A great injustice on display with the No. 7 Topps card of all time

It’s a remarkable rookie card to be sure.

One of the two players is in the discussion as the second-best Mets pitcher. The other guy was traded for an accordion player.

And check this out. Between the two pitchers on this card, there are 546 wins, 8,270 strikeouts, seven no-hitters – and not a single Cy Young Award. How is that even possible?

One of them joins Tom Seaver with a beautiful plaque in the Hall of Fame -- the one in Queens. The other is in Cooperstown with Tom, but he’s wearing the wrong cap.

In all seriousness, the gulf between Jerry Koosman and Nolan Ryan isn’t that great. Ryan’s career winning percentage is .526, Koosman’s is .515, and pitched for some far worse teams, I might add. Ryan’s ERA is 3.19, Koosman’s is 3.36.

Koosman got just four votes when he was on the Hall ballot in 1991, and Ryan somehow got 98.79 percent of the ballots in his first year, and even swiped what was rightfully Tom Seaver’s slot on the All-Century Team.

Let’s look at the post-season. Koosman is 4-0, including two wins in the World Series, even taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning. Ryan is 2-2, and his only World Series appearance is 2.3 innings of Agee-aided relief.

One more cool Koosman fact: He was discovered by the son of a Shea Stadium usher who caught Koosman when he pitched in the Army at Fort Bliss Texas, he had written to his dad about Koosman. The Mets offered Koosman a contract after his discharge.

So, yeah, Jerry Koosman’s rookie card is pretty special, the seventh-best Topps card of all time. Nolan Ryan is on it, too.

Topps Top 60 Cards part 3: Music, milestones and a mascot

Continuing our march through the top 60 Topps cards of all time, it appears that this third installment also happens to include a fair number of cards from a certain, Queens-based baseball team.


No. 40: 1972 Jim Fregosi Boyhood Photo
Jim Fregosi: All-Star infielder, killer accordion player. Trading Nolan Ryan probably made a lot more sense to fans once this card came out and they learned that Fregosi was a man of many skills. Most of the boyhood cards in the magnificent 1972 set showed the players in their Little League uniforms. Not Fregosi. No, he’s brandishing that massive accordion, ready to burst out a lethal version of “Lady of Spain.” And the crazy thing is the back of the card details Jim youth league exploits and never once mentions his apparent musical skills.


No. 39: 2006 Oliver Perez
Perez is one of those players who seem to always have a sharp-looking action card. But I like this one best. Because if Ollie is on the bench, then he’s not in the game, walking the bases loaded and then giving up a grand slam. The odds of the Mets winning increase dramatically if Ollie is not playing.


No. 38: 1979 Ed Kranepool
In the days when card companies released only one set a year, Steady Eddie undoubtedly held the record for most appearances on cardboard by a Met. But 1979 was the last of his 18 seasons. This photo almost looks like Krane is tipping his cap to fans saluting him for a fine career.


No. 37: 1973 Yogi Berra
Topps rarely added coaches to the manager cards, and it was nice to see Rube Walker, Roy McMillin, Eddie Yost and Joe Pignatano getting some recognition in the 1973 and 1974 sets.


No. 36: 1989 Lenny Dykstra
I met Dykstra at a card show in Manhattan around the time this card came out. He seemed really nice when I asked him too sign my Mets book, and to add his nickname “Nails.” He did – and spelled it wrong, realized the error and tried to fix it. Sharpies are unforgiving. He sheepishly slid the book back across the table.


No. 35: 2007 Mr. Met
Topps started to give Mr. Met and less-worthy mascots some love the Opening Day sets. Note the assistant with the T-shirt launcher. I’m reminded of the television ad with Mr. Met sneaking into the empty stands before a game and launching shirts at an unsuspecting grounds crew member, then attempting to duck behind a seat. “Dude, I can see like 80 percent of your head!”


No. 34: 1964 Jim Hickman
The 1962 Mets were a collection of faded stars, the under-skilled and a few youngsters with some potential. Count Hickman in the last category. He was a solid player and holds some milestones, including being the first Met to hit for the cycle. He hit the last homer in the Polo Grounds and was the first Met to hit three homers in one game. He also was the last of the original Mets. Hickman later represented the Cubs in the 1970 All-Star Game and smashed the 12th-inning hit that drove Pete Rose around third and barreling into Ray Fosse.


No. 33: 1976 Rusty Staub
This portrait of a smiling Daniel Joseph Staub makes it pretty clear how he came to be known as “Rusty,” and “Le Grande Orange,” hero to Canadians. Alas, Staub was know by another name by the time this card came out: Detroit Tiger right fielder. Yet another bad trade by the Mets, and incoming Mickey Lolich didn’t even play the accordion.


No. 32: 2000 Robin Ventura
Ventura’s Grand Slam Single in the rain during the 15th inning of Game 5 of the 1999 NLCS is easily one of the Mets most glorious post-season memories. But there have actually been two other grand slam singles, though none as dramatic. In 1970, the Tigers’ Dalton Jones accidently passed teammate Don Wert while rounding the bases. And on July 4, 1976 Fox broadcaster and know-it-all Tim McCarver must have been too enthralled by the bicentennial celebration because he passed teammate Garry Maddox. As for Ventura, the lighting on this 2000 card is just perfect.


No. 31: 1969 Nolan Ryan
And we close out the first third of our countdown with Nolan Ryan, before he was traded for a musician. Look closely at Nolan’s glove. That would be the ball nestled in the webbing. Ryan was famous for his blazing fastball, supposedly throwing so hard that batters could barely see it. Or, as this card suggests, Ryan was just really good at the old hidden ball trick.

For every hello, there is a goodbye: Metdom painted over

Having solved the Rusty Staub airbrush mystery, we can now head over to the other side of the equation. For every new Met added to the roster, there has to be a farewell – some sadder than others.

Like the incoming Mets with poorly disguised paint jobs, there are outgoing players still showing evidence of Metdom on their Topps cards of the 1970s.

The Mets made a lot of moves after the 1971 season, sending Topps artists into overtime.

Lots of heartbreak here, the most famous being the Nolan Ryan card. No reason to rehash that disaster.

Almost as sad is the sight of Ron Swoboda on a Yankees card with his regal Mets blue cap and pinstripes. Rocky in my mind is forever diving in Shea’s right field, but he was actually traded to the Expos with Rich Hacker at the end of spring training in 1971 for Don Hahn.

He went to the Yankees in June of that season, so his Topps card is actually two teams old, and without a decent excuse since the vile ones play right there in the Homeland, where Topps is based.

The Ron Taylor and Art Shamsky card in that set doesn’t elicit as much sadness, since they were going to places not as tainted. But they are reminders of he dismantling of the 1969 team, which continued into the next season.

Taylor went on to be the team doctor for the Blue Jays, which is pretty cool.

Shamsky gets points for continuing to keep the memory of 1969 alive, and is behind several of the anniversary efforts.

Then there is the sad case of Bobby Pfeil, shown here with a hint of his Mets lettering with his air-brushed Red Sox cap. The light-hitting mostly infielder only played in the majors in parts of two seasons, 1969 with the Mets and 1971 with the Phillies.

But note his transactions, as documented by baseball-reference.com:

April 7, 1965: Traded by the Cubs with Hal Gibson to the Cardinals for Bob Humphreys.
Before 1968 Season: Sent from the Cardinals to the Mets in an “unknown transaction.”

May 26, 1970: Sent by the Mets to the Phillies to complete an earlier deal made on April 10, 1970. The Mets sent a player to be named later to the Phils for Ron Allen.

February 8, 1972: Traded by the Phils to the Brewers for a player to be named later. The Brewers sent Chico Vaughns (minors) (March 25, 1972) to the Phils to complete the trade.

March 20, 1972: Purchased by the Boston Red Sox from the Brewers.

A couple things to note here. Pfeil played for two teams between the Mets and the Red Sox, so Topps was using a really old photo.

And second, what the heck is “an unknown transaction?” Did Bobby stow away with the Mets equipment bags? Did he just kind of show up in spring training like Willie Mays Hayes? Imagine the conversation in the Mets front office.

“Hey, nice move getting Pfeil. But who did we give up for him?”

“I didn’t make a deal. I thought you did.”

“Well, might as well let him stay, since he’s got a uniform and everything.”

The dismantling of the champs continued with the 1973 set. Newcomers Felix Millan and George Stone got what Will calls the nostril treatment, shot from below the chin to the cap logo can’t be seen. But the departing Mets had no such luck.

Gary Gentry has his new Braves cap painted on, but still his Mets pinstripes. And poor Dave Marshall.

The light-hitting outfielder went to the Padres, where his career died in mustard yellow. Topps painted his cap, and even gave him a yellow collar – put left the Mets blue pinstripes, as if to say, “We started to give a darn, but got distracted by lunch.”

Alas, they set the stage for the abomination that is the Tommie Agee card..
Picking up Agee was one of the Mets most inspired trades, snagging him, and fellow World Series hero Al Weis from the White Sox for Tommy Davis, Buddy Booker, Jack Fisher and Billy Wynne.

Alas, his departure yielded no great returns. Tommie became an Astro for Rich Chiles and Buddy Harris, neither of whom would leave their mark on the franchise.

But apparently the deal could have been worse. In what can only be described as a mass air-brushing in the 1973 set, Topps also colored Astros uniforms on Rusty Staub and Ken Boswell or Buddy Harrelson, I’m not sure which one that is. This is, in fact, Staub’s only appearance in the 1973 set.

Rusty, of course, came up with the Astros, and Boswell would end up there after the 1974 season. At least he got to see how he'd look as an Astro.

The glorious 1974 set was without incident, but the trouble picks up again in 1975.
Ray Sadecki was traded for Joe Torre just after the 1974 season.

What I never realized was that he became a Met again, signing as a free agent at the tail end of spring training in 1977, pitching only three innings before being released in early May.

Sadecki’s faux Cards card is another schizophrenic Topps effort. The Mets pinstripes are gone, but the buttons remain – along with a Cardinals pull-over collar.

And, finally, we end up back at poor Rusty Staub. Traded by the Mets at the end of the 1975 season, we see Rusty in the traded set with a painted on Old English D. It’s actually a decent job by Topps standards. The pinstripes are gone, replaced by the Tigers road gray with the orange and navy blue collar.

The card, of course, is the reminder of one of the Mets worst trades. The tragedy of the Ryan deal is not that he was sent out, because he didn’t like New York and was never going to be as successful here. It’s that the team didn’t get more than the broken down Jim Fergosi in return.

The Staub deal was just a fiasco all around. The Mets thought Mike Vail’s hot tail end of the season – pre basketball injury – would easily replace Rusty, who went on to be an All-Star for the Tigers.

The Mets got an older player in Mickey Lolich who, like Ryan, wanted no part of the Big Apple. Which just shows that you can airbrush a logo, but not a smile.