1974 TOPPS RON HODGES This is the rookie card for Ron Hodges but Hodges made his major league debut the year before in 1973. For reasons known only to a kid, I remember Hodges’ MLB debut. Specifically, I remember his first at-bat. Hodges crushed a ball but it was foul and he ended up striking [...]
2007 TOPPS CO-SIGNERS JOHN MAINE/PHILIP HUMBER Once upon a time (the summer of 2007, to be precise), I pulled this card and I was happy. The Mets were in first place that July, and seemed well-equipped to remain there throughout the year. John Maine was a solid presence on the mound, and would go on [...]
1989 TOPPS BOX-BOTTOM KEITH HERNANDEZ Box-bottom cards are Spinal Tap-ian in both name and concept. They are the 18-inch Stonehenge of cards. These cards go to 11. Donruss began producing cards on the bottom of its wax boxes in 1985, and Topps picked up the glove in 1986. Donruss came to its collective senses quickly, [...]
1992 CLASSIC BEST ALAN ZINTER The convenient Alan Zinter narrative focuses simply on his status as another first-round draft bust for the Mets. This story is built around his 84 career plate appearances and .167 batting average, and the fact that none of this meager production was even logged in orange and blue. There's a [...]
1992 TOPPS TOP PROSPECTS #591 Today we travel back to a time when two-sport stars still roamed the Earth. Bo Jackson was of course the first of these majestic creatures, and his prodigious skills translated into a Pro Bowl appearance, an All-Star Game, and a whole raft of commercial endorsements. Perhaps inevitably, injuries derailed Bo's [...]
OK, the first two episodes of Mystery Met were the equivalent of trivia spring training. I was just working on my proverbial fastball, and breaking off the occasional metaphorical curve. But I'm loose and limber now, and ready to go a full nine... So here's the windup, and the pitch: Name the one-time Met pictured [...]
1992 TOPPS MAGAZINE HOWARD JOHNSON Back in the early '90s, Topps took the booming baseball-card market as their cue to develop a slick full-color magazine. They named the publication “Topps Magazine”-- no doubt after months of intense and costly market research... The editorial lineup was a medley of Topps history, baseball lore, current/past player profiles, [...]
2013 TOPPS HERITAGE MEMORABLE MOMENTS R.A. DICKEY As promised, I've now opened a full box of 2013 Topps Heritage. And I am here to tell you that this set is very generous in the R.A. Dickey department. I mean, it has more R.A.s than a college dorm. It has more Dickeys than an Orvis catalog. [...]
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 [...]