Nine Neat Cards from 1982

So I caught wind of this contest going around from the blog called It's Like Having My Own Card Shop in honor of his ninth blogging anniversary. The deal is that you write a post showing nine cards. That's it, plain and simple. So, being one for an interesting challenge, I decided to not only partake in said contest but also show nine cards from the 3,200 count box I have filled with cards from 1982 that I finally sorted out. The caveat to this is that I've already filed away the majority of them so what you see here will be out of my rather large duplicate pile that accumulated. And, to add another fun twist to this, I'll field a starting nine from the group.

Brett Butler (CF)

Speedy base stealer Brett Butler would head the top of this line-up and 1982 just so happened to be his rookie season. In 89 games with the Braves that season, he stole 21 bases, hit .217, and managed 7 RBIs. 

Ozzie Smith (SS)

The strange this about this card is that Ozzie wasn't even with the Padres in 1982. He'd been traded to the Cardinals in December of 1981. This would also give me another base running threat at the top of the line-up for the heart of the order.

Lee May (1B)

Former Reds first baseman "The Big Bopper" Lee May would be holding down first and the third spot in the line-up. 1982 was May's final season in the bigs and he was a part-timer with the Royals. Sure, his power was pretty well diminished by this time but over a 12-season span (1968-1979) over the prime of his career, he averaged 27 homers a season. 

Andre Dawson (RF)

Andre Dawson would be my clean-up hitter, although I can't exactly remember where he hit in the order during his career. I'd put him in right field.

Dave Parker (LF)

Despite Parker being primarily a right fielder, I'd have to put him in left since I've already got Butler in center and Dawson in right. Plus, I'd have a "Hawk" in right, "Bugsy" in center, and "Cobra" in left. Definitely an outfield of colorful nicknames.

Ron Cey (3B)

Ron Cey would man the hot corner for me and bat sixth. Yes, I know that most of the cards I've shown so far have been from 1982 Donruss. It's what I had the most duplicates of.

Gene Tenace (C)

Batting seventh and catching would be Gene Tenace. I had no clue that Tenace ever played for the Cardinals until I found this card. To me that's the beauty of going through early 80s cards like this, you find cards of 70s players at the end of their career with completely random teams, like the Lee May card I showed off earlier.

Pete Mackanin (2B)

In the eighth spot is light hitting second baseman Pete Mackanin. I picked this card for two reasons ... 1) the blue Twins uniform and 2) the fact that he was a former Reds manager. This is also a sunset card as he retired after the 1981 season.

Gaylord Perry (P)

Finally, pitching would be Gaylord Perry who looks rather forlorn on this 1982 Fleer card. Perhaps he knew the end of his career was nigh. This is the only 1982 Fleer card I found from my dupes pile that looked decent. 

So there's nine cards from my 1982 box and a pretty decent starting nine as well. As far as the cards themselves go, Fleer probably had the least interesting set of all of these as the design was pretty basic. I really like the Donruss cards from this time and I might have enough to come up with a starter set. 

Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't thank Daniel at the ILHMOCS blog for offering up this contest, giving me a blog topic to write about, and for giving me a fun and interesting way to write about cards from 36 years ago.