	MG	Buck Rodgers	MIL
__	DO	578	MG	Harvey Kuenn	MIL

1981 Milwaukee Brewers

Crazy Trade
Fingers was acquired prior to the 1981 season in a trade that also gave the Brewers Pete Vuckovich, so in one trade, the Brewers picked up the 1981 and 1982 Cy Young winners. Who did the Brewers give up? They gave the Cardinals David Green, Dave LaPoint, Sixto Lezcano, and Lary Sorensen. Oh and the Brewers also received Ted Simmons in this trade. Seems like a crazy trade, but the Cardinals beat the Brewers the next year in the World Series, so it was crazy like a fox.

MVP voting
Fingers was also the league MVP in 1981. Hard to imagine now, considering he really only led the league in saves. I know stat people like to go look at who really should have won the MVP in any given year using new stats derived from using computers, but the reality is, in 1981 voters looked at HRs-RBIs-BA, and for pitchers wins-ERA-saves. The AL Leader in BA was Carney Lansford at .336, RBI was Eddie Murray with 78 and HR was a 4 way tie between Tony Armas, Bobby Grich, Dwight Evans, and Eddie Murray with 22 each. On the pitching side, 4 pitchers led with 14 wins (Steve McCatty, Pete Vuckovich, Jack Morris, and Denny Martinez), ERA was led by Dave Righetti, and saves was led by Rollie Fingers, who led the league in saves by 8 over the next player. I think because he led by 8 is the reason he won the MVP and Cy Young awards that year, as nobody else stood out in any of the major categories.

The reality is, Rickey Henderson should've won this award for leading the league in runs scored and stolen bases and having a high batting average for a team that probably wouldn't have made the playoffs without him.

Starters

__	TT	830	C	Ted Simmons	MIL
__	TO	555	1B	Cecil Cooper	MIL
__	TO	482	2B	Jim Gantner	MIL
__	TO	106	3B	Don Money	MIL
__	TO	515	SS	Robin Yount	MIL
__	TO	415	LF	Ben Oglivie	MIL
__	TO	300	CF	Paul Molitor	MIL
__	TO	135	RF	Gorman Thomas	MIL
__	TO	215	DH	Larry Hisle	MIL
__	TT	773	3B	Roy Howell	MIL
__			RF	Mark Brouhard
__	TO	237	C	Charlie Moore	MIL

Starting Pitchers

__	TT	851	SP	Pete Vuckovich	MIL
__	TO	85	SP	Mike Caldwell	MIL
__	TO	327	SP	Moose Haas	MIL
__	TO	357	SP	Jim Slaton	MIL
__	TT	792	SP	Randy Lerch	MIL

Relief Pitchers

__	TT	761	CL	Rollie Fingers	MIL
__			RP	Jamie Easterly
__	TO	596	RP	Jerry Augustine	MIL
__	TO	576	RP	Reggie Cleveland	MIL
__			RP	Rickey Keeton

Other Players

__			OF	Thad Bosley
__			MI	Ed Romero
__	TO	623	UT	Sal Bando	MIL
__			OF	Marshall Edwards
__			C	Ned Yost
__	TO	156	RP	Bob McClure	MIL
__			RP	Dwight Bernard
__			RP	Chuck Porter
__			RP	Donnie Moore
__			RP	Frank DiPino
__			RP	Willie Mueller

Manager/Coaches

__

DO

327

MG

Buck Rodgers

MIL