Nimmo! Reyes! mfc SALUTES Jim Hickman!

                                                                 What a crazy couple of days. 

We stopped Atlanta from bleeding us alive. Did you see that play by Loney? And he's hitting too.

The Nats are hitting a big bump (7 game losing streak) and the Mets are right back in it. When they were six games back I was ready to throw in the towel. At least I was the day that Noah Syndergaard left with the sore elbow. I feared the worst. But things are starting to go our way again. Damn, I love baseball.

And not so shocking news: Conforto goes down. He was lost the last few. I was hoping they would let him work it out up here. I understand why he was sent down and I won't argue.

He'll fix his swing and his head and he'll be back, don't doubt it. Conforto's gonna be an all-star caliber player. The kid's hit a World Series home run for crying out loud! Of course he'll be back, and better.

I'm not making a card for him going down. I'm sure he would rather I make one for when he returns, and make it soon.

And Brandon Nimmo comes up! This is logical still I was caught by surprise. I hear so was Nimmo. Brandon, a former first-round draft pick of the Mets in 2011, was batting .328 with 16 doubles, seven triples, five home runs, 37 RBI. He's packing a .409 on-base percentage in 63 games for Las Vegas this year.

Best of luck Mr. Nimmo and welcome to the Mets. Here's your mfc rook.

Rated, no less.

And whats this other bit 'O news? Jose Reyes returns to New York!?

If Wright can return before the seasons over AND we make it to the big show again, this time with Wright & Reyes, for me this would be a dream come true. A storybook ending.

 It's not for me to forgive Reyes his past indiscretions. They are now a matter between he and his wife, who are still together and trying to work things out. I hope Jose find success here as his career winds down.

Don't get me wrong, Reyes is not replacing Cabrera at short. He's been far too valuable. Walker at second? Same deal. Third? He should be a better alternative then Flores, although I haven't seen enough of Matt Reynolds ( I will make a 1st MLB HR card for Matt soon).

 I picture Reyes off the bench, pinch hitting, pinch running, giving the IF guys a breather. But the way things are going this year...you never know. A sudden injury could put Jose right in the thick of things.

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We lost an original Metropolitan this past week. Jim Hickman, who played for the Mets from 1962 through the end of 1966. "Gentleman Jim" spent five seasons in New York, then went on to play for the Los Angeles Dodgers (1968), Chicago Cubs (1968-73) and St. Louis Cardinals (1974).

He was an All-Star in 1970 when he hit .312 with 32 home runs and 100 RBIs. This was the year I became aware of him because I saw the Mets play the Cubs a lot in those days. And of course Hickman drove in Pete Rose in the famous play at the plate to close the 1970 All-Star Game. Everybody remembers that one, where Rose steamrolled catcher Ray Fosse. The National League won that game 5-4 in 12innings.
 

After his playing career Jim was the Reds minor league hitting coordinator from 1987-2006. 

RIP Jim Hickman.

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On a side note I have not been making cards or blogging lately. My PC croaked and I'm working on saving all my graphic work and transferring it to a new PC. There are other things going on in my personal life and I have not been able to make this a priority. 

I wanted to make a Familia RECORD BREAKER but those blank borders have yet to be transferred. I hope to be back on a regular basis real soon.

I have to get back. Too many things need cards this season. Oy!

65 Mets Leaders / 66 Fantazy Cards

_____________________1965 Mets Team Leaders___________________

Ed Kranepool? Really? Congratulations Mr. Kranepool. A .253 average nets you team leader. I don't know if I could have followed the team these barren years. You older Met fans who stuck with the team before 1969, I tip my hat to you all.

Rocky with 19 kaBOOMS in his rookie year. That's the most he ever hit in one season. The Mets waited for the sometime slugger to become a steady slugger. They were very patient with the outfielder, even trying him at first base for a time. Swoboda's .228 average in 1965 was pathetic even by 1965 Mets team leader standards. But the Mets would have been happy if he could have hit 19 HRs every year.

Kool, Charlie Smith at the Sadecki Spot.

Johnny Lewis always has that same expression. Look at him on the "BATTING" card.
Ha! Messin' with ya. It's the same pic, different backgrounds. As a matter of fact, only two of the player images used have their original backgrounds.

Now look at Spahn. That background: field, fence, scoreboard, is from the colorization of Jim Bunnings perfect game. I did that on a whim and now I'm kicking myself for not making his regular '65 fantazy card look that way. I might go back and do that.

I know the scoreboard slideshow was kaput by 1965 but still they managed to get Al Jackson up there one more time for his fantazy card.

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!

1964 Met Fantazy Card Opening Day Line-up

The Mets started the 1964 season playing the Phillies in Philadelphia. They would lose the game by a score of 5-3.

An interesting note: In 1964, even though the New York Yankees went to the World Series, the basement-dwelling Mets drew 1,732,597 to brand-new Shea Stadium, far more then the Bronx Bombers.
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Read by Ralph Kiner:
"Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Mets baseball. Today, opening day of the 1964 season, the Mets will take on the Philadelphia Phillies at Connie Mack Stadium.
The Phillies are taking the field and the Mets are coming to bat. The starting line-up for the New York Mets:

Batting in the lead-off spot, playing first base,-

-Dick was the first Met to ever get five hits in one game.
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Batting second, the second baseman,-

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Batting third and playing third-

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Batting cleanup for the Mets,-

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Hitting fifth and playing center field-

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The sixth batter will be the catcher-

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Batting seventh right fielder-

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-the shortstop will be batting eighth followed by the pitcher-"

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CREDITS & THANKS:
Again, David Rothenberg for the awesome Met photos he shares on facebook. That Joe Christopher is from Dave and what a great hi rez pic. To me that's like gold. Look for your initials in the tree Dave.

The Ron Hunt picture is from Steves Baseball Photography
I colorized the Amado Samuel picture for his card. His backround is a shot from Forbes Field circa 1960.

63 Mets Leaders / 64 Fantazy Cards

Still filling in 1960's stuff while I prepare other pages. The Mets leaders for 1963 on '64t style borders, as you would expect.

I mentioned before I can't help but laugh at some of these numbers the team leaders have but these, folks, are the facts.

It certainly wasn't winning that made the New York Mets popular and drew fans in the early 60's.

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Hunt's .272 was a good sign of things to come from him. Mets catcher Jesse Gondor batted a respectable .302 but only played in 42 games with 126 at bats.
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Quite a dip from the 34 dingers that Thomas led the team with in '62. Hickman with a very early appearance at The Sadecki Spot.
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No words for this card except maybe I would love to have seen Al Jackson pitch for the Mets. He was a workhorse.

Oh, there is this: Though Al Jackson had more wins (13-17, 3.96), Carl Willey had a better ERA (9-14, 3.10) and 4 shutouts in 1963. Carl was the first Mets Pitcher to ever hit a grand slam. During spring training in 1964, Willey's jaw was broken when he was hit by a line drive off Detroit Tiger's Gates Brown. He was out until June. Though he continued to pitch in 58 innings, he was never the same. He retired in 1965 from the NY Mets and went on to become a scout for the Philadelphia Phillies. He scouted for them for 9 years.
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CREDITS:
Carl Willey info from: NYFS (nyfuturestars.com)