I complain a lot about bad airbrushing on modern baseball cards. Really, it has not improved very much since 1981. The Cardinals hat looks too small, or the STL logo is somehow not proportionate, not really sure which is the case. The red, white, and blue striping around the neckline is decent though.
This is a really underrated card, and underrated player with the 1980s Cardinals. Andujar was an important player with the Cardinals for five or six years. He started a bunch of important playoff games during his time in St. Louis.
Some went well, like the seventh game of the 1982 World Series....
Some did not go so well, like the seventh game of the 1985 World Series....
In the regular season, Andujar won 68 games in 5 season, including two 20 win seasons. Good player on some really good Cardinals teams. Still, I do not see this card pop up too often considering the role he played on some of the better Cardinals teams. For years, I think the earliest Andujar card I had of him on the Cardinals was his 1982 Topps. Another nice card with a side profile of Andujar, I will give it a post at some point.
This 1981 Topps Traded card is not one that I owned as a kid, but as I an adult I found it at some point and have liked it ever since. Even with the bad airbrushing, at least it's not pixelated.
A song or movie I like from 1981....
The Specials. Any song with an organ solo is solid.
I have been working on putting together the 1980s, and the lone 1990s, Topps Glossy Mail-In sets over the past two months. So far, I have finished up the 1983, 1986, and 1989 sets. This post is all about my completed 1985 set, so I am down to 1984, 1987, 1988, and 1990.
No, I am not going to make my goal of finishing these sets by the end of February.
Yes, I am fine with it.
The 1985 Topps Glossy Mail-In set is on 40 cards, so it would actually be easier to scan than some of the other glossy sets I have posted. Yet, I am not going to do it. Those posts dragged out. Way too long. We are going to give the big guy an easy day......
So, I am going to go with my favorite five cards out of the 40.
You know there are Cardinals players, so let's get those out of the way first.
Joaquin Andujar was a good pitcher for the Cardinals during the first half of the 1980s. He was the starting pitcher in Game 7 of the 1982 World Series, which the Cardinals won, and picked up 20 wins in both 1984 and 1985. This was the last season that Andujar was on the Cardinals, although he is in many 1986 products as a member of the Cardinals. He doesn't seem like the type of player who would garner a spot in a set like this, always surprised he is in here over the Nolan Ryan and Fernando Valenzuela types. You know, popular.
This was also the end of the line for Bruce Sutter with the Cardinals. Best remembered for striking out Gorman Thomas to end the 1982 World Series.
I was always surprised that he made the Hall of Fame. Even more surprised that he still pops up in baseball cards. Not complaining.
Love the 1980s Tony Gwynn cards. Look at that brown uniform. That's how the Padres are supposed to look. I am a big fan of baseball cards with action shots, but this a nice look for a staged photograph. I am sure that this was taken during Spring Training, but it sort of looks like it could also be at some random high school stadium.
Last two cards are rookies.
Any Dwight Gooden card from the mid 1980s was gold when I was a kid. At one point I traded my 1985 Topps Dwight Gooden card, good story. I ended up with a bunch of his 1985 and 1986 cards after his career fell off in the mid 1990s. This Gloss Mail-In card is one of my favorites. I like this picture a lot. If you had to describe the things that made Gooden unique to watch, this follow through would have to be somewhere on the list right?
This is the rant portion of this post.
So, you watched that short video clip, the last batter was Alvin Davis. He's one of the oft forgotten, good young players from the 1980s. Why are there still people running around talking about Wally Joyner, but nobody talks about Alvin Davis? I talk about Alvin Davis.
Alvin did win the Rookie of the Year in 1984, so he at least got a little recognition during his career. His 1984 appearance in the All-Star game was the only time he made it to the Mid-Summer Classic. In 1987 the American League had Pat Tabler on their roster as a first baseman. At the All-Star Break Alvin Davis was hitting .303/.384/.476 with 10 home runs, 19 doubles, and 45 RBIs.
Pat Tabler?
Pat flippin Tabler.
That was apart of a three year stretch where he had OPSs of .886, .875, and .920. His OPS+ were 127, 141, and 156. I mean his comparable players on Baseball Reference from that stretch are Jeff Bagwell, Adrian Gonzalez, Paul Konerko, and Ted Kluszewski. Yes, let's talk about Wally Joyner. Roll my damn eyes.
I like Alvin. He's getting his own post one of these days.
Growing up in St. Louis during the 1980s meant that I had the opportunity to watch some great baseball teams that were based on speed, defense, and pitching during the decade long run of manager Whitey Herzog. One of the most colorful figures on those teams was right-handed pitcher Joaquin Andujar. The Cardinals picked up the front line pitcher from the Astros in exchange for outfielder Tony Scott. Andujar was not much of a pitcher for the Astros, but helped the Cardinals win the 1982 World Series and the 1985 National League Pennant. He won both of the games he started in the 1982 World Series against the Brewers including the Game 7 clincher. He was not as effective against the Royals in the 1985 World Series and famously blew a gasket during the 7th Game of that series.
Andujar won 20 games twice for the Cardinals, in 1984 and 1985, but was traded to the A's for Tim Conroy and Mike Heath. Neither player really panned out for the Cardinals, but Andujar only lasted three more years pitching two seasons for the A's and his finale with the Astros in 1988. He was out of baseball by age 35.
Sadly today while I was eating lunch at work I opened my phone to check the news and saw the tweet from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
I probably do not do enough for my collection of 1980s Cardinals, they were not too many stars on those teams outside of Ozzie Smith, but I have always loved the Andujar autographed card I scanned at the top of the post. It's not the easiest autograph to find, but it's hard to say you have a collection of Cardinals player cards from the 1980s without a few good Andujars. It's hard to see a favorite from my childhood gone. He was "One Tough Dominican" RIP
