Congrats To My Metsies!

Please forgive my lack of posts,for I have been In a bit of a trance due to this years  Mets epic playoff run. I'm not about to go off on some long prophetic rant about how I knew the Mets would make It Into the World Series because frankly, I knew that It could have gone either way.I liked our chances and knew that our pitching would show up,I just wasn't sure about our offense.I certainly wouldn't have foreseen the big blue  machine that was Daniel Murphy throughout pretty much the entire playoffs.To me,Murph was  the epitome of a player making the most out of an opportunity.He knew the size and importance of the stage he was on ,and  put on one hell of a show.The Mets can be streaky.We can go a week without hitting the ball,and then turn around and rake for two weeks.Our stretch of  timely hitting couldn't have come at a better time.I don't have cable,so I was forced to watch every game on MLB's Gameday,pitch by pitch.It really wasn't so bad.In fact It was cool to see every pitch location ,determining what calls the umps were getting wrong.At some points In the game,I felt like Mets pitching was being squeezed a bit,but no use In crying over spilled milk.We're advancing and that's all that matters right now.I'm still In shock of It all but should be back to normal as the excitement wears down.The Dodgers made things interesting and Justin Turner was a thorn In our side throughout.Adrian Gonzalez wasn't the force that I expected him to be,which In hindsight was  a good thing. The Cubs definitely had presence.Every guy In that lineup could hurt you in various ways.From game 1 all the way to 4 ,I think I came up for air once.I did ,however, expect more out of them,and I don't think I'm alone In that sentiment.I know they'll be back with a vengeance next year.In the meantime,looks like I'll be keeping tabs on the Jays and Royals to see who we get to match up against.

Honorable Mentions-

Bartolo Colon

Addison Reed

Michael Cuddyer

Kelly Johnson

John Niese

Celebrating The Undervalued and Quite Often Underrated Second Year Card

I love rookie cards just as much as the next guy or gal who collects baseball cards.It's a players first card.If your lucky enough to have picked up a players rookie card before his rise to super stardom,chances are you scored It In a pack or you paid very little for the single.On the other hand ,If  you had to see It to believe It, and decided to hold off until a particular player became an established star,then you probably ended up paying a fortune for his rookie card. I paid 70 bucks a couple years back for a 2001 set of Fleer Tradition,for the Pujols rookie.Then I sold It when I found myself needing the extra cash. I've since regretted getting rid of that Pujols  and while his rookie cards aren't nearly as expensive today as they were at the height of his popularity,I still wouldn't be able to afford one.Which led me to hop online and search for an earlier ,not quite as expensive as a rookie card but still a nice representation of  the Ruthian slugger a s a young buck. I came across a bunch of listings for Pujols's second year Topps card,a rookie cup card at that,all for about a buck a piece!What a difference a year makes,huh?It suddenly donned on me that this may become habit forming.From here on out ,I'm hunting down second year cards of  players whose rookie cards are just far too expensive to covet.A few names quickly come to mind.Vladimir Guerrero,David Ortiz,Alex Rodriguez,Mariano Rivera, and Rickey Henderson.I decided to dig through my collection to weed out  some of my favorite second year cards (In chronological order).

FRONT

BACK

Wait,what?!?Is that Placido Polanco on the back of the  great King Pujols's baseball card?!?No respect :( 

                                                                          

This Is one of my favorite Prince Fielder cards.The rookie cup logo and the full body shot shows how immense of a player Fielder was even In his younger years!

I recently picked up a Trout second year base card but had to pick up It's Chrome counterpart as well.  

This Is just an awesome shot of  Puig rounding the square bases ;) 

While still not an established super star,DeGrom Is well on his way.

Picking Up Where I Left Off

My card collecting days pretty much  ended  the night Jose Canseco was traded to Texas.I was an avid Canseco card collector as well as an A's fanatic,and right around that time (early 90's)the magic In Oakland had subsided along with my cardboard obsession. I still watched my Met games and kept up with Texas to see how J.C. was doing,but baseball cards would ultimately take a back seat to video games,sports,girls and video games ;) I wouldn't pick up another pack of baseball cards until '05-'06.The game had changed significantly and young studs like Prince Fielder and Ryan Zimmerman were just breaking into the league.Not to mention a switch hitting,fleet footed Dominican SS named Jose Reyes who had managed to make me a Met believer again.I was back In baseball mode ,and once again enamored by the on field antics and  dominance of a player named Jose!Reyes quickly became a personal favorite ,which meant that I was going to have to own his RC along with any other cardboard releases of New York's newest speed demon.Reyes along with guys like Fielder and Verlander made me want to "watch" baseball again.Collect again.I became a RC hound,searching them out online as well as In local card shops.I still bought the occasional pack but mostly enjoyed rounding up rookies.Flash forward to 2008.Much like Oakland In the early 90's ,Mets baseball had reached a low point.Reyes couldn't shake the injury bug ,much like Canseco In the tail end of his tenure In Oakland,and after a Madoff scheme ,a couple of losing years  highlighted by a N.L. batting title,Reyes was off to Miami.Again,my interest In the game and collecting had faded. Fortunately things are on the up and up these days for N.Y. and once again I enjoy watching the game.Matt Harvey ,Degrom and Lagares have sparked my interest  as far as collecting goes and It seems like I'll be looking to add some of their cards to the old collection.I don't see myself getting too deep into the hobby,though,just cherry picking players that I like and picking up a pack here and there.I'm not a huge "Auto" or "Game Used" collector but do enjoy running into one every now and then when opening packs.Maybe this will snowball out of control at some point but for now It's all about fun  In moderation.Below are some of the Reyes cards I picked up at the height of his career In N.Y.