1965 Met Fantazy cards: Jackson/Spahn/Berra Kranepool/Mets Rookies

 1965 mfc Al Jackson card

Al Jackson. I didn't know much about Al Jackson. I just figured he was a bad pitcher. I've learned he was a very decent pitcher on some horrible Met clubs. He had four shutouts in 1962 out of only 8 wins. Ten of his 43 Met career wins were shutouts. He also won 13 games in '63 and the Mets only won 51 games that year. The thirteen wins were a team record until some guy named Seaver came along.
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 1965 mfc Warren Spahn 

Warren Spahn had a great career and won 363 games! He also liked to pitch from the fungo circle at Shea any chance he could. I would too. It was a lot closer to the plate.

By the time he got to the Mets he was just a few pitches away from retirement. I always wondered why, if he was made a coach, didn't he stay on and be a pitching coach? Maybe because the Mets didn't afford him a full season in 65, his last. He did go on to manage a minor league team for four years and coached for the Mexico City Tigers (pitching a handful of games there), the Cleveland Indians, California Angels, and for six years, with Japan's Hiroshima Toyo Carp.

Alternate 1965 Warren Spahn Fantazy card shows him leaving town

From WikiPedia:
Following the 1964 season, after 25 years with the Braves, left handed future hall of famer Warren Spahn was sold to the New York Mets. Spahn took on the dual role of pitcher and pitching coach. He won four and lost 12 The Mets put Spahn on waivers on July 15, 1965 and released him on July 22, 1965. He immediately signed with the San Francisco Giants, with whom he finished the season. With the Mets and Giants combined, he won seven games in '65 —his last in the major leagues. His number would be retired by the Braves later that year.

Read all about his whole career > here

Fun Facts: While Spahn wore the number 21 Cleon Jones was wearing number 12. Learn about Mets By The Numbers!
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Yogi Berra, like Casey Stengel, was much more well known for his terrific years with the Yankees. And like Casey he was embraced by Met fans who knew he was past his prime, but respected his accomplishments and were thrilled to see him play up close. Well, for all four games that he played for the Mets. After striking out 3 times in a game on May 9, 1965 Yogi retired. I thought this kinda hasty but Yogi set his own standards. In 1950, in only three shy of 600 at bats, he only struck out twelve times. More about Yogi when he gets his own post, which he will, because Yogi's story isn't over til it's over.

He was so well known and loved by everyone, and there are so many stories and, of course, Yogisms, that I won't even get into them here. Read all about him.

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The seeds were planted some time ago and the first group that was to become the '69 Mets are in place and ready to blossum. Its cool enough that two of those guys actually did share a '65 Topps rookie card ( Ron Swoboda & Tug McGraw), but oh how I wish all four were really on one card.

And how I wish I was at Shea for Willie Mays first appearance there. That is Al Jackson going after the Sey Hey Kid above^. I had never seen the area right behind home plate as it looked when Shea opened.

And damn, look at that TV camera!>
I'm gonna say Willie popped out there.>

Much thanks to Neil Leifer whos amazin' baseball photos, like the Mays here, have thrilled me to no end and I am using without permission. I hope you don't mind Mr Leifer. Read about Neil here.

Thanx to Batmagadanleadoff for the pic of Warren Spahn leaving town and all the great Met photos he shares at the CPF. Also to psacardfacts.com for their priceless hi rez baseball card images.

Shea Stadium History Part Two -------------------- The Perfect Fathers Day

 June 21 1964. Fathers Day. The Philadelphia Phillies were in a pennant race. The Mets, as usual, were in last place.

Due to some bad weather earlier in the season the Mets had to face the Phils five times over the weekend for their last meeting in June at Shea. They lost a twi-night double header on Friday. On Saturday night they kicked some Phillie butt, with both Joe Christopher and Chris Canazzaro smacking two homers each.

 

1963 Mets Fantazy cards^

Sunday was Fathers Day, now becoming a traditionally scheduled double header at Shea, and the New Yorkers would be contending with two of Philadelphia's best pitchers, All Star Jim Bunning and rookie Rick Wise.

1964Topps Jim Bunning & Rick Wise Rookie Cards^

The Mets lost both games of this double bill as well, and even though the game two win launched the illustrious career of Rick Wise, it's the first game that became a historic one.

Bunning, the lanky right handed ace of the Phils was 2-0 against New York so far in 1965. He would continue to dominate on this day, mowing down one Met after another.

Bunning was firing on all pistons. The Mets only hit two balls hard that afternoon. One was a drive to the right field wall that was foul by a foot off the bat of Ed Kranepool.



The other was a liner in the hole between first and second by Jesse Gonder in the fifth inning. It looked to be a sure single to right but fleet footed Philly second baseman Tony Taylor projected himself through the air and into the hole, knocking down the sharp drive and throwing out the not so fleet footed Gonder. That was the biggest threat and a perfect game saver. The rest of the game was in Bunnings complete control.

Bunning wasn't being superstitious. When Taylor came into the dugout after making the great play he thanked him enthusiastically.
He continued to gab about the perfecto to anyone in the dugout who'd listen. And they all listened.
 

He struck out ten of the twenty-seven Mets he faced that day. Jim Hickman K'd 3 times. The rest were scattered amongst the entire Met lineup. Casey Stengel threw three pinch hitters up against him. All failed to do their job. The Phils Johnny Callison and Dick Allen, their big guns, did damage but the most was done by catcher Gus Triandos who had two hits, 2 RBI and a run scored. Jim Bunning himself had a two RBI double! Quite a day for the future U.S.Senator from Kentucky. It was the first perfect game in baseball since Don Larsons classic perfecto in the 1956 World Series. No National League pitcher had thrown a perfect game since 1880!

^^^^1964mfc Perfect Fathers Day Fantazy card^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You can view the game statistics here at the Ultimate Mets Data Base:>>Perfect game stats.
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I consider it worthy of note that the Mets got all of three hits versus rookie Rick Wise in the second game. They even scored their first run of the day without a hit in the 2nd inning. A walk, a wild pitch, an error and a ground out. Tony Taylor made the error. New York finally got their first hit of the day in the third inning, a single by Joe Christopher. This was Rick Wise's first MLB win! He would go on to pitch in the majors until 1982 and accumulate 188 career wins.
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A perfect fathers day for Jim Bunning. A not so great day for Met fans. But still, this was a perfect game. At Shea Stadium. Any fan there must have had to be thrilled to be a witness to such a feat. I would have. I think around the eighth or so I would have started cheering Bunning on.

The Bullitin Board

___64t 3-D Fantazy Card^

Traditional red/cyan 3-D glasses required to view the 3-D effect.
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Phillies celebrate Jim Bunnings perfect game at Shea Stadium,
June 21, 1964.

Jim Bunning with his wife and daughter after game.

 CREDITS: Ultimate Met Data Base / Batmagadanleadoff of the CPF for the Chris Cannizzaro pictures that became his 63 Fleer card / Chef Bill & Lpeters from Baseball Fever for the 3-D images they shared and for sharing how to do that.

 ________>>On a side note I went to school with Tony Taylors twin nephews Mario and Richard from 1970 to 1972, and they were very proud of their uncle, and that play he made in this game.

                                   Updated 8/14/14

Shea Stadium History Pt. One- The House That Shea Built: 1964-1980

Early drawings of Shea in its planning phase:

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Many years before the New York Metroplitans were born the site where Shea Stadium would be built (& Citi Field today)was the setting for the "Valley of the Ashes" in F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic book The Great Gatsby.
____________________Some aerial views.

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_________Notable places from the book The Great Gatsby^
This information was shared by Strawman at Baseball Fever.com.
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In 1960, the National League agreed to grant an expansion franchise to the owners of the New York franchise in the aborted Continental League, provided that a new stadium be built. Mayor Robert Wagner, Jr. had to personally wire all National League owners and assure them that the city would build a park.

On October 6, 1961, the Mets signed a 30-year stadium lease, with an option for a 10-year renewal. Rent for what was originally budgeted as a $9 million facility was set at $450,000 annually, with a reduction of $20,000 each year until it reached $300,000 annually.

The Mets' inaugural season was played in the Polo Grounds, with original plans calling for the team to move to a new stadium in 1963. Construction began in '62. In October, Mets official Tom Meany said, "Only a series of blizzards or some other unforeseen trouble might hamper construction." That unforeseen trouble surfaced in a number of ways: the severe winter of 1962–1963, along with the bankruptcies of two subcontractors and labor issues. The end result was that both the Mets and Jets played at the Polo Grounds for one more year.

It was originally to be called "Flushing Meadow Park Municipal Stadium" – the name of the public park on which it was built – but a movement was launched to name it in honor of William A. Shea, the man who brought National League baseball back to New York.

             

The Shea scoreboard was an ambitious undertaking that never really worked out as planned. Quite a bit ahead of its time, the slide show on the screen above the board only worked for a short period and intermittently. The novel concept was soon discontinued. It was replaced by a giant Met logo, which was pretty damn cool. When I first saw the scoreboard the logo was up there. I figured it was built that way, with a big box on top for the logo. I didn't find out until a few years later that they tried to project images up there on that thing. Amazin'.

[I've been up in that scoreboard and I hope to add that story here as this page is constructed.]

After 29 months and $28.5 million, Shea Stadium opened on April 17, 1964, with the Pittsburgh Pirates beating the Mets 4–3 before a crowd of 50,312. The stadium opened five days before the 1964-65 New York World's Fair across Roosevelt Avenue from the stadium. Although not officially part of the Fairgrounds, the stadium sported steel panels on its exterior in the blue-and-orange colors of the Fair. The panels were removed in 1980 when the stadium was refurbished.
This is a film provided by Steven Lambias of Shea Stadium during the 1964 season. Notice that the slideshow above the scoring area was working as intended. At least for one player, Willie Mays.

______________Frank Robinson fields a ball in the
______________1969 World Series as Nolan Ryan looks
______________on from the Mets plexi-glass bullpen.

______^This is how Shea looked when I first saw her. ^

          I envy the person that owns this model of Shea.

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Much of the text for this post can be found at wikipedia.