Steve Carlton 1985 Drake's Big Hitters and Super Pitchers

 

1985 Steve Carlton Drake's Big Hitters and Super Pitchers (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

The back of the 1985 Drake's used a red card stock-much easier to read than the green on the 1985 Topps cards. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

Drake’s Snack Cakes are a product that I was not familiar with growing up in the Midwest. According to Wikipedia, Drake’s are mainly distributed on the East Coast. Why do I bring this up? Well, for several years in the 1980’s, Drake’s made a series of baseball cards. The cards started in 1981 as “Drake’s Big Hitters,” featuring powerful sluggers of the day. Drake’s had some kind of licensing deal with Topps, as they used a unique design on the front of their cards, and different photos from Topps, but the backs were identical to the Topps cards of that year. In 1985, Drake’s set “Big Hitters and Super Pitchers” was the first to include star hurlers. It’s only fitting that Steve Carlton was featured in that set.

For 1985, Drake’s used a red stock rather than the green that Topps used. It was a wise choice, because you can actually read the backs of the Drake’s cards. It’s especially noticeable when you have 20 years of stats on the back of your card, like Lefty had.

I really like this photo of Carlton in mid-delivery, as it looks like the ball is coming right at you. It’s very similar to the photo used on Carlton’s 1985 Topps Record Holders card. You’d better be ready to hit, as it looks like Lefty’s bringing the heat. Just try to lay off the slider in the dirt—easier said than done!

Steve Carlton 1986 Leaf

 

1986 Leaf Steve Carlton (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

Here's the back of Steve's 1986 Leaf card, complete with French! (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

Donruss made Leaf cards for sale in Canada, to compete with Topps’ O-Pee-Chee cards. The Canadian cards are the perfect way to improve your baseball-related French vocabulary.

The 1986 Leaf and Donruss card features a nice action shot of Carlton in mid-delivery, wearing the awesome powder blue road uniforms the Phillies sported throughout much of Carlton’s time with the team.

Looking at the stats on the back of the card, you can see Lefty’s impressive stats going into the 1986 season. A 3.04 ERA over 4,878 innings pitched, 3,920 strikeouts, 55 shutouts, and 314 wins. A Hall of Fame career, to be certain.

But if you look at Carlton’s 1985 season, you can tell something happened: just 92 innings pitched and a won-loss record of 1-8. What happened was that Carlton went on the disabled list for the only time in his 24-year MLB career. Carlton had a strained rotator cuff, and he missed 2.5 months of the 1985 season.

Carlton actually pitched well in 1985, as his stellar 3.33 ERA indicates, but he was a victim of poor run support, as the Phillies could only scratch across an average of 2.39 runs in Lefty’s 16 starts. That’s less than half of the 5.23 runs the Phillies scored for Carlton in 1984! The Phillies also lost 4 of Carlton’s 1985 starts by 1 run.

When Carlton went on the disabled list on June 21, his ERA was a sparkling 2.43. Carlton came back from the DL on September 2, and he started 3 games in September. But he didn’t make a start after September 14. There were still more than 20 games left in the season, and the Phillies were way out of the pennant race, so I don’t know why Carlton didn’t start again. Maybe his rotator cuff was still bothering him.

Steve Carlton 1983 and 1984 Topps Gallery of Champions

 

Steve Carlton 1983 and 1984 Topps Gallery of Champions. These are some of my favorite Carlton oddities. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

You'll need a magnifying glass to read the stats on the back, though. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

These cool little bronze cards of Steve Carlton are from the Topps Gallery of Champions. The Gallery of Champions bronze cards were included with cases of Topps Traded cards from 1983-1991. I don’t remember ever seeing them during my childhood, but they’re cool little collectibles. Another oddity that I didn’t know I was missing until I started trying to complete my Steve Carlton collection. I was able to track down the 1983 Carlton bronze pretty easily, but the 1984 eluded me for a while. I thought I had the 1984, but the collector actually sent me the 1983, which I already had. This happened a couple of times, so I ended up with several 1983 cards, but that’s fine with me. The Gallery of Champions bronzes are some of my favorite Carlton oddities, and they’re not too expensive if you want to collect them. Be warned, you’ll need a magnifying glass to read the stats on the back.