(Appointments, responsibilities, work, appointments, responsibilities, work, appointments, responsibilities, work ... oh, hi, here is a blog post that I fit in when life is a driver's seat and a desk ... appointments, responsibilities, work ... It's time for Cardboard Appreciation, this is the 325th in a series):
I have slowly been picking off O-Pee-Chee Dodgers needs the last few months. It's been very methodical, because there's not a lot of cash but there are a lot of cards that I want. So I leave the OPC quest and then come back to it again.
In going through the 1981s that I needed (this is the second straight Cardboard Appreciation on a 1981 card, I'll have to fix that next time), I was a little surprised to see Rick Monday in the set.
I shouldn't have been. Yes, OPC sets were smaller than the Topps version during this time, and, yes, OPC picked and chose what Expos and Blue Jays showed up in the set. But Monday was still a notable player, and, unlike today, when card companies seem to leave out (or include) players based on only their whim rather than who was a significant contributor on the field, card sets strove to make an accurate accounting of who the key players in the game were at the time.
Monday was a key player in 1981, very key for the Dodgers. He would hit the winning home run off Steve Rogers in Olympic Stadium to send L.A. to the World Series over Montreal.
I know a lot of people were upset this happened and, oh, we're so nostalgic for the Expos, it was their best shot at a World Series. I don't care. I was rooting for the Dodgers, the Expos were the enemy, and I am still very happy about "Blue Monday." You're damn right it was blue, that was the color of Monday's uniform. It was a happy blue.
Given that the Expos were Canada's sole (decent) representative in Major League Baseball at the time, I don't think OPC could be blamed for leaving Monday out of its set with its limited checklist. I don't know how much Canadian sentiment figured in the OPC product outside of the home teams and maybe Topps made all the content calls -- was their a special OPC branch? I'm sure someone knows that stuff, but I don't.
Perhaps it was just a matter of facts overruling emotions, which is proper for a card set. We're not Upper Deck here. And besides, the 1981 Monday showed up before the postseason even began that year.
However, there is a 1982 OPC Monday as well. I have my eye on that one. I checked out the back to see if there was mention of the home run -- that would be very generous of our Canadian neighbors. But there was no mention. The stats take up all the space, which is the case on Monday's Topps card, too. By 1983, there are home run references on both Monday's Topps and OPC cards, but they are regarding 1982 feats.
Maybe that figures, because Topps is well-known for avoiding reference to the 1981 postseason (except in its '82 sticker set). There was probably some Expos (or Yankees) fan in headquarters.
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A new 1993 Upper Deck blog post is up!
Comments
Thanks for sharing! 42 years go by in a flash
1982 was the year the Jays BEGAN to turn the corner. I remember Dave Stieb and company becoming competitive after 5 years of lousyness. Montreal could have been a real postseason threat in 1994 until the strike. Sadly, ownership dumped the players and it never fully recovered. Looking at that 1981 team, three HOF players in Carter, Dawson, and Raines plus some other quality players like Wallach.
"Sole DECENT representative" ... I need to learn to not post when it's too busy -- even if it means nothing new for two days or more.