1983 NL Champions: Gary Matthews 1984 Topps #637 Phillies Team Leaders

I am going to see if we can wrap up the 1983 Phillies postings before the end of the year.  Today we look at 1983 NLCS MVP and current Phils TV color analyst Gary "Sarge" Matthews.

1984 Topps #637 Team Leaders Gary Matthews and John Denny

Sarge had a mediocre regular season for the Phillies.  He hit .258 with 10 Home Runs and 50 RBIs.  Those numbers are far below what Matthews expected from himself throughout is career, but as noted on the above card the .258 led the team. Says a lot about what that team had to do to win and the importance of batting average vs on-base pct (Mike Schmidt led the team with a respectable .399 OBP).

The Phillies Room is posting an interesting series with Custom Phillies Team Leader cards that homage the 1973 Topps LL format. In his columns Jim is noting the 5 best and worst leaders for each category over the last 40 years. The Batting Average Custom is here. As you can see in the posting, Gary Matthews .258 in 1983 ranked one slot above the bottom (Jimmy Rollins who led the 2012 offense with a .250!!!)

During the NLCS the veteran left fielder made up for his sup-par year by hitting .429 with 3 Home Runs over 4 games.  The third Home Run gave the Philles a 3-0 first inning lead which they would not relinquish.

Matthews is also homered in Game 3 of the World Series, it was his last dinger as a Phillies player.  Just prior the 1984 seaosn Matthews was traded to the Cubs along with Bob Dernier for Bill Campbell and Mike Diaz.

Numbers and Accolades
Gary Matthews played 16 seasons in the majors. As a Giant, he won the rookie of the year award in 1973.  He made one all-star appearance in 1979. In 1984 he led the league in OPB at .410, his best Offense WAR finish was 4th in the strike shortened 1981 season.
 

1983 NL Champions Series   
Darren Daulton
Bo Diaz    
John Denny
Ivan DeJesus
Garry Maddox  
Joe Morgan 
Tony Perez
Pete Rose
 
Steve Carlton Passes Walter Johnson (Strikeouts) Steve Carlton 300 Wins
 
Sources  
Baseball-ref.com
The Phillies Room

Dodgers v Phillies - NLCS Retrospective

1982 Topps #680 Gary Matthews

This year the Dodgers and Phillies will meet for their 5th NLCS matchup. According to my hasty research this ties them with.....the Pirates and Reds as the most common NLCS opponents - go figure.

This is basically the rubber match of the 5 series' -- each of the teams have won 2 of the previous match-ups. Lets take a look back at the last 4 meetings between the Phils and Dodgers:


1979 Topps #562 Dusty Baker

1977: The 2nd NLCS for each club. Don Sutton and Tommy John each toss 1 run complete games victories. Greg Luzinski muffs a critical play in the 9th innning of the pivotal third game. The Dodgers Win the Series 3-1. Dusty Baker (2 HR, 8 RBI, .357 BA) is named the first ever NLCS MVP. Mike Schmidt goes 1 for 16 (.067) in the series.

1992 Action Packed #64 Steve Garvey

1978: The Phils lose the rematch 3-1. Steve Garvey hits 4 homers in the series and is named NLCS MVP. Dusty Baker has another good series batting .467 with a .556 OBP. The Dodgers pitchers hold Mike Schmidt to 3 of 15 at the plate with 1 RBI. For the second year in a row Bill Russell knocks in the go ahead run in the clinching game. Intresting Notes - Steve Carlton had a homer in the series and Steve Yeager who only had 14 career stolen bases, got one during the 1978 NLCS.

1983: We skip ahead a few years and the Phils turn the tables and win the series 3-1. Some of the players are the same as the Phils and Dodgers previous meetings, but there are some important new additions. The Dodgers feature there young Phenom Fernando Valenzuela while the Phils have added veteran Slugger Gary Matthews (featured top of the page and currently a Phils Broadcaster).

MVP honors go to Matthews who bats .429, clobbers 3 Homers with 8 RBI. The 8 RBIs are enough to almost take care of the Dodgers singlehandedly as LA only scores 8 runs for the series. The Phils pitchers are led by Steve Carlton (2-0, 1 ER in 13.1 ip) as the staff holds the Dodgers to a .209 BA.

In the 24 series Since 1983 (no NLCS in 1994) only 2 other NLCS have gone less than 5 games. In 84 the Padres and Cubs went the distance (5 games). The following year the series went to the present 7 game format, and there have only been 2 sweeps during the 7 gm NLCS era (1995 Braves over Reds, 2007 Rockies over D-Backs)

2008: I am sure that Last Year's series is still fresh in most folks memories. The Phils won the set 4-1 as Cole Hamels led them to victory in the first and last games. The performance earned the southpaw MVP honors. Shane Victorino and Pholk Hero Matt Stairs blasted game and series changing homers in the 8th inning of game four.

2008 is also the first time that the victor of the Dodgers Phils series has gone on to win the World Series. The 77 and 78 Dodgers lost to the Reggie Jackson era Yankees. The 83 Phillies Wheeze Kids squad lost to the Baltimore Orioles who featured a young Cal Ripken with only 345 major league games under his belt.

Tomorrow Night the 2009 version of the rivalry will begin to unfold. Go Phightins!!

Dodgers vs Phillies: Rewind 1983

1983 Fleer #165 Gary Matthews

It has been 25 years since the Dodgers and Phillies last met in a playoff series. The Phils won the best of 5 series in 4 games behind the strong pitching of Steve Carlton and the offensive heroics of Gary Matthews. "Sarge" Homered in 3 consecutive games knocking in 8 of the Phillies 15 runs during the series and was named the NLCS MVP for his performance. The final game of that series occurred 25 years ago today. Hopefully one of the Phils will come through in this years NLCS they way that Matthews did in 1983.

Go Phillies!