If you were watching the World Series you probably saw the Giants' pitching coach Dave Righetti. Lets face it, if you are reading this, not just looking at the pictures, you are as big a baseball geek as I am. So it is safe to assume you watched it. Well, Righetti was the 1981 A.L. Rookie of the Year. He went 8-4 in 15 starts for the pennant winning Yankees. He was also one of eight players receiving Rookie of the Year votes that did not have a card in 1981. This seem especially egregious since there were now 3 card companies to choose from.
There were 17 players in 1981 who received Rookie of the Year consideration. Of them only one appeared on a card in the 1981 Fleer set. The N.L. Rookie of the Year, Fernando Valenzuela. The 1981 Donruss set had two candidates, Tim Raines and Mookie Wilson. All 3 of these players also appeared in the 1981 Topps set along with 6 others to bring Topps total to 9 of the 17.
In the next couple posts, I'll be addressing the lack of rookies in the new-in-1981 baseball card sets.
No comments:
Post a Comment