Collector's Log: Stardate 198210.05

It's October 1982, time for postseason baseball!

My buddy Mike had a nice workbench setup in his basement, and we did a lot of models there.  This particular one was for my stepfather at the time.  Not sure if this is the exact kit or not, but it looked something like this:

I remember the wheels distinctly.  This was when Knight Rider was popular, so it had something to do with that.  Don didn't end up owning the real thing.  He got one of the first year Fieros later, and stashed it away for a long time.  I might have painted the Trans Am black, with a little red tint on the middle between the headlights...

Here are the lineups for the Brewers Angels ALCS Game 1.  I left after the fourth inning, when it was 7-3 Angels.  They added a run in the 5th and that was it.

Tommy John pitched a complete game.  You don't see that in the postseason much any more.  Baseball Reference doesn't even mention the pitch counts.  Hadn't noticed the subtle difference between the photos in his '83 Topps cards until just now.

Both of these guys did the same thing the next day.  Angels win again.  Vuckovich pitched 8 in the loss.  Must be why he looks grumpy.

Over in the NL, the other Championship Series was starting after a rainout.

Bob Forsch, who looks a bit like Carlton Fisk in some of his cards, also pitched a complete game shutout with six strikeouts, and had two hits, a run, and an RBI.  These days, a pitcher would be out of the lineup the rest of the week after a performance like that.

I was apparently rooting for the Angels, which is no surprise, since Mike was an Angels fan full time.  Plus, they had Don Baylor, Doug DeCinces, and Bobby Grich, three of my player collection guys.

There's that guy in the Trans Am again...

Remington Steele was one of my favorite shows at the time.  You can see why Pierce Brosnan got the role of James Bond a little while after this.

A psychic moment on my part.  Pitch #136 went over the wall in center off the bat of my guy Baylor.

Gretchen was the German Shepherd that I grew up with.  She didn't have the typical color markings of an average shepherd.  She was light tan all over and just a streak of black on her tail (and the nose, of course).

This one's probably from about 1974 or so

We were both raised together from pups.  She was a great family dog.  I remember one time we couldn't find her until we heard her collar tags clinking against the bath faucet ~ she had climbed into the tub to hide from a thunderstorm.

I don't believe this was an instance in which we used ammo of any kind.  More like we ran around yelling "pew pew pew" and "bang bang".  I liked putting the gear on, but the game was never my favorite in any form.

Now we knew who was playing in the Series...

And it didn't start well for the Cardinals.  I was still rooting against Milwaukee.  I collect Cecil Cooper, but again, the Cards had more guys than that.  Keith Hernandez, Bruce Sutter, and Gene Tenace off the bench have their own sections in one of my binders here.

I still have a wooden sorting tray I made with 30 card-sized compartments and a hole for your finger to pull the stack from within each one.  But I don't recall what the "lineup tray" was except that I know I used to lay out the batting orders in cards when watching games at home back in the day.

Next time: Who wins the series? and Mom puts one over on me!