30 Years Ago

Hey Met fan...yes you, the guy with the Hernandez throwback jersey and the Santana bobblehead.

What are you complaining about? Pitchers? The hitting? Luis Castillo?

Ya want something to complain about, I'll give you something to complain about.

How about 1979? Yup, 30 years ago. You remember that time...hostages, run away inflation, post-Vietnam, crappy technology...the Mets.

Yes, the Mets....1979 was probably the worst year in team history.

It down right sucked...maybe not as much as the new Commodore Vic-20, but it sucked.

How bad was that? Well, in comparison to the 1979 Mets it was actually pretty damned awesome.

You see the 1979 Mets were last, or next to last, in everything.

12th out of 12th in attendance.

At 63-99, they had the worst record in the National League.

They scored the second fewest runs in the league.

Joel Youngblood led the team in HRs with 16.

Craig Swan, Pat Zachry, Wayne Twitchell and Roy Lee Jackson were the only players on the entire roster to have winning records.

Swan went 14-13
Pat Zachry went 5-1
Twitchell went 5-3
Roy Lee Jackson went 1-0

Thankfully they had Pete Falcone going 6-14 to offset all that pitching prowess.

Skip Lockwwod led the team in saves with 9.

And yes, the team featured none other than Tim Foli.

"Hey Tim, do they make those jackets for men?"

So my friends, as the season grows near and you find yourself with an urge to scream about the 2009 club, I ask you this: please remember our history.

It will make you feel better....I promise.

Bad Mets Baseball Cards

Let's take a quick break from the Hot Stove--we have an ice storm here, and I am stuck at home. In a moment of sheer boredom I grabbed a stack of old baseball cards to look at over a cup of coffee.

Now we all love our Mets--that is a certainty--but I need to ask: Has one team ever been beset with more bad baseball card depictions?

Here is a typical Mets baseball card from the 70s:

It looks like a designer went to the studio and asked, "what are the two worst colors we could use for the Mets? I got it! Let's use crap brown and piss yellow. The best part is they have nothing to do with the Mets."

OK, he was rolling...and now came his moment of inspiration.

"Hey guys, let's do something totally unique on this one and use no effort or creativity while doing so. What about using an aluminum bat with electric tape on the handle? Yes, the one laying there next to the real bats--use that one. Then we'll put some crappy machinery in the background and position the player so we get a full view of thousands of empty seats."

So this is what we get--crap--and as I peruse some great Mets cards of the past we see this lack of inspiration over and over again (Felix Millan anyone? This card cracks me up.).

Even when the Met isn't the featured player on the card they seem to get the short end of the stick (so to speak).

Do you think Joel Youngblood ever fully recovered from this?

OK my friends, let me hear some more Mets baseball card horror stories.

If you can top Joel Youngblood getting a Tim Foli mustache ride, you'll get a prize.