1973 Mets Fantazy Cards Series 3

'73 MFC series 3 hits candy stores today.
Yikes. I just noticed there's no price on the wax. I guess back then they gave 'em away for free, and only to mom & pop candy stores.

The summer of 73 was a busy one for me. I was no longer going to a couple'a dozen ballgames a season like I would from 1970 to 72. No more walking through Corona and Flushing Meadows with the gang from the playground. Took the subway. Come to think of it I had stopped hanging in the playground. Had a girlfriend now and was going to high school. Had a whole new set of friends, mostly new people from school. Still had my old friends of course, and I would see a good dozen games this season with a mix of different groups. Still followed the team kinda passionately. But no where near as passionate as I would become in future years because of this season. I would go to all three playoff home games but that's a story for the '74 MFC post season cards. It was a big year for me, lots of things happening that had nothing to do with baseball cards.

So at this time I cut back on my baseball card collecting. My money was into other stuff. I still bought packs, put the Mets aside, but I didn't have any goals like getting them all or anything like that. I'd pick up a pack here and there. Still I ended up with probably few hundred cards from '73.

A good solid design that was an about face from the oddities of 1971 & '72.

I liked these for that. For getting back to basics in a nice simple way. The circle position figure guy was an excellent touch that is the signature of this set. Sharp cards. The bright white of the borders made the awesome color pictures stand out nicely, especially in action shots.

I was happy to get the Seaver, and other Mets, but there was one Met card I wanted above all others. Willie Mays. It was the Sey Hey Kid as a New York Met and this was to be cherished until the apocalypse. Tucked away for future generations.

It would end up being his only Topps card as a Met (I'll fix that). And I did get the card, a few of them, and one was just a perfect print, centered and all. No recall of what happened to those cards.

Years later, during the baseball card boom of the mid 80's, I would go to a card show and make that Mays mine again for 5 bucks. I still have that card.

As much as I dig the 73 Topps Mays I had to make a Fantazy one. On his Topps card Willie looks like he smelling a bad fart. Lets get him flashing that beautiful smile.

In 1973 Tom Seaver led the National League in ERA for the third time in his 7 years with the Mets. He won 19 and lost 10.

If you would have told me (before the season started) that Seaver would lose 10 games and Kooz would lose 15 and we would still make it to the World Series I'd a said nooo waaay. I'm still somewhat mystified.

But this was one of those years the N.L. east crown was within reach of at least 3 teams all season. And the Mets weren't really one of those after April, with the Cubs, Cards, and Pirates all passing the lead around. At the All-Star break New York was in last place with even the Phillies and Expos ahead of them.
Nope, if you told me mid season that we were going to the World Series I would not have believed it.

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New York Mets fans were not believing much of anything. We believed we had a pretty banged up team. A good start in April evolved into a messy May, June & July. Then the now famous locker room speech by Donald M. Grant took place and at first I could not believe that. Tug McGraw mocking mangment during a team meeting?

We were kind of sleepwalking along with the team but this woke us up. In a season wherein the players took line drives to the skull, violently ran into each other and didn't seem to be going anywhere except the N.L. east basement, this got our attention.

Tug said : "You gotta believe."

You gotta believe. Over and over. Running around from locker to locker, getting in players faces, getting in Grants face. YOU GOTTA BELIEVE!!!

He said later that the outburst was a byproduct of advice he was given by some self help guru.

You see, Tug started out '73 hot, with 5 saves and a 1.59 ERA in April, but he lost his footing and ability soon after and was pitching the worst stretch of his career. No one could figure out what was wrong, least of all him. So seeking help was a good thing, and it would become a legendary thing down the line. But not right away. As far as us believing, we weren't buying any of that. The team had legs but they all were broken early on. The Mets were, however, on the mend.

I must say though, seeing Tug McGraw excited about something always excited us Metropolitan fans. So we sat up and watched with interest, and kept an eye on Tugger. And masterfully, he rose to the occasion.

In his last 41 innings of 1973 McGraw went 4-0, saved 12 games, and had an 0.88 ERA. That my friends, was simply amazin'. And now we were starting to seriously believe going into the second week of September. All of it due to Tugs rally cry, just the thing that fans (and maybe even Met players) needed to keep them going, a shaft of insane hope.

On September 20th a certain ball would bounce off a certain wall, having nothing to do whatsoever with Tugger.

But after that....
that was it. We believed.
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In 1973 Cleon Jones batted a pedestrian .260, playing in only 92 regular season games. From the first day of June until the 7th day of July, Jones was out with his arm in a cast, the result of a hit by a pitch.

He returned to help the Mets down the stretch and in the N.L.C.S. vs. the Cincinnati Reds batted .300.
In the World Series Cleon would hit .286, homering in game two, a 12 inning affair that the Mets would win. Whether he was doing good or bad as far as Met fans were concerned, Cleon Jones was a fixture, a home grown All-Star.
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Catcher Joe Nolan was drafted by the Mets in the 2nd round of the 1969 amature draft.

He was traded to the Atlanta Braves on April 4, 1975 for Leo Foster.

Thank you SJN0072002

Now if I was an O Pee Chee photographer in the early 70s I would have gone to Shea during a game we played the Padres. I would have ordered Dave Marshall, now of San Diego, to march right into his old clubhouse and put on his old Mets uniform (it's around in there somewhere). While he was dressing I'd have run up to the press section where the scoreboard guy is, slipped him a few bucks with instructions, and then WaLAA- his '73 card is done in one shot.
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The Old Timers Day at Shea was always an event that fans loved for the obvious reasons. And here was The Yankee Clipper and The Say Hey Kid on the same field. But Willie had not yet retired, and he would show Joe (whose mere presence stole the show) that he could still cut it out there with this awesome catch during the regularly scheduled contest.

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If anyone has a request for a '73 Met I may have missed feel free to contact me.
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CREDITS:
The New York Mets Encyclopedia By Peter C. Bjarkman provided information.
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                                The MFC 2014 Season Set

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Coming up next on April 18th: Mets vs. Pirates season series Fantazy cards: September 17th to 21st 1973. The most important series of the season.

1973 Mets Fantazy Card Opening Day Line-Up

The New York Mets would face off against the Philadelphia Phillies at Shea Stadium on opening day 1973. It would be a classic pitching match-up of Tom Seaver vs. Steve Carlton. The Mets would keep their opening day winning streak going, taking their fourth such contest in a row.

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1) Bud Harrelson led off for the Mets on opening day.
Buddy was 28 years old and in the prime of his career. He was not a great hitter, but a smart a skilled batter who found ways to contribute. Fielding wise he was one of the best shortstops in the game. In '73 he only made 10 errors and his .979 fielding percentage was his best as an everyday player..
In 1973 Harrelson would bat lead-off for the Mets twenty-two times.

Buddy led off the Mets season by drawing a walk and was then erased as Felix Millan hit into a double play. All told Harrelson had three at bats and no hits.
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2) Felix Millan would bat 2nd and play 2nd base.
New York acquired Felix Millan in November of 1972 along with pitcher George Stone for pitchers Gary Gentry and Danny Frisella.

After hitting into a double play his first time up as a Metropolitan, Millan's second at bat had better results. Felix ripped a gapper for a two base hit and came around to score on Cleon's 4th inning homer. That was his only hit of the game as he grounded out in his last two trips.
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3) Willie Mays would bat third and play centerfield.
Tommie Agee had been traded to the Houston Astros right after the end of the 1972 season. If anyone else had started in center this day I would have been ticked off. Agee was my favorite New York player. But this was Willie Mays who was my favorite non-Mets player for years. So it made the transition much easier.

Mays opened the season going 0 for 3.
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4) Rusty Staub would bat clean-up and play right field.
After Staub's injury abbreviated 1972 season New York needed a full, healthy and productive Rusty in '73. And they got one.

This opening day Rusty did nothing to speak of at the plate (0-3)but he did in the field. After Larry Bowa singled in the 6th Philly right fielder(& future Met) Willie Montanez came to the plate with two out. He hit a rocket to deep right that Staub tracked down in full flight, grabbing it and smashing into the wall for the third out. Rusty fell and lay on the warning track with the wind knocked out of him. He soon recovered, rose and trotted to the dugout, no worse for the wear. At the far end of the season in the NLCS, Staub would make a similar catch that he wouldn't trot away from without injury.

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5) Batting 5th and playing left field for New York is Cleon Jones.
Injuries would limit Jones to 92 games in 1973.

Cleon Jones enjoyed facing Steve Carlton. It's no wonder. He owned a lifetime .303 average against the southpaw. On opening Day 1973 Cleon was the player of the game. He was 3 for 3 with 2 home runs and drove in all three New York runs.

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6) John Milner would bat 6th and play first base.
Milners 17 gophers in 1972 gave him the inside track in the first base department. He would play 95 games there. He also would play 29 game in left field.

On opening day Milner had three at bats and no hits.
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7) Jim Fregosi would play third base and bat 7th.
Fregosi could not have been having a good time of it. After being traded for Nolan Ryan (& a bunch of other Mets) Fregosi had an absolutely horrible year at the plate in 1972. He was brought in to be a prime offensive addition. Now he was starting the '73 season batting 7th. It didn't help that Ryans '72 season was his breakout year in which he struck out 329 and 9 of his 19 wins were shut-outs. Mets fans were already crying in their beer over the trade, that even after 40 years is considered by some the worst trade in the history of baseball.
Fregosi would play in 45 games in '73, and on July 11th he was sold to the Texas Rangers.

Jim singled in the 5th, popped out to second and struck out on opening day 1973.
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8) Batting eighth and catching for the Mets is Duffy Dyer.
Dyer had his best season in 1972. He played in a career-high 94 games and achieved career bests with eight homers and 36 RBIs. He led the National League catchers with 12 double plays and threw out the majority of runners that tried to steal (40 of 79). Injuries to Jerry Grote gave Duffy more playing time and he took advantage of it. When Grote returned in '72 Yogi continued to use Dyer, and considered him his starting catcher at the start of 1973. After an awful start which saw him batting .114 going into May, Duffy found himself backing up Grote once again. On May 11th Grote suffered a broken arm after being hit by a pitch and Dyer would again be the Mets starting catcher until Jerry returned in July.

Dyer had no hits in three trips tom the plate to start the '73 season.
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9)Batting 9th and pitching for the New York Mets, George Thomas Seaver.
Seaver pitched a beautiful game to start the season. Up against Phils ace Steve Carlton, Tom held up his side of the duel. Both all-stars gave up only 5 hits but Carlton could not keep Cleon in the park. The Franchise was cruising when Jose Pagan doubled in the 5th. The threat was quickly stifled as Seaver struck out the side. In the 8th inning Tom looked to be running out of gas. The Met righty gave up a double to pinch hitter Bill Robinson and walked Phils centerfielder Del Unser. With two out Tom made way for Tug McGraw, who came on for the 4 out save.

After defeating the Phillies on Opening Day, Seaver’s consistency outshone that of his teammates. On May 29, he struck out 16 San Francisco Giants and was named National League Player of the Week. The Mets were 30-35, Seaver was 9-4. When Berra rhetorically asked sportswriter Terry Shore where the Mets would be without Seaver, the writer replied, “In last place with a 17-game losing streak and certainly out of any division race.”
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Honorable Mention: Reliever Tug McGraw

Tug came on with 2 out in the 8th to extinguish Toms flare up. He faced Willie Montanez with runners on first and second. Tugger got the Phils slugger to line out to third and ended the threat. Then he set Philadelphia down in order in the 9th and picked up the 4 out save.

Tug had a real nice April. In 7 appearances he compiled 5 saves with a 1.59 ERA.
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CREDITS:

>Hank M for his game memory post regarding this game (Rusty's catch) at the Ultimate Mets Data Base

>Adam Ulrey of the SABR provided the info used for Duffy Dyer.
>Maxwell Kates of the SABR wrote the closing bit on Tom Seaver.