1968 Fantazy Met Cards

The addition of Gil Hodges as manager and Tommie Agee in centerfield would help the Mets turn the corner in 1968. New York got Hodges from the Washington Senators and Agee from the Chicago White Sox through trades. The '69 miracle Mets puzzle was almost complete.

__________Met fans welcomed back Hodges with open arms.
Agee had a harder time of it, starting out very slow after being beaned by a Bob Gibson fast ball the first pitch of spring training. It would take a while before Tommie completely recovered. _________________________________________

Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman gave the Mets a right/left one-two punch in the pitching rotation. This was a new experience for Met fans. Both of these pitchers were good enough to be a staff ace.

Cleon Jones was coming into his own having batted .297 in 1968. He played mostly center field in 1966 and '67 and had become the Mets everyday left fielder in 1968. Cleon collected 151 hits and knocked out 14 home runs, a career high.
Ed Kranepool had first base to himself in 1968 after a failed experiment in which he and Ron Swoboda platooned at first base. He had a disappointing season. In 127 games he he batted .231 with 3 homers and 20 RBI.

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_____________________Mets 1967 Team Leaders____________

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Let's get this over with and put Ryan and Otis on the same '68 rookie card. Now we only have to be reminded of those two trades once. And I'll make the card real small so you can pass by it real quick. We did get some good innings out of Nolan in some very important games.

Salty Parker managed the Mets for 11 games at the end of 1967 after Wes Westrum stepped down. He worked in baseball his entire life, but he played in only 11 MLB games, in 1936. He was an MLB coach from 1958 to 1974 with two interum manager stints, the 11 games with the Mets and one game helming the Houston Astros.

Jonathan Stern posted this story at the Ultimate Met Database:
Salty was elected to Nash and Zullo's Baseball Hall of Shame for a bonehead move he made as third base coach for the Astros in 1969. In a late September game against the Braves, Houston's Norm Miller was on third base representing the tying run. Atlanta catcher Bob Didier was wearing a large white cast on his hand. At some point, pitcher Cecil Upshaw threw a fastball that knocked Didier's large white cast off his hand and toward the backstop.

From his position at third base, Parker thought that Didier's large white cast was the baseball. So he sent Norm Miller home!

Waiting for Miller at home plate was Didier, ball in hand and a big smile on his face. Miller was out. The Astros went on to lose the game.

And when it was all over, the Astros, according to Nash and Zullo, had some "salty words" for Parker.
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The great picture of Salty Parker (which, btw, I was searching years for) is from the web site Baseball-Birthdays. There you will find a great collection of rare baseball photos, colorization work, and more. Many talented people doing kool stuff there.

The 65 Mets Rookies Star Trek Mash up

I've always wondered, if Captain Kirk (the real Kirk, not Newy) and Spock went back in time, ya know, doing the slingshot thing, (probably to go to NASA again), what if they got stuck there for a time through some imaginative plot twist, and had to lay low until Scotty got back with the Enterprise. The plot explains (cause Im not going to) how they know they are stuck in 1965 for a year. So they hang around in Florida looking for work and they have no luck so on a whim they try out for the Mets. And of course they make the team.

>>>>>And are immortalized for all time on a baseball card.

Spock would have to have a first and last name for a baseball card. Initially I thought, yea, Spock would be an Ed. Ed Spock. That sounds right. But then I had that DUH moment where I thought, eureka! It's gotta be MISTER!

I had to do a little photoshoppin to get Kroll to look like Spock, but not that much. I didn't have to do a thing to Hinsley. I think he looks like Chris Pine.
Lil' bit.