Cornerstones of any Mets collection
You know, I’m not doing enough fluff pieces on here. While I continue to scan cards for some more significant pieces, here’s a quick look at a few nice Mets cards. If you want to berate me for not including any cards from Tom Seaver, Gary Carter, David Wright, or Victor Zambrano, feel free to leave a comment with your suggestions. Maybe I’ll even throw another of these together to fill space sometime.
1997 Upper Deck Game Jersey Rey Ordonez GJ3
There are few more significant jersey cards in baseball card history than Ordonez’s 1997 Game Jersey insert. Actually, there are two, number GJ1 and number GJ2 from this set. Ordonez is the odd man out in the debut jersey card set behind Ken Griffey Jr. and Tony Gwynn. Still, this is the first piece of Mets jersey issued in a baseball card and helped to usher in a new era of collecting.
2000 Upper Deck Game Jersey Patch Mike Piazza P-MP
While Rey Ordonez has the distinction of having the first Mets jersey card, Mike Piazza became the first Met with a patch card in 2000 (let’s not talk about 1998 and 1999, at least not until I finish the next Mets Game-Used History segment). Nearly impossible to pull at the time, this card still commands a decent price despite the multitude of Piazza patch cards on the market. There’s only one first and this one is it. Piazza has gone on to have countless patch cards released and more than 60 other Mets players have joined him.
2001 Upper Deck Signed Game Jersey Nolan Ryan Mets H-NRm
Nolan Ryan may be one of the biggest stars to come up through the Mets system, but he didn’t really do much as a Met. That doesn’t stop the card companies from celebrating Ryan’s time on the team though. Pieces of one of Ryan’s Mets jerseys (flannel pinstripes) began showing up in cards as early as 2000, typically depicting him in a Rangers uniform. Upper Deck gave all of Ryan’s teams their proper respect in 2001’s Game Jersey inserts. Between the base jersey, signed jersey, and dual jersey inserts, Ryan was featured in every uniform with pieces from the appropriate jersey. This Mets version includes a large (by today’s standards) swatch of pinstriped jersey with an on-card autograph. Short of an autographed Mets patch card (see 2011 Topps), this is about as good as it gets for Ryan memorabilia.
2010 Upper Deck A Piece of History 500 Club Gary Sheffield 500HR-GS
Gary Sheffield became the first player to hit his 500th home run as a Met in 2009 and Upper Deck commemorated it in 2010 with the final entry (so far) in the A Piece of History 500 Club bat card insert set. As with the other cards in this product, the card features barely cropped and/or obscured logos, which Upper Deck was not allowed to use. The product may have doomed Upper Deck, but this card remains a key piece of Mets history.
2011 Topps Marquee Titanic Threads Jumbo Relics Carlos Beltran TTJR-69
Released after Beltran had been traded to the Giants, this card might seem a bit out of place. Its significance however cannot be overstated. The included jersey swatch, big enough to feature three pinstripes on some versions, isn’t notable just because Carlos Beltran wore it. The Beltran jersey cards in this product are in fact the only cards to feature a piece of Mets pinstripe jersey worn between about 2009 and 2011. All others are either from before the recessed mesh style Cool Base jerseys were adopted or after the Cool Base formula changed to a more standard weave for the 2012 season.
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