1981 Fleer Dave Stapleton Was No Exaggeration

Just Call Him Super Dave...and Call *On* Him in the Tenth

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1981 Fleer Dave Stapleton (#236) - Card of the Day

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If you came into your baseball fandom sometime after the early 1980s, the idea of Dave Stapleton swinging a mighty bat might seem laughable.

After all, here was a guy who played more games at first base during his big league career than at any other position, yet managed just 41 home runs over the course of seven seasons.

Stapleton’s .271 lifetime average doesn’t look too bad until you start scrolling backwards through his stats and find that he never hit .250 in a season after 1982. Or that he managed just .128 in 1986, his final summer in the bigs.

And if you were paying attention to Stapleton’s final autumn in the majors, you might remember that the Red Sox had him on hand to play a very specific role — backing up gimpy Bill Buckner at first base late in games.

Indeed, Boston manager John McNamara called on Stapleton for just that purpose as late as October 23, 1986, which just so happened to be Game 5 of the World Series.

With the Sox up 4-1, Buckner popped out to end the eighth, capping a 1-for-5 night. Stapleton came in to play first in the ninth as Boston starter Bruce Hurst gave up a run but held on for the complete-game win.

Two nights later, though, McNamara left Buckner in at first as Game 6 headed to the bottom of the ninth tied at 3-3. More to the point, Buckner also stayed in for the tenth inning after Boston took a 5-3 lead.

That tenth frame is one of the most infamous in baseball history, and second-guessers immediately started wagging fingers tattooed with Stapleton’s name at McNamara…and Buckner.

How could you not bring in Stapleton in that situation?

McNamara stood by his choice, though, saying at various times that Buckner was his best first baseman, that the Sox needed his bat in the lineup just in case, and that Stapleton’s nickname was “Shakey.”

Stapleton didn’t get into Game 7, either, and then became a free agent after the Series. He signed with the Mariners, but they released him at the end of Spring Training in 1987.

His playing career was over at age 33.

All of that adds up to a defensive specialist, right?

An infielder with a fairly anemic bat…

A final season spent largely as a late-inning defensive replacement at first base…

A final appearance — ever! — as a late-inning defensive replacement at first base in one of the most important games of Boston’s year.

An even bigger game two days later where his hypothetical defensive heroism is still debated 40 years later.

Yeah, the evidence points to Dave Stapleton’s being all about the glove. So, then, why does his 1981 Fleer rookie make him look like a slugger of Ruthian (or at least Harmon Killebrew-ian) proportions?

Well, because it was issued in 1981, and Dave Stapleton was a different player in 1980, when the picture was snapped. Don’t believe me?

Take a gander at the back of that RC:

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Those stat lines tell most of Stapleton’s early story in pro baseball…

Drafted by the Red Sox in the tenth round out of the University of South Alabama in 1975, Stapleton got right to work at Single-A Winter Haven that summer. Playing all over the infield, he made steady progress through the Boston system over the next few seasons.

Triple-A Pawtucket proved challenging at first, but Stapleton kept coming back, year after year, and by the end of the 1970s, he was a .300 hitter with double-digit homer power. He had shown decent speed on the bases earlier in his run but mostly played it close to the bag as he matured.

That went for defense, too, where Stapleton split time between first, second, and third in 1979, with about a dozen outfield appearances thrown in for good measure.

He was back at Pawtucket for a fourth go-round in 1980, again playing all over the infield, when the call from Boston finally came. Stapleton debuted for the Sox on May 30 and spent the next six weeks or so filling in when starting second baseman Jerry Remy needed a break.

Remy had injured his knee in 1979 but managed to come back with a strong first half in 1980. A rest here and there helped the cause.

But then, shortly after the All-Star break, Remy hurt his knee again, and he was done for the season. The Red Sox would miss their star, of course, but Stapleton proved to be more than a capable replacement.

The rookie appeared in 106 total games for the Sox that summer, hitting .321 with seven home runs and 45 RBI. He also scored 61 times and played solid defense at second base.

In modern terms, it all added up to 3.0 WAR on the season, but in archaic 1980 terms, it added up to a second-place finish in American League Rookie of the Year voting — no one was going to take that hardware from Super Joe Charboneau!

The next year, though, Stapleton wasn’t quite as sharp, and Remy won his job back. If the Sox were hoping for a righting of the ship, an uptick in Stapleton’s fortunes, they’d be waiting a long while…forever, in fact.

From 1980 through 1986, Stapleton’s batting average fell from .321 to .128, dropping every single year. Ditto for his on-base percentage, and only a slight blip upward from 1984 to 1985 saved his slugging percentage from the same fate.

By 1982, Stapleton was the starter at first, which lasted into 1984. An early-season knee injury wiped out his summer, though, and forced Boston to trade for Buckner. When Stapleton came back in 1985, he was relegated to part-timer status, and the lack of action didn’t do his stats any favors.

And, of course, made his 1981 Fleer card look a bit silly…but it wasn’t. It was just a victim of circumstance, like Stapleton, Remy, and Buckner all were.

Today, though, Stapleton finds himself both a victim and beneficiary of circumstance, and of time. Because today, David Leslie Stapleton turns 72 years old.

The Return of…Dave Stapleton

Turns out, baseball fans had to wait less than a year after Game 5 of the 1986 World Series to see Dave Stapleton on a major league diamond again.

Yep, Dave Stapleton, left-handed pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers, debuted on September 14, 1987. He’d make ten big league appearances through May 10, 1988, and then never be heard from in the majors again.

Except in Donruss sets, that is — Stapleton appeared in both the base 1988 Donruss issue and in 1988 Donruss The Rookies. There’s no hint of Bill Buckner or the other Dave Stapleton on either pasteboard.

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1977 O-Pee-Chee Tony Perez Broke Hearts

Dave Stapleton the First reached base in the majors for the first time in the Red Sox’ game against the Brewers at Fenway Park on May 30, 1980. Specifically, he led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a double off Lary Sorensen.

Carl Yastrzemski grounded out to move Stapleton to third, and then Tony Perez drove the rookie home with a sacrifice fly off reliever John Flinn.

Doggie was in his first season with Boston after three years in Montreal following a trade in December of 1976 that signaled the beginning of the end for the Big Red Machine.

Perez’s 1977 Topps card still showed him with the Reds, but the O-Pee-Chee version caught him in his new Expos uniform…and gut-punched Cincinnati fans far and wide.

Read more about that fateful Perez card right here.

Tony Perez: From Cuba to Cooperstown

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