Fruits of the Greatest Month: Meet the Mets (Part 2)
July 23rd, 2011 by slangon
These are the remaining Mets that I got in my big June haul. Once again, these were really the meat of the cards and mostly had to do with why I’m considering June such a good month, card-wise.
We start of with an O-G Met, and a semi-high number at that.
1962 Topps #497 Ed Bouchee
Apparently, Ed could play “1 Base”, but he’s not saying which one it is. Interestingly, outside of the Rookie Parade cards, Ed is one of only 3 players to actually be pictured in a Mets uniform in the 1962 set. The other 2 were Al Jackson and Don Zimmer. Even more interestingly, even though Don Zimmer is shown in a Mets uniform, he’s listed on his card as a member of the Reds. I sort of wonder why those three guys made it into actual Mets uniforms rather than bad airbrush jobs.
Next we move onto a small stack of 64’s.
1964 Topps #176 Tracy Stallard
1964 Topps #202 Galen Cisco
Like a couple of the Mets cards I showed a few days ago, even though these 2 cards aren’t of star players or high numbered or anything like that, they’ve still eluded me for a long time. They come from Series 2 and Series 3 respectively, and I don’t think either one of those are particularly rare. As a matter of fact, I have a bunch of other 1964 cards from those two series, both Mets and non-Mets, and I got all of those other cards pretty much dirt cheap. It’s just one of those things I guess.
1964 Topps #519 Charlie Smith
This one is from the semi-high 6th Series. I just have to mention that one thing I really don’t like about a lot of the Topps sets from the 1960’s is the whole hatless-guy-super-cropped-so-you-can’t-tell-what-team-he’s-on-and-so-you-just-have-to-take-Topps-word-for-it thing. Honestly, I don’t know if that’s any more annoying than having a “Mets” card showing a guy in a White Sox uniform.
1964 Topps #556 Rookie Stars
Rounding out the 64’s, we have a bonafide high number Series 7 card. This one is a “Rookie Stars” card featuring one guy who pitched a total of 4.2 innings in the Majors and retired with a 9.64 ERA (Dillon) and a guy who, although he had a respectable 3.48 career ERA, still only manager 41.1 innings in the Majors and sports a lifetime 1-2 win-loss record (Locke). Yet Maury Wills didn’t get a rookie card.
1965 Topps #329 Hawk Taylor
Aside from really like the overall design of the 1965 Topps set, they are among some of my favorite Mets cards because most of them prominently feature that 1964-64 Worlds Fair patch which is pretty awesome looking. I especially like this here card because that dude’s name is Hawk. He hit the first pinch-hit grand slam in franchise history, off of the Pirates Bob Veale.
1974 Topps #206 E.R.A. Leaders
There’s something I often wonder about when it comes to cards of Hall of Famers. It’s been my experience that some Hall of Famers cards command much higher prices than others. I guess that makes sense and that’s not the part that I wonder about. After picking up that Bob Apodaca rookie card, I was down to needing 2 cards for the 1974 Mets team set, both of which were League Leader cards, both of which featured Tom Seaver. Obviously, this was one of them and I picked it up for a modest $0.60. Not bad for a card with 2 Hall of Fame legends on it. The other card that I still need is the Strikeout Leaders which happens to have Seaver and Nolan Ryan on it. That one I could not find anywhere for less than $5.00. So this is what I’m wondering. When Jim Palmer gets wind that his 1974 League Leader card can be had for under a buck but Nolan Ryan’s card is crazy expensive, does he get all bent out of shape and start reminding people that he’s a Hall of Famer too?
Well, that does it for the Mets portion of the big haul. Actually, scratch that. I still have one more Mets card up my sleeve, but this sums up the majority of them. Hopefully you can see why I’ve been so excited by what I was able to accomplish.
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