1979 Yearbook

[Guest Edgy DC]

I never collected yearbooks. When I was young, I'd get one, thumb through it, and lose it. In the last few months I started building a collection at not a small cost, and I just got the 1979 book (in lovingly poor condition too), and I realized that I recognized every page, even the ads --- the ephemeral biographical data like the name of Joel Youngbood's pinscher or the Russian gymnast vistiing Joe Torre in his office.

What is it about being 12? The 1979 team means as much to me as any Met team ever and they were in many ways the very worst Met team ever.

[seawolf17]

You know? I turned 12 in March 1988, and I remember that '88 team -- and, relatedly, the entire 1988 Topps Mets baseball card team set -- better than any other Mets team. Kevin McReynolds, Mackey Sasser, David Cone.

Looking on b-r.com, the Mets really only used eight pitchers that year of any significance: Gooden, Darling, Cone, Sid, Ojeda, Myers, McDowell, and Leach. Aguilera threw less than an inning a week, and he was ninth in IP. It really was a different time.

That reminds me of the old Micro League Baseball game for the C64. It came with around thirty legendary teams, and I liked playing with the '27 Yanks, because they barely had enough pitchers to fill out the roster. The game required ten pitchers on the roster, and as a result, it had to include Joe Giard, who pitched 27 innings to an 8.00 ERA, and Walter Beall, who pitched one inning and gave up one run. That was always fascinating to my little kid mind.

Wow, that's a rambling post.

[Benjamin Grimm]

My most impressionable early year as a Mets fan was 1972, when I was nine. For me, the seminal Mets are Seaver, Koosman, Matlack, McGraw, Milner, Jones, Grote, Boswell, Agee, Staub, etc.

I came on board midway through the 1971 season, so I do also have memories of Gil Hodges, Donn Clendennon, Bob Aspromonte, Ken Singleton, etc.

When I was 12, though, I was temporarily disconnected from the Mets. I still paid attention, went to games, watched on TV, etc, but in 1974 (when I was 11) and 1975 I devoted the bulk of my energy to Marvel Comics. By 1976 the comics frenzy had receded and my Mets rabies returned.

I remember being surprised that I didn't even know where Dave Kingman had come from.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

I was caught by the Mets bug in 1969, even though I was groomed to be a Mets fan since birth (my mom and my grandfather were both Brooklyn Dodgers fans who became Mets fans upon their birth). The excitement of the pennant race is what caused baseball to "click" for me (before that, the rules just never made any sense to me. Then again, I was a little kid at the time). I knew that the Mets were good, and that Tom Seaver was great.

[Vic Sage]

Yancy and I had the same childhood.
twin sons of different mothers, as it were.

[Guest sharpie]

I, luckily, turned 12 in 1969. It, too, was my childhood height of Metobsessiveness. By '72 I was not terribly interested and then we moved to California. I missed much of the '70's (Metwise and even baseballwise).

[Guest Edgy DC]

The book has a terrible upside-down signature --- in ballpoint pen against against a blue background! --- on the cover. It's hard to make out but I'm pretty sure it's Joe Pignatano's. You can find the iimprint of the dot on Piggy's i 30 pages in. I don't recall this being advertised by the seller and it should be one of those rare cases where a signature actually reduces the value of the book (being so obscure yet doing so much damage), but I love it, because it's the same dumb thing I would've done.

I wouldn't be shocked to learn that this is the actual yearbook that I had at 12 years old. I half expect to find coupons clipped from Dairylea cartons tucked inside the pages.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Vic Sage wrote: Yancy and I had the same childhood. twin sons of different mothers, as it were.

The years are probably roughly the same, too, huh? As I recall, you're about a year older than me? (I was born in 1963.)

I went to my first Mets game in 1971 and bought my first Marvel Comic (FF #144) during the winter following the 1973 season.

[Vic Sage]

born in 61.

first game that i can remember going to had Matlack pitching in his rookie year, so it was what... 72?

first comic purchased? i really can't remember. first ones i remember READING, though, were my brother's FFs... from #30s-#60s.

[Guest rpackrat]

I went to my first game in 1972 and really became a fan in 1973, the year I turned 10. For me, the Mets seared in to my brain are Seaver, Koosman, Matlack, Stone, Garrett, Millan, Staub, Cleon, Milner, and Tug.

[Guest Edgy DC]

"Hi, we're the Mets, we have nobody cool enough to go on the cover of our yearbook. We were thinking of just putting Mazzilli's butt on the cover, but we might have already done that last year. Nobody can remember."

[G-Fafif]

Except maybe for '95, when the Mets had the excuse of not knowing who would be playing in their uniforms and feature a bunch of equipment, '79's is the worst cover of them all. Maybe Whitney and Bebe figured showing a player's face would cost them at contract time.

I just assumed, because Lindsey, Ralph and Bob were so adamant that I buy one, that everybody purchased a yearbook. It makes a great addition to your baseball library. That's been my guiding principle since 1972. I'm continually shocked that every Met fan doesn't buy a yearbook every year. I still feel guilty that I didn't go for every revised edition as soon as it rolled off the presses.

The year the Mets became the Mets for me? 1970.

[Guest Edgy DC]

This sort of irony may make me a looser, but the fact that it may be the worst yearbook cover ever (which I disagree with) helps make it for me perhaps the best yearbook ever.

For different reasons --- but both aesthetic --- I can't stand the 1983 and 1984 covers, though I loved both teams.





Yuck. What kind of maniac roots for such a team?

[Benjamin Grimm]

The cover I thought was ugliest was, I think, the 1980 one. 1980 and 1981 were both ugly, but of the two, the one that wasn't by Bill Gallo was the uglier.

Actually, there was a long stretch of bad covers. The 1982 had those awful portraits of the two Georges. The illustrations on the 1983 cover were hideous. And as for 1984, I couldn't see anything but the pimple on Keith's nose.

[Zvon]

69 got my attention(11 yrs old). I went to afew games in 70, but it wasnt until 71 i became a full blown Mets/ baseball fan.

71 was the 1st year i went out on treks to games without parents.
My buddys and i would start out hours before game time and walk.
We'd all have our gloves and have a catch all the way there.

71 was also the first time i ever completed a Topps baseball card set.
Thats why my cards kind of simulate that yrs black border look.

1st Met autograph i ever got?.mmmm.
We'd go wait for the team to leave via the Diamond Club or around the bullpen area (on get away days). In 71 the team borded a bus out back there and Buddy Harrelson threw a slew of these neat lil postcards out the window that had a shot of Shea from the air, a Met banner,(it may have been drawn because the were blue and orange) and a 'best wishes Bud Harrelson" scrawled on it. I remember jumpin for joy. I was able to catch afew and pick up a bunch and i gave em out to the people around me.

I remember that 71 team, that 71 yearbook page by page. The yearbook was 75 cents.
SEVENTY FIVE CENTS!

69 was something all NYers were swept up into.
70 was the year I went out of my way to see the Mets.
In 71, I became the fan I am, and continue to be.

These were the days when a 3rd place finish was considered respectable.
You could still hold your head up in NY cause the Yanks were......
who cared what the Yanks were doin.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

The brutal one, IMO was the burgandy-colored All-Star Gallery one with the mugshots in phony frames (1973? ... checks bookshelf... yes).

1993 gets docked major points for making such a display of the "s" tail on the uniform.

I thought 79 was pretty good, cover-wise. It was dignified. Within a tight shot of the the obvious symbol of worship, you notice the tight embroidery, and it coveys a sense of "we're in this thing together."

The 1980 one was a little too pandering for me. I remember thinking: No kid, no matter how gay they are for the Mets, is that bad with his shoelaces.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Note also the short-lived rejected slogan on that cover.

[Zvon]

="Johnny Dickshot"]The brutal one, IMO was the burgandy-colored All-Star Gallery one with the mugshots in phony frames (1973? ... checks bookshelf... yes). 1993 gets docked major points for making such a display of the "s" tail on the uniform. I thought 79 was pretty good, cover-wise. It was dignified. Within a tight shot of the the obvious symbol of worship, you notice the tight embroidery, and it coveys a sense of "we're in this thing together." The 1980 one was a little too pandering for me. I remember thinking: No kid, no matter how gay they are for the Mets, is that bad with his shoelaces.

The peoples team!
LMAOOOOOO.
I dont remember that.

The burgandy one. I liked it cuz it had Willie Mays. But Fregosi almost canceled that out.

The DREADED 's' tail on the Mets uni. OMG, how I HATED that.
I was pissed when they added it and glad when it went away.
I never bought merchandise that had that stupid tail on the Mets.

But did you know that that was the original design of the Mets uniform?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Between the piping on one end of his career and the swoosh on the other end, did Dwight Gooden ever get to wear the true righteous classic Met pinstriper? Probably also caught some of the bluetops in 1984.

Even with the Yankees, he pitched his no-hitter with a regrettable Eraserhead fade. Sartorially he couldn't win.

[Lundy]

The team that holds special significance to me was the 1982 team. I was eight years old and just discovered baseball, and thought the world of the Mets--Dave Kingman, George Foster, Ron Gardenhire, and even Rusty Staub off the bench.

My first game was a night game against the defending World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers. I didn't understand why there were seemingly more Dodger fans in the stands than there were Mets fans. I didn't quite understand back then how good those Dodger teams were, and how bad the Mets were.

BTW, say what you want about the cover, but the 1982 yearbook was great. 1982 was the 20th anniversary of the Mets, and the yearbook had a mini-retrospective of all the significant events in Mets history And they reprinted every yearbook cover in one of the spreads.

[soupcan]

'79 was also the team I came to love the most as well.

The batting order escapes me but I'm pretty sure Frank Tavarez led off.

It was usually Montanez at first, Flynn at second, Tavarez at short, Hebner third, Stearns catcher, Youngblood, Mazzili and Henderson among others in the outfield.

Pitchers were Swan, Kobel, Espinosa, Bruhert. Was Lockwood still there? I think Orosco even made an appearence that year.

As for yearbooks - 1980 - Worstest.

Bestest cover for me (for obvious reasons) is probably 1987:



There was also this yearbook -




that had a misprint on the cover of the initial printing. Instead of 'Official Yearbook' it read 'Offical Yearbook' omitting the second 'i' in 'official'.

It was reprinted pretty quickly and the originals are hard to find. Supposedly fetching upwards of $400 or so. I saw one in a memorabilia store priced at what the reprint should have been (the owner either didn't know about it or didn't catch the typo) so I snapped it up.at a what I think was maybe $20 several years back.

If I ever get that scanner I'll show youse guys.

[Guest cooby]

Never knew that I will have to look at mine tonight

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Me too.

B y the way, the illustrations on the 60s YBs were a billion times better than those of the 70s, 80s +.

Thee Willard Mullins one where Casey and the Met baby are pulling the welcome mat out from under the ballplayer looking at the stadium is prolly my favorite (1964), followed by the one where the cartoon Met guy is climbing a staircase where each step represents their record in descending order. I guess that was 68, not sure offhand.

[soupcan]

Yup.

Not many peeps do know so if you ever see a '74, look at it closely and if its got the typo and not priced accordingly - snap that baby up.

Not that it'll pay for your kids college education but its still a cool piece of Mets history to have.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I'm OK with the two Georges. It's not super, as one of the Georges was odd-looking and the other goofy, but it's an honest pair of portraits. The 1983 cover shows us what artistic creative license can bring to the Mets.

Maybe too folkarty and the "By George" stuff is dumb, but it's a noble enough failure.



In retrospect, it always stinks to see a big-name import who didn't work out on the cover of your old books, and, respecting that, they'd do well to feature guys based on their track records with the team. But I guess you don't sell your crap based on the retrospect efffect.

[soupcan]

="Johnny Dickshot"]B y the way, the illustrations on the 60s YBs were a billion times better than those of the 70s, 80s +. Thee Willard Mullins one where Casey and the Met baby are pulling the welcome mat out from under the ballplayer looking at the stadium is prolly my favorite (1964), followed by the one where the cartoon Met guy is climbing a staircase where each step represents their record in descending order. I guess that was 68, not sure offhand.

Totally, totally, totally agree! I like the steps where each step up represented the Mets W/L record getting better each year of their existence and then there's one broken step representing a year when they slid backwards. Very cool.


On edit:

[Guest KC]

[seawolf17]

Wow. I love that '67. Neat.

[soupcan]

Yeah baby!

KC - is that yours?

[Guest KC]

I have a couple of the officals ... except my mint one I got the others exactly
how you described - from unsuspecting ebay sellers.