Steve Carlton 1980 Burger King Pitch, Hit, & Run

 

Steve Carlton 1980 Burger King Pitch, Hit, & Run (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

The backs of the Pitch, Hit, & Run cards were on red card stock, different from the blue that regular 1980 Topps were printed on. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

The 1980 Burger King Pitch, Hit, & Run was a 34-card set issued by Topps. With every order of large fries at Burger King, you’d get 3 cards plus a checklist. Burger King also issued a 1980 Phillies team set.

Steve’s Pitch, Hit, & Run card uses the same photo as his 1980 Topps card, and both cards have the All-Star banner. The back of the Pitch, Hit, & Run cards used a red stock, instead of the blue that Topps used for 1980.

1980 would prove to be an amazing season for Carlton. He led the NL in wins, going 24-9. Carlton led all of MLB with 286 strikeouts-his closest competitor in either league was Nolan Ryan, with 200 k’s. Steve threw 304 innings, becoming the last pitcher to date to throw 300 innings in a season, a distinction that won’t be broken anytime soon. Carlton won his 3rd Cy Young Award in 1980.

The 1980 Phillies won the NL East, and then beat the Houston Astros in a thrilling NLCS. Carlton was 1-0 in the NLCS, and 2-0 in the World Series. Lefty was on the mound for the decisive Game 6, as the Phillies captured their first World Series title, beating the Kansas City Royals.

Steve Carlton Likes Ukrainian Food

 

2021 Topps X Sports Illustrated card, reproducing Carlton's 1983 SI cover.

The back of the card makes no reference to Carlton's affection for Ukrainian cuisine.

This 2021 Topps X Sports Illustrated Steve Carlton card has an unlikely connection to Ukraine. I’ll explain. The card reproduces the cover of the October 3, 1983 issue of Sports Illustrated, celebrating Carlton’s 300th win.

Steve Carlton won his 300th game against his former team, the St. Louis Cardinals, on September 23, 1983. Carlton pitched 8 innings in the game, threw 137 pitches, gave up just 2 runs, and struck out 12 batters.

Carlton wasn’t speaking to the media in 1983, so Sports Illustrated was being ironic with the caption on the cover, because Lefty wasn’t going to tell them how he won number 300. But his wife Beverly did speak to the media the night he won his 300^th game. She said, “Steve would like to play another 10 years, and as hard as he works, he just might. I wouldn’t mind that at all. Baseball’s been great to us.” Asked if there was anything else she wanted to add about Steve, she said, “Well, he likes Ukrainian food.” Who knew? It’s very curious that Beverly Carlton thought this was an important enough fact about her husband to mention to the press. It’s also curious because “Ukrainian food” isn’t very well known in the United States—it doesn’t conjure up an image the way “Italian food” or “French food” would. But that’s kind of fitting with Steve Carlton’s whole vibe that he likes Ukrainian food. Steve’s not a guy who goes with the crowd, he does his own thing. How many other baseball players have had “wine collecting” listed as a hobby on the back of their baseball card?

The 1975 book Steve Carlton: Star Southpaw, by Martha Eads Ward, also references Carlton’s love of Ukrainian cuisine, but it fills in some details. “His favorite dish is a Ukrainian concoction: dough filled with sharp cheese, potatoes, butter, onions, and sour cream.” Sounds delicious, but not exactly low-calorie. What Ward is describing sounds like varenyky, considered one of the national dishes of Ukraine.

I don’t know enough about Steve Carlton’s family background to know if he’s of Ukrainian heritage, but now I wonder if it was a diet of Ukrainian food that allowed Carlton to pitch for 24 years, win 329 games, capture 4 Cy Young Awards, and rack up 4,136 strikeouts? Someone should ask Lefty.

200 Steve Carlton Cards

 

The lot of 200 Steve Carlton cards I got from eBay in December. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

Back in December, I bought a lot of 200 Steve Carlton baseball cards for $40. I knew the cards were a mixture from the 1980’s, but I didn’t know the specific breakdown of what was in there. I do really enjoy the “grab bag” aspect of buying lots of baseball cards. Once I sorted through the cards, I was very happy with the mix of cards. There was one 1978 Topps card included, but everything else was from 1981-1987. The lot wasn’t heavily weighted towards 1986 and 1987, as so many lots can be. In fact, 1986 and 1987 were the years that the least numbers of cards were from. Almost all the cards came in plastic toploader sleeves, which was nice, especially since there’s apparently a global toploader shortage.

There was nothing truly rare or weird in here, the only oddities were a few Topps stickers from 1981 and 1982. What was included were just about every base card of Carlton’s from the 1980’s made by Topps, Donruss, and Fleer, plus numerous other cards that he appeared on from those manufacturers, like league leader cards.

Something that’s interesting about looking at multiple examples of the same baseball card is how different they still are—the printing isn’t exactly the same, the picture isn’t quite in focus, the cards are miscut. That’s why it’s so much fun to collect vintage baseball cards, right? Fun or frustrating, depending on your point of view.

Steve Carlton's 1986 Topps card.

Look at the two 1986 Topps cards pictured above. The coloring on the card on the left is much darker, whereas the card on the right pops out nicely, and you can see Carlton’s face.

4 1983 Topps Steve Carlton cards, all slightly different.

Or look at these 4 1983 Topps cards. From left to right, in the first card, the circular close-up of Carlton is very blurry (even on the best 1983 cards, this photo never looks perfectly focused to me) in the second card, the circular photo is better, but the card is mis-cut, with a noticeably larger border on the right of the card. On the third card, the circular photo is focused, and it’s well-centered, but there’s a streak of reddish ink on the right border of the card, presumably something that happened during the printing process. Finally, the fourth card, on the right, seems to be the best of the bunch, with none of the issues that the other three cards have. That’s just a small example of what card collectors have to deal with if they’re picky.

2 #1 Topps cards for Steve Carlton, 1982 and 1984.

Carlton got the prestigious honor of appearing on two Topps #1 cards during his career, in 1982 and 1984. During the 1980’s, the beginning of the Topps set were always “Highlights” or “Record Breakers” from the previous season. The 1982 card commemorates Carlton passing Bob Gibson to become the all-time NL strikeout leader. This was when league-wide records were still a thing. Players move so much between leagues now that I don’t think anyone cares about league records anymore. For the record, Steve Carlton is still the NL strikeout leader, with exactly 4,000 strikeouts. The 1984 card highlights Steve’s 300^th victory, achieved against his old team, the St. Louis Cardinals, as well as Carlton finishing the season as the all-time strikeout leader, with 3,709. The 1982 card is notable because it kind of looks like Steve doesn’t have a hand. Not the best photo angle to have chosen, Topps. The 1984 card is a much better photo, and you can get a sense of the power of Carlton’s delivery, as his 6’5” frame is captured in mid-windup, about to fire a pitch towards home plate.

1984 Topps NL Active Career Victory Leaders, featuring Fergie Jenkins, Steve Carlton, and Tom Seaver, 3 of the greatest pitchers in history.

Another awesome card from 1984 in this lot was Topps #706, “NL Active Career Victory Leaders.” The card features Carlton, with exactly 300 victories, Fergie Jenkins with 284, and Tom Seaver with 273. Simply put, on one card you have three of the best pitchers ever. Jenkins, Carlton, and Seaver won the 1971, 1972, and 1973 NL Cy Young Awards, in that order. They combined for 18 20-game winning seasons. Jenkins had 7, including 6 in a row from 1967-1972, Carlton had 6, and Seaver had 5. All 3 pitchers are members of the 3,000-strikeout club, with Jenkins becoming the first member of the club to finish his career with 3,000 strikeouts and fewer than 1,000 walks. In 1971, Jenkins only walked 37 batters over 325 innings pitched. Oh, and he had 263 strikeouts that year.

I’ve met Steve Carlton and Fergie Jenkins. Unfortunately, I never had the good fortune to meet Tom Seaver. I’ve met Steve Carlton twice, once at a card show in Cooperstown during his induction to the Hall of Fame in 1994, and once at a card show in the Twin Cities in 2010. Steve was very nice to me both times I met him, very friendly. I met Fergie Jenkins at the festivities around the 2014 All-Star Game. Jenkins was signing autographs as a benefit for his charity. Jenkins was really nice as well. I can’t remember exactly what I said to him. Fergie was standing up when I met him, and man, the 6’5” he’s listed at is no joke. I’m 6 feet tall, but Fergie made me feel short. I follow Fergie Jenkins on Instagram, and his account is a lot of fun—he’s pretty active on the Gram.

Steve Carlton's 1981 Donruss and Topps cards, both featuring his awesome perm.

Looking at these cards again, I notice things I haven’t before. Like how Carlton’s 1981 Donruss and Topps cards are really similar. He’s got a perm in both pics–hey, it was the early 80’s, perms were a thing—and in both pics his face is half in shadow. But the Donruss card actually looks decent, whereas the Topps card it’s just like, this is the best picture you had of him, really? You can hardly see his face. It’s probably a good thing that Fleer and Donruss entered the baseball card market in 1981 to give Topps some competition.