1984 TOPPS TIFFANY DOUG SISK
“Hate” is such an unpleasant word.
As an able substitute today, let’s use the word “dislike.”
I am at heart a loyalist. My allegiances don’t wax and wane based on mere turns of fortune. So across the years, I have not disliked many Mets.
Sure, the team has had the occasional polarizing personality in the ranks (Dave Kingman, George Foster), but by and large my impulse has been to support the blue and orange.
In my life as a fan, I count only two profound challenges to this ethos.
One was in 1993, when I had the unsettling realization that I disliked the entire team. I moved from New York to Charlottesville in August of that year, on the pretense of attending grad school. But really I just needed to put some geographic distance between myself and that noxious squad…
My other target of extreme dislike was Doug Sisk.
Now, I know that a statistical analysis of Sisk’s career will show that he wasn’t all that bad. Hell, he was a decent setup man for Orosco, and even notched 15 saves of his own in 1984.
You might even sing me the praises of his hard sinker, and tell me what a heavy ball he threw.
I hear it all, but still I see in my mind’s eye the little black raincloud that seemed to hover over the mound every time he pitched.
This particular version of Sisk’s 1984 Topps card is from a high-end variation of the regular set that came to be known in the hobby as a “Tiffany” set. It’s printed on white-cardboard stock, with a liberal application of gloss added to the front.
And no, the irony of owning a Tiffany card of an electroplated flea-market anklet of a pitcher like Doug Sisk is not lost on me.
So who’s on your list of disliked Mets?
I definitely disliked Doug Sisk. The guy just couldn’t throw a strike. I was so glad when we got Roger McDowell, who showed it was possible to throw a sinker and still throw strikes. I felt kind of bad when I’ve seen Sisk pop into the broadcasts to spend a few minutes talking about baseball and he came across well. He seems like a good guy and not a guy I should dislike.
As for others — Jeff Francoeur, Gary Matthews Jr. and Shawn Green leap immediately to mind.
The only other guy I can think of immediately is Gene Clines. And that’s because they traded Duffy Dyer for him. How could they do that?
I kind of liked Sisk and cant really say there was a Met I didnt like but Bobby Bonilla suddenly came to mind as I write this, now what I really want to say so the word can spread somewhere
if The Mets are a big market team weather they act like it or not and there is NO way that anyone can say if they sign Reyes they cant keep Wright, I hate seeing that in print because it just gives the mets a reason to cut more money
Not that they have not spent in the past but it seems they dont know how to spend because when they do spend it is more as a way to save face with the public