1981 - Strike!

1981.  Now we're talking!  I really starting taking baseball cards seriously in 1980, but 1981 was the first time I really made an attempt at completing the whole set.  This is definitely one of my favorite designs, as I still love the hat in the corner, and the fonts Topps used for the players' names on the fronts and backs of the cards.

By now, the free agency era in baseball was in full swing, and the Angels were one of the teams shelling out big bucks for top players.  But in spite of having already paid for the likes of Rod Carew, Don Baylor, Bobby Grich and adding Fred Lynn in the off-season, '81 wasn't a great year for the Angels.  Heck, it wasn't a great year for baseball.  The players went on strike in the middle of the season, causing a cancellation of 38% of the games that year.

Rather than just use overall records to decide the division leaders, it was decided that the season would be split in two.  Whoever was in 1st before the strike won that half of the year, and records were reset afterward, so whoever had the best records post-strike won that half.  Then the two teams played each other (or the second half second-place team if the same team won both halves) to see who won the division.

Unfortunately, the Angels didn't do well in either half.  They went 31-29 and finished 4th in the first half, and 20-30 in the second, finishing 6th.  This continued a trend of having bad seasons in years that end with a 1.

1981 was also the year that Topps greatly expanded the stats on the cards.  Through 1980, batters had 9 categories: games appeared in, at bats, runs, hits, doubles, triples, home runs, runs batted in and batting average (G, AB, R, H, 2B, 3B, HR, RBI, AVG).  Pitchers had games appeared in, innings pitched, wins, losses, runs, earned runs, strikeouts, walks and earned run average (G, IP, W, L, R, ER, SO, BB, ERA).  In '81, Topps added stolen bases, slugging percentage, walks and strikeouts (SB, SLG, BB, SO) for batters, and games started, complete games, shutouts and saves (GS, CG, SHO, SV).  For a stathead like myself, this was a huge addition to the cards, and was a big part of what made Topps way more enjoyable to collect than the new Donruss and Fleer sets that started up that year.  I never did end up completing this set, but I remember getting pretty close.

The early-mid '80s weren't a great time for Topps inserts, and the 1981 set had zero.  (After I shelled out some cash for them, I found out that those two Scratch-Offs weren't part of the main set.  Ah, well.)  But one great thing Topps did that year was reintroduce their Traded set.  They had fooled around a little bit showing some players in their new uniforms in '74 and '76, but it wasn't until '81 that they got serious.  The '81 Traded set added a ton of players, included the first Angels cards of Fred Lynn, Geoff Zahn, and current Angels Assistant General Manager Ken Forsch.

1981 Topps Angels Checklist

12 - Mark Clear

48 - Dave Skaggs

69 - Ed Halicki

100 - Rod Carew

121 - Larry Harlow

182 - Bob Grich

209 - Dickie Thon DP

214 - Angels Rookies Ralph Botting Jim Dorsey

227 - Fred Martinez

239 - Rick Miller DP

263 - Brian Downing

286 - Dave Frost

288 - Bob Clark

311 - Freddie Patek

340 - Bruce Kison

369 - Frank Tanana

391 - Dave Lemanczyk DP

410 - Bert Campaneris

422 - Dan Ford

454 - Andy Hassler

505 - Jason Thompson

529 - Dave LaRoche

557 - Chris Knapp

580 - Don Baylor

601 - Don Aase

621 - Tom Donohue

639 - Carney Lansford

652 - John Montague

663 - Angels Team/Mgr Jim Fregosi

701 - Joe Rudi

717 - Jim Barr DP

Topps Scratch-Offs
(not part of main set)

18 - Rod Carew

25 - Carney Lansford

1981 Topps Traded Angels

733 - Juan Beniquez

743 - Rick Burleson

764 - Ken Forsch

771 - Butch Hobson

797 - Fred Lynn

810 - Ed Ott

818 - Doug Rau

821 - Steve Renko

845 - Bill Travers

856 - Geoff Zahn

regular cards: 41