Category Archives: Autographs - Page 10

2011 Mets Draft Class Autographs

Posted by on 8 March 2012 Comments Off on 2011 Mets Draft Class Autographs

Jack Leathersich joins the club, has anyone seen Tyler Pill?

Full list of 2011 Mets draft picks

With a new front office in place and a woefully bare farm system to replenish, the Mets were more aggressive in the 2011 draft than they have been in years. Less than a year later, seven members of the 2011 draft class have appeared on certified autograph cards. Christian Montgomery appeared in a Team USA autograph in 2010 Bowman Chrome prior to his 11th round selection. Top picks Brandon Nimmo and Michael Fulmer made their debuts in 2011 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks and Prospects at the end of 2011. They were followed by Cory Mazzoni (2nd round), Logan Verrett (3rd round), and Phillip Evans (15th round) in January’s Donruss Elite Extra Edition. Jack Leathersich (5th round) made his autograph debut six weeks later in 2011 Playoff Contenders, skipping over Tyler Pill (4th round). I’ll update the board as more players (hopefully) join the certified autograph ranks in future products.

1 Brandon Nimmo 1s Michael Fulmer 2 Cory Mazzoni 3 Logan Verrett
4 Tyler Pill 5 Jack Leathersich 6 Joe Tuschak 7 Cole Frenzel
8 Daniel Muno 11 Christian Montgomery 13 Robert Gsellman 15 Phillip Evans
18 Travis Taijeron 21 John Gant 34 Seth Lugo 35 Chasen Bradford

Meeting the Mets: Autographs in the age of small-town card shows

Posted by on 19 February 2012 Comments Off on Meeting the Mets: Autographs in the age of small-town card shows

November 1986 (or maybe December).  The Mets had just won the World Series.  I was waiting in line with a few dozen other people freezing their butts off outside Groo’s Shoes in Vails Gate, NY.  We were suffering for a chance to meet one of our heroes.  No, not Keith or Gary or Dwight or Darryl.  Not even Mookie or MVP Ray.  We were there for relative newcomer and backup infielder Howard Johnson.

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Gary Carter: A History in Cards

Posted by on 19 February 2012 2 comments

In the wake of his death, countless words have been written about Gary Carter and all that he did in his life.  I’m not going to try to duplicate any of that.  I didn’t know Carter, I never met him, and I only saw him play in person twice, both from high stadium seats (once in 1986 and once in 1988).  All I have of Carter is in cardboard and ink, so that will have to do.

The start of Gary Carter’s tenure with the Mets just happens to coincide with the start of my time as a Met fan.  As with any fan of the Mets in that era, I saw Carter as part of the team’s foundation and, essentially, the face of the franchise in the late ’80s.  This was perhaps shown best when it came to boxes of wax packs.  While Keith Hernandez (1985 Topps), Dwight Gooden (1986 Fleer), and Darryl Strawberry (1990 Score) would all have their cards featured on a wax box, Carter’s smiling face took up most of the space on the top of the boxes and sets of 1989 Fleer.  He was such a dominant baseball figure in that day and continued to have a strong presence in the baseball card hobby right up to his death and hopefully well beyond.

Alpha to Omega: Carter’s rookie card and the final card released in his lifetime

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2011 Mets Game-Used Year in Review

Posted by on 31 December 2011 Comments Off on 2011 Mets Game-Used Year in Review

2011 was another dismal season for the Mets on the field, but who needs actual games when you have baseball cards?  It was a fairly uneventful season there too until the last few weeks, but there were several bright spots.

Going into the first year of the reborn Topps monopoly (Upper Deck still managed to put out a 2010 product with just a MLB Players Association license before getting sued by MLB Properties), I didn’t exactly have high hopes.  Take out all that Upper Deck and Donruss have given the hobby on the game-used front over the preceding decade and you would be left with mostly mediocre offerings.  Even after just the loss of Donruss and Fleer in 2005, variety in game-used offerings has taken a nosedive; taking Upper Deck out of the picture certainly isn’t going to help.  Gone are the days of finding pieces of hats, gloves, shoes, and other random items embedded in cardboard (I can live without game-used dirt cards).  Gone too are the days of even having any details of the item mentioned on the card – “Congratulations! You have received pieces of stuff used in a game of some sort!”  Based on how Topps seemed to be dumping its excess game-used inventory into cards in 2010 (some cards featured pieces of jerseys from events dating back to 2002), the days of timely and relevant game-used pieces (aside from the annual All-Star game insert sets) seemed long past.  2011 had a few surprises though, giving hope for some interesting products in the years to come (especially now that Panini, aka Donruss Mk. III, is in the market with a license from the MLB Players Association).

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