1981 Topps Dan Ford

 

The front: Extreme closeup here, though there is enough background visible to see that this is Yankee Stadium. We do get a reflection of the photographer in Ford's glasses.

The back: From August 6-12, 1979, Ford hit .269 (7-for-26) with 2 HR and 7 RBI. Highlights included a grand slam on the 8th, and igniting a winning 9th inning rally, scoring the tying run, on the 11th.

The player: Outfielder Dan Ford played for the Twins, Angels and Orioles from 1975 to 1985. His best season was 1979, when he drove in and scored over 100 runs and earned an MVP vote in helping the Angels to their first AL West title. Overall, in 1,153 major league games, he hit .270 with 121 HR and 566 RBI.

The man: After his playing career Ford has devoted time to working with disadvantaged youth, as well as working in the real estate business and raising horses. He briefly answered my questions about baseball cards in 2011.

My collection: I have 30 of his cards, from 1976 to 1986. I would be interested in trading for 1977 Burger Chef Fun Meal Discs #NNO.
 

1976 SSPC John Montefusco

 

The card, in brief: Nice composition here, with the flag on one side and the scoreboard on the other.

Playing career, in brief: John Montefusco won the NL Rookie of the Year Award in 1975, going 15-9 with a 2.88 ERA. The following year he went 16-14 with a 2.84 ERA, leading the NL with 6.9 WAR. However, injuries hampered his effectiveness and he didn't live up to those first couple of outstanding seasons. In 298 games for four teams, he went 90-83 with a 3.54 ERA. 

Post-playing career, in brief:  John Montefusco won the NL Cy Young Award in 1975, going 15-9 with a 2.88 ERA. The following year he went 16-14 with a 2.84 ERA, leading the NL with 6.9 WAR. However, injuries hampered his effectiveness and he didn't live up to those first couple of outstanding seasons. In 298 games for four teams, he went 90-83 with a 3.54 ERA. 

My collection: I have 32 of his cards, from 1976 to 1986. I would be interested in trading for 1976 Hostess #41. 

1986 Renata Galasso Mattingly #10

 Not much to say but a cool photo. Mattingly's 11 years old here.

One of the disappointments from the last World Series is that Mattingly, as Blue Jays coach, was so close to his first championship but denied again. Now he's a Phillies coach, maybe I'll root for them once the Yankees are eliminated. (Is it too early for pessimism yet?)

1988 Domino's Fred Lasher

 

Nice action photo of Lasher. Don't know what stadium it is.

Lasher was a submarining reliever who pitched for four teams over six seasons, mostly for Detroit. In 151 games he went 11-13 with 22 saves and a 3.88 ERA. After his playing career he was a drywall installer and a recreational specialist for youths with substance use disorder. He died in 2022. 

Burgers or Gum? Johnny Grubb

 Last time was an easy 6-3 win for gum. Will burgers fare better here?

Wendy's has a portrait of Grubb with his bat, while Topps has a sunsoaked action shot of Grubb at Tiger Stadium. Johnny Grubb was a solid outfielder with a little power and a little speed who was a useful bench player in '84. In 86 games he hit .267 with 8 HR and 17 RBI. His big highlight for the year was an 8th inning 2-RBI double off of Dan Quisenberry in Game 2 of the ALCS to give the Tigers a 5-3 lead.

Grubb started his career with the Padres and was an All Star in his second season. As he drifted from team to team in the late 70s and early 80s he saw less and less playing time, and was a full-time backup by the time he got to Detroit. Overall in 1,424 games over 16 seasons, Grubb hit .278 with 99 HR and 475 RBI. After his playing career he was a minor league coach for a while, and is now retired.
 

Wood vs. Wood #328

 Last time it was an 8-4 win for 1987. Who will win here?

Ken Walters poses in front of the screen, with his #17 on his bat knob. Walters was coming off two mediocre seasons for the mediocre Phillies, which would turn out to be the bulk of this major league career. Walters was sold to the Reds shortly after this card came out, spent all of '62 in the minors, and had one last cup of coffee for the Reds in 1963. In 259 major league games he hit .231 with 11 HR and 58 RBI. He kept a low profile after his baseball career, and passed away in 2010.

Bob Welch poses at spring training, with his whole name printed on his glove. Welch gained national prominence as a rookie striking out Reggie Jackson with two runners to end Game 2 of the 1978 World Series. Less well remembered is Welch giving up a walkoff, series-tying hit to Lou Piniella two games later as the Yankees came back from 2-0 down to take the Series. An excellent pitcher, Welch had seven seasons of 3-or-more WAR. Not one of those is 1990, with the A's, when he went 27-6 with a 2.95 ERA, the most wins in a season since Denny McLain's 30 win season, and still the last 25-win season. He only had 2.9 WAR, which if you believe WAR means a replacement-level pitcher would have gone 24-9, still one of the best win totals of the past 50 years. Personally I'm not buying it, even if he was helped by some good luck. Overall in 506 games for the Dodgers and A's he went 211-146 with a 3.47 ERA. After his career he was a pitching coach. He died from a fall in his house in 2014.
 

Something else from Johnny

Here's the other thing that was in the box from Johnny. This huge book took up almost the whole box! (And sorry about the shadows, I've been shoveling for the past two hours and don't want to redo the shots.)

It's a ledger book from 1927. By itself that would be cool, but it's a lot more interesting than that.

It's a scrapbook! It looks like after the ledger book was filled in 1928, it got re-used as a scrapbook. Johnny doesn't know anything about this history, but I'll certainly have a lot of fun looking into it. In fact I plan to do a blog post about every page. Warning - there is no baseball and almost no sports here, this will be one of those blog series I pretty much just do for myself. There is a lot of variety, though.

There is a lot more than just newspaper in the scrapbook, which really helps beef up my "old things" collection. 

Lots of interesting stuff here! This will be a lot of fun to go through; and if there is a particular item that would fit someone else's collection better than mine, I'd be happy to pass it along.

 

Cards from Johnny

Like many of you I got a large flat rate box from Johnny this week. A large flat rate box stuffed with over 20 cards!

Some Yankee stickers, mostly Panini. Someday I should get the old Panini books, I've accumulated quite a few of these. I had '88 and '89 when I was a kid. 

Some newer Yankees, including some very festive cards.

Some minor league autographs of guys who did play in the bigs for the Yankees and were briefly under-the-radar fan favorites. (Whenever I see Jose Pirela I think of the drawn-out way John Sterling used to say his name.)

I always love shiny cards! Andujar was really good before he got hurt. The other two were major Yankee flops.

A large flat rate box with only a couple dozen cards? Surely there must have been something else in there. Yes there certainly was. One more card which was randomly inside the other thing, I don't know if that was intentional or accidental. I actually have the whole '76 Isaly set except for Nolan Ryan so this Thurman Munson is available.

As for the other big thing, that will be another big post, but here's a teaser. See you on the other side of the blizzard!

 

Cake or gum? 1977 Vida Blue

Last time it was a 6-2 win for gum. Who will win here?

Hostess has a closeup of a smiling Blue sitting on the ground, while Topps has him all business in a pitching pose. Both shots have a nice view of the Bicentennial patch.

Blue burst onto the national scene as a 21-year old rookie in 1971, going 24-8 with 301 strikeouts and a 1.82 ERA. He held out for much of 1972 and slipped considerably, going 6-10 and being demoted to the bullpen. However, his strikeout and ERA numbers, though not as good as '71, were still better than most pitchers in the league. He rebounded to win 20 games in '73. Blue was never again as dominant as he was in '71 (he never struck out 200 batters again, let alone 300), but he still put up excellent numbers for Oakland and San Francisco though the 1981 season. Blue was traded to the Royals before the 1982 season, and quickly became embroiled in the cocaine scandals that engulfed that team. He was suspended for the 1984 season, though he returned in 1985 and 1986 as a solid starter for the Giants. He signed with the A's in 1987 but abruptly retired in spring training, presumably due to more drug problems. His career 209-161 record and 3.27 ERA compare well to other pitchers of his era who get Hall of Fame consideration. He is hurt by not living up to his rookie-year hype, his history of drug abuse, and a poor postseason record (1-5, 4.31 ERA in 17 games). Blue was one of the players most directly involved in the cocaine scandals of the 1980s, eventually serving 81 days in jail. Substance abuse continued to haunt him after his career, with at least three DUI arrests in the 2000s and 2010s. Blue was an announcer for the Giantswas involved in various charitable endeavors. He died of cancer in 2023.
 
 

1981 Topps Bob Stanley

 

The front: This looks like Memorial Stadium, one of the last parks to have such a wide open view beyond the outfield wall. Stanley pitched in two day games in Baltimore, Saturday and Sunday, July 5 & 6. On Saturday he got four outs among the 7th and 8th innings to hold a 1-0 Sox win, and on Sunday he pitched to the last two batters in the ninth, retiring Ken Singleton on a groundout to save a 6-4 Boston triumph.

The back: Stanley pitched the third and fourth innings of the '79 All Star Game, in relief of starter Nolan Ryan. He allowed a double to Mike Schmidt and an RBI groundout to Dave Winfield. To this date he is still the only person from Maine to play in an All Star Game.

The player: Stanley had some fantastic years as a reliever for the Red Sox, twice finishing in the top 10 in Cy Young voting. In 1986 he finally got to pitch in a World Series, and put together a terrific stat line - 6.1 scoreless innings over five appearances, with four K's and only one walk. Yet the inherited runners he allowed to score in Game 6, including his own wild pitch that tied the game, leave him forever remembered as a World Series goat (not the good kind). In 13 seasons in the majors, all with Boston, he went 115-97 with 132 saves and a 3.64 ERA.

The man: Stanley had a long career as a minor league pitching coach for several teams. He is now retired.

My collection: I have 47 of his cards, from 1978 to 1990. I would be interested in trading for 1978 SSPC #164.