What's your favorite Topps Mets card?

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

SteveJRogers wrote: My buddies were mocking me for filling my top 60 list with Mets, so I had to pause the countdown and include these non-Mets of note: You handled it with aplomb, but your buddies have no soul. This rather Seaver heavy list reminds me of something I saw a huge Beatle fan FB friend do when presented with one of those "Pick Your Favorite 5" lists questions. The question, pick your 5 favorite bands that AREN'T the Beatles. His answers: Wings Plastic Ono Band Traveling Wilburys Quarrymen (I think) and the obscurest one for the win, The Dirty Mac. John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (I think that was the lineup off hand) performed as a "one off" super group on the Stones' Rock And Roll Circus television program.

My friend says about his buddy: He has very varied musical tastes. He like ALL of Elvis Costello's CDs.

[ashie62]

How do you add images as a URL???

[Benjamin Grimm]

Apparently my web browser doesn't have access to Ashie's C: drive.

[ashie62]

[seawolf17]

Looking at the checklist for 2011 Topps Heritage -- which will use the 1962 design -- Topps did a cool thing. They've tried, with their Heritage sets, to parallel the original set. If the card numbers hold when the set is released next year, they'll have done a nice job:

7 Beltran (in the 1962 set, Frank Thomas was card 7)
26 Thole (Cannizzaro)
29 Mets Manager (Casey)
85 Ike (Gil)
94 Dickey (Hook)
181 Gee
183 Pelf (Craig)
213 Pagan (Ashburn)
256 Tejada (Chacon)
290 Niese (Bob Miller)
333 DUda
421 KRod (Ken MacKenzie)
436 Reyes (Mantilla)
464 Santana (Al Jackson)
478 Wright (Zimmer, who was pictured as a Met but listed as a Cub)
and they'll have cards for Takahashi, Mejia, and Nickeas, although the numbering got weird on the file I saw.

No 1962 number parallels for Gee/Duda (those numbers were guys on other teams), but that's well done.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Looking at the checklist for 2011 Topps Heritage -- which will use the 1962 design -- Topps did a cool thing. They've tried, with their Heritage sets, to parallel the original set. If the card numbers hold when the set is released next year, they'll have done a nice job: 7 Beltran (in the 1962 set, Frank Thomas was card 7) 26 Thole (Cannizzaro) 29 Mets Manager (Casey) 85 Ike (Gil) 94 Dickey (Hook) 181 Gee 183 Pelf (Craig) 213 Pagan (Ashburn) 256 Tejada (Chacon) 290 Niese (Bob Miller) 333 DUda 421 KRod (Ken MacKenzie) 436 Reyes (Mantilla) 464 Santana (Al Jackson) 478 Wright (Zimmer, who was pictured as a Met but listed as a Cub) and they'll have cards for Takahashi, Mejia, and Nickeas, although the numbering got weird on the file I saw. No 1962 number parallels for Gee/Duda (those numbers were guys on other teams), but that's well done.

#392 will be a David Wright NL Sporting News All-Star Card.


original '62 #392

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Here's another pause in the countdown to welcome Terry Collins and see how previous Mets managers have fared. Here's the best of the manager cards

Casey



Wes, who had two darned good cards.


Gil, only the 1970 is worthy of his greatness


Yogi, who had two good card and a two team card headshot.


Joe Frazier, the only non-interim never to get his own card


Joe Torre, who only got one card to himself

George Bambeger, one card only

Frank Howard

Davey


Buddy

Jeff Torborg got one air-brushed card and one shared card

Dallas Green. Here's a card with the Mets best manager, and Dallas Green, too. It's Green's only card.

Bobby Valentine only got two cards. And the Mets most animated manager gets two dull headshots.

Art Howe got a great Heritage card


Willie


Jerry, so gets only one card as far as I can tell

[Guest Edgy DC]

Willie looks chuffed.

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

How can this card not be a favorite for any Mets fan?

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Oh, I think we're going to see that one in the top 10!

[batmagadanleadoff]

More Mets managers:

Dave Johnson Topps Update 1984


Randolph, as (haha) Stengel -- 2008 Topps Heritage




Willie Randolph was also card #1 in a 2008 Topps special Mets team set. (same template as the regular 2008 set, but different image than the base set Randolph card) I couldn't find an image on the internet.

[seawolf17]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Willie Randolph was also card #1 in a 2008 Topps special Mets team set. (same template as the regular 2008 set, but different image than the base set Randolph card) I couldn't find an image on the internet.

All the coaches were in that set too (as well as a similar set from 2007), so coaching cards of such luminaries as Rick Peterson and Rickey Henderson exist as well. (I have an extra 2008 set if anyone needs one.)

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Here's the team set Willie.

I have all the Mets managers cards in the blog post, but didn't know if I'd be pushing the limits by posting all 40 of them here.
http://metsguyinmichigan.blogspot.com/2010/11/will-history-repeat-terry-collins-can.html


I should boo Topps for using a near identical photo of Howe in different sets.



Torborg's brutal airbrushing:


Buddy looking serious:

[Guest Edgy DC]

Here's my imitation of Jeff Torborg opening a birthday present:

"If I can... I just don't want to mess up this great paper... and here we go... and it's... WOW! THANK YOU! ANOTHER GREAT TURTLENECK!!"

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Torborg is so white, he puts mayo on mayo.

/Tip your waitstaff
//Try the Chicken Murphy-- it's heavy on the sauce

[RealityChuck]

The next installment: No. 40 Jim Fregosi: All-Star infielder, killer accordion player. Trading Nolan Ryan probably made a lot more sense to fans once this card came out and they learned that Fregosi was a man of many skills. Most of the boyhood cards in the magnificent 1972 set showed the players in their Little League uniforms. Not Fregosi. No, he�s brandishing that massive accordion, ready to burst out a lethal version of �Lady of Spain.� And the crazy thing is the back of the card details Jim youth league exploits and never once mentions his apparent musical skills.

Most fans would have agreed that the accordion was a better pitcher than Ryan in 1971. Even fans today:
WHIP: 1.586, increasing every year he pitched.
K/BB: 1.18, becoming worse every year he pitched.
ERA+: 86
0 shutouts, 0 complete games (more important back then).
Averaging just over five innings a start.
-0.2 WAR

[G-Fafif]

The next installment: No. 40 Jim Fregosi: All-Star infielder, killer accordion player. Trading Nolan Ryan probably made a lot more sense to fans once this card came out and they learned that Fregosi was a man of many skills. Most of the boyhood cards in the magnificent 1972 set showed the players in their Little League uniforms. Not Fregosi. No, he�s brandishing that massive accordion, ready to burst out a lethal version of �Lady of Spain.� And the crazy thing is the back of the card details Jim youth league exploits and never once mentions his apparent musical skills. Most fans would have agreed that the accordion was a better pitcher than Ryan in 1971. Even fans today: WHIP: 1.586, increasing every year he pitched. K/BB: 1.18, becoming worse every year he pitched. ERA+: 86 0 shutouts, 0 complete games (more important back then). Averaging just over five innings a start. -0.2 WAR

Everybody knows that accordion folded third time around through the order. Would start to squeeze the ball too tight...

[RealityChuck]

True, but an accordion could always go to the Eye of Argon.

(And that's probably the most obscure joke anyone could possibly make.)

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Here's the next 10 in the countdown, with discussion on the blog. http://metsguyinmichigan.blogspot.com/2010/11/counting-down-topps-all-time-top-60.html

No. 30, 1994 Stadium Club Ryan Thompson


No. 29, 1987 David Cone


No. 28, 1974 Rusty Staub


No. 27, 1981 Lee Mazzilli


No. 26, 1969 Cleon Jones


No. 25, 1985 Davey Johnson


No. 24, 1993 Stadium Club John Franco


No. 23, 1978 Felix Millan


No. 22, 1990 Keith Hernandez


No. 21, 2005 Heritage Mike Piazza

[Guest Edgy DC]

That Staub card has a lot of good elements. The hip swagger, the bozac, the short sleeves, his refusal to wear undershirts, his cute pursed lips... but that shadow from his brim (and, to a lesser extent, the same with Mazzilli's in the next card) is just something that the guy who shot the Cleon Jones card would have been embarassed by.

That's merely a two year gap on those cards, but there's a cultural watershed moment in there, from the end of the great-society optimism to the harsh realism of Vietnam fatigue. The cardmakers are, of course a few years behind the cultural vanguard, but the differing values of the passing era are summed up right there. To the Jones photographer, art has a nobility in the composition. To the Staub guy, it's about keeping it real.

One guy is a craftsman and the other is a guerilla journalist.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Altamont is the scapegoat for everything.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

metsguyinmichigan wrote: No. 30, 1994 Stadium Club Ryan Thompson

"My sixth tool is my relaxed, musky sexiness."

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

I think the Rusty card was shot on Helmet Day, based on the people in the box seats.

[seawolf17]

metsguyinmichigan wrote: I think the Rusty card was shot on Helmet Day, based on the people in the box seats.

That's a nice catch. You're probably right; I love when you can peg card photos to specific events.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

seawolf17 wrote: I think the Rusty card was shot on Helmet Day, based on the people in the box seats. That's a nice catch. You're probably right; I love when you can peg card photos to specific events.

UMD Memories:

April 21, 1973 Shea Stadium Mets 5, Montreal Expos 0 Jay Tysver January 29, 2002 This game was helmet day. The first game I ever attended. I was 8 years old and it was with my cub scout troop. It was a weekend day game. I believe Matlack started and Milner hit a home run. I was happy to say that I did get to see Willie Mays play. He flied out to right- center field to Mike Jorgensen who made a great play on the ball and was also injured in some manner.

Warm April day for Rusty to be going gloveless and sleeveless but he was that kinda player. 0-for-1 with 3 walks and 2 runs scored that day.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

That could be a whole new tangent! Figuring out the day a card photo was taken.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Topps Mets trivia question:

During the period 1962-1980, when Topps was the only company producing large baseball sets, three players appeared in games as a Met in three separate seasons, yet never appeared on a Topps card as a Met. Who are they?

(Wise-ass preemptive strike --- these three Mets might have appeared in a Mets team picture card. I really don't know. But if so, those appearances don't count).

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Dave Schneck?

[batmagadanleadoff]

metsguyinmichigan wrote: Dave Schneck?

Schneck is one of the three.



Staub and Milner aren't.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Don Hahn