What's your favorite Topps Mets card?

[dgwphotography]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Damn, I even have this one in trips

I have this one too.

Never realized he looked like a such a stoner...

[batmagadanleadoff]

Here are two non-Topps Davey cards, from the 1988 Donruss All-Star game packs. I love the pop-out cards!

If you're opening the floor to non-Topps cards, here's an ASA card from a Yogi Berra subset:

[Guest Edgy DC]

I like how they treat Yogi like Bono and don't bother with a last name.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Here are two non-Topps Davey cards, from the 1988 Donruss All-Star game packs. I love the pop-out cards! If you're opening the floor to non-Topps cards, here's an ASA card from a Yogi Berra subset:

And here's the nutty perfesser on Glavine's 2008 Upper Deck card. Why the Mets bothered with either of those two is beyond me.



I bet Willie thought that Glavine would win another 300 games.

[G-Fafif]

That last card made me look it up: Randolph was 0-for-4 with a walk as a Met against Glavine.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Back to the countdown! I'm going one at a time here, with back stories on the blog. http://metsguyinmichigan.blogspot.com/2010/12/countdown-of-top-topps-cards-continues.html

No. 10, 2003 Mike Piazza




I like this one from 2004, too, but went for a great action shot.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

No. 9, 1972 Ed Kranepool

With the explanation: http://metsguyinmichigan.blogspot.com/2010/12/topps-top-60-countown-ed-kranepool.html

[batmagadanleadoff]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: The third answer to my Topps Mets trivia question is Jim Gosger.... I believe that in addition to Heise, Schneck and Gosger ...

Here's a spinoff trivia question. [crossout]Three[/crossout]Four members of the 1969 Mets never appeared on a Topps baseball card as a Met. Heise and Gosger are two of the Mets. Who's the third [and the fourth]?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Bobby Pfeil.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Nope, he had this beauty.

[batmagadanleadoff]

I gather that you were too young to be collecting baseball cards during the manager Gil Hodges era, right?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Pretty much. I probably have that one somewhere though.

[batmagadanleadoff]

My early memories of that 1970 Pfeil card are indelible. 1970 was the first year that I collected cards, and because Pfeil's card was included in the first series, his card received more of my attention than many of the other Met cards of that year.

Plus, there was an urban legend circulating in my neck of the woods that attributed the end of Pfeil's Met stint to the "fact" that during the 1969 WS celebration, Pfeil's batting helmet was stolen. "How could Pfeil play without a helmet?" went the legend. I was sensible enough to question the logic of this tall tale which I nevertheless believed to be true. Whenever the Pfeil card was displayed among a group of boys my age, someone would inevitably repeat the legend of Pfeil's helmet which, as far as I can remember, was never challenged. I suppose that we all eventually outgrew the legend of Pfeil's helmet.

[ashie62]

Amos Otis.

[batmagadanleadoff]

[seawolf17]

One-gamer Jessie Hudson.

[G-Fafif]

Jack DiLauro, whom I met as an Astro in the 1970 set.

[batmagadanleadoff]

I screwed this one up. There were two other '69 Mets who never appeared on a Topps card as a Met.

Dilauro was one of them

[batmagadanleadoff]

I'll put up the answer within the hour.


In keeping with the theme of this thread, here's one of my modern favorites:

Carlos Delgado's 2006 Bowman Heritage card



The image used for this card is a detail of the image used for Delgado's 2007 Topps Heritage card:

[batmagadanleadoff]

The other '69 Met is Bob Johnson who, with Amos Otis, was traded for Joe Foy.


New question:

Ten years after the miracle of '69, the 1979 Mets were, perhaps, the worst team in Met history that didn't play their home games at the Polo Grounds. Yet all but one 1979 Met appeared on a Topps card as a Met. Who's the one?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Jose Cardenal.

[batmagadanleadoff]

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Hebner?

[batmagadanleadoff]

[Guest Edgy DC]

The late Wayne Twitchell.

[batmagadanleadoff]

As if the 1980 season wasn't enough torture, Met fans who collected baseball card were constantly reminded of Hebner even after he'd gone away.


Twitchell's the one!

at Shea:

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

No. 8 -- 1993 Bobby Bonilla:



It wasn't entirely his fault.

OK, the card-playing in the clubhouse with Rickey during Game Six was horrible. In fact, all of 1999 was horrible.

But I'm talking about Bobby Bonilla's first go-around with the Mets. which ran from 1992 to part of 1995. The Mets put him into a role -- as "the Man" on a high-profile team -- that Bonilla just wasn't suited for.

The Mets, of course, have a history a doing this type of thing, chasing the biggest free-agent of the off-season because the player is, in fact, the biggest free agent of the off-season, appeasing the media beast that will never give its approval no matter what the team does.

Fresh off Bonilla's success with the Pirates, where he was surrounded by Barry Bonds and other stars, the Mets threw at him a 5-year, $29 million deal and annointed him the star on which the team would build upon.

He certainly wasn't terrible. Bonilla hit 34 homers in 1993, and hit .290 the following season. But those just aren't the numbers required to be a mega-star in New York. Fans were disappointed and Bobby Bo became Bobby Boo, which was just blood in the water for Met-hating Yankee hacks like Bob Klapisch, who egged Bonilla into a much-publicized confrontation. Bonilla told Klap he could "show him the Bronx," and I don't think he meant an afternoon at the Cloisters and the Bronx Zoo. As if a Yankee hack like Klap didn't know the Bronx.

Cast out of the New York spotlight, Bonilla actually mounted a resurrection in Baltimore in 1996 and with the Marlins the next season, earning a World Series ring.

He was traded to the Dodgers in the fire sale of 1998, part of the mega-package that included Gary Sheffield and brought Mike Piazza to the Fish for a five-game layover before his ascension to the Mets.

And Bonilla came back, too, in a swap of bad contracts and players needing a scenery change, with the Mets booting Mel Rojas to the Dodgers.

Mets 2.0 was a disaster, with Bonilla becoming bummed about playing time, feuding with Bobby Valentine and, apparently, forming a card-playing malcontents club with Henderson.

Alas, Bonilla did get one really great baseball card. I love his 1993 card with the magnificent New York skyline rising in the background and Bobby flashing a confident smile.

[batmagadanleadoff]

These might be the kindest thoughts ever expressed by a Mets fan about Bobby Bonilla in almost 18 years.

I dissent.

[G-Fafif]

Great card, subject notwithstanding.

Goddamn, I was excited when we signed him.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

No. 7, 1968 Jerry Koosman

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RJnZXOek6bo/TQbxbmZcYnI/AAAAAAAAE58/TWilPRez6Ok/s1600/68%2BKoosman%2BRyan.jpg

It�s a remarkable rookie card to be sure.

One of the two players is in the discussion as the second-best Mets pitcher. The other guy was traded for an accordion player.

And check this out. Between the two pitchers on this card, there are 546 wins, 8,270 strikeouts, seven no-hitters � and not a single Cy Young Award. How is that even possible?

One of them joins Tom Seaver with a beautiful plaque in the Hall of Fame -- the one in Queens. The other is in Cooperstown with Tom, but he�s wearing the wrong cap.

In all seriousness, the gulf between Jerry Koosman and Nolan Ryan isn�t that great. Ryan�s career winning percentage is .526, Koosman�s is .515, and pitched for some far worse teams, I might add. Ryan�s ERA is 3.19, Koosman�s is 3.36.

Koosman got just four votes when he was on the Hall ballot in 1991, and Ryan somehow got 98.79 percent of the ballots in his first year, and even swiped what was rightfully Tom Seaver�s slot on the All-Century Team.

Let�s look at the post-season. Koosman is 4-0, including two wins in the World Series, even taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning. Ryan is 2-2, and his only World Series appearance is 2.3 innings of Agee-aided relief.

One more cool Koosman fact: He was discovered by the son of a Shea Stadium usher who caught Koosman when he pitched in the Army at Fort Bliss Texas, he had written to his dad about Koosman. The Mets offered Koosman a contract after his discharge.

So, yeah, Jerry Koosman�s rookie card is pretty special, the seventh-best Topps card of all time. Nolan Ryan is on it, too.