Thursday, November 7, 2013

#231 - Dwayne Murphy


What a card: Dwyane Murphy was coming off the most powerful season of his career when this card was issued. He hit 33 home runs in 1984 with an OPS of .814, both career highs.

My observation on the front: I have no idea what Murphy is doing. Is he pushing a wheelbarrow?

More opinion from me: I learned at an early age that when a player was featured hatless on a card that it meant Topps thought the player was about to be traded or had heard that he would be traded. There's no way I can remember trade rumors from 1984, but Murphy did have two subpar years in '82 and '83, so maybe the A's were trying to swing a deal then.

Something you might know: Murphy was the center fielder in what was considered the best young outfield of the early '80s with Rickey Henderson in left and Tony Armas in right. Murphy was a Gold Glove fielder and the No. 2 hitter behind Henderson when he stole a record 130 bases in 1982.

Something you might not know: Murphy used to be the high school football coach for a school in the San Francisco suburb of San Ramon. The baseball coach at the high school at the same time was former Oakland A and Murphy's teammate, Mike Davis.


My observation about the back: I wonder how many Memorial Stadiums there are in the United States? Minus the one referred to on the back of this card, of course.

The blog wants to speak now: The Ballgames category is updated with a significant day in baseball history.

1 comment:

Brian said...

This is the second card in the last 20 or so to mention Memorial Stadium in Baltimore so Topps is not doing a good job of acknowledging any of the others.