Vida Blue TTM Success

Sent: 4/22/2020 | Received: 5/7/2020 | 15 days
1/1: 1981 Fleer Star Sticker
Address: Vida Blue Baseball (Pleasanton, CA) from SportsCollectors.Net

Vida Blue was an integral member of the Oakland Athletics three-peat (1972-1974). He won the A.L. Cy Young and Most Valuable Player awards for his dominant 1971 season. That year, Blue went 24-8 with a 1.82 ERA over 312 innings. He threw 24 complete games (including eight shutouts).

2019 (pre-blog) return

I had gotten Vida through the mail in 2019, before I committed to working the Fleer Star Sticker set. Of course, I opted for how history best remembers him: as an Athletic.

Blue debuted with the A’s in 1969 as a 19 year old. He saw limited action over his first two seasons, but the talent was obvious. He was a power pitcher with a fastball up to 100 mph. On September 21, 1970, he no-hit the Minnesota Twins.

His fantastic 1971 season brought conflict with notorious cheapskate owner Charlie Finley. Blue held out for much of the 1972 season. When he returned, he was not sharp. Nonetheless Oakland defeated the Cincinnati Reds to capture their first of three consecutive titles.

Blue returned to form in ’73 and was one of the best pitchers for much of the decade.

In 1976, in the midst of Finley’s birth of the free agency era-fueled fire sale, commissioner Bowie Kuhn vetoed a proposed sale of Blue to the Yankees. In 1978, Kuhn cancelled a proposed trade of Blue to the Reds. In both cases, Kuhn alleged the trades would be bad for baseball because, benefiting already powerful teams without making them give up any significant talent in return.

By the end of the ’76 season, Finley had jettisoned nearly every other key cog of the A’s dynasty, but Blue was trapped.

In 1978, Blue was traded to the San Francisco Giants. He’d spent four seasons across the bay, three of them All-Star caliber. He then spent two seasons with the Kansas City Royals.

Blue battled drug addiction over the course of his career. After the 1983 season, he and former teammates Willie Wilson, Jerry Martin and Willie Aikens pleaded guilty to attempting to purchase cocaine. He was suspended for the 1984 season.

After the year hiatus, Blue would return to the Giants for two more seasons.

***
1981 Fleer Star Sticker Set Progress: 43 of 125 (34.4%)

Pharmacy Box Break

Public service announcement for the same people that need news stations to tell you what day it is: Sunday is Mother’s Day.

Today I ran over to Walgreens for a couple greeting cards. Naysayers, say what you will about baseball cards being worthless pieces of cardboard, but they’re cheaper than cardboard bearing the Hallmark logo. Jeez.

Anyway, grabbed a $5 pharmacy box. Ooooo, new packaging. No more preview window.

“Hits?” None.

The pack: 2019 Opening Day

New packaging, same disproportional and disappointing stack of 1989 Topps.

Quite a bit of 1981 Donruss too (a design I’m actually fond of).

Newest cards: 2019 Series 2. Oldest card: Darrell Evans, 1978 Topps.

Evans was a two-time All-Star (1973, 1983), a World Series champion (1984), and the AL home run leader in 1985. Bill James rated Evans as “the most underrated player in baseball history.” He had 414 career home runs. His skill in drawing walks (1,605) contributed to a .361 career on-base percentage.

Hall of Famers.

OK… Three favorites:

#1 Charles Johnson, Team USA [1991 Topps]

Things I like: 1991 Topps design, Team USA cards, Goofy angles. Trifecta.

Johnson was a two-time All-Star (1997, 2001), a World Series champion (1997), and a 4x Gold Glove Award (1995-1998). He caught three no-hitters (1996 – Al Leiter, 1997 – Kevin Brown, 2001 – A.J. Burnett).

#2 Roger Erickson, Yankees [1983 Topps]

I assume hair like this is the very reason for the headshot design.

Erickson had a 35-53 record over six years with the Twins and Yankees. He threw 265.2 innings as a 21-year-old rookie in 1978, carried a 3.96 ERA, and posted his only winning season (14-13).

#3 Jay Buhner, Yankees [1988 Donruss]

For obvious reasons:

J.T. Riddle TTM Success

Sent: 4/28/2020 | Received: 5/8/2020 | 10 days
1/1: 2018 Topps - [Base] - Mother's Day Pink #651 (10/50)
Address: Home (Frankfort, KY) from SportsCollectors.Net

Glad to get this numbered Mother’s Day Pink parallel back. Thrilled to have it back in just 10 days. With that kind of speed, it’s amazing Riddle has yet to register a stolen base (zero success over 5 career attempts).

Riddle signed this offseason with the Pittsburgh Pirates after three years with the Marlins.

He has yet to establish himself at the plate (.229/.269/.368 slash line over 668 career at bats), but offers some positional flexibility up the middle; he’s played both shortstop and center field.

After a down 2019 (.189/.230/.371) he was nontendered by Miami. He seemed a likely depth piece/utility player for the 2020 Pirates.

Garry Templeton TTM Success

Sent: 4/15/2020 | Received: 5/7/2020 | 22 days
1/1: 1981 Fleer Star Sticker
Address: Home (San Marcos, CA) through PastPros.com

Hindsight is, as they say, 20/20. Because he was traded for the great Ozzie Smith, it's easy to forget (or ignore) the player Garry Templeton was.

At the time of the trade (before the 1982 season), Templeton was a 26-year-old, two-time All-Star, a three-time league leader in triples, and a Silver Slugger after leading the N.L. in hits (211) in 1979. He carried a .305 batting average over his first six seasons in St. Louis.

He wore out his welcome, however. In 1979 he had refused to serve as an All-Star reserve. During an August 1981 home game, Templeton flipped off Cardinals fans who were heckling after he failed to run to first on a ground ball. Manager White Herzog removed Templeton and he was traded that off-season.

The light-hitting, defensive wizard Ozzie Smith, of course, blossomed into a superstar and Cardinal legend.

Templeton played 10 season with the Padres, hit .252 and amassed 1,135 hits. He won a second Silver Slugger (1984) and was elected to the 1985 All-Star Game. He would, in 2015, be elected to the San Diego Padres Hall of Fame.

In his final season (1991), he was traded mid season to the Mets for Tim Teufel. He played in 80 games with New York.

***
1981 Fleer Star Sticker Set Progress: 42 of 125 (33.6%)
Milestone! I'm a third of the way there!

A Pair of ’81 Star Sticker Pickups

In my pursuit of an all-autographed 1981 Fleer Star Sticker set, sooner or later I was going to have to move away from TTM and make some purchases. There are some notoriously tough autographs to hunt down, and of course a handful of these players are now deceased. Sad but true.

After recently posting my Phil Niekro success, I was contacted by someone open to unloading three from the set. I didn’t have two of them – including the late Don Baylor – and the price was right, so I pounced.

Neither of the cards are in particularly good condition; Baylor’s edges are chipped to hell, but I knew that (and again, the price was right).

These two pickups bring me to 41 of the 125 (32.8%).

A fearsome power hitter known for crowding the plate, Baylor played for six AL teams over his 19 seasons in the majors. He was a three-time Silver Slugger (1983, 1985, 1986) and won the AL MVP in 1979 with the Angels.

In that MVP campaign, Baylor led the league in both runs and RBI. He slashed .296/.371/.530 and slugged 36 home runs. He played in all 162 games.

After parts of six years with the Orioles, he was traded to the Athletics before the 1976 season. The deal was a blockbuster: Oakland receives Don Baylor, Paul Mitchell and Mike Torrez. Baltimore receives Reggie Jackson, Ken Holtzman and Bill VanBommell. Charlie Finley was cleaning house.

After one season with the A’s, Baylor inked a deal with the California Angels as a free agent. After six productive years with the Angels – including the aforementioned 1979 MVP season – Baylor signed with the New York Yankees.

The Yankees would trade him to Boston for Mike Easler in 1986. For three years from ‘86 through ‘88, Baylor would reach the World Series (for three separate teams). Baylor reached the Fall Classic with the Red Sox in 1986, the Twins in 1987, and the A's in 1988. He would win his lone ring with Minnesota.

Baylor would retire after the ’88 season having compiled 338 home runs, 2,135 hits, and 285(!) stolen bases. He was hit by pitches 267 times, fourth-most all time.

The other pickup was four-time All-Star catcher Bob Boone.

Boone might be best known for his family’s incredible MLB lineage. He is the son of the late third baseman Ray Boone and the father of both Bret Boone and Aaron Boone. All four family members were named All-Stars during their careers.

Bob Boone was known as a phenomenal defensive catcher and won seven Gold Glove Awards over his career (1978, 1979, 1982, 1986-1989).

He was a member of the 1980 World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies. In September of 1984, with the California Angels, he caught Mike Witt’s perfect game.

Boone was a career .254 hitter with 105 home runs and 826 runs batted. He caught 2,225 games over his 19-year big league career, a record which was later broken by Carlton Fisk (2,226) and Ivan Rodríguez (2,427). Boone caught 117 shutouts during his career.

***
1981 Fleer Star Sticker Set Progress: 41 of 125 (32.8%)

J.R. Richard TTM Success

Sent: 4/15/2020 | Received: 5/1/2020 | 16 days
1/1: 1980 Topps -- '79 ERA Leaders (previously signed by Guidry)
Address: Home (Kendleton, TX) through PastPros.com

I’ve gotten J.R. Richard through the mail previously but when I came across this card, I told myself it would be really cool with ink from each of these 70's icons. Ron Guidry came back successful in January. Now completed, this jumps to near the top of my favorites list.

Richard was a premier flamethrower for the Astros across the second half of the decade. After breaking out in 1976, Richard had three top-10 Cy Young seasons. He led the league in ERA in 1979 (2.71) and strikeouts in both 1978 (303) and 1979 (313).

Of course, indicative of the kind of pitcher he was, he also led the lead in walks (1975, 1976, 1978) and wild pitches (1975, 1978, 1979).

Who was the toughest pitcher for you to face as a batter? 

J.R. Richard. He didn't have complete control, and he could have killed you at any time. – Johnny Bench [link]

By 1980, Richard’s age-30 season, he had emerged as one of the best pitchers in baseball. He was off to a brilliant start, at one point hurling three consecutive complete-game shutouts. He finished the first half with a 10-4 record, 115 strikeouts and a 1.96 ERA.

Richard exited a July 14th start in the fourth inning feeling deadness in his throwing arm. Tests would later reveal a completely obstructed artery. On July 30, Richard suffered a stroke and collapsed while playing pre-game catch, and was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery to remove a life-threatening blood clot in his neck. He would not pitch in the majors again.

Bucky Dent TTM Success

Sent: 4/22/2020 | Received: 4/30/2020 | 8 days
1/1: 1981 Fleer Star Sticker
Address: Home (Lake Worth, FL) from SportsCollectors.Net

Before he was Bucky “Beeping” Dent, he debuted as a 21-year-old shortstop for the Chicago White Sox—the heir apparent to Luis Apariciio. Dent played four seasons in Chicago, finishing second in the Rookie of the Year voting (1974) and earning an All-Star nod in 1975.

In early April 1977, he was traded to the Yankees in a package that included Oscar Gamble.

Dent is most remembered for his 1978 three-run home run that propelled the Yankees past the Red Sox in the AL East division’s one-game playoff. He continued his hot hitting in the playoffs batting .417 (10-24, 7 RBI) in their second consecutive World Series win over the Dodgers. Dent was named MVP.

Dent would remain the Yankees shortstop until 1982, earning two more All-Star appearances (1980, 1981). The Yankees dealt him to the Texas Rangers in August for Lee Mazzilli. He would finish his career with the Kansas City Royals in 1984. He retired with a .247 batting average, 40 home runs, and 423 RBI.

***
1981 Fleer Star Sticker Set Progress: 39 of 125 (31.2%)