1998 FLEER ULTRA CARL EVERETT Here we find Carl Everett on his 1998 Fleer Ultra card, saddled with the horns. Everett underachieved in his time with the Mets, but went on to put together some strong years with the Astros and the Red Sox. He wrapped up his career back in '06, having amassed 202 [...]
1999 UPPER DECK RETRO EDGARDO ALFONZO I'm about 60% Irish, which means that I feel about 60% guilty for letting St. Patrick's Day pass without acknowledging it in card form. So let this emerald-lidded shot of Edgardo Alfonzo on his 1999 Upper Deck Retro card serve that purpose. I got my own green Mets' hat [...]
METS RHEINGOLD COASTER If you're any sort of collector/curator/hoarder, you've no doubt come across an item in your possession that left you scratching your head. Well, I have one for your consideration today. This is a disposable coaster made of thin pressed cork. The disc seems like it would go to pieces after four or [...]
1967 TOPPS DENEHY/SEAVER ROOKIE Sometimes in life, it's all about the company you keep. Take Bill Denehy, for example. He made it to the Mets in 1967 at the age of just 21, and ended up logging a 1-7 record, with a 4.70 ERA. His most important contribution to the team was as the player [...]
1972 TOPPS ED KRANEPOOL IN ACTION ACETATE Welcome to a special feature here on Card of the Week: How the 1972 Topps Set Looks to a Dog. No? OK, how about this: And now, as a tribute to the Academy Award winning film “The Artist,” we present a black-and-white, silent edition of Card of the [...]
2012 TOPPS NL BATTING AVERAGE LEADERS (JOSE REYES) From my perch on the kitchen floor gazing up at a large-knobbed black-and-white Sylvania, I saw Armstrong walk on the moon. In the spring of 1986 I spied Halley’s comet, carrying with it the dim portent of a Mets' World Series victory that October. I watched the [...]
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2012 TOPPS R.A. DICKEY Who needs Punxsatawney Phil? I prefer my predictive tools in pack form. So there I was in Target on February 2, gazing at all manner of configurations of the new 2012 Topps baseball cards. I grabbed a 72-card pack, a couple of racks, and a few wax packs. By my reckoning, [...]
1987 SPORTFLICS BOB OJEDA These first-wave Sportflics cards deserve a cult of their own. Now, the less said about the mid '90's Second Coming of the brand, the better. Those sets were more Stone Roses Second Coming than the Jesus kind... But these mid '80s cards were out there kicking against the pricks. The hobby [...]
2011 TOPPS HERITAGE MINOR LEAGUE MATT HARVEY I know I shouldn't lead with the doom and gloom, but let me just get it out of the way: baseball cards are a dying art. Card collecting is now largely a pastime pursuit of the middle aged (see: yours truly), who thumb through their cardboard stacks while [...]
2001 TOPPS EMPLOYEES BENNY AGBAYANI Back in the summer of 2006, I attended my first and only Chiba Lotte Marines home game. The team was still flush with the success of having won the 2005 NPB championship, and the anonymous concrete ballpark was festooned with pictures of the Marines' beloved manager, Bobby Valentine. The souvenir [...]
2011 TOPPS CHROME IKE DAVIS I took down the holiday decorations this past weekend, along with some signage left over from my son's birthday celebration. And tonight I stepped out of my car and was pelted by sloppy wet papier-mache snowflakes. I tell you, mid-January was just made for thumbing through boxes of old baseball [...]