the 1978 topps dodgers who weren't dodgers in 1983 (except one)

let's get this post started with charlie hough, who was in his 3rd full season with the rangers in 1983.  

it was also his second season as a full-time starter (although he did make one relief appearance that year).  he was 15-13 with 11 complete games and 3 shutouts to go with an era of 3.16.  that era mark was better than the 3.95 that he posted in 1982 which earned him a spot on the rangers' team leaders card

i was not a big fan of these team leader cards, probably because they weren't around when steve garvey was leading the dodgers in batting average, and by the time they did appear, he was hitting under .300. back to hough, who also had a scoreless innings streak of 37.1 innings late in the season, throwing three consecutive shutouts.  he also pitched 10.2 innings in one start in a losing cause earlier in the year.

it was good to see hough recently on the mlb network.  i caught a few minutes of that knuckleball show with tim wakefield and the hugely annoying kevin millar.  why he was on the show, or any show for that matter, is beyond me.  anyway, hough was there, too which was nice.

next up is tommy john.

john made 34 starts for the angels in 1983, and had a record of 11 wins and 13 losses.  he threw 9 complete games (one of which was a 12-inning effort!) and had an era of 4.33.

he also received a 'super veteran' card from topps

which recognized his (at that point) 20-year career (19 if you don't count the season he lost to his eponymous surgery).

lee lacy had only played for 12 years through 1982, 4 of which had been with the pirates.

he was in pittsburgh for another year in 1983, and he hit over .300 (.302) for the third time in three seasons.  he played 98 games in the field (playing all three outfield positions) and did not commit an error.  lacy hit 4 home runs that year, with one of them being his second career lead-off home run.

davey lopes didn't have any lead-off homers among his 17 long balls in 1983, but he did hit two in a game against former teammate don sutton

the second of those home runs came in the bottom of the 9th against the brewers on may 23 with the a's down by a run.  with lopes' blast having tied the score, the two teams played on until the 17th inning when lopes sacrificed to set up rickey henderson's game winning hit.  overall, lopes hit .277 and stole 22 bases in 26 attempts, including thefts of second and third in the same inning against the white sox on june 12.  1983 would be lopes' last year as an everyday second baseman, and he appeared in 147 games while also spending time at third base, dh, and the outfield.

rick rhoden went 13-13 for the pirates in 1983 in 35 starts.

rhoden also made a relief appearance, earning the only save of his career in a win against the cubs on april 17.  among his starts were 7 complete games and 2 shutouts, and his 244.1 innings pitched and 153 strikeouts were, at that point, career highs.

here's where we would normally see reggie smith, but i am going to give him a proper 'final tribute' sendoff, since 1982 was his last season in the majors.  so, we move on to elias sosa.

sosa, as seen above, got a nice action shot from topps in the flagship set as a tiger (plus an inset photo taken in yankee stadium), but he did his work in 1983 for the padres.  he was shown as a friar in the 1983 topps traded set.

1983 was also sosa's last year in the majors.  he appeared in 41 games, including the 600th of his career in his next to last appearance.  he also made his third and final career start in 1983, getting the call in the second game of a doubleheader on august 29th.  in that game, sosa hit an rbi single in what would be his final big league at bat, while allowing 3 runs in 5+ innings.  although sosa and the padres had the lead when he left the game, the pads wound up losing, unfortunately.  sosa did pick up a win earlier in the season to go with four losses, bringing his career record to 59-51.  sosa's career came to a close in atlanta, where he faced dale murphy (walk) and bob watson (fly out) in 0.1 innings of work on september 18.

don sutton had an off year for the brewers in 1983.

for the first time in his career, he failed to win at least 11 games.  his record was 8-13 in 31 starts.  although he had an era of 4.08, his whip was a respectable 1.19, and he probably should have had a record more in the neighborhood of 17-10 or something like that.  sutton did keep his streak of 100-strikeout seasons alive, however, passing the century mark in that category for the 17th season in a row.  one of those strikeouts, victimizing alan bannister of the indians on june 24, 1983, was the 3000th k of sutton's career.

sutton's career at that point was only 17 years old, too, which means that he had never struck out fewer than 100 batters in any season.  topps included sutton in the 'super veteran' subset

that is a young sutton there with the dodgers.  he's got his 'baby new year' ears.

so, there you go - the non-dodgers from the 1978 topps dodger lineup, as they were in 1983.  well, all except one.  even though i'm going to show reggie smith's cards in a separate post, i'll go ahead and update the evolutionary stats.  there were 17/27 members of the 1978 topps dodgers featured by topps in 1982. here's the tally to date:

baker 13 (1971-1983)
burke 2 (1978-1979)
cey 12 (1972-1983)
davalillo 14 (1963-1974, 1978-1979)
forster 12 (1972-1983)
garman 8 (1971-1973, 1975-1979)
garvey 13 (1971-1983)
goodson 6 (1973-1978)
grote 15 (1964-1976, 1978-1979)
hooton 12 (1972-1983)
hough 12 (1972-1983)
john 20 (1964-1983)
lacy 11 (1973-1983)
lasorda 9 (1954, 1973-1974, 1977-1981, 1983)
lopes 11 (1973-1983)
martinez 9 (1971-1976, 1978-1980)
monday 17 (1967-1983)
mota 18 (1963-1980)
oates 10 (1972-1981)
rau 9 (1973-1981)
rautzhan 2 (1978-1979)
rhoden 9 (1975-1983)
russell 14 (1970-1983)
smith 17 (1967-1983)
sosa 9 (1974-1983)
sutton 18 (1966-1983)
yeager 11 (1973-1983)

teams represented so far: 22 (dodgers, indians, colt .45's, pirates, white sox, astros, mets, a's, red sox, angels, expos, cardinals, braves, cubs, orioles, giants, phillies, yankees, rangers, tigers, padres, brewers)