11 May 2009

1976 topps traded reggie smith - the card that should have been

the dodgers' reggie, reggie smith, was acquired in a trade with the cardinals in the middle of the 1976 season. since it wasn't an offseason deal, neither reggie nor the main player going to the cardinals, joe ferguson, were featured on a traded card that year. but, since i can, here is the 1976 topps traded reggie smith card that should have been. this was a good trade for the dodgers. smith would go on to have several solid years for them, finishing 4th in the mvp voting in both 1977 and 1978, when he had an obp of .427! ferguson, on the other hand, would return to the dodgers in 1978 at the expense of rafael landestoy and jeffery (one flap down) leonard.

in 1980, reggie was injured a couple of times, including in an argument with teammate derrel thomas. his injuries limited his ability to play the field, so he made mostly pinch hitting appearances in 1981. he did make the postseason roster and won his first world series ring that year, though.

in 1982, he did the unthinkable and signed with the giants as a free agent. after one year in san francisco, he spent 2 tumultuos years in japan, but we'll save all of that for his final tribute post.

3 comments:

night owl said...

The card just doesn't seem right without his helmet airbrushed!

Captain Canuck said...

that's awesome... since I'm inching ever closer to finishing this damn set... send it to me so I can scratch it off my list.

Matt Runyon said...

Looks good! There were probably enough traded players and rookies for Topps to do a full-blown 132-card set that year. :)