A 1980s Card Part 27- 1982 O-Pee-Chee Lonnie Smith

The Topps Traded sets in the 1980s were great, but you had to wait all the way until the end of the year to get new cards of new players on your teams.  If you did not get the Traded sets, then you had to wait all the way until the following year to get the new players in their new uniform.  Then there were the O-Pee-Chee cards.  You know, the Canadian version of Topps. 

They were sort of a halfway point between the traded set and the regular Topps cards.  I am not sure when they came out during the year, but they often included traded players, so later than the base Topps set.  They also did not show the players in their new uniforms, just merely restyled their Topps card to fit the design of their new team. 

I have already covered a bunch of this in a post a few months back with a John Tudor card from the 1985 O-Pee-Chee set.  Great card.  

I know there are likely some who would put out that John Tudor is wearing a Pirates uniform, but the card clearly says, "Traded To Cardinals 12-12-84" and the logos and word marks also all belong to the Cardinals.  This is his first Cardinals card.  I feel like I could make a whole post of "Traded To..." posts of Cardinals O-Pee-Chee cards, but for today I am just going to stick with Lonnie Smith.  

Here is the card.  

Lonnie was a really important player on the 1982 Cardinals.  He finished second in the National League MVP voting in 1982 with almost 70 stolen bases, an average over .300, and an on-base percentage just a tad over .380.  The team won the World Series, so that's always a good thing.  

Prior to playing on the Cardinals, Lonnie played a few years for the Phillies.  It was the only team he played for prior to getting traded to the Cardinals.  Here is the back of the card.....

The coloring on the back is a little different than the standard Topps card, which were a little darker shade of green.  The information is obviously different since it is written in French and English.  Also love that Lonnie was a young enough player that you can see all of his Minor League stats, as well as his Major League numbers.  

Lonnie played on the Cardinals until the beginning of the 1985 when he was traded to the Royals to make room for Vince Coleman.  He was apart of the Pittsburgh cocaine trial along with Keith Hernandez and Joaquin Andujar.  That was where the guy who was inside Pirates parrot mascot was selling drugs to players.

Whitey Herzog ditched all the Cardinals players involved with the Pirates drug scandal.  Lonnie did get a 1985 O-Pee-Chee card, but it did not have a "Traded" stamp anywhere on the front of the card.

I have been saving the greatest 1980s Cardinals O-Pee-Chee card, might need to post it sooner than later.  Anyone have any ideas of player who might have a card like the Lonnie Smith or John Tudor card above?