Sy Berger & the '67mfc Tom, Tommy, Tommie Reynolds.

A fond farewell to Sy Berger, the creator of the modern day baseball card. Picturing him in his kitchen in 1951 with colored paper, cut outs, and scissors making the '52 Topps set is a trip to say the least. To say the most, heeeeere's Keith:

I have the regular, more than likely more circulated Tom Reynolds (Tom, space,space,space, Reynolds, space, dot, position, dash, position) in my Mets baseball card collection. I imagine the one that still has traces of the "MIE" showing is the rarest. 

A regular 'ol Tom Reynolds (big space, no trace) is good enough for my collection.

Tom Reynolds 1967 Topps Card

I was remiss in not having a Reynolds of any Tom on my '67mfc page, so I'll correct that error now.

'67mfc Tommie Reynolds

This Tommie Reynolds card has been added to the 67 mfc's.

Thanks to Keith Olbermann for bringing the Reynolds variations to my attention.

Thanks to Sy Berger for making a segment of my childhood an adventure in baseball cards that continues still. 

In case I don't post before, have a Happy Chanukah and a very Merry Christmas everyone!

1967 Fantazy Met cards- Tommy Davis to Tom Seaver!

The 1967 Topps set is great in so many ways. If the '66 set was generic looking, like a knock off, the '67 set made up for it in simple coolness. So many great players. Team name nice and big and bright. The real estate afforded the excellent photography was never so large, and I loved this. The choice of hot pink for the Mets though, it looks cool and all but I wish they used a different color.

*^#@*~!>>>>>>>My wish is my command.

____1967 Fantazy Shaun Fitzmaurice X2____

Fitzmaurice gets a card because I found some nice pictures of him. Gets a second card because I needed a guinea pig for the orange METS. He played 9 games for the Mets, managed two hits. A card for each hit. I imagine the clubhouse laundry guy was very happy Shaun didn't spill any coffee on the uniform.

1967 Fantasy Wes Westrum

1967 Fantasy Tommy Davis

______Topps recycled Tommy Davis in 1961 and '69______

Tommie Davis was a great hitter who had an interesting career. In 1962 he batted .346 for the L.A.Dodgers and won the N.L. batting crown. He smacked 27 home runs & drove in 120. He finished third in the MVP balloting, behind teammate Maury Wills (who won) & Willie Mays.

In 1963 he won his second batting title in a row. To date, Davis' back-to-back batting titles are the only two in the Dodgers' Los Angeles history. On May 1, 1965, Davis broke and dislocated his ankle on a slide and was out for the rest of the season. For the 1966 season he batted .313 in limited plate appearances.

After the 1966 season, Davis(along with Derrell Griffith)was traded to the Mets for Ron Hunt and Jim Hickman. He did good, batting .302 with 16 HR and 73 RBIs.

Still, the Mets decided to trade him in 1967, and it ended up being a crucial trade in Met history.

He went to the Chicago White Sox in a six-player deal. Two of the players the Mets got were Tommie Agee and Al Weis. More seeds, more pieces to the puzzle that would make the 1969 miracle Mets. They join Cleon and Buddy :)

Topps called Ed & Rocky Mets Maulers. I never liked that for some reason. Not too fond of Mashers either. I was going to go with Meticulous Mets but I have no idea if these guys were finicky. And there's one of the Millers at Butterball Field, St. Petersburg Florida.

_____________Mets 1966 Team Leaders__________

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On an earlier post I said that the ultimate Met rookie card would be a Seaver/Ryan. That's true, but from a card collectors standpoint. From a real Met fans perspective a Koosman/Seaver rookie card would have been the ultimate. Our one two punch that took us to the series twice. If I actually did fantasize about these things I'd conjure up a Koosman/Seaver over a Seaver/Ryan anyday.

When I was making the mfc Koosman/Seaver rookie I first added the photo of Tom and it looked like this before I shrunk it down.

But looking at it like this, I thought, ya know, this is really how the card should look. No disrespect to Jerry, cause I loved him and in those days I was more a fan of his than I was of Seaver. When I came along to the Mets Seaver was their ace and I kinda took him for granted. But the truth is that's how big George Thomas Seaver was to the New York Mets in 1967.


          Updated 12-19-13Z
~Last Updated 12-17-14z

1967 Mets Fantazy Card Opening Day Line-up

Welcome to the 1967 Met Fantazy Card Opening Day Line-up page. The 1967 Mets were beginning to turn that corner between the horrors of 1962 and the heights of 1969. New York's young pitching arms, led by lottery lad Tom Seaver and lefty Jerry Koosman, were beginning to attract attention. But these still were the Mets. They still were the butt of most baseball jokes. No one took them seriously.

In the header picture above, if you look close, you can see the outfield wall at Shea Stadium appears to be white in color (this is a photoshopped image). There has been some talk that on opening day of 1967 the outfield wall was white. Not for the entire season, but for a few weeks at the seasons start. This has been discussed at the CPF and since we can't find any incontrovertible proof that the wall actually was white, this discussion is on-going.
If anyone out there knows any information,details or photos regarding the outfield wall being white to open the 1967 season, please contact me.
zvon58@hotmail.com
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The Mets first game of the 1967 season was played on April 11th. The Mets hosted the Pittsburgh Pirates at home at Shea Stadium.

Leading off for the Mets 1967 campaign is the center fielder, Don Bosch. Really? Like I've said, most of these opening day line-ups have surprised me.
Bosch came to the Mets from the Pittsburg Pirates along with todays starting Pitcher Don Cardwell in December of 1966 for pitcher Dennis Riebant and outfielder Gary Kolb. Highly touted as the Mets center fielder of the future Bosch had a disappointing time as a Met. In 94 games spread over two seasons Don batted .157. His OBP was .210.
In 1969 he had some bad stuff to say about the Mets in Dick Schaap's book "The Year the Mets Lost Last Place", possibly leading to the 1978 tell-all book by Chico Escuela entitled "Bad Stuff 'Bout the Mets".

Batting second and playing right field is Cleon Jones. In 1966 Cleon batted lead off to start the season, and he was all over the line-up after that. He led off 23 times and batted 3rd, 4th, or 5th over 25 times each. To Jone's credit he took these things in stride and continued to show he could hit (.275) as the Met were figuring out what to do with him, where to use him. He bats 2nd and plays right to start 1967. He batted in the second slot the most, 49 times, and took a step back this year with a .246 batting average. I suppose many times, as far as where he batted and played the field, Cleon was a victim of circumstances.
The Mets committed 5 errors in this opening day game. Jones made two of them.

Batting third all-star third baseman Ken Boyer. Boyer started suffering back problems in 1965 while playing for the Cards. The Mets in their wisdom traded for him before the '66 season for fan favorites Al Jackson and Charlie Smith. Ken batted .266 with 14 home runs and 61 RBI for the '67 season. Not horrible. On May 10, 1967, he collected his 2,000th career hit, a single off Milt Pappas, and on May 20 he hit his 300th career double off Nelson Briles. On July 27, with Boyer batting .235, the Mets traded him to the Chicago White Sox along with second baseman Sandy Alomar, in exchange for third baseman Bill Southworth and catcher J. C. Martin.

Batting clean-up and covering left field, 1962 AND 1963 National League batting leader, the newly acquired Met, Tommy Davis. There were high hopes for Davis to be a star in New York. He did well enough, batting .302 with 16 home runs and 73 RBIs, but still was traded after the '67 season. Thus began Tommie Davis's journey in which he would find himself playing for ten different teams over the next ten years. On this day Davis would show Met fans he came to play, going 2 for 4 with an RBI.

"Rocky" Ron Swoboda will be batting fifth and manning first base. Swoboda primarily batted 5th or 6th and hit for a .281 average in 134 games in '67, smacking 13 homers. He played right field mostly, but to open the season he was platooning with Ed Kranepool at first base. After 20 games at first the Mets decided to discontinue that plan and never to try him there again. Ever. Yikes, he must have been pretty bad at first.

I'm going to start a page just for Met error cards. And I don't mean mistakes on the card. I mean cards that picture the Mets players making errors. Batting sixth and playing second base for the Mets, Jerry Buchek.

Met catcher and future all-star (yep, I get to say that) Jerry Grote will bat seventh. Grote did not have a great year at the plate. He did have a four hit day on June 24th, which raised his batting average from .189 to .192 on his tortuously slow climb to .195 (in 120 games). Behind the plate Jerry was showing Met fans how a great catcher conducts himself. He yielded a .990 fielding percentage and threw out would be base stealers 49% of the time. Jerry Grote, of all people, hit a home run in this opening day game. He also suffered two passed balls.

Batting eighth and playing shortstop is Buddy Harrelson. Buddy fit the classic mold of shortstops at the time. Small, fast, great in the field and good enough at the plate. This was, however, Buddies worst year in the field with a .958 fielding percentage, committing 32 errors.

Pitching for the Mets to start the 1967 season is Don Cardwell. Don is the only pitcher to get traded and pitch a no-hitter in his first game with his new team. During the 1960 season, Cardwell was traded from the Phillies to the Cubs (for Tony Taylor) and had his no hitter in his first Cubs start. Cardwell went 5-9 in '67, and was a spot starter for the Mets throughout '67,'68 and '69. In 1969 his 5 wins in a row during the late season stretch run for the N.L. pennant were big.

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I feel if I am going to make a card for a Met making an error, I should also make one of him making a nice play to balance it out. To be fair Jerry made more plays than he didn't.

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A special for the 1967 line-up page- The 1967 Mets/Sgt.Pepper album cover! This supposed to include every player or coach on the '67 squad plus two future Mets for a total of 67. If I've left anybody out please let me know.

Can you name the players without peeking at the UMDB? If you can you are a better fan than I was. But I know who they are now so I'm moving up the Met fan chain.


I thought to do this tribute at the last minute and figured it would take a few sittings. It took way more time than I expected and unfortunately delayed the posting of this page. Totally enjoyed making it though and hope you get a kick out of it.
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Special thanks to Batmagadanleadoff of the CPF and my bother Kevin for the suggested additions to the 1967 Mets Tribute.