Monday, March 16, 2020

A 1980s Card Part 35 - 1982 Fleer Silvio Martinez

I had a really good collection of 1982 Cardinals cards as a kid.  The first team set I ever owned was a 1982 Topps Cardinals set that my father bought me from a flea market in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  I had other 1982 Cardinals beyond that Topps set.  I also had a handful of cards from the Fleer and Donruss sets. 

The 1982 Fleer Cardinals team set had roughly half the card photos taken in Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, with the other half being taken in Dodger Stadium.  Most of the cards are halfway decent.  A pretty good mixture of portrait and action shots.  Then there is Silvio Martinez who card is not halfway decent. 

Silvio's card photo was taken in Dodger Stadium, but it looks more like a bad Olan Mills backdrop of Dodger Stadium.  It's rather blurry in the background, but then so is the picture of Silvio in the foreground. 

This is easily one of the most out of focus portrait style cards around.




Was his hat photoshopped onto his head?  There is something off with this hat and hair on the left side of the card.

Surprisingly, there are quite a few portrait style cards of Silvio Martinez from his four years with the Cardinals.  They are pretty good looking cards.



This is a nice looking card.  I like the shadows on the card, adds a little something to the card.  




Not bad either on the 1980s Topps card.  

It feels like Fleer did not even make an attempt to give us a good Silvio Martinez card in their 1982 set.  It feels similar to pictures I sometimes get when I try to take pictures of my own kids when they are running around on holidays.  This is an adult who is agreeing to sit in front of your camera.  Mind boggling that the quality could be this low.    

Back of the card.  



Silvio was a decent pitcher.  He had a really good year in 1979 with the 15 wins, and an ERA of 3.26.  Most importantly, the Cardinals were able to trade him to the Indians as part of a three team trade which landed them left fielder Lonnie Smith from the Phillies.  





Who ended up being a pretty important player on the 1982 World Series winner.  

2 comments:

  1. I feel like I know a lot of the key 80's Cardinals... but I don't remember Martinez. On the other hand, I'm very familiar with Lonnie.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Silvio was gone by the time they got really good. He also had injury problems after the Cardinals traded him, never pitched in a game for the Indians.

      Delete

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