Like most people within this hobby, I have several disparate facets of my card collection. I’ve been trying to chase the 1960 Topps set for a while. I like to collect manager and team cards. I sporadically collect Keith Hernandez cards. If I were forced to define myself as a collector, though, I would definitely say that I am a Mets team collector, specifically, a Mets Topps team collector.

Anyone else out there who is a team collector knows that one of the biggest headaches of trying to nail down team sets of your favorite team is the dreaded high humber card. I’m a little luckier than most in that since the Mets didn’t exist prior to 1962, I only have to deal with 12 years worth of high number cards, but even that is daunting at times.

Some of the biggest headaches that I’ve run into personally in my quest for every Topps Met card have been the 1962 set, the 1963 set, the 1966 set, the 1967 set, the 1970 set and the 1972 set. Some of them are discouraging enough that at times I am almost resigned to the idea that I’ll just never finish some of those sets unless I end up winning the lottery.

Well thanks to a lot of cards that I recently won on eBay, the idea of finishing at least the 1962 set has been pushed a little closer to the realm of possibility. The lot in question consisted of 3 1962 high number, short print Rookie Parade cards, two of which were ones that I needed for my inaugural Mets team set.

The first one was an especially good deal for me since it had 2 Mets for the price of one. It also happens to be the rookie card of Bob Veale, which is pretty cool since I’ve long admired his fashion sensibility when it comes to eyewear.

As you can see from his minor league stats, Bob Moorhead wasn’t exactly the pride of the Mets farm system, although Craig Anderson had some pretty nice numbers. Unfortunately for him and the Mets, that never really translated to the Majors. In 1962, he went 3-17 with a 5.35 ERA.

The second card is the rookie card of “Hot Rod” Kanehl. He only hit 6 home runs in his brief, 3-year Major League career, but the second of those happened to be the first Grand Slam in Mets club history. Incidentally, he also hit one off of none other than Don Drysdale. I’ve always been kind of fascinated by relatively scrubby guys who’ve done something awesome at the expense of a Hall of Famer. It gives me hope in life.

Can can probably tell by the 1025 games played in the minors that Rod was no spring chicken when he finally made the big leagues. And judging by his .278 average and lack of power numbers, he’s pretty lucky to have made it at all. I’m guessing he was a big fan of the expansion draft.

The third card I got in this lot did not feature a Met and did not last long in my collection, which is a bit of a shame because it did feature a pretty interesting character. It’s been traded to someone who’ll show it the proper love and respect that it deserves, though, so I’ll leave it up to that person to properly show it off.

With the addition of these 2 cards, I only need either 3 cards to complete my 1962 Mets set. Technically 2. Even though Don Zimmer is listed as a member of the Reds on his 1962 card, I’m counting it as a need since he’s one of the few players who’re actually wearing a Mets uniform in this set. The other 2 cards that I legitimately need are both annoying high number cards, including one more of these Rookie Parade cards, so I’m not out of the woods yet. But now I feel like I can actually get there.

Tags: 1962 Topps, Amado Samuel, Bob Moorhead, Bob Veale, Craig Anderson, Denis Menke, impossible short prints, Jack Hamilton, Jack Lamabe, Jim McKnight, Rod Kanehl
Filed Under: It Came from the 'Bay by slangon
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