Cardboard Thoughts

[seawolf17]

As many of you know, I'm still very much a baseball card junkie, and I recently picked up two cards from the 1981 TCMA "The 60s" set of two guys I'd never even heard of: Ronnie Paul (left) and Don Wilkinson (right).

Weird that in 1981 they thought enough of their careers to include them as Mets in a set that included plenty of actual Mets.

Paul was drafted by the Mets in the second round in June 1966 and went 17-4, 1.84 in A-ball in 1967 but never made it past AAA. Wilkinson spent most of his career in the Angels system, was drafted in the Rule V draft by the Mets for 1967, but didn't break camp with the team and was sent back to California. Also had decent AAA numbers, but never made it to the bigs. (The back of Wilkinson's card says he "signed with the Mets in 1964," but that does not appear to be the case.)

Also in this set as a Met is Ron Nischwitz, who actually pitched for Detroit and Cleveland but is for some reason has a Met photo on the front despite being listed as a Tiger on the back.

Cards are neat.

[Edgy MD]

Not many live a life as full as Ronnie Paul.

That 1967 Winter Haven team he won those 17 games for was pretty stacked.  His catcher was a not-yet-injured Steve Chilcott, but they also had Nolan Ryan, Ken Singleton, Steve Renko, Ed Figueroa, Mike Jorgenson, and others. 

Their .671 winning percentage puts them just a tick or so behind the 1983 Lynchburg Mets (.691!) in the great history of Mets minor-league juggernaut teams.

[seawolf17]

NIschwitz is an interesting character too. His baseball coaching HOF page says he "ended his career as a player and coach with the New York Mets," but I don't see verification of that anywhere, and he's not listed on any Mets coaching list that I can find. He spent 30 years coaching Wright State's baseball team, which is quite a tenure.

[Edgy MD]

I think he was a minor-league pitching coach back when.