Connections: Eric, Trades, and the 1984 Olympics

I've written about Jeff Reardon on a previous occasion, when I chronicled my baseball trip 25 years after the fact. A couple months ago, I sent him 8x10 enlargements of a picture my friend Eric Hendrickson had taken when we were at Reardon's MLB record-setting performance for career saves. I included his 1987 Topps card as well, hoping to also get it signed. He either misplaced it or forgot to include it, because I got the the photo back signed, but no card! As it turns out, I later  decided to try to get the 1987 Topps Traded Set cards signed too, so I had a pair I needed to send him. He promptly signed them and sent them back to complete my Reardon collection!

With the evolution of the way relievers are used, Reardon has long since been passed by nine others on the career saves list. That fact notwithstanding, Reardon had an excellent 16-year career, being recognized four-times as an All Star, twice finishing in the top 10 of the Cy Young Award voting, and three times finishing in the top 20 for MVP.

I'll never forget the day. It was April 1st, 1987, and I had just heard the most amazing news on KMOX. Eric and I were going to go shoot baskets on the outdoor courts at Holy Redeemer Catholic School, so I jumped on my bike, rode over to Eric's house and he met me at his back door. I shared this almost unbelievable news with him: The Cardinals had traded for Tony Pena. When I told Eric, he thought it was an April Fool's joke. Cardinals fans had long felt we needed an upgrade at catcher, and Pena was the constant object of trade proposals on the KMOX's Sports Open Line program.

In the deal, they were giving up a serviceable young catcher in Mike Lavalliere, but this definitely was going to be an upgrade! To make the exchange of receivers, the Birds had to include somewhat promising pitching prospect (and 1984 U.S. Olympian) Mike Dunne, but the key to the deal was right fielder Andy Van Slyke.There was no denying Van Slyke's potential, but the Cardinals were willing to part with him because it opened up a space for 1983 first round draft pick Jim Lindeman. Lindeman hit around .400 with 8 home runs in spring trainingthat year, and appeared ready to give the Cardinals a second power bat to go along with Jack Clark.

Unfortunately Lindeman collided with the Mets' Rafael Santana on the second-to-last day of spring training, spraining his back. A month later, spasms returned and landed him on the disabled list. When he returned, it was only a week until the spasms placed him back on the DL once more. In addition to that, he was twice sidelined by hamstring injuries. Battling injuries all year long, Lindeman played in just 75 games, batting only .208 and hitting 8 home runs (the same total he had hit in spring training). He did however hit .321 in 28 postseason at bats, hitting one of the teams' two home runs in the NLCS and starting games 1, 4 & 7 in the World Series. The next two years would again find him playing sparingly though, as he batted .209 (in 43 at bats) & .111 (in 45 at bats). He was traded to the Tigers, and after that bounced around for a few years with Philadelphia, Houston, and the Mets. As it turned out, he never would reach the "heights" he had in 1987, as his 8 home runs and 28 RBIs that season ended up his career highs.

In 1984, Los Angeles hosted the Summer Olympics under the leadership of Peter Ueberroth. The Games proved highly successful, despite that fact that they were were boycotted by a bloc of  nations led by the Soviet Union. The first ever privately-financed Olympics, the 1984 Games resulted in a surplus of $250 million. As a result, Time Magazine's Man of the Year was  Ueberroth, who coincidentally was born the very same day that Pierre de Cubertin (founder of the modern Olympic Games) died.

After his success with the Olympics, Ueberroth took office in October of 1984 as the sixth commissioner of Major League Baseball. Though MLB experienced success under his leadership, the most notable facet of his tenure was probably the fact that under his leadership, owners colluded to suppress free agency, a move that ended up costing them $280 million in fines. He stepped down before the start of the 1989 season, being replaced by A. Bartlett Giamatti.

A tip of the cap to fellow 1987 autograph collector (and recent trading partner), Ryan Schear for giving me the idea of getting baseball folks such as Ueberroth to sign the checklists!

Still Call Them "Trading Cards"

I was looking through some things and just realized that I forgot to enter a blog post for a big trade I made last month! One of the real fun parts of working on Project87 these past few months has been connecting with a community of people who are also collecting '87 Topps autographs. Through Twitter, I've "met" a bunch of people who are further along than I am and some who are just getting started. It would seem that none of them is pursuing this goal with quite the tenacity that Ryan Schear is. Ryan lives in Arizona and (like me) just started going after 87s this year. Unlike me though, he has already accumulated 450 of them!

As sort of a "project within a project," I'd especially like to get all of the Cardinals cards signed in the set. When Ryan heard this, he mentioned that he had duplicates of Jack Clark, and asked if I had any that I'd be willing to trade. I looked through my old cards I had gotten signed at games back in the 80s and found two that I had "doubles" of that he needed: Tom Hume and Luis Aguayo. He said he'd include another of his extras (Ken Schrom) and we had a deal! We sent each other the cards through the mail and in a couple days the trade was completed.

Clark was the one big bat in the Cardinals' pennant-winning lineups of 1985 & 1987. In '85, he only hit 22 home runs, but Andy Van Slyke was the only other player on that team with more than 10, and he only had 13! In 1987, Clark was the most dominant offensive player in the National League with a 1.055 OPS. Unfortunately, with 24 games remaining in the season he injured his ankle and was unable to start another game. Cardinal fans were left to wonder how things might have been different if only they'd had "The Ripper's" big bat for the World Series, which they would lose to Minnesota in seven games.

What Clark is best remembered for though is the two-out, ninth inning blast he hit off Tom Niedenfuer in Game 6 of the NLCS to send the Cardinals to the World Series. The image of (future Cardinal) Pedro Guerrero slamming his glove to the ground and Clark's tortoise-like trip around the bases will forever be cemented in the minds of fans of the 1980s Cardinals!

As for the second card in the deal, I honestly didn't even remember Schrom as a player. Turns out that he pitched exactly 900 innings in his seven year MLB career, going 51-51 with a 4.81 ERA. Mostly used as a starter, he pitched for Toronto, Minnesota and Cleveland, representing the Indians in the 1986 All Star Game. 1987 would turn out to be his final season in the majors.