Some important additions to my Mets Opening Day Starting Lineup project

While trying to put together my collection of Mets' Opening Day starting lineups, I knew that there would be some difficult slots to fill.

There is actually one slot that can't be filled (2004 Ricky Gutierrez), and a second player that I don't believe has a card that will fit in a nine pocket page (2005 Eric Valent). I think I may be approaching Gavin to try to have a couple of custom cards made.

Along with these cards, there were a couple of players that I knew only had oddball issues as part of the New York Mets, and they didn't seem too easy to find, or at least at a decent price.

Part of the reason I knew that these players would have oddball cards is because there was a stadium giveaway set put out in parts during the 1991 season that was supposed to have every Mets player at that time in it. I don't know if it lived up to that claim, but I do know that it was the only way for me to get Mets cards for the following three players.

(L-R): 1991 Nobody Beats the Wiz New York Mets #86, #170, and #189

These perforated cards are smaller than standard size, which allows them to fit in the nine pocket pages for my binder.

Billy Cowan started in center field for the Mets in the 1965 season opener, and played in 82 games with the team before being traded to the Milwaukee Braves.

Ken Henderson started in right field for the Mets in the 1978 season opener, and played in 7 games with the team before being traded to the Cincinnati Reds.

If you want to read it, here is an interesting article about Mike Howard. He was a Rule V pick by the Mets from the Dodgers in 1978, and played 14 games for Mets in 1981, and 33 in 1982. He started in right field for the Mets in the 1983 season opener, and had the game winning RBI in the game. It was his last game in Major League Baseball.

Here are the backs of these cards.

(L-R): Billy Cowan; Ken Henderson; Mike Howard

These cards were on the For Sale / Trade list of Trading Card Database user NYMHall, who is selling his collection due to Parkinson's Disease. It is mostly a Mets collection, but there are a lot of other cards there as well.

If you want to see what he has available, you can click on the section you're looking at on his For Sale / Trade list that you're interested in, and follow the information there.

Since I was wanted to buy these cards from him, I also looked to see if I could find some other cards for my project.

1965 Topps #495

The condition of this card is fine for my project, although I don't think that I even noticed the writing of 'Cleon Jones' on Christopher's body before seeing this scan. The card is over 50 years old so I'm very forgiving.

(L-R): 1976 SSPC 1963 New York Mets Al Moran, and Dick Smith

I didn't see mainstream cards for these players among his cards but I do like these SSPC cards to fill holes in my binder.

Dick Smith only had one opening day start for the Mets, at 1st Base, in 1964. He played 20 games for the Mets in 1963, and 46 games for them in 1964.

Al Moran started opening day at SS for the Mets in 1963 and 1964. I still need to find a card to put fill the 1964 slot in my binder. Moran played 119 games for the Mets in 1963, and 16 for them in 1964.

Since people aren't always as familiar with the SSPC cards, here are the card backs:

With shipping, these six cards cost me $7.00, which I thought was very fair.

These cards effectively bring me to needing to find eight cards to complete my project. The number is actually twelve, but as I said in the beginning of the post, there are two cards that I will be unable to get, and to go with those, two of the cards that I need are for this year. They won't be hard to get. I just have to remember to look for them.

When I get the other eight slots filled,  the project won't end. There are quite a few slots that have cards in them that I'm sure I can find better cards to replace.

Players with only one card in my collection - 18

Let's continue the series of posts showing cards of five players with only one card in my collection.  I'm using sorting tools at The Trading Card Database to look through my collection on their site to see who only has one card, and then finding the first five names that I haven't posted yet. I'm also using the images from their site.

2000 Pacific #96

This card has been featured in this series of posts before, to recognize my only card of Zola Davis. I guess I forgot to look and see if I had more than this card of Damon Dunn. As it turns out, I don't.

Damon Dunn signed with the Browns before the 1999 season, and played one game with the team that season. The Browns sent him to the Berlin Thunder of NFL Europe, and upon returning he was among the Browns final cuts after their 2000 training camp. Dunn then signed with the New York Jets, and played with them during week 2. After being let go by the Jets, Dunn returned to the Browns and played three more games with the Browns in the 2000 season.

In 2001, Dunn played for the Los Angeles Xtreme of the XFL, and then signed with the Dallas Cowboys. He suffered an injury there, finishing his professional football career.

There are three parallels to this card that show Damon Dunn with the Browns. He also has cards with the Berlin Thunder in four sets after he was assigned to them by the Cleveland Browns.

2000 Advance Auto Parts Cleveland Browns

Lewis Sanders was drafted by the Browns in the 4th Round of the 2000 NFL Draft, and played four seasons with the Browns. He then moved on to play two seasons with the Texans, one with the Falcons and one with the Patriots.

Along with this oddball card, Sanders has a Browns card, and one parallel of it, in the 2000 Leaf Limited set for me to collect. He also has a base card and parallels with the Texans in the 2006 Topps Total set.

1984 Topps #54

This is Bobby Jones' sunset card. After participating in the Browns off-season weight and conditioning program, Jones did not report to training camp with the Browns in 1984. His agent said that he was prepared to sit out the year to become a free agent.

An interesting thing about Bobby Jones' career is that he never played college football. He made the Jets after a tryout with the team in 1978. However, I'm sure that Night Owl will find the cartoon on this card back just as interesting. (The back of Jones' 1983 card states that he is a third cousin of Furillo.)

Bobby Jones is also shown with the Browns on a 1984 Topps sticker that I need to find.

1994 Ted Williams Roger Staubach's NFL #69

I remember being very surprised many years ago to find out that former longtime Steelers head coach had played with the Cleveland Browns.

Chuck Noll played seven seasons at guard and linebacker with the Browns. After retiring at the age of 27, he began his coaching career. He spent six seasons as an assistant coach with the San Diego Chargers, and three with the Baltimore Colts, before being hired as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. When hired, he became the youngest head coach in NFL history at that time.

Although there were some photocards of Chuck Noll with the Browns during his playing days, this is the only standard football card to show him as a member of the Browns.

1996 Pacific Dynagon - Best Kept Secrets #BKS-8

Harold Bishop played for the Browns in their last season before the move to Baltimore.

The draft pick that the Browns traded to Tampa Bay to acquire Bishop, referenced on the card back above, was used by the Buccaneers to select Mike Alstott.

Bishop finished his NFL career playing for the Ravens in 1996, and the Steelers in 1998.

This is the only football card to show Bishop as a player with the Browns, even though the card lists him with the Ravens.

Opening my first 2019 football cards - 2019 Score blaster

This post has been pushed back for a while. A few weeks ago I saw that the local Walmart had 2019 Score football blasters for sale and decided to pick one up.

Here is what I found inside my eleven packs of twelve cards with a guaranteed blaster exclusive memorabilia card inside.

Pack 1:

A Raven for the first card of a 2019 pack that I open all year. What joy. Followed by a Bengal in the third spot. I can't contain the enthusiasm.

Oh, and yes, I'm aware that Mosley is no longer a Raven, but it is still a Ravens card.

And a Steeler base card appears, followed by the same Steeler as my first insert card I opened this year. Is it going to be like this?

Yes, I guess it is. Both inserts of the first pack being Steelers.

Oh, and to bring more laughter...  I looked up the rookies to see where they were drafted...Jaylen Smith is an undrafted free agent signed by the Ravens.

If you're curious, Preston Williams is an undrafted free agent signed by the Dolphins, and Deionte Thompson was drafted by the Cardinals.


Pack 2:

Okay, that's more like it! Seeing a Browns card showing right on top. Gotta love it!

I was happy enough when I opened this pack that I overlooked the fact that there was a Steeler hiding two cards behind the Brown.

And since I have a Browns card, I might as well show what the back of this year's Score base cards look like:

I like the clean back, but find a lot of things missing on the back. I wish there was a different photo on the back, more than one year of stats, and I miss the basic information on the player that used to be on the back of cards. You know stuff like height, weight, birthday, college, when the player was drafted.

Here is a scan that doesn't include a card from one of the Browns division rivals. I like the photo on the Calvin Ridley card.

The J.J. Watt parallel was the only Scorecard parallel in my blaster.

At first glance, Noah Fant's Iowa uniform looks like a Steeler one, but he was a first round pick of the Broncos. Riley Ridley was drafted by the Bears, and Dillon Mitchell by the Vikings.

Pack 3:

Another Ravens card here of an ex-Raven with Flacco now in Denver.

Second Browns card of the pack!

Although I had purchased this blaster before my last card show, I posted about the card show first so you saw this Nick Chubb All-Hands Team card in the card show post. However, I didn't post the back there, and have decided that I will with new Browns cards I pull from packs.

What a reminder of a great play!

Rashan Gary was a first round pick of the Packers, Damien Harris was drafted by the Patriots, and Alexander Mattison was drafted by the Vikings.

Pack 4:

I will assume that the photo of Dee Ford is him coming out of the smoke before a game. I like that it is a different photo.

And here is my guaranteed relic card. Looking at the Defenders Jerseys checklist, there is a Browns card to chase on it, of Jabril Peppers. I don't think I will be buying any more blasters to try and get one though.

I look at these rookies, and remember that Drew Lock and D.K. Metcalf were both drafted in the second round by the Broncos and Seahawks respectively.

I had to look up that Darrell Henderson was drafted by the Rams, and Jachai Polite by the Jets.

Pack 5:

Another player running out of the smoke. At least that is the photo, and the smoke isn't the border design of the card.

I'm happy to see Nick Mullens get a card in the set since Jimmy Garoppolo will be back from injury and I didn't think that they would show two quarterbacks from one team.

I'm not really a big fan of parallels of inserts like this gold parallel of the NFL Draft insert of Bengals' draft pick Ryan Finley.

Should I bother pointing out yet another Steelers insert card?

Some more rookies to look up, and one with something that I hadn't seen before, a last name starting with an X. (After a quick search in the names section on the TCDB, it appears he is the first football player on the site to have a last name starting with X.)

Oshane Ximines is a Giants draft pick, as is Darius Slayton, while Trace McSorley was drafted by the Ravens.

Pack 6:

Steelers and Ravens. It sure seems like I'm getting more of them than any other team.

I like the powder blue Chargers uniform.

Have we seen any Steelers insert cards in this blaster? Will there be more?

As for the rookies, Daniel Jones was the Giants first round pick, while Travis Homer was drafted by the Dolphins, and Darwin Thompson was drafted by the Chiefs.

Pack 7:

I always wonder if I should do what some of the other bloggers do, I think Night Owl was the first that I saw do it, and keep track of how many cards that I got from each team. It just seems like a lot of work. I'm sure that the Steelers are winning though.

It appears as though parallel cards are in addition to two insert cards in each pack.

Back to back Josh Allen cards between the last two scans, but not of the same player. This Josh Allen was the first round pick of the Jaguars in this year's draft. Gardiner Minshew was also drafted by the Jaguars, while Marquise Brown was the first round pick of the Ravens, and Terry Godwin was drafted by the Panthers.

Pack 8:

I actually like the photos on all four cards in this scan. I'll even excuse the fact that one of them is on a Bengals card.

Okay, combine this Mike Williams card with the Nick Chubb card earlier, and I think that I really like the All-Hands Team insert set.

Okay, I just went and looked at the gallery at the TCDB for the ten card insert set. Some really cool photos, but then I see that two of the ten cards in the insert set are Steelers. I don't know how I didn't get them.

LJ Scott's card made me think for a bit. He was an undrafted free agent that went to a minicamp with the Ravens, before signing with the Browns. Two days after signing with the Browns, he decided to not play football.

For my collection purposes, if LJ Scott hadn't have attended the Ravens camp, and would have signed with the Browns right away as an undrafted free agent, I would feel that his card should be part of my Browns collection, even after he decided to leave the team after two days. If, even after going to the Ravens camp, he had made the Browns, and made a contribution, I would likely add this card to my collection. Since he wasn't an original Browns signee, and didn't make the Browns, and the card is with his college team, I can ignore this card.

Julian Love was drafted by the Giants, and Elijah Holyfield was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Panthers. If you're curious, yes, Elijah is Evander Holyfield's son.

Pack 9:

A third smoke shot is starting to make me feel it isn't as uncommon as I thought it might be.

I was surprised to pull the two Jimmy Garoppolo cards back to back.

I can't think of pulling a base card and a parallel version of it back to back in a pack before. I know I have pulled two of the same base card back to back in a pack before, but not from any recent sets.

After I asked earlier, did any of you think that you wouldn't see another Steelers insert from this blaster?

The rookies are Byron Murphy, a Cardinals draft pick, Kyle Shurmur, an undrafted free agent signing of the Chiefs, and Ed Oliver, a first round pick of the Bills.

Pack 10:

I couldn't remember who Blake Bortles signed with after the Jaguars released him. For any of you that are curious, it was the Rams.

I like the Signal-Callers insert set too.

A draft insert of Daniel Jones to go with his base card earlier.

As for the other players, Karan Higdon signed with the Texans as an undrafted free agent, T.J. Hockenson was the Lions first round pick, and Lil'Jordan Humphrey signed with the Saints as an undrafted free agent.

That brings us to the final pack of the blaster, and one last chance to pull a Browns card for my collection.

Pack 11:

No, I didn't say it was the last chance to pull a Ravens card, I said Browns card. C'mon, blaster, you can do better than that.

Kelvin Harmon, on the gold parallel card, was drafted by the Redskins.

There we go!

Mack Wilson was a fifth round pick of the Browns, while Parris Campbell was drafted by the Colts, and Amani Oruwariye was drafted by the Lions.

Here is the back of the Mack Wilson card:

Hopefully Wilson has a great season with the Browns this year.

So, in looking at the numbers, the blaster contains 132 cards and there are 32 teams. Not taking into any account whether there is even distribution per team in the base set, and how many teams are represented in insert sets, if there was a perfect distribution of cards per team in the blaster, I could expect just over four Browns cards in the blaster. I got three. Not bad, being just a little under average. Without counting, there are a lot more than four Steelers in my blaster, and I'm guessing that the Ravens are on the high side as well.

I like the Score cards, and over the last couple of weeks have picked up two 40 card value packs. I'll show what I got in them in my next post.