Best of '83 Topps - Mariners

When I suspended voting, it was pretty clear you guys wanted to see the best card from each team to celebrate my '83 Topps complete set. I chose the Mariners to start off for no particular reason. Looking through all the cards in the binder I found my self seeing the cards not with my jaded snarky blogger persona, but with the eyes of the 10 year old kid who originally collected the cards in the first place. I quit looking for the stuff that catches my eye now, like crazy faces or ridiculous things in the background or '80s hair and focused on what I thought was cool about these cards in 1983. Basically, I'm trying to explain why Rick Sweet and his amazing fro got passed over. Hopefully the sentimentality will make enough people put down their torches and pitchforks that I make it another day.

1983 Topps Best Card:

Seattle Mariners

Gaylord Perry

So why Gaylord? Well the man had 300 wins for one thing. You can see right on the back of the card. I knew that was a pretty big deal back in the day and was duly impressed. Ok, so he cheated his way to most of those wins. Big deal. You don't win games with Vaseline, you win games by knowing how to pitch with Vaseline. Gaylord knew how to pitch, so what if a few balls were a little slippery. I've also always liked the portrait/action combo on this card. Perry is in the middle of a nice delivery on this card, although I think the picture might have looked a little better if it was scootched just a tad to the right. The portrait is perfect. Big smile, looking to his right, trident logo on the cap, distinguished graying sideburns. Perry looks like a hall of famer there. Plus: for the 10 year old audience... Gaylord. *snicker*

Sweet Jesus, lookit all those stats. Perry had won more games than the entire Mariners franchise at that point. No, I didn't look it up. It's a total guess. Go ahead and yell at me stat heads, I won't mind.

Honorable Mentions:
Rick Sweet
Bryan Clark
Floyd Bannister