1982 Kansas City Royals

Another solid Kansas City Royals team....funny typing that sentence in 2010.

MVP
I had a few to choose from here. I am going with Hal McRae on this one...he led the American League in RBI and the Royals in Home Runs and batted .308 with that. He was the designated hitter, so the purists may argue with that, but he did what you wanted a designated hitter to do; hit. George Brett led the team in on base percentage and runs scored. Willie Wilson led the American League in batting average.

Cy Young
Since no starter had eye-popping stats, I am going to the bullpen for this one. Dan Quisenberry led the AL in saves and had a 2.57 ERA. He is sort of forgotten about now, but he was the best closer in the AL from 1980-1985. I think the most memorable thing about him was his pitching style. He would pitch side armed and as a 10 year old, this was a very cool thing to watch. I often wonder how he figured out to throw that way. I know the coaches I had would've discouraged you very quick from attempting to throw that way, and he made it all the way to the majors throwing submarine style.

Rookie Card of the Year and Most Interesting Non-Topps Card
Not a whole lot to choose from in either category, so I will go with Darryl Motley. He had a cup of coffee with the Royals in '81, so he made it into both the Donruss and Fleer set in '82. He didn't play with the Royals in 1982, but was in their minor league system. He came back up in 1983 and was the starting right fielder for the '85 Royals, but was out of the majors after 1987. He played as far as into 2002 though in the independent Northern League.

Starters

__	TO	429	C	John Wathan	KCR
__	TO	35	1B	Willie Aikens	KCR
__	TO	645	2B	Frank White	KCR
__	TO	200	3B	George Brett	KCR
__	TO	329	SS	U L Washington	KCR
__	TO	230	LF	Willie Wilson	KCR
__	TO	725	CF	Amos Otis	KCR
__	TT	65	RF	Jerry Martin	KCR
__	TO	625	DH	Hal McRae	KCR

Starting Pitchers

__	TO	790	SP	Larry Gura	KCR
__	TT	8	SP	Vida Blue	KCR
__	TO	759	SP	Paul Splittorff	KCR
__	TO	495	SP	Dennis Leonard	KCR
__			SP	Buddy Black
__	TT	37	SP	Dave Frost	KCR

Relief Pitchers

__	TO	264	CL	Dan Quisenberry	KCR
__			RP	Mike Armstrong
__			RP	Bill Castro
__			RP	Don Hood

Other Players

__			SS	Onix Concepcion
__	TT	93	3B	Greg Pryor	KCR
__	TO	693	CF	Cesar Geronimo	KCR
__			RF	Steve Hammond
__			C	Don Slaught
__	TO	132	1B	Lee May	KCR
__	TO	173	C	Jamie Quirk	KCR
__	TO	657	LF	Tom Poquette	TEX
__	TT	126	UT	Dennis Werth	KCR
__			1B	Ron Johnson
__			OF	Mark Ryal
__			OF	Bombo Rivera
__			UT	Tim Ireland
__			SS	Buddy Biancalana
__			2B	Kelly Heath
__			SP	Keith Creel
__	TT	46	RP	Grant Jackson	KCR
__			RP	Derek Botelho
__	TO	362	RP	Jim Wright	KCR
__			RP	Bob Tufts

Minor Leagues

__	FL	412	MN	Mike Jones	KCR
__	DO	590	MN	Darryl Motley (or FL 417)	KCR

Manager/Coaches

__

MG

Dick Howser

1982 Baltimore Orioles

The '82 Orioles were in contention until the last day when they lost the last game of the season to the Brewers. Not a big deal though, the Orioles would come back and win it all next season.

Here is a link to more Baltimore Orioles cards...Orioles Card "O" The Day.

MVP
No doubt, Eddie Murray. He led the team in homers and RBIs to go with a .316 average.

Cy Young
Hall-of-famer Jim Palmer gets the nod, going 15-5 with a 3.13 ERA. This was his last season as a solid pitcher. He had a 5-4 record in 1983 with a 4+ ERA, and then fell off a cliff in 1984 going 0-3 with a 9+ ERA.

Rookie Card of the Year
For the 1982 Orioles, is there really a choice. Cal Ripken of course gets the nod here. He has a card in all 4 of the major sets out in 1982. Of course, for my checklist, since I am starting with Topps and working form there, I am using his Topps Traded card in my checklist.

Interesting Non-Topps card
You can get a Cal Ripken rookie card in mint condition on ebay right now for $1.18 (why the hyper specific $1.18, who knows?). But, unfortunately, that is the rookie card of Cal Ripken Sr. that I am talking about. He was one of the coaches added into the 1982 Donruss set. This card came out 5 years before he became the manager of the Orioles.

Starters

__	TO	489	C	Rick Dempsey	BAL
__	TO	390	1B	Eddie Murray	BAL
__	TO	8	2B	Rich Dauer	BAL
__			3B	Glenn Gulliver
__	TT	98	SS	Cal Ripken	BAL
__	TO	747	LF	John Lowenstein	BAL
__	TO	265	CF	Al Bumbry	BAL
__	TT	35	RF	Dan Ford	BAL
__	TO	290	DH	Ken Singleton	BAL
__	TO	204	OF	Gary Roenicke	BAL
__	TO	136	MI	Lenn Sakata	BAL
__	TT	81	C	Joe Nolan	BAL

Starting Pitchers

__	TO	712	SP	Dennis Martinez	BAL
__	TO	80	SP	Jim Palmer	BAL
__	TO	520	SP	Mike Flanagan	BAL
__	TO	617	SP	Scott McGregor	BAL

Relief Pitchers

__	TO	583	CL	Tippy Martinez	BAL
__	TO	679	RP	Sammy Stewart	BAL
__			RP	Storm Davis
__	TO	457	RP	Tim Stoddard	BAL
__			RP	Ross Grimsley

Other Players

__	TO	359	RF	Jim Dwyer	BAL
__	TO	331	UT	Benny Ayala	BAL
__	TO	232	UT	Terry Crowley	BAL
__	DO	610	SS	Bobby Bonner	BAL
__			3B	Floyd Rayford
__			CF	John Shelby
__	TO	648	PH	Jose Morales	BAL
__			UT	Mike Young
__			PH	Leo Hernandez
__			RP	Don Stanhouse
__			RP	Mike Boddicker
__			RP	John Flinn
__			RP	Don Welchel

Manager/Coaches

__	DO	27	MG	Earl Weaver	BAL
__	DO	579	CO	Cal Ripken, Sr.	BAL

1982 Atlanta Braves

The '82 Braves, managed by Joe Torre, hold the record (along with the '87 Brewers) for having the best start in baseball history, winning their first 13 games in a row. But by the end they just barely edged out the Dodgers and the Giants for the NL West division title.

MVP
The real 1982 NL MVP is Dale Murphy. Looking at the stats, it isn't even close for the Braves. He led the Braves in HR, RBI, runs scored, and OBP. The thing with his card is that it must've been taken in 1980 or earlier, as he still has the old style Braves batting helmet. Maybe they still used these in spring training in 1981..a Braves fan would have to let me know.

Cy Young
This was much closer. I am giving the nod to Phil Niekro, as he had a 17-4 record with a 3.61 ERA. This was a team that only had three reliable starting pitchers (maybe using that loosely, but the Braves only had 3 pitchers with 25+ starts), and Niekro was the ace. Honorable mention goes to closer Gene Garber. He had 30 saves and a 2.34 ERA. In the real Cy Young voting for 1982, Phil Niekro came in 5th overall and Garber came in 7th.

Rookie Card of the Year and Most Interesting Non-Topps card
These awards both go to the same player, Brett Butler. He is listed on the multi-player rookie card for the Braves in the Topps set, but his only solo card for 1982 can be found in the Donruss set. He didn't stay on the Braves long and was traded to the Indians with Brook Jacoby for Len Barker. One of those trades that had the locals up in arms (from an Indians point of view), but turned out to be a rip off of the Braves. Butler went on to a long career that ended in 1997, playing for the Indians, Giants, Mets, and Dodgers. He accumulated over 2000 hits and over 500 stolen bases.

Starters

__	TO	424	C	Bruce Benedict	ATL
__	TO	320	1B	Chris Chambliss	ATL
__	TO	482	2B	Glenn Hubbard	ATL
__	TO	145	3B	Bob Horner	ATL
__	TO	536	SS	Rafael Ramirez	ATL
__	TO	668	LF	Dale Murphy	ATL
__	DO	275	CF	Brett Butler	ATL
__	TO	758	RF	Claudell Washington	ATL
__	TO	608	UT	Jerry Royster	ATL

Starting Pitchers

__	TO	185	SP	Phil Niekro	ATL
__	TO	579	SP	Rick Mahler	ATL
__	TO	296	SP	Bob Walk	ATL

Relief Pitchers

__	TO	32	CL	Gene Garber	ATL
__	TT	4	RP	Steve Bedrosian	ATL
__	TO	637	RP	Rick Camp	ATL
__	TO	383	SP	Pascual Perez	PIT
__	DO	501	SP	Ken Dayley	ATL
__			RP	Joe Cowley

Other Players

__	TO	244	LF	Rufino Linares	ATL
__			LF	Larry Whisenton
__	TO	507	OF	Terry Harper	ATL
__	TO	88	C	Biff Pocoroba	ATL
__	TT	125	1B	Bob Watson	ATL
__	DO	149	C	Matt Sinatro	ATL
__			IF	Randy Johnson
__			UT	Ken Smith
__			UT	Bob Porter
__			C	Larry Owen
__			PH	Paul Runge
__			SS	Paul Zuvella
__			PR	Albert Hall
__	TO	61	SP	Tommy Boggs	ATL
__			RP	Larry McWilliams
__	TO	393	RP	Al Hrabosky	ATL
__			RP	Preston Hanna
__			RP	Donnie Moore
__			RP	Carlos Diaz
__			RP	Jose Alvarez
__			RP	Tom Hausman

Manager/Coaches

__

MG

Joe Torre

1982 California Angels

The 1986 version of the Angels get a lot of playback because of an epic collapse in the playoffs (probably because they played the Red Sox), but this team has to be just as disappointing to Angel fans. They led the ALCS against the Brewers 2 games to none, but lost the series 3 games to 2. This was back when the League Championship Series was a best of 5 games. There are 8 Angels in the Topps Traded set, so the Angels made many changes to put this team together. First year Angels include Reggie Jackson, Bob Boone, and Doug DeCinces.

MVP
Reggie Jackson didn't have the best batting average, but led the team in Home Runs and RBIs and was 2nd in OBP to Rod Carew. He gets my nod for MVP. Doug DeCinces, Rod Carew, and Brian Downing should also get some consideration.

Cy Young
Pitching wasn't really the strength of this team. Geoff Zahn won 18 games, but had a relatively high ERA for the time. He was the ace of the staff, so I will give him the nod.

Rookie Card of the Year
I am going to think about this some more...the point of this blog is the baseball cards, and if I just looked at 1st year players, I would have yet another team with no card for the player. This may be a more interesting feature when I get to, say, the 1989 sets and there are more update sets to provide more cards, but for now is pointless.

So I will attempt to find rookie cards of players to fill in the gap for now, and I will give the award for the Angels to Mike Witt, who had his rookie card in the 1982 sets. He was a solid pitcher from 1984 - 1988 who pitched the 11th perfect game in baseball history in 1984 and teamed up with Mark Langston to pitch a no-hitter in 1990.

Most Interesting Non-Topps Card
Angel Moreno, who might be considered the 5th starter for the '82 Angels pitching staff, is shown on Fleer card #469. Moreno started his career in 1975 in the Mexican Leagues. He came to the majors in 1981, and had a largely forgettable career in the major leagues, going 4-10 during 1981 and 1982 for the Angels. He bounced around in the minors for a bit afterward, but according to this link, he pitched through the 2006 season in the Mexican Leagues. He still possessed a fastball of 90+ mph at the age of 50.

Starters

__	TT	9	C	Bob Boone	CAL
__	TO	500	1B	Rod Carew	CAL
__	TO	284	2B	Bobby Grich	CAL
__	TT	26	3B	Doug DeCinces	CAL
__	TT	34	SS	Tim Foli	CAL
__	TO	158	LF	Brian Downing	CAL
__	TO	251	CF	Fred Lynn	CAL
__	TT	47	RF	Reggie Jackson	CAL
__	TO	415	DH	Don Baylor	CAL

Starting Pitchers

__	TO	229	SP	Geoff Zahn	CAL
__	TO	385	SP	Ken Forsch	CAL
__	TO	744	SP	Mike Witt	CAL
__	TO	702	SP	Steve Renko	CAL

Relief Pitchers

__	TT	21	CL	Doug Corbett	CAL
__	TO	442	RP	Bruce Kison	CAL
__			RP	Luis Sanchez
__	TO	94	RP	Andy Hassler	CAL
__	TO	674	RP	Dave Goltz	LAD
__	TO	199	RP	Don Aase	CAL
__	FL	469	SP	Angel Moreno	CAL

Other Players

__	TO	572	OF	Juan Beniquez	CAL
__	TT	48	1B	Ron Jackson	CAL
__	TT	128	2B	Rob Wilfong	CAL
__	TO	514	C	Joe Ferguson	CAL
__	TO	74	OF	Bobby Clark	CAL
__	TT	53	SS	Mick Kelleher	CAL
__	TO	55	SS	Rick Burleson	CAL
__			SS	Ricky Adams
__			UT	Daryl Sconiers
__			UT	Jose Moreno
__			OF	Gary Pettis
__			SP	Tommy John
__	TO	160	SP	Luis Tiant	PIT
__			RP	Rick Steirer
__			RP	John Curtis
__			RP	Stan Bahnsen
__			RP	Mickey Mahler

Minor Leagues

__	TO	719	MN	Jerry Narron	SEA
__	TO	628	MN	Bill Travers	CAL

Manager/Coaches

__

DO

141

MG

Gene Mauch

CAL