As with all of the Hostess Cubs sets, the 1977 set has six Cubs. Five of the six players were in the'76 set, meaning only one new player. I'll begin with him.
Bill Buckner! Yea, Billy Buck! One of my all-time favorite Cubs came to the team in an off-season trade with the Dodgers. His card replaced Rick Monday's, the player he was traded for. You can see that the Topps air-brush artists worked their magic on this card, changing his Dodger cap to a Cubs cap. Buckner was injured at the start of the season and didn't play his first game until April 19. He set career highs in homers (11) and RBIs (60).
Here are the five repeats:
Ray Burris was an innings eater, starting 39 games. He was 14-16, but his ERA jumped a run and a half, to a scary 4.72
Jose Cardenal, fro still big, but career in decline. He played in only 100 games and his average dropped 60 points from his .299 in '76. He was traded to the Phillies after the season.
Bill Madlock didn't even play for the 1977 Cubs. He was looking for a big payraise after leading the NL in batting the last two seasons. Owner PK Wrigley didn't want to pay and there were some racial vibes to the dispute. Madlock was traded to the Giants in February for Bobby Murcer. I wasn't happy at all about the trade, and was even more ticked when the Cubs gave Murcer more money than Madlock was looking for.
Jerry Morales got off to a hot start in 1977 and made the All Star team for the only time in his career. At the break he was hitting .331 with 7 HRs and 52 RBIs. He cooled off the rest of the season, ending up with a .290 average, 11 HRs and 68 RBIs.
Rick Reuschel had a career year in 1977, winning 20 games for the only time in his career. He was 20-10, made the All Star team, and finished third in the Cy Young balloting.
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