I picked up a complete set of the New York Daily News 1969 Mets portraits at auction a few weeks ago. These “Portraits of the Stars” were published by the newspaper to celebrate the team’s championship. The portraits were drawn by cartoonist, Bruce Stark and are printed on oversized parchment paper. The portraits contain a facsimile autograph by each player as well as the logo of the Daily News.
These black and white portraits were published as a daily supplement to the paper. There are 20 portraits in the set including manager, Gil Hodges. The players in the set are:
Tommie Agee
Ken Boswell
Don Cardwell
Donn Clendenon
Wayne Garrett
Gary Gentry
Jerry Grote
Bud Harrelson
Cleon Jones
Jerry Koosman
Ed Kranepool
Jim McAndrew
Tug McGraw
Nolan Ryan
Tom Seaver
Art Shamsky
Ron Swoboda
Ron Taylor
Al Weiss
In very good condition, the Ryan portrait carries the highest book value at $67.00 and is followed in value by the Seaver portrait which is priced at $22.00. These are followed in value by Hodges at $13.50 and Clendenon at $6.00.
At the height of the 1969 fan celebrations over the team’s successes, these portraits served as an artistic tribute to the players and manager. I can distinctly remember waiting for my Dad to get home from the city with anticipation to see who the player of the day was going to be. My friend, Dominick Murdolo showed me one. The Jim McAndew portrait sticks out in my mind for some reason…I can’t remember if this was the one Dominick showed me or the first one I actually had in my possession. I do know that it looked just like him. I suspect that a lot of these original newspaper pullouts still exist folded up and tucked away inside many a fan’s copies of the newspaper’s coverage of the team’s first post-season exploits. On one of those front pages from the Daily News was another Stark drawing; this one was a cartoon of the kneeling little Met kid in full uniform, holding his arms straight up in the air, bat in one hand and fist in the other overcome with joy and notifying everybody that we were now the World Champions.
Rockin! Love it Jim.
Nice grab, Jim. I collected all these as a kid. Long gone, of course.
Thanks guys…and thanks Dominick if you are reading this!
Very cool! I remember the 1973 Daily News Stark Mets/Yankees caricatures. Milner with his hammer, Mays with his basket, Millan with his giant mitt…
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1973-Daily-News-Yankees-Mets-Caricatures-by-Stark-/251457573700?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a8c0a1344
I have three of those originals. Staub with his chef hat, Mays, and McGraw with his Fireman’s helmet.
I had saved every one of those when I was a kid … I was delivering the NYDN (morning edition, did Newsday at night).
Left them all behind when I moved to Buffalo to go to school. 🙁
I think I had about 100 issues of the 1969 NYDN saved up in my room. LOL.
Wow, JG. I suppose we all have sad little stories about the (now) treasures we left behind. I am thrilled that I managed to save my ’69 WS Pennant and some other things. But I’ve slowly been building back some of the things I lost (on eBay I just scored an old plastic helmet from “helmet day” at Shea — anyone ever get/keep one?) and other little bits. I’ve finally just finished my collection of all the media press pins (4 World Series, 2 all star game, and Seaver HoF induction ceremony! I’ve scored some awoke pennants recently too.
Awoke = awesome
by the way, it totally does NOT surprise me to find so many old Mets fans here.
Wow … helmet day! Picture of me, back in ’64 or ’65 with one on. Bat day, too.
Yeah, the newspapers were a big deal … but among the stuff then
* Program, opening day, ’69. (Mets lose to the Expos … 13-12? I played 2B, and I’m pretty sure Boswell made 3 errors)
* Yearbook, ’69.
* Two years later, I think, I bought the *entire Strat-o-Matic historic Classic Team series*. It was like three months of tips from my route.
Cool bunch of stuff for both of you to accumulate! Maybe I’ll start looking for some again. Thanks for the memories.
I had the batting helmet as a kid and it might still be at my parents’ house. I also had the gnarly plastic Mets jacket but that’s long gone. I also had a Mets ring.
Jim, do you have the Citgo giveaways from ’69? They were nice color portraits that you got if you filled up your tank. There wasn’t as many in the set but they were on somewhat thick cardboard and made a nice collectible. They had different colored backgrounds – I remember the Seaver one was yellow.
Citgo had some nice giveaways. We still have this little almost round glass with a NY Giants football logo on it.
WOW! Had forgotten about those!!!
I have seen some of the Citbo portraits…Seaver and Koosman…..they are great…….
Aaaaa…Citgo. Not Citbo.
I had a give-away t-shirt from the September 8 or 9, 2001 game. Can’t remember now which day it was. I might even still have it tucked away somewhere. I honestly remember sitting alone on the train going up to the game and thinking that skyline would be there forever.
i have same entire group pictures. Only I have autographs from spring training of Seaver hodges Ryan jones mcdraw and others anyone interest?
I have a complete set of daily news drawings from 1969 …. for sale if anyone is interested
I have a newpaper from that year will like to know it vaule is going to be 60 years old .