1984 TOPPS TIFFANY DAVE JOHNSON I slept with this card under my pillow the other night, hoping thoughts of a successful season would seep into my brain osmotically. Of course, the cruel irony is that the mid-'80s Mets are alive and well and living not far from me in Washington, DC, with an older and [...]
2007 BOWMAN'S BEST DAVID WRIGHT O Captain, my Captain... OK, OK, I'll get off the top of my desk for a minute to talk about our Mr. Wright. The New York sports media do not occur naturally where I live, nor do I seek them out actively on my own. So while I imagine that [...]
1984 NESTLÉ RUSTY STAUB The early '80s were boomerang years for the Mets, as former players returned to the fold with notable regularity. Mike Jorgensen kicked off the trend when he suited up for the 1980 team, after having been traded away in 1972 (for Rusty Staub, but we'll get to that later). Dave Kingman [...]
2013 TOPPS HERITAGE NL PITCHING LEADERS I wasn't planning to write about the 2013 Topps Heritage set quite yet. I only bought one pack of the stuff on a trip to Target to pick up a roll of packing tape, so I didn't feel qualified to expound in detail on how it does/doesn't modernize the [...]
2007 BOWMAN HERITAGE JOE SMITH A couple of years back, I shared my top 20 favorite Mets player names. Well every coin has a flip side, so here's a list of my top 10 least-favorite Mets player names of all time. 10. Bill Almon. Bill was no doubt good friends with Jeff Peanu, Jimmy Cashe, [...]
Ah, spring training, when a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of a great season to come. The team has provided you with new dress whites, a fresh stiff-brimmed cap, sharp blue spats-- the works. Maybe you'll hold on to your grungy nondenominational batting glove, which saw you through the previous season in good stead... [...]
1994 COLLECTOR'S CHOICE KIRK PRESLEY 1994: The Year in Presley News Lisa Marie Presley married Michael Jackson on May 26, 1994. Which was just exactly as random and weird as it sounds. Lisa Marie and Michael appeared on a December 15 TV special titled “Elvis: The Tribute.” On this long-forgotten/misbegotten show, songs from the [...]
2013 TOPPS SET Bought a box of the new 2013 Topps baseball cards, and I thought I'd share some of the highlights. Forgive me in advance if this week's entry is less Mets-centric than the average post. (I fear that this happy recap might even take a brief detour or two into the Bronx.) COLLATION [...]
1973 TOPPS ALL TIME HOME RUN LEADERS Topps started off the 1973 set emphatically, with this all-time home run leaders card. Here at #1 on the checklist was the pyramid of power: Ruth, Aaron, and Mays. Sure, the capstone would shift a year later, when Aaron's home run 715 landed in the waiting hands of [...]
Welcome to the first installment of Card of the Week's Mystery Met contest. Here's a quick rundown of the rules: The first commenter to name the Mets player pictured here wins this selfsame card, plus a Ya-Gotta-Believicious bonus: a professionally graded 1972 Topps Tug McGraw In Action, in PSA 7 near mint condition. The contest [...]
1990 DONRUSS AQUEOUS TEST BOB OJEDA The 1990 Donruss set committed the dual sins of being both ugly and overproduced. Truth be told, Donruss had been on the road to this set for years. After reaching the Platonic ideal of Donrussness with their 1984 set, the company began cranking up the printing presses each year [...]
2012 TOPPS CHROME CYAN PRINTING PLATE LUCAS DUDA The concept of serial numbering cards gained mainstream hobby acceptance in the early '90s, thanks in large part to the Donruss Elite inserts discussed here. As the decade progressed in a haze of flannel and Seinfeld, the legion of extant card companies kept lowering the limbo stick. [...]