1983 Fleer Wouldn't Let the Royals Heal

Rubbing cardboard salt in the K.C. wounds

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1983 Fleer Black & Blue (#s 643-644) - Cards of the Day

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The 1982 Kansas City Royals spent much of the season in first place in the old American League West and were tied for the top spot as late as September 19. But that day, they also lost their fourth game in a row and then traveled to California to face the second-place Angels.

After a three-game sweep at the hands of the Halos, the Royals limped into Oakland, where they lost three of four games. Another loss to California on September 27 at home in Kansas City left the Royals four-and-a-half back with just six to go.

It was a brutal stretch that had the 1980 American League champions black and blue, circling the drain. The ugly 11-game run saw the Royals outscored 64-39 and post a 1-10 record.

One of the guys who got roughed up a bit to end the season was superstar left-hander Vida Blue, who gave up at least two runs in each of his last four starts while making it to the fifth inning just once. He lost his last three decisions and gave up five earned runs twice.

It all soiled Blue’s final record, which slipped from 13-9 with a 3.36 ERA on September 13 to 13-12, 3.78 by the end of the year.

Fellow southpaw, rookie Bud Black, fared better, but that was mostly because he was mostly absent. After spending most of the summer in the rotation, Black made only two relief appearances as Kansas City’s season fell apart. The good news about that was that Black allowed just three runners while also striking out three and holding opponents scoreless in three innings across those outings…both Royals losses.

Of course, the leadup to Black’s year-end stint in the bullpen explained how he got there. After running his record to 4-4 with a 4.11 ERA with a two-run, seven-inning win over the Rangers on August 26, Black gave up eight earned runs in four-and-a-third innings over his next two starts.

Hello, bullpen.

And, hello, Fleer Super Star Specials!

Now, there’s no evidence that Fleer was trying to rub salt in blueblood wounds with their 1983 two-card special featuring Black & Blue. The guys look happy enough to be together and at the ballpark, after all, and the card backs don’t mention anything about exploding Septembers (the copy is the same on both cards):

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The only thing fishy about this is that “primarily as a reliever” bit, seeing as how 14 of Black’s 22 appearances and 72.1 of his 88.1 innings came as a starter in 1982.

For non-Royals fans or maybe even modern Royals fans, this combo is a pretty fun eighties bauble. But it’s pretty much on-the-nose for any K.C. followers who lived through the last couple of weeks of September 1982 with the team.

Of course, considering the roughing-up Bud Black received as the longtime manager of the Rockies, well, maybe a cardboard reminder of that Black & Blue finish to a season feels like kid gloves.

Whatever the case, Harry Ralston Black turns 68 years old today.

Peace and Love with the 1971 Topps Vida Blue

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Blue put together one of the great modern pitching performances in 1971, when he went 24-8 with a 1.82 ERA while leading the Oakland A’s to their first division title. That performance won him the American League Cy Young and MVP awards and helped make his sunny 1971 Topps one of the most iconic baseball cards of the decade (thanks in large part to the 1982 Kmart set).

Read more about that card right here.

RIP Cobra

No doubt you heard that new Hall of Famer Dave Parker passed away over the weekend. It always stinks when we lose a lesson, but this one brings an extra dollop of kick-in-the-gut given that induction weekend at Cooperstown is in less than a month.

I’ve written about a few Parker cards over the years (see here), but I could have — and might — write much more. He was my favorite Red and neck-in-neck with Mike Schmidt as my favorite player all through the middle 1980s.

What’s your favorite Dave Parker baseball card?