Off Hiatus and On Point! (Cards from Tony)

I recently had the pleasure of completing a Brewers-for-Mets swap with Tony of Off-Hiatus Baseball Cards. What he sent me far out-weighed what I sent out.  Just chalk up another 'W' for the spirit of blogger generosity!

Tony's delivery satisfied a number of itches within my Mets want list, but he really knocked it out of the park with late '70s and early '80s Topps cards.  I mean, he spanked the heck out of my lists from that era!  I'll save those for last, however.

In the meantime, enjoy some of the other treasures from the package...

Like so many others from pre-2011, the 2008 Heritage cards are sorely lacking in my Mets collection.

I believe Nick from Dime Boxes would call this Johnny Estrada card a "zero year" card.  The Mets obtained Estrada from the Brewers in exchange for Guillermo Mota in November of 2007 and promptly granted him release the following month.  Therefore, he never played a game for New York.  Thus, it's very strange that he wound up on a 2008 card in a Mets uniform.

I never understood why Ken Griffey Jr. graces the bottom of these cards.  Furthermore, what does he say? We're all waiting anxiously!  I'm too lazy to look such things up, so if you know the answers please feel free to share!

Regardless of what Junior says, I like these Goudey cards.

A very Duda-esque look on the face of the Mets first baseman.

This is an Upper Deck base card of Franco's I had never seen before.  Love it!

Ditto for this horizontal shot of Tom Glavine from 2004 UD.

A rookie of the "Japanese Jeter" (aka Kaz Matsui) is always a weclome addition to the collection!

Now this is a scary face from Bret Saberhagen.  I imagine he wore something similar shortly before squirting bleach at reporters in the Mets clubhouse during the infamous 1993 season.

A former 20-game winner for the Amazins, Frank Viola continues to do good things for the organization as the pitching coach for Triple-A Las Vegas.  His work with future-aces like Matz and Syndergaard is very apparent.

A pair of Keiths from '85 Topps that were ashamedly absent from my collection heretofore.

As was this Ray Knight, which happens to be my favorite of his base cards as a Met.

Ugh, please don't remind us!!

Here's a prescription from the Doctor to help wipe away the side effects of that terrible trade...

One dose is probably not enough.  Gonna need more.

Okay, I think the treatment is staring to kick in.

Ah, that's the stuff, I can hardly feel the pain at this point.

Pain?  What pain?

Feelin' better than ever!  Man, what a one-two combo these guys would be at the top of your rotation.

Does this treatment cause hallucinations?  I thought I just saw Doc and Pete Rose on a card together.

Okay, no more "pills" from the Doctor.  At least for right now.

Hey, it's my first card non-Rookie Prospects of Dan Norman!  Yet another name is scratched from the All-Time Mets Project want list!  Norman, with a hand-scrawled No. 8 on his warm-up jacket and all, batted .230 over four years as a Met, exclusively as a part-time player.

As you can tell, we've now transitioned to the late '70s and early '80s portion of the post.  This '79 Topps Craig Swan put the finishing touches on my team set from that year!  I didn't even realize I was one card shy, but it's pretty cool to know I've knocked out my very first Mets team set from the '70s.

These two from '84 bring me to within four cards from having the complete Topps team set from that year.  Interestingly, one of the players I'm missing is Craig Swan.  What is it with that guy?

We now click back a year to 1983...

The highlights of this page for me are Hubie and Wally.  A couple of early cards from a pair of fan favorites.

Speaking of fan faves, it's always fun to get a new card or two of Rusty Staub!

From what I've read, Dave Kingman was a real jerk-and-a-half.  Do with that what you will.

These additions leave me just three cards shy of the '83 Topps Mets set.  Would you believe me if I told you that Craig Swan was one of those cards.  It's true.

Onto 1982!

It goes without saying, the Mets were not very good during this time period.

This lot leaves me just three shy of a complete '83 Mets team set.  Shockingly, Craig Swan is NOT among the missing!  The bottom three cards of the above scan, by the way, are from the Traded set, which means I now have all four Mets cards from that edition!  [Ed. Note: The fourth Mets card from '82 Traded is George Foster, FYI, already safely tucked into my collection.]

How about 1981, next?

Even with these pickups, I'm still only at the halfway point of the Mets team from '81 Topps.  And, yes, of course, Swan is among the M.I.A.

Finally, we come to a set that is very much on my radar: 1977 Topps.

A really nice looking group here, especially the Matlack.  Oh, and that card in the top left corner is pretty good, also.

WOOOOO!!!!!  Forget the Mets collection for a moment, this one is was missing from my 1977 Topps set checklist, so that's where it's ticketed for.  Tom Terrific was one of remaining 'big fish' that was missing from my pursuit of this awesome set.  Such a great feeling to have it crossed off now!  Of course this means that I'll now have to track down another copy of this card for my Mets collection, but them's the breaks.

And, in case you're wondering, I actually do have Craig Swan's card from '77 Topps.  Counting the Seaver, I'm just three shy of making the complete team set.

Tony, thanks a million for all these great additions to my Mets ledger!!  I look forward to future exchanges with ya!

MK