EVANS
We will start with the big boy, Darrell, who played with Hank Aaron and Willie McCovey, later with Gibby and for Sparky. 414 home runs. Once he, Aaron and Davey Johnson hit 40 home runs in the same season.
Next Dwight Dewey Evans. 2 time silver slugger, 3 time all star and 8 time gold glove award winner. He is 2nd in games played for the Red Sox, he scored more runs than Jim Rice, 300 more hits than Papi or Boggs (as Bosox). 5th all time in Red Sox home runs and RBI. Most strikeouts in team history.
And finally Bob, just kidding, though Barry Evans was not a household name. 501 career at bats with 2 homers, hitting .251. He parlayed that into two cards, this being his “Rookie”.
HENDERSON
We will start with Steve. He finished second to Andre Dawson of the Montreal Expos in National League Rookie of the Year balloting by only one point (10–9) He was a solid player who never got to All Star level. He only hit 68 homers but his career average was .280. He was on a roll with pretty good production his first 4 years but then he was traded to the Cubs and even then it took a year before he spun out. He hit .290, .293 and .294 in 1981-2 and 1984 with a .233 average in 1983. Once traded for Seaver. He stole 79 bases which is 1327 less than Rickey.
This was Rickey’s 2nd card. He did well his rookie season but in 1980 he was a Top 10 MVP finisher and a first time all star. He is a hall of famer, 10 time All Star, MVP, 2 time world series champ among other honors. 1980 was the year he first stole 100 bases and it was the first time leading the league in steals, something he would continue to do through the 1986 season. He would go on to lead the league 5 more times, including 66 steals in 1998 at the age of 39.
HOWE
How great Art Howe? Pretty good, as a baseball lifer, he saw some games. He played in 891 of them mostly with Houston where he was a very good regular from 1977-1981. He then managed the Astros from 1989-1993 never finished above 3rd and then moving on to Oakland to manage them all the way up until the money ball era. He finished managing with the Mets after two years in 2004. In total he managed 2266 games with a 1129-1137 record.
Steve Howe many chances do you get? He won the 1980 Rookie of the Year, and then saved the clinching game of the 1981 World Series for the Dodgers. He was an All-Star in 1982. Then he could not stop dodging suspensions. Suspended seven times in total; at year it seemed like a yearly right of passage. An early version of the Bonilla paycheck anniversary. When will Steve get suspended again? He was given a lifetime ban which was later overturned but he clearly wasted a good career based on how he started and how he bounced back each time and pitched well. That may have been his curse, if he was worse they would not have given him more chances and he might not have lived that life.
KENNEDY
Neither related to each other but both have baseball relations. Junior’s brother Jim pitched for the 1970 Cardinals and Terry’s dad Bob was a 4 time All Star. Junior’s real name is Junior. Not like dopey Chris Berman calling Ken Griffey Jr., Junior Griffey. Junior missed out on the Big Red Machine but played for the Reds from 1974-1981 with a 3 year gap between 1974 and 1978. he was in the minors the entire time from 1975–1977 because he was traded twice, blocked by established infielders, and never got a roster opening until 1978. The Reds infield at that time was Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Dave Concepcio and Tony Perez.
Terry was also blocked, he was behind Hall of Famer Ted Simmons. But he would become a 4 time all star after being traded from the Cardinals to the Padres in 1980. He was traded with John Littlefield, Al Olmsted, Mike Phillips, Kim Seaman, Steve Swisher and John Urrea to the San Diego Padres for a player to be named later, Rollie Fingers (Hall of Famer), Bob Shirley and Gene Tenace. The San Diego Padres sent Bob Geren (December 10, 1980) to the St. Louis Cardinals to complete the trade.
KINGMAN
Kingman, how about Queenwoman or sumthin? Brian, well, he had notoriety but for the wrong reason. He had a pretty short career and until 2003 he was the last person to lose 20 games in a season when he lost 20 games in 1980. Career wise he was 23-45. This was his first solo card, shockingly they did not highlight his 20 loss season on the card’s back.
Kong. Paragraph should end there. He was Schwarbomb in the same stadium 30 years earlier. He had a bat, no glove and not a lot of discipline. Since he had a limited skillset he was a gun for hire moving from team to team, playing for 7 franchises. His 154 homers as a Met is still 6th all time. Lindor is closing in. 3 time all star, once led the majors in homers in 1979 with 48.
LEZCANO
They are primos (cousins). Carlos had a very brief career but Topps thought so highly of him that they made him a rare back to back future star. I tried to research who was named back to back future stars and I could come up with 8 including Mark Corey and Mike Boddiker from this set. In any event Carlos got into 49 games and hit 3 homers with a career average of .186.
Sixto was always one of my favorite names in this set, thus this was one of my favorite cards. Loved how it sounded when I said it, and loved to think, “does he have six toes?”, as a kid not understanding ethnic names, and knowing of three finger Brown, I didn’t really get it. After all these years I ended the mystery and in fact it is pronounced six toe. The Spanish pronunciation is seeks two. No information was available on his toes.
MADDOX
When the Cubs got Greg Maddux I wondered if he was related to these guys; then I saw Maddux, and I noticed he spelled his name differently so I then knew they were not familial. Elliott was on the last Washington Senators team before they moved to Texas. He was more of a role and bench player but he played over 1000 games. This was his final card.
Garry with two Rs. 8 time Gold Glove winner, the Secretary of Defense. He settled into 12 seasons with Philadelphia after 3 ½ with San Francisco. He never had an All Star season but he did finish 5th in the MVP voting in 1976. He stole a fair amount of bases, 248 for his career which is 12th all time for the Phillies.
PARRISH
Larry was kind of a mid range slugger hitting 256 HR and nearly 1000 RBI over 15 seasons nearly split evenly between Montreal and Texas. He was an All Star in 1979 with the Expos and 1987 with the Rangers. He hit three grand slams in one week in 1982. He amassed 1789 hits in his career with a .263 average.
Lance was a slugging catcher hitting 324 HR and driving in 1070 over 16 seasons primarily with the Tigers. He was an All Star in nearly every year that Larry wasn’t. 1980, 1982-1986 and 1988 and 1990. He won the 1984 World Series and was a 6 time Silver Slugger to go with his three gold gloves. 6th all time in homers by catchers.
PART III
Hoosier Favorite Card 