TTM Stats
- Sent: 6/4/2021 | Received: 6/24/2021 | 20 Days
- ’83 Topps, ’84 Topps, ’85 Fleer, ’86 Fleer
- Address: Home (address from Sports Card Forum)
The Story of the Autograph
John Stuper is a former right-handed pitcher in the major leagues. He worked mostly as a starting pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds from 1982 to 1985.
Stuper is a Pennsylvania native. He attended Butler County Community College, LaRoche University and Point Park University before being drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates and in 18th round of the 1978 MLB Draft. But he would never pitch with the Pirates in the majors. In January of 1979 he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for Tommy Sandt. He made his major league debut for them a couple years later on June 1, 1982.
That was a great year to join the Cardinals on their major league roster as they were on their way to the 1982 World Series that year. Stuper appeared in 23 games, 23 of them starts and went 9-7 with a 3.36 ERA. Maybe more importantly, he played well in the postseason. In game six of the World Series he pitched a complete game that the Cardinals won 13-1. He retired thirteen batter is a row, tying a rookie record.
He had another pretty good season the following year, going 12-11 with a 3.68 ERA in 40 games with 30 starts. But he wouldn’t play near as much the following season in 1984 and the Cardinals traded him to the Reds for Paul Householder. He would have an OK year for the Reds in 1985 with a 8-5 record and 4.55 ERA in 33 games with 13 of those starts.
Unfortunately those were the last games he would play in the majors. He was traded to the Expos with Dann Bilardello, Andy McGaffigan and Jay Tibbs for Bill Gullickson and Sal Butera but his career as a major league player was over. He went into coaching in the pros, but mainly in college and spent nearly two decades coaching at Yale.
The Score on John Stuper – 7.5
John has a pretty fun signature. Its a bit loopy and that really works out with some symmetry between some of the loops he’s making. The “J” and the “S” loops really seem to go together. You can see that he is not afraid to just sign right over himself or his face. I think my favorite of these cards is the 1983 Topps because that came the year after he was part of a World Series winner.
Thanks Mr. Stuper! I’m giving this return a 7.5.
>>> READ MORE ABOUT MY AUTOGRAPH SCORING SYSTEM <<<
Thanks for visiting BravestarrCards.com: Card Collecting and TTM Autographs.
Information gathered using Wikipedia and Baseball Reference.