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Beginning in 1956 and going all the way through to 1981, with a one year absence in 1969, Topps included team cards in its flagship sets.
Building the Set
December 4, 2021 from The Philly Show (Huggins & Scott Auctions, Silver Spring, MD) - Card #388
You'll be seeing this particular passage on my 1965 Topps blog for quite some time as we added a whopping 97 cards to our set during the December Philadelphia Sports Collectors Show. If I'm ambitious and compose posts for five cards a week, I should be completely caught up by the end of May. If I'm not as ambitious, I might still be going through this stack by the time we hit July. Either way, I'll enjoy the process and I'm looking forward to taking my time. I've posted a complete summary of this fantastic show over at The Phillies Room.
December 4, 2021 from The Philly Show (Huggins & Scott Auctions, Silver Spring, MD) - Card #388
You'll be seeing this particular passage on my 1965 Topps blog for quite some time as we added a whopping 97 cards to our set during the December Philadelphia Sports Collectors Show. If I'm ambitious and compose posts for five cards a week, I should be completely caught up by the end of May. If I'm not as ambitious, I might still be going through this stack by the time we hit July. Either way, I'll enjoy the process and I'm looking forward to taking my time. I've posted a complete summary of this fantastic show over at The Phillies Room.
This Mets team card, as well as the Tony Oliva (#340) card were my first two purchases of the show as we were still getting acclimated to the lay-out and the large crowd. The Mets card was marked as $20, but the dealer, Huggins & Scott Auctions from Silver Spring, Maryland, had a sign over his display that everything was 50% off. I considered this a bargain at $10, even for a 10th place team.
There's a whole lot of losses tallied up on the back of this card, led by Tracy Stallard (#491), Galen Cisco (#364), Jack Fisher (#93) and Al Jackson (#381). Their combined total of 72 losses accounted for 66% of the team's total losses, but you have to give them credit for taking the ball every fifth day. The picture above lists out who is featured in the team photo, with the exception of the three batboys seated in front of manager Casey Stengel (#187) and his coaching staff.
The photo used for this card was taken at some point after August 8, 1964. The Mets acquired Wayne Graham and Gary Kroll (#449) from the Phillies on August 7th for Frank Thomas (#123). A day later, they acquired Dennis Ribant (#73) from the Braves for Frank Lary (#127). The newly acquired Graham and Ribant are standing next to each other on the back row.
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1965 Season
Manager Stengel retired mid-way through the season after falling and breaking his hip, and pitching coach Wes Westrum guided the hapless Mets during the remainder of the summer. In their fourth year of existence, the team finished with a 50-112-2 record, losing a least 100 games for also the fourth year in a row. Right fielder Johnny Lewis (#277) was a bright spot, batting .245 with 15 home runs and 45 RBIs while leading the team with 64 runs scored and a .331 on-base percentage. Left fielder Ron Swoboda (#533) led the team with 19 home runs. Starting pitchers Fisher and Jackson each lost at least 20 games. Yogi Berra (#470), who had managed the Yankees in the 1964 World Series, signed with the Mets in the offseason and played in his final four games while also serving as the club's first base coach. In the June amateur player draft, pitcher Nolan Ryan was drafted by the Mets in the 12th round.
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| 2001 Topps Archives #247 |
For each team card featured, I'll be building a checklist of cards that could have been included in a 1965 Topps update set. I'm trying to come up with six potential cards for each team, and the Mets were an easy target given the vast number of players to suit up with them during the season.
- Wes Westrum - Westrum took over the club on an interim basis in July and was officially named their full-time manager in August.
- Chuck Hiller - Regular second baseman Chuck Hiller was sold by the Giants to the Mets in May, and he's in the set with the Giants (#531).
- Ron Swoboda - Swoboda had to share a Rookie Stars card with three other players and he'd get his own solo card in my update set.
- Tug McGraw - Tugger gets his own card too after being one of the other players on the card (#533) with Swoboda.
- Billy Cowan - Back-up outfielder Billy Cowan is in the set with the Cubs (#186) but he'd play 82 games for the Mets.
- John Stephenson - Back-up catcher John Stephenson made it into 62 games. He's in the 1964 and 1966 Topps set, but was skipped in 1965.
Baseball Reference
Wikipedia
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