METS IN SPECS
It’s a special Back-to-School edition of Card of the Week, wherein we take a quick squint at the history of Mets players wearing prescription glasses on Topps cards.
1962, 1963 Ken MacKenzie
Ken looks like he should live in Williamsburg, drink PBR, and listen to a lot of Animal Collective…
1965, 1966 Roy McMillan
The 1965 photo is the same exact picture that Topps used for Roy’s 1964 Topps Giant card, which Brian wrote about in fine detail just last week. (And I have now achieved my lifelong goal of seeing Roy McMillan appear in this column for two consecutive weeks. Take that, bucket list.)
1971 Rich Folkers
The arch on the bridge of this pair of specs is dizzying and simply majestic.
1974 George Theodore
Somewhere, two bottles of Coke are bottomless and sad…
1978 Skip Lockwood
From Wikipedia: “Skip graduated from MIT in 1983… and is an accomplished candlepin bowler.” And I totally knew both of those facts just by looking at the picture on this card.
1982 Mike Cubbage
Finally, some spectacles in action, as Mike, uh, pops out to second or something…
1987 Ed Hearn
By 1987, most vision problems could be addressed with contact lenses, so for a pro athlete to opt for glasses was a statement of some sort. Fight the power, Ed. 4 eyes 4 ever!
Of course, my own baby blues ain’t what they used to be, so I’m sure I could’ve missed a couple– please feel free to fill in any blanks in the comments.
OK – how about this for a trivia question: Which pitcher with a minimum of 10 decisions had the highest winning percentage for the Mets between the years 1962-1968?
Of course the answer is the glasses-wearing Ken MacKenzie, who went 8-5 for the 62-63 Mets and whose .615 winning percentage beats Jerry Koosman (19-17, .576), Tom Seaver (32-25, .561) and everyone else, too.
As for other glasses-wearing Mets — how about Jason Phillips and Ron Herbel
Good call on Phillips. Looks like his only regular-issue Mets Topps card was in 2004, and he’s rocking what I’ll assume are prescription shades: http://www.toppsarchives.com/ta/2004-118-jason-phillips
Herbel came to the Mets in a trade from San Diego on Sept 1, 1970, so his 1970 card pictures him with the Padres. He was then traded to Atlanta for Bob Aspromonte on Dec 1, 1970, so he appears as a Brave in the 1971 set.
Someday I’d like to compile a list of players who did time with the Mets, but never appeared on a Mets card…
That’s a pretty interesting idea for an article. I think the companion piece should be guys who did get a card yet played the fewest innings with the team. Dean Chance should make that second list.