Earlier this month, I noticed that Night Owl had a bunch of 80s Fleer cards and a few 80s Score cards on his want list. Since the boxes with those cards are just buried at the bottom of the hall closet (as opposed to burried deep in the attic, like most of my other 80s & 90s doubles), I checked to see what I had for him.

It turned out that I had maybe three dozen cards he wanted, so I sent those over along with a couple random Dodgers from Updates & Highlights packs that I had just opened.

In return for my unworthy contribution to his collection, I got all of these wonderful cards:

1973 Topps Wayne Garrett

Check out Shea Stadium seats, still in their original (?) colors visible in the background. That is definitely not the rainbow of colors I remember from my era of attending games at Shea.

1973 Topps Jon Matlack

Check out the other players’ gloves visible on the ground behind Matlack.

 

1975 Topps Ted Martinez

Great sideburns!

 

1975 Topps Harry Parker

Ok, who tilted the earth?

1979 Topps Dale Murray (Which year did Topps finally go to real action shots for the majority of the cards?)

1981 Topps Roy Lee Jackson

 

1983 Topps Wally Backman

Love the ’stache.

1984 Topps Scott Holman, Mets Team Leaders (Mookie Wilson and Tom Seaver) and NL Active Career ERA Leaders (Steve Carlton, Tom Seaver and Steve Rogers)

1991 Line Drive AAA Dale Plummer and Al Pedrique — I loved buying packs of these when I was a kid, wondering which players would be future stars. I think it would be fun to find some packs to open now & find out how everyone did.

 

1995 Score John Franco

I love cards picturing players signing autographs.

1998 Pacific Crown Collection John Franco and Alex Ochoa — bilingual cards!

2004 Bowman Heritage Victor Zambrano — My strongest memory of this guy is listening to part of his Mets’ debut game on the radio while I was on my way home from getting a root cannal. Dental visits turned out to be more fun than actually watching Zambrano pitch. Still, points for the cool wooden tv cabinet design of the Bowman Heritage card.

2006 Topps Roberto Hernandez and Chris Woodward

2006 Topps Opening Day Jose Reyes

 

2006 Topps Opening Day insert

I’ve never run across one of these before. I assume it’s from the Topps Opening Day set, but I probably shouldn’t since that makes a little too much sense.  I love Opening Day — it’s the one time in the season where every team still has a chance and it’s the first game of the year that counts. I don’t have any particular memories of Opening Day in 2006. The Mets won, 3-2, and Xavier Nady went 4-for-4 in his Mets debut, so it was a good start to the season.

 

2006 Topps Alay Soler Rookie Debut insert

This is another one I’ve never run across before, so I have no idea which set it was inserted it. Soler never quite lived up to expectations. I saw him pitch a few times this summer as a member of the Long Island Ducks. Nice guy, happy to sign autographs for the Mets fans who wanted him to… not so good on the mound.

2006 Bowman Heritage Shawn Green

2006 Upper Deck Duaner Sanchez

Thanks Night Owl! You sent me six cards I didn’t have, plus a bunch more that I enjoyed looking at. I’ll probably try to get some of the doubles signed.