Collecting Cleveland Baseball Since 1982

Collecting Cleveland Indians Topps team sets from 1952-present, as well as post-war minor and major league autographs.

1979 Topps Cleveland Indians Team Set

Posted on December 28, 2018 • Posted Under Topps Indians Team Sets • No Comments

The 1979 Cleveland Indians went 81-80, finishing 6th in the East.

Not a terrible collection of hitters, with five players with an OPS+ over 114.
Andre Thornton was a beast, going .233/.347/.449 and leading the team with 26 HR.
Bobby Bonds, Rick Manning and Toby Harrah helped make sure the Indians led the American League in stolen bases. That is something, I guess.
The pitching was…rough. Rick Wise and Rick Waits were 15 game winners, but their peripherals were not great.
The teams closer Sid Monge was easily the teams best pitcher. Seems like they knew it too: 76 appearances, 131 innings. It was his best season in the majors and got him an All-Star selection.

Position Players

Team Batting
Rk	Pos	Name	Age	G	AB	H	HR	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
1	C	Gary Alexander	26	110	358	82	15	4	2	46	100	.229	.313	.391	.704	89
2	1B	Andre Thornton	29	143	515	120	26	5	4	90	93	.233	.347	.449	.796	114
3	2B	Duane Kuiper*	29	140	479	122	0	4	9	37	27	.255	.313	.294	.608	66
4	SS	Tom Veryzer	26	149	449	99	0	2	5	34	54	.220	.279	.254	.533	46
5	3B	Toby Harrah	30	149	527	147	20	20	9	89	60	.279	.389	.444	.833	125
6	LF	Mike Hargrove*	29	100	338	110	10	2	3	63	40	.325	.433	.500	.933	152
7	CF	Rick Manning*	24	144	560	145	3	30	8	55	48	.259	.323	.304	.626	71
8	RF	Bobby Bonds	33	146	538	148	25	34	23	74	135	.275	.367	.463	.830	123
9	DH	Cliff Johnson	31	72	240	65	18	2	0	24	39	.271	.343	.538	.881	134
10	OF	Jim Norris*	30	124	353	87	3	15	10	44	35	.246	.328	.348	.676	83

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/28/2018.

Pitching Staff

Team Pitching
Rk	Pos	Name	Age	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SV	IP	H	BB	SO	ERA+	WHIP
1	SP	Rick Wise	33	15	10	.600	3.73	34	34	0	9	0	231.2	229	68	108	115	1.282
2	SP	Rick Waits*	27	16	13	.552	4.44	34	34	0	8	0	231.0	230	91	91	96	1.390
3	SP	Mike Paxton	25	8	8	.500	5.92	33	24	1	3	0	159.2	210	52	70	72	1.641
4	SP	Len Barker	23	6	6	.500	4.92	29	19	3	2	0	137.1	146	70	93	87	1.573
5	SP	Wayne Garland	28	4	10	.286	5.23	18	14	1	2	0	94.2	120	34	40	82	1.627
6	SP	Eric Wilkins	22	2	4	.333	4.39	16	14	0	0	0	69.2	77	38	52	98	1.651
Rk	Pos	Name	Age	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SV	IP	H	BB	SO	ERA+	WHIP
7	CL	Sid Monge*	28	12	10	.545	2.40	76	0	53	0	19	131.0	96	64	108	178	1.221
8	RP	Dan Spillner	27	9	5	.643	4.62	49	13	14	3	1	157.2	153	64	97	93	1.376
9	RP	Victor Cruz	21	3	9	.250	4.23	61	0	48	0	10	78.2	70	44	63	101	1.449
10	RP	Paul Reuschel	32	2	1	.667	7.94	17	1	5	0	1	45.1	73	11	22	54	1.853
11	RP	Don Hood*	29	1	0	1.000	3.68	13	0	3	0	1	22.0	13	14	7	118	1.227
12		David Clyde*	24	3	4	.429	5.91	9	8	1	1	0	45.2	50	13	17	73	1.380

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/28/2018.

The Set

#13 Paul Dade

#13 Paul Dade (b)

#38 Bernie Carbo

#38 Bernie Carbo (b)

#61 Bo Diaz

#61 Bo Diaz (b)

#77 Dan Briggs

#77 Dan Briggs (b)

#79 Ted Cox

#79 Ted Cox (b)

#96 Indians Checklist

#96 Indians Checklist (b)

#122 Mike Paxton

#122 Mike Paxton (b)

#146 Duane Kuiper

#146 Duane Kuiper (b)

#150 Wayne Cage

#150 Wayne Cage (b)

#168 Dave Freisleben

#168 Dave Freisleben (b)

#226 Ron Pruitt

#226 Ron Pruitt (b)

#253 Rick Wise

#253 Rick Wise (b)

#280 Andre Thornton

#280 Andre Thornton (b)

#307 Larvell Blanks

#307 Larvell Blanks (b)

#332 Gary Alexander

#332 Gary Alexander (b)

#339 David Clyde

#339 David Clyde (b)

#359 Dan Spillner

#359 Dan Spillner (b)

#425 Rick Manning

#425 Rick Manning (b)

#438 Horace Speed

#438 Horace Speed (b)

#459 Sid Monge

#459 Sid Monge (b)

#484 Rick Waits

#484 Rick Waits (b)

#511 Paul Reuschel

#511 Paul Reuschel (b)

#537 Tom Veryzer

#537 Tom Veryzer (b)

#573 Jim Kern

#573 Jim Kern (b)

#611 Jim Norris

#611 Jim Norris (b)

#636 Wayne Garland

#636 Wayne Garland (b)

#667 Don Hood

#667 Don Hood (b)

#690 Buddy Bell

#690 Buddy Bell (b)

#705 Indians Prospects

#705 Indians Prospects (b)