Virtual 1982 Topps Sticker Album - Page 6

Man, it's been a long time since I did one of these, eh? I think my long absence ran off all the rabble, time to get back in the swing of things. Sticker album page, ahoy!

Shoot, I should have saved the ahoy schtick for the Mariners. This is the Astros so... 3! 2! 1! sticker page BLAST OFF!

The ghostly figure on this page is a no-brainer. It's Nolan. I have solid proof, just wait. I just noticed how annoying it is that Topps only list the the first half and second half records on the page. I actually had to use my brain to figure out that the 'Stros went 61-49 in 1981. I suck at even the simplest math so this was no small feat for me. Speaking of numbers, check out the home run stats. The Astros hit 45 home runs all year. Ok, so it was a strike year. That's still 45 home runs in 110 games. Forty-five!!!!! Middle infielders hit more than that themselves nowadays! It was hard to hit home runs in the '80s! Someone find a BBWAA member and beat them over the head with this fact before they fill out their Hall ballot please.

~~~~~ JOY OF A COMPLETED PAGE ~~~~~~

Isn't that purty? I like it when things work out like this. If you want proof that shadowman is none other than Nolan Ryan, compare the gloves on the page and on the sticker. They're identical. In fact I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that the sticker photo was taken milliseconds after the background photo. Just look at the fence in the background. I am also amused by how the page is laid out so that there is a white-hot ball of SuperStardom in the top right corner which drops off precipitously the further down the page you get until you hit the black hole of Bob Knepper. Ok, so Bob wasn't all that bad a pitcher. I'm just mad that Topps picked him over Don Sutton or Joe Niekro for a sticker subject. Dangit, I want a sticker of the Hall of Fame Perm, not Bob and his amazing mustache. And no, Don's not on the Milwaukee page, he got traded mid-season.

Virtual 1982 Topps Sticker Album - Page 5

PLAYOFF EDITION!

I'm gonna skip around a bit and show off the playoff teams out of my '82 Topps sticker album over the next week or so. Actually, this page is still in order as it is right after the Cubs who were shown last. The Reds were one of my least favorite teams growing up mainly because they beat up my Braves so often in the NL West. Now that we are both in different divisions I can appreciate them again. In fact, if the Braves can't go all the way, I'm rooting for the Reds to come out of the NL. By making this statement, I have all but assured a Giants/Phillies NLCS. Contact your bookies quickly.

As for the background image shadow person, that's gotta be Tom Seaver, right? Even with the effed up face? It sure ain't Mario Soto. Pretty much the Reds' entire pitching staff was righties with the exception of Joe Price, so I suppose it could be Frank Pastore, but why? Gotta stick with Tom here.

(heh heh, get it, stick with Tom, I made a funny)

Tom got stuck along with everyone besides Johnny Bench. I am not unhappy with this turn of events as I am far more likely to come across a stray Johnny Bench sticker in my travels instead of say, a Ron Oester. Tom Seaver is looking upon his image in the background wondering what they did to his poor face. The scan got cut off at the side as did the Concepcion sticker. I didn't realize how badly cut it was until I saw it on the page. That's like, serious Topps206 mini miscut right there. My favorite sticker on the page is George Foster, underrated slugger. We really do need to found a Hall of Very Good just so guys like George, Al Rosen and Bobby Grich can finally be honored. They're more interesting than some of the bums in the 'proper' Hall anyway.

Virtual 1982 Topps Sticker Album - Page 4

Page 4 of the Sticker album, as promised.

Aaaah, the Cubbies. Haven't won in over a Century and just recently dropped out of my "Most Hated Team" slot. The Florida Marlins have taken that honor for their miserable owner who doesn't recognize greatness when he sees it. The fact that the Fish are always an enormous pain in the backside every. single. time. they play the Braves helps. The Cubs were actually a favorite team back in the '80s, as I was a fan of Leon and Cey and Hawk. Watching Skip's pop call games on WGN was pretty fun too.

The ghostly Cub in the background image is extremely ghostly this time. We know it's a white guy, with shaggy 70's hair, wristbands and what appears to be a huge 'stache. Which basically means it could be half the players on the team. the other player is actually easier. Giants' catcher from 1981? Gotta be Milt May. Ok, it could be Mike Sadek or Jeff Ransom, but not likely. Actually knowing Topps it could actually be a photo out of the archives from 1962. That could be Ken Hubbs crashing into Ed Bailey for all I know. Any guesses on who that mystery Cub is?

Raise your hand if you occasionally pronounce Ivan DeJesus EYE-vn Da-JEE-zus instead of ee-VAN Day-HEY-zeus. On accident, on purpose or ironically, doesn't matter.

Liars.

I have a healthy bunch of Cubbies here, only missing Mike Krukow. This page had my first near catastrophe though. The backing of the Leon Durham card absolutely did not want to leave its sticky home. While the 28 year old adhesive certainly isn't the strongest after all the years, most do a decent job of peeling and sticking. Poor Leon has paper loss and bits of backing on the back and is just barely holding on. It is holding on though, and I haven't yet had to figure out glue alternates. Elmer's is right out, and all the kiddie glue sticks in the house were missing their caps and had shriveled to glue mummies. I probably need to invest in some rubber cement or that fancy spray on stuff that scrapbookers use. I've found that if I keep the album underneath something heavy like a binder or monster box it assists in the adhesive-album merging. I'm crossing my fingers that I don't have to resort to foreign substances, but with over 200 stickers left to paste, I'll be very lucky if Leon isn't my only problem sticker.

Virtual 1982 Topps Sticker Album - Page 3

What is this? I'm going to another Braves game today?? Braves and the Cardinals? Holy crap there's no time to post! Better queue up a filler post! WAIT! Sticker album! Perfect!

Oh looky it's the Braves page! Now I can completely lose interest in this series as soon as I post this and leave you all hanging! - KIDDING - I pasted the Chambliss sticker in there a while back as a proof of concept. These stickers actually still stick! Mostly. The Ghostly player in the background is tough, but I think it might be Rafael Ramirez. Any thoughts? Here's the after scan:

JOY OF A COMPLETED PAGE

You knew I'd have the Braves team set, of course. Pretty solid lineup for the 1982 Western Division Champs. I was thinking maybe go with Gaylord Perry or Rick Mahler for that last spot, but Camp was our shutdown closer in '81 so it's all good. Up next is the Cubbies -I'll post that one on Monday.

Virtual 1982 Topps Sticker Album - Page 2

Allll righty then, one guy commented on the album so I've got at least one reader interested in this boondoggle. I've already stuck and scanned so full steam ahead! Page two right here, it's the Pitching leaders this time.

If it's 1982, that's gotta be a ghostly version of Fernando right there. Let's check the after scan.

Like the other leader stickers these are red white and blue. Tom Seaver is the wins leader for the NL. I'm still missing the four-way AL sticker. Fernando and Len Barker lead everyone in strikeouts. As a Braves fan, I still like Fernando better than Barker and I hated the Dodgers back in the day. It doesn't hurt that Barker crapped the bed as soon as he was traded to the Bravos. Nolan Ryan had a 1.69 era in 1981??? Why don't we hear more about that? That's sick. Would you believe Steve McCatty is the one play who got his face on two leaders stickers? The page finishes up with an epic battle between two all of fame closers. Are you on Team Beard or Team Mustache?

Virtual 1982 Topps Sticker Album - Front cover and page 1

I've been trying to figure out how to do this for months. I thought about taking pictures of the album and doing videos and posting individual stickers and vast grandiose dreams of sending the album to other bloggers and having them take a picture of themselves sticking a sticker in the album until it's complete, but after all that, I'm just going to take the easy way out. Post the page with before sticky and after stucky scans. It's a good way to kill a month of posts at least.

Thanks to Todd Querry who sent the album and to Ben Henry who provided the bulk of the stickers and thanks to anyone else who sent a sticker or two my way. My memory sucks and my organization is worse. Remind me in the comments and I'll give ya a shout out.

Ok, let's begin at the beginning.

Front Cover:

I'm guessing that's Gary Carter, but it could just as easily be some guy on a semi-pro team Topps hired to take the picture and subsequently airbrushed to death. I wouldn't have thought such chicanery may have occurred  until I noticed the four stickers at the bottom right corners that scream "FAKE". Is that a green A's jersey inside that blue National League border?

Front Inside Cover:

Gotta put something inside the front cover and the MVP and Cy Young winners of the past decade is a decent choice. I'm not entirely sure why Topps didn't bother to add the 1980 and 1981 winners on there too... there's plenty of room. The backgrounds of just about every page has ghostly images of various players. Here he have a lefty pitcher for the Cincinnatuh Redlegs, a leaping infielder for the Brewers, and God only knows who is batting in the top left. I can't even figure out the team. Twins? BlueJays? Orioles? Mariners? It's an American League team at least. The uniform is not stripey enough for the Expos or ugly enough for the Padres.

Ok, finally, an actual page with stickers. YOU HAD TO WAIT ALL THE WAY TO PAGE 1. We start off with the NL and AL batting leaders. Here's the Before...

And the After...

I'll bet my boots that is Rod Carew there in the background. Mike Schmidt and Eddie Murray were bad, bad men. Mike beats Eddie for most stickers on the page 2 to 1.25. Betcha didn't know Tim Raines had more steals than Rickey in 1981, didja? Put Rock in the Hall, dammit! That's an interesting group of AL home run hitters there for sure. Yes, Bobby Grich won a home run title. Or a piece of one, anyway. The real question is... who wins the mustache title on that sticker??