The front: Whitfield rockets a line drive down the first
base line – fair or foul? This appears to be Shea Stadium. He played in two day
games at Shea that year, with two hits in eight at-bats.
The back: Teammate Darrell Evans also had five hits that
day.
The player: Whitfield was a high-average, low power
outfielder who initially came up with the Yankees in 1974. After playing in 30
games over three years for the Yankees, they traded him to San Francisco for
Marty Perez, who played one game for the team before being traded for Mike
Torrez. Whitfield did reasonably well as a part-time outfielder for the Giants
from 1977 to 1980 before playing in Japan for three seasons. He came back to
the US in 1984 and played three more seasons for the Dodgers. Overall in 730
games he hit .281 with 33 HR and 179 RBI.
The man: He has had a long career as a youth coach. His
company, Future Pro Baseball, operates batting cages in California and Japan.
My collection: I have 15 of his cards, from 1975 to 1986. I
would be interested in trading for 1984 Fleer Update #125.
Nice action shot of Whitfield. One of these days I should go and rank my favorite 1981 Topps cards. I'm guessing this would make the top 10. The only one that really stands out to me is the iconic Schmidt card.
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