1964 TOPPS RON HUNT
It’s post-season awards week, or as I like to call it, The Week When They Give the MVP Award to Someone Other Than a New York Mets Player.
I think we can safely say that this year will be no different than the previous 49, and rightfully so.
I suppose there’s a chance that Jose Reyes might do some bottom feeding in this year’s polling, but the plain fact is that the 2011 squad did nothing of enough relative merit to earn any real consideration.
So of course, a Mets’ fan’s thoughts turn to MVP results of autumns past.
There are the close calls, with Tom Seaver coming up just 22 votes shy of Willie McCovey in ’69, and Darryl Strawberry trailing Kirk Gibson by 36 votes in ’88.
Then there is the great split of ’86, when Gary Carter and Keith Hernandez received nearly equal vote totals and finished 3rd and 4th, respectively, as the heart and soul of a 108-win team.
And finally, there are the imponderables: Did Bud Harrelson really receive votes in ’70, ’71, and ’73?
But what does all of this have to do with a 1964 Topps Ron Hunt card?
Well, in the first 5 years of the franchise’s existence, the Mets garnered a grand total of one single MVP vote– a 10th place nod for Ron Hunt in ’64.
Ron earned this solitary vote on the strength of a .303 sophomore season, which followed up a ’63 campaign that saw him finish second to Pete Rose in the Rookie of the Year voting.
Next week on Card of the Week: In search of the one writer who actually placed Ron Hunt on his 1964 MVP ballot…
For some reason, I have a hard time believing Ron Hunt was a Met. I have absolutely no idea why – I have a bunch of cards with him on the Mets – but there you go. I’ve always been sort of partial to his 1966 card, where he looks a little bit like Frankenstein.
I remember that ’66 card. I believe that the bio text on the back reads, “When asked about his chances to put up big numbers in 1966, Ron says ‘Fire bad’ and tosses a schoolgirl down a well.”
Seaver was robbed in 1969. He and Willie Mac both had 11 first place votes, but some voters refused to put Tom on their ballot because he’s a pitcher.
I always found it galling that Gooden could do no better than finish 4th on the strength of his triple-crown 1985 season, while Clemens could win the MVP in a walk in 1986 for a lesser year.
I realize that the Sox won the division in 1986, while the Mets finished second in 1985, but I really felt that Gooden should have finished closer to the top…
OK, so Reyes ended up middle feeding rather than bottom feeding, with a total of 31 points for an 11th place finish. Beltran garnered one 8th place vote for a total of three points and a 20th place finish– I am assume he earned that lone vote for his time in SF…