collecting the "o-pee-chee" subset in 1981 donruss

i bought a lot of baseball card packs in 1981. with fleer and donruss joining topps, there were now three sets to chase and complete, and i was all in on all three.  donruss intrigued me because, despite the gum that had a weird powder on it and the flimsy card stock, there were cards of coaches and managers (the first time since 1978 topps) and multiple cards for many star players (including steve garvey) to chase.  plus, the design resembled 1978 topps which i liked.  and then there were the cards that i saw as a nod to o-pee-chee variations.

i am sure by now you all know that i love me some o-pee-chee variations (i had a whole blog about them!). it started with buying packs of 1978 o-pee-chee in saskatchewan during the summer of  '78 and my fascination and appreciation of those variations has never gone away.  in 1981, donruss included some cards that reminded me of those canadian gems, and being unaware of the timing of the cards being printed, i was hopeful of finding a dodger ken landreaux card right up until the time i opened a pack and saw him still listed as a twin.

even though i still have my complete 1981 donruss set (minus all the variants), i decided a couple of years ago to also pull together a collection of what i call the 1981 donruss o-pee-chee subset. the cards lacked the "now with..." or "signed as free agent..." type text variations, but the team name and borders were updated to match the new team affiliation, just like o-pee-chee. there are 17 cards in all. let's have a look.

cliff johnson

johnson was traded to the a's on december 11, 1980 with keith drumright for mike king. neither of the other two players are in the 1981 donruss set.

larry milbourne

milbourne was dealt to the yankees on november 18, 1980 for former dodger brad gulden and cash. his card was also interesting to me because of the positions listed. "short" is a subset of "i-f", so that's weird. now that i have the benefit of baseball reference and can see where milbourne actually played, i think they would have been better off going the "2b-ss-3b" route, as milbourne played all of those, but not first base in 1980.  gulden, by the way, is not in the set.

dave roberts

roberts signed with the astros as a free agent on december 10, 1980. his position moniker is correct in that he played all four infield positions plus catcher (and right field) in 1980.

jim essian

essian was signed as a free agent by the white sox on november 20, 1980. unfortunately for essian, the white sox signed another catcher later in the offseason by the name of carlton fisk.

darrell porter 

porter signed with the cardinals as a free agent on december 7, 1980.  just under two years later, he would earn mvp honors in the nlcs and world series, helping the cardinals take down his former royal teammates in seven games.

willie norwood

norwood was traded by the twins to the mariners on december 12, 1980 for byron mclaughlin. in a confusing move, mclaughlin was left as a mariner in the 1981 donruss set. norwood, who went to long beach poly (same school as tony gwynn), was released by the mariners near the end of spring training. yes, it's a zero-year card! someone alert nick!

ray burris

this card really confused me back when i first saw it in 1981. i knew that burris was on the mets thanks to my 1980 (!) topps card. it blew my mind that donruss was using a photo from 1979 at the latest, showing burris with the cubs. i later realized that there were other older photos used by donruss (one of reggie jackson's cards, for example).  the weird thing here is that burris signed as a free agent with the expos prior to the 1981 season, although that didn't occur until february 18, 1981 so was too late for donruss to update the card i assume.

geoff zahn

sorry, i guess he's "jeff" now. not really - donruss just didn't pay attention to the guy's name or look at any of his other baseball cards that had been issued since 1975.  zahn signed with the angels as a free agent on december 2, 1980 and spent the rest of his career with the halos.

butch hobson

hobson was acquired by the angels on december 10, 1980 along with rick burleson. in exchange, they sent carney lansford. mark clear, and rick miller to the red sox.  those other guys are all in the 1981 donruss set, but hobson is the only one who got the "o-pee-chee" treatment. this confused 10-year old me greatly.

mike vail

vail was traded to the reds by the cubs on december 12, 1980 for hector cruz. cruz was in the topps and fleer sets, but not donruss.

jerry martin

and jesus figueroa

were traded by the cubs to the giants on december 12, 1980 for joe strain and phil nastu. nastu is not in the set, but strain is - and he is still a giant on his card.

bruce sutter

the cardinals acquired sutter on december 9, 1980 from the cubs for leon durham, ken reitz, and ty waller. durham and reitz are in the set, but are shown as cardinals. another head scratcher for young gcrl. the sutter card, by the way, was one of my favorite cards that year.

bob owchinko

this card was also one that interested me as the 1981 season got started. owchinko was part of a december 9, 1980 six player trade between the indians and pirates that had gary alexander, victor cruz, and rafael vasquez joining him in cleveland in exchange for bert blyleven and manny sanguillen. aside from vasquez (who was not featured in the set), owchinko is the only one who got the o-pee-chee treatment. what was more interesting to me, however, was that owchinko wound up pitching for the a's in 1981, as he was traded to them just before the season began.

ron leflore

here's another favorite card of mine from 1981. leflore signed with the white sox as a free agent on november 26, 1980. he was coming off a season in which he had stolen 97 bases, but did so in the same season that rickey henderson stole 100.

fred stanley

stanley was traded to the a's on november 3, 1980 for mike morgan.  morgan rightfully did not have a card in the 1981 set as he spent all of 1980 in the minors, however, this marked the beginning of his travels through the majors which would have him pitching for a then-record 12 different franchises before he was done.

dave edwards 

edwards was traded by the twins to the padres on december 8, 1980 for chuck baker, who was not in the set.

with all of these cards being higher numbers in the set (cliff johnson is the lowest number at #484), i am guessing that donruss took a linear approach to finalizing the designs of the cards, and had completed most of the set sometime in november, with these cards being finalized sometime in december.  in fact, it looks like december 12 was a cut-off of sorts, as doyle alexander and john montefusco were traded for each other on that date, but remain with their former teams in the set despite being cards number 448 and 434, respectively, while norwood, vail, martin, and figueroa saw their cards updated after they were dealt on that same date.  i find it all very interesting.

of course, i would later be treated to the 1981 topps traded set that gave me updated cards of most of these players (there were no cards for figueroa or norwood) including owchinko being shown with the a's and burris with the expos, plus that ken landreaux dodger card is was hoping for.  i didn't go to canada in 1981, so didn't get to see the o-pee-chee variations until a year later when i was back in the prairie provinces. it turns out that only martin, burris (expos), leflore, sutter, johnson, and hobson got the true o-pee-chee treatment, making me appreciate these donruss cards even more.