A Steaming Pile of Stuff To Do, Part VII: The Finale

A Steaming Pile of Stuff To Do, Part VII: The Finale
November 13th, 2009 by slangon

Lastly, we have the Oughts. Is that what we’re supposed to be calling the first 10 years of the 21st Century? The Zeros? I like The Oughts. It sounds old timey. “I remember back in twenty-ought-nine, we still had land-line phones.”

Anyway, the last batch of cards from the Stats-on-the-Back box.

2001 Topps #404 Mike Hampton NLCS Highlight – Ah, better times in the Mets universe. Even though they would go on to lose to the Yanks in five, it felt good to be a fan back then. I remember not even being so bummed that they lost. When your starting outfield is Benny Agbyani, Timo Perez and Jay Payton, I suppose you’re a little shocked you were in the World Series to begin with.

2001 Upper Deck Decade 1970’s #74 Bud Harrelson & #75 Dave Kingman – Pretty cool looking cards, I’d say. I kind of appreciate these earlier “retro” sets. They weren’t straight-up knock offs of old sets. Most of the time, I think the straight-up knock offs end up looking cooler, but I give points for at least trying to come up with an original design. Even if that original design looks suspiciously like another original design. I like the photos, too. Kingman seems like he’s admiring another moonshot while doing his best to ignore his .230 BA, while Buddy looks like he wants to murder the pitcher.

2002 Topps #964 David Bacani Draft Pick, Gold Parallel 1319/2002 – I would never try and complete a Gold Parallel set, but I must admit, I do like getting them every now and again. Call me a sucker, but I like knowing how many other copies of this particular card there are, even if it’s a print run of 1,000,000. I can’t explain it either. I mean, should I really care that I have 1 of 2,002 other copies of a card of some dude that never made it out of the Minors and is now mired in the Red Sox minor league system, where he’s a utility infielder and sometimes relief pitcher? Of course I shouldn’t. But I gotta say, I do.

2005 Topps #35 Cliff Floyd – Somewhere recently, some blog was having a contest where the rub was you had to name your favorite mediocre player. Cliff was my choice. He always had pretty solid numbers, never great. He was a bit on the banged up side while he was in a Mets uniform, so he was never a great fielder. But it seems to me when he did get a big hit, or made a great catch, it was always in a spot where you really, really needed it. Also he was a great clubhouse dude, for whatever that’s worth. I also liked that, during the 06 season I believe, he was so banged up he changed his at-bat music to the Sanford and Son theme.

2005 Turkey Red #58 Jose Reyes – If there’s one prayer on the tongue of every Mets fan this off season, it should be for this dude to get healthy. I’m not saying that if he didn’t go down this year they would’ve gotten to the post season, but I truly believe they would’ve crapped the bed on the last day of the season again, instead of being dead in the water as of August.

2006 Topps #125 Carlos Delgado & #155 Paul LoDuca – Another reminder of happier times. I know that what happened inthe 06 NLDS was a huge let-down, but damn, the Mets were fun to watch that year. A lot of the credit should go to these two guys. I wish we had a dude like Paulie now-a-days. There’s no jerks on this team. That’s the problem.

2006 Fleer Tradition #107 Lastings Milledge RC – Remember when this guy was supposed to be the next sliced bread? What happened, Lastings? I think I’m one of the few Mets fans that liked this guy when he was here. I was really rooting for him. I thought it was awesome that he high-fived fans as he ran to the outfield after his first big league home run.

2007 Bowman Heritage #127 John Maine – One of my absolute favorite sets of the last 10 years. The artwork is awesome. The card stock feels good in your hand. Here’s another dude I really hope gets his business together. It drives me nuts when a player shows a brief flash of what they’re capable of and then never quite gets back to that point.

2009 Upper Deck #765 Pedro Feliciano – In a season dominated by disappointment, Pedro was one of the few highlights of 2009 for me. He just went out there every day and did what he was supposed to do every time (well, almost every time).

2009 Upper Deck X #58 Carlos Beltran – I’m not sure how many more times I can say this, but here’s another guy that I really hope gets healthy and stays that way. I cannot fathom people who call for his head on the trading block. He’s probably the best center fielder out there, and assuming he stays healthy, who better to patrol the huge outfield at CitiField?