Tag: Howard Johnson

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Mets baseball card of the week: 1990 Topps sticker back Howard Johnson

Posted on by Paul

This year’s Topps sticker collection came out a few weeks ago, but I have to say that I’m not interested enough to track down the nine Mets on the checklist, much less try to complete the full set.

Howard-Johnson Lou-Whitaker
1990 Howard Johnson Topps sticker back card and Lou Whitaker sticker (If you see images with rounded corners, it’s my blog theme at work – the actual card has standard 90-degree corners.)

When I was younger, though, it was a different story. If sticker collecting didn’t immediately grab you, Topps tried to lure collectors in with baseball cards printed on the back of the stickers for a few years. I’m not sure how well the experiment worked on a large level, but it did give me extra motivation to buy the packs of stickers/cards.

The sticker cards set was easier to complete than the stickers, provided that you didn’t try to obtain every possible variation. In 1990, there were 67 different sticker back cards, but 328 stickers. The card set was evenly divided between National League (with blue backgrounds) and American League players (with red backgrounds). The final card was a checklist.

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Two nights of Newark Bears baseball

Posted on by Paul

Thursday night, I went to watch the Newark Bears play the Quebec Capitales because I missed baseball. It was a nice night, but the game drew another sparse crowd.

Brian Parker

The Bears celebrated Irish Heritage Night, so we got a different-than-usual selection of music to listen to before the game started. We were also treated to the performance of three national anthems: Ireland’s and Canada’s preceded the Star-Spangled Banner.

The team also recognized Mike Ness’ no-hitter by playing a short video clip of the final out and the on-field celebration. The PA announced “re-created” a play-by-play call that never existed, since the Bears are one of the few professional teams that do not broadcast their games. (Here’s a link to a longer video from the game  http://vimeo.com/45648593)

Newark got another strong starting pitching performance Thursday night. Brian Parker wasn’t quite as good as Ness – he allowed one run on six hits and two walks over seven innings while striking out seven – but he certainly pitched well enough for his team to win.

The bullpen let them down. Anthony Pluta came on to start the eighth with the score tied 1-1, and couldn’t find the strike zone. He loaded the bases on a pair of walks and a hit batsman, then walked in a couple more batters and allowed a third run to score on a wild pitch. Newark rallied for two runs in the bottom of the eighth to cut their deficit to 4-3, but Joe Haumacher came in for the ninth and gave up a two run homer to Sebastien Boucher. That was the ballgame.

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Link: Mets Today’s look back at a 1989 deal that didn’t happen

Posted on by Paul
Howard Johnson's 2008 Topps Ring of Honor insert card

If you’re old enough to have followed the New York Mets in the late 1980s, you might remember a rumored trade that would have sent Howard Johnson, Sid Fernandez and hyped prospect David West to the Seattle Mariners for pitcher Mark Langston.

At Mets Today, Dan Capwell discusses the trade that was very close to happening and mentions a couple of minor leaguers that Seattle was going to include to even up the numbers… if the deal actually went through, I wonder what it would have meant for the 1990s New York Mets and baseball in Seattle.

Posted in Autographs, Uncategorized

Weekend autograph collection additions

Posted on by Paul

I don’t really want to talk about the Mets’ 10-6 loss to the Cubs that kept me up too late last night, or the cap controversy that was dominating my Twitter timeline when I checked in before the game.

I will congratulate the Staten Island Yankees (who defeated the Brooklyn Cyclones this weekend to advance to the finals in the New York Penn League playoffs) and the Daytona Cubs (who swept the St. Lucie Mets to win the Florida State League championship), but I don’t really want to talk about them, either. At least the Savannah Sand Gnats are still trying to win a minor league title – their South Atlantic League championship series against the Greensboro Grasshoppers is scheduled to begin tonight.

So instead, let’s take a look at the autographs I got this weekend:

Daniel Ray Herrera signed Autograph Card

At 5-foot-6, Daniel Ray Herrera doesn’t really look like a major league pitcher, but he’s done the job when the Mets have called on him since his acquisition as one of the players to be named later in the Francisco Rodriguez trade. This is one of three autographs I got inside Citi Field before the Mets’ game on Saturday.

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