Inkquest: Greg Luzinski, 1980 Phillies

Here is the first entry representing the 1980 Phillies.  I am in serious baseball withdrawal right now. Whomever said April is the cruelest month had no idea what they were talking about.  Luckily, videos have been found online with full baseball games, including a few 1980 World Series games.    I was watching game 2 of the 1980 World Series last night and what struck me most was two things: the broadcasting style and the pace of the game was very different.  For broadcasting, they used maybe 4 or 5 cameras to show the action on the field, with none of them being super close-ups of someone's face.  In terms of pace of the game, Carlton sometimes threw 3 pitches within 20 seconds.  It was explicitly stated in the broadcast that a Kansas City strategy was to make Carlton wait between pitches to try and disrupt his rhythm.

Baseball Biography:  Greg Luzinski was the 1st round pick of the Phillies in the 1968 draft and made an appearance in the majors by 1970 at the age of 19.  He established himself as a regular for the 1972 season and first displayed his prodigious power in 1973, hitting .285/.346/.484 with 29 home runs.  Through the rest of the mid-1970s, he established himself as the Robin to Schmidt's Batman in the Phillies lineup, powering the Phillies to 3 division titles in 1976-1978 and also earning two 2nd place MVP finishes and three seasons of >150 OPS+.  During that time, he also established himself as a quality offensive postseason performer, contributing a >1.000 OPS in all three NLCS losses.  Luzinski stayed with the Phillies until after the 1980 season, then moved onto the White Sox, where he finished out his career in 1984, showcasing one last 30 HR season.  He finished his career with 307 HRs and 130 OPS+.

Role on the 1980 Phillies: Luzinski was the starting left fielder for the team that year, and somehow he had his career worst year for the championship Phillies.  He slumped to .228/.342/.440 with 19 HR and 56 RBI.  He was a key contributor in the intense NLCS victory over the Astros, hitting the only tater of the series and extended his playoff hitting streak to 13 games.  

Card Facts: This is a 2004 Topps Retired Signature Edition card. This set was distributed in 5 card packs with 5 packs per box (SRP: $150) with one slabbed auto card per pack.  The signature is on-card, and the photo is a classic photo of the old Phillies baby blues.