63mfc Charlie Neal Throwback & 2017 mfc Card. Plus Jack Fisher '17mfc.

A 63mfcThrowback card and its 2017mfc counterpart (below).

Charles Lenard Neal (January 30, 1931 – November 18, 1996) was an second baseman for Major League Baseball. He was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur free agent in 1950, and won the 1959 World Series after the team moved to Los Angeles. He hit two home runs in Game 2 of the Series, at Chicago's Comiskey Park.

In 1959 Neal had 177 hits with 19 home runs and 17 stolen bases, led the league in sacrifice hits and triples, won a Gold Glove at second base, played in the All-Star Game and earned a championship ring, hitting .370 in the six-game World Series victory over the Chicago White Sox.

The attendance on Oct. 6, 1959 for Game 5 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was 92,706, which continues to be the largest crowd in World Series history.

After the 1961 season, the Dodgers traded him to the New York Mets for outfielder Lee Walls and cash. Neal ended up playing for the Mets' '62 expansion team that lost 120 games, most by a team in a single season since the 19th Century. He was in the inaugural Met starting lineup on April 11, 1962 at St. Louis, batting third, going 3-for-4 and getting the first RBI in the team's history.

Neal remained a Met until a trade July 1, 1963 to the Cincinnati Reds.[1] After he hit just .156 for the rest of that season, Neal was released by the Reds in spring training of 1964, his career over at age 33.

He played in two World Series, also batting four times for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1956 Series. Neal started at second base in Game 3, a 5-3 loss to pitcher Whitey Ford and the New York Yankees, before a Yankee Stadium crowd of 73,977, largest of that series and still one of the 10 biggest crowds in World Series history.

Born in Longview, Texas, he died in Dallas of heart failure at age 65.

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You may have seen Jack Fisher's '67 throwback a few posts back, and here is the mfc set version.

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67mfc Jack Fisher, John Sullivan, &, finally, infielder Bob Johnson!

You see the action in this pic and the first thing you think is, uh-oh, my boys are in trouble again. For a pitcher to be on his fanny at home plate while playing the field cannot bode well. Jack Fishers down! It was not the usual wild pitch, however, it was a passed ball that got by Mets catcher Johnny Sullivan. Can't say Fisher didn't hustle. Ratty little Red stocking Dick Smith streaks around the plate in an odd fashion as he heads back to the field after scoring. Newly minted Reds rook Tony Perez looks on.

A FANTASTIC BASEBALL PHOTO!

I'll have to find out who took that one.

So back to the action: You would think seeing such an unfortunate happenstance would mean this was not a game you were destined to win. But New York did win this game. In an extra inning's no less (the play above tied the game at 2-2 in the 8th). On May 9th, 1967, Jack Fisher went the full 11 innings, snatching the win from Cincy when Mets centerfielder Tommy Davis hit a solo walkoff in the the bottom of the 11th.

The Mets won the game the game 3-2 and it was a sign of things to come. Instead of finding new ways to lose the Mets were starting to find new ways to win.
I would have loved to have witnessed any part of the 1967 season with all those players that popped up and down. But players also began to blossom into what would become the '69 Champs.

Clean Jones (playing CF in '67), Bud Harrelson, and newly acquired catcher Jerry Grote gave New York some solid talent up the middle, and the seeds for '69 have been sown.

And Jack Fisher would soon become part of the trade that brought Tommie Agee to town in 1968. I've added the supporting players to the 67mfc TRADED! card because sometimes I forget Fisher was part of that deal. Jack Fisher served the Mets well.

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Fellow Mets fan Pete Jones requested a Bob Johnson and provided an excellent black & white photo to use. I did the colorization work so this will be a unique version for an mfc card. Thank you Pete. :)

Largely a utility infielder and pinch hitter, Bob Johnson appeared in 11 Major League Baseball seasons, from 1960 until 1970. Johnson was a member of the 1966 World Series champion Baltimore Orioles.

In 1967, Johnson collected 13 pinch hits in 34 at-bats in a season split between the Orioles and the  New York Mets. Although Johnson's career batting average was only .272, he twice hit over .340 as a part-time player, for the 1967 Mets (.348) and the 1969 Athletics (.343).

I did not know Johnson had the nickname "Rocky" until I went looking for his autograph to use on the card. I wonder how that went over with Ron Swoboda. 

As you can see Bob Johnson was immortalized in "Mrs Payson's New York Metropolitan 1967 Baseball Club" mfc Sgt. Pepper spoof pocket poster.  There are supposed to be a record setting 57 players as New York brought up the farm in '67. I think I got them all in but I never counted. Hodges, Agee, and Bob Murphy are not counted as Mets players. Casey is just a statue tribute. The original Mr. Met was the first team mascot ever to photobomb a team picture. 

mfc FABER TEACHES-HoF Weekend, 1964

This is a play off the 1964 Topps card "CASEY TEACHES", one of my favorite Met cards from the 1960's.

I learned a lot about "Red" Faber in the making of this card. Here's some cool stuff I could not squeeze in on the card back:

> He pitched a perfect game in the minor leagues for Dubuque.

>  In his 1915 season, he won 24 games to tie for second in the American League behind Walter Johnson, and he led the league with 50 appearances. In one game that season, he pitched a three-hitter with only 67 pitches.

>  In one game against Boston he stole home, a rare feat for a pitcher.

> Perhaps his last great performance was a one-hitter at age 40 in 1929.

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This card below goes out to Stubby, who reminded me of the Stengel/ Chris Cannizzaro story. One of Casey's most famous quotes was the tale line to this beaut involving Cannizzaro, whose name Stengel never quite got right.

"I got this Canzoneri whose supposed to be a defensive catcher, only he can't catch the ball. The pitcher throws. Wild pitch. Pitcher throws again. Passed ball. Throws again. Oops! Ball dropped out of his glove. And all the time I'm getting dizzy watchin' all these runners running around the bases in circles on me. Makes you wonder. Can anybody here play this game?"

Yea, I stuck Stengel in there, more than likely harping on Canzoneri. As Stubby pointed out in comments on an earlier post, Cannizzaro was a pretty damned good defensive catcher throughout his career. So it must have been an especially bad game when that quote about Chris was uttered. I think if I was Cannizzaro I'd have been a bit upset by what Stengel said. It was kinda cruel, although all saw it as comic relief. Fortunately you rarely see the entire quote as everyone latched onto the "Can anybody here play this game?" line and the Canzoneri section became buried in Metropolitan History.

Up next in Metropolitan History:

Roger Craig, Ralph Kiner, Elio Chacon, and Wes Westrum get all Z'd up.

1967 Mets Team Leaders / 1968 Fantazy Cards

WHATS THIS!? A batting average over .300?

*grabs chest*

Tommy Davis, an ex- N.L. batting leader twice over (1962,'63), joins Richie Ashburn (.306 in 1962) & Ron Hunt (.303 in 1964) as the only .300+ batters in the teams history up to now.

Tommy had a good season in his one year as a New York Metropolitan. He led the team in games (154), at bats (577), hits (174), runs scored (72) HR and batting average. Davis's slugging % (.440), OBP (.342), and OPS (.782) all led the team. He smashed 32 doubles and drove in 73 runs. His totals in at bats, hits and double all established new Mets team records.

Ed Kranepool is in the middle of all these team leader cards in the mid 60's and I'm lovin' it. I knew Ed was a lifelong fan favorite Met but I thought that was just through longevity, at which he excelled. But he put up some numbers, albeit numbers only a Met fan could love.

Jerry Buchek! You go Jerry.

Rocky Ron trying to act like he isn't hanging out at the Sadecki Spot.

Tom Seaver was great and would have been considered great on any team he debuted on (it almost wasn't the Mets). But can you imagine how he must have looked to a Met fan in 1967? After years of pitching ineptitude suddenly we had a real top knotch pitcher who was just starting his career. It must have been so exciting, like in 1984 when we saw Dwight Gooden and thought WOW, we got a stallion of a pitcher here.

Tom once told fellow pitcher Chuck Estrada: " Chuck, I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd be this good. I knew I could play, but I never thought I was going to get to this level."

And Mets fans were in for a treat as they had the priveledge of witnessing as Seaver rose through the ranks to become one of the best pitchers in baseball history.

1966 Met Fantazy Card Opening Day Line-up

Hello ladies and gentlemen, this is Bob Murphy bringing you Mets baseball. Today is opening day of the 1966 baseball season and the Mets will be facing Hank Aaron and the Atlanta Braves here at Shea Stadium. Now for the starting line-up for the 1966 New York Mets.




Leading off for the Mets to start the season will be-

Batting second and playing second base is-

Playing third and batting third for the Mets is all-star-

Batting clean-up is the first baseman-

followed by the left fielder-

Batting sixth and playing rightfield, Rocky-

Doing the catching for the Mets and batting seventh-

Batting eighth, the shortstop-

And batting ninth, starting his first opening day for the Mets, the pitcher-

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I've been very surprised at most of the Met opening day line-ups.
CREDITS:
Mr. Rothenberg, again. Thank you sir, you initials are on a bench way behind Dick Stuart.

64 Mets Leaders / 65 Fantazy Cards

__________The New York Mets 1964 Team Leaders_____________



Joe Christopher had a very excellent Cleon Jonesy kinda year at the plate in '64.
.300 Average, 161 hits, 16 KaBOOMS and 76 ribbys. Thats sweet.

And I didn't know til recently that Charlie Smith launched 20 longballs to lead the team. He had 106 hits in '64 and 20 of them were homers. I thought WOW! and then I saw he also struck out 101 times. YOUCH!