Rey Rey 2K1 and 2K2

For the sake 1) Completing it 2) Using scanned cards 3) Doing a baseball card post -

Here are the last of the Rey Ordonez cards from Jim @ GCRL.

Here are the 2001 issue cards and some quick commentary.

2000 Fleer Platinum - If this is Fleer's version of platinum, I would hate to be their mistress because I bet she gets a washing machine on her birthday. This is an awful take on "classic" design. Just plain boring. Also, if you are going to gloss a "retro" card - ... dont. It doesnt work. Not Impressed.

2001 Topps - Wow - another ugly card. I really don't know what focus group (if any) looks as the 2001 card design and says yup - that will get me back into collecting. The back is ugly too.

2001 upper Deck - Finally a card that I'm not ashamed to own. Full bleed photo - always a plus - decent shot - nothing ground breaking, but at least its not just a portrait. The logo on the bottom left is kinda blurry and tough to read - does Upper Deck ever make an easy to read product? The card back has about an inch of blank unused space on it.... Really? just make the font bigger? do something.

2001 - not a good showing.

Now moving on to the 2 2002 issue cards.

2002 Topps - You cannot say that topps was not consistent in the early 2000's because here is another ugly set with a poorly thought out design. I have nothing good to say. The border is the color of baby shit when they are on the squash and pumpkin diet. This is not good.

2002 Fleer Tradition. Nice cardboard stock, no gloss, Goudey design, photo of Rey in a Throwback uniform, still too much wasted space on the back, but this is a set I would consider collecting. Finally, the early 2ks come up with something good.

Rey Rey 2K

Back from the NYC fresh off watching 2 Mets wins @ Citi Field and birthday celebration with best friend. Good Times good times....Here goes year 2K from GCRL with Rey Ordonez.

2000 Pacific Crown Collection - I think this is the fries Pacific card that I own. I dont ever recall seeing these cards before in my life. It's an okay card - clean design, white border, full color backs.... dont think this is a set I would ever pursue.

2000 Upper Deck Victory - Another first for me. Victory - more like non failure - the design is okay -using the head shot form the main pic in the corner is over done. I like to have different photos on my card. Demanding, I know. I like the back design, should use another photo on the back instead of the Mets logo though.

2000 Fleer Tradition - I am usually a sucker for these kind of cards but this is boring and uninspired. Pass

2000 Upper Deck - Is it me or does Upper Deck always come through with a nice design? They may not always be great, but they are rarely bad (see topps 07/08). The back has a lot to say - I think of the year 2K lot - this is my favorite.

2000 Topps (base and gold) - Nice actionish shot of Rey in the field tagging Ellis Burks - Looking further, one of these is actually the Opening Day variety - not base/gold - my bust ya'll.

Rey Rey - 97 Edition

Here are a few more of the Rey Ordonez cards from GCRL - these are the ones from 1997 that were in the package. Again, I don't know a lot about many of these cards since I was too busy with power chords and getting my first blow j than little slabs of card board. Here they are.

1997 Topps - A fairly basic design sharing time with Brian McRae it looks like. Nothing special here design wise. The back of the card only mentions his fielding - which is really the only thing you can say good about Rey

1997 Donruss - This design I like much more than the Topps - I like the small borders that fade on the bottom and left of the card leaving a full bleed effect - I like full blood a lot - borders are for countries not cards. Another card with Binghamton on it, so I am pleased all the more along with comparisons to Ozzie Smith - I wish it worked out that well - I am happy with Reyes now though.

1997 Upper Deck Collectors Choice - Here we have Rey getting thrown out at first (put out by Joyner). This is your standard Collectors Choice design. I seem to remember these cards always being nice... but kinda boring - that remains true here. The back of this card makes mention of Rey giving Jeter a run for his money for NY SS supremacy - didn't really work out that way did it?


98 Tomorrow!

Rey Ordonez - The Mets Years - 1996

Rey Ordonez was featured a lot in the box that Jim @ GCRL sent over - so I will be taking you through a bunch of Rey Rey cards from his time with the Mets, year by year. First up is 1996 - The Rookie Cards! Keep in mind I was not collecting at all at this time - so I may not be too keen on what set is what - they may be base cards, they may be weird other sets I've never seen before - please don't judge me!

1996 Topps Rookie Prospects - Card shared with Tim Harkrider, Neifi Perez, and Enrique Wilson. A couple of these guys (Perez and Wilson) went on to have nice careers - I kind of like the multiple prospect cards - am I the only one?

1996 UD SP Premier Prospects - I really think this is a sharp card - I like the green/blue theme, the foil is there, but not gaudy at all. One of my favorite cards of the bunch.

1996 UD Diamond Destiny - Easily the ugliest card of this years lot. The circle in the upper right is a see through portrait of Rey's face. what the hell was Ud thinking when they designed this card? Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

1996 Ud Collectors Choice Rookie Class - Just a nice looking card - This card gets bonus points for name checking Binghamton on the back!

1996 Ud Global Impact (Special Report) - another great looking card - I would not mind seeing more like these - There is always a fine line between really neat and really ugly - This card fell on the right side of that debate.

1996 UD Defensive Gems - meh - its nice.

1996 Upper Deck Major League Debut - This card is great because it has a caption on the front "Shows intensity as he scores vs Astros 7/14/96" Wouldn't it be sorta neat if all cards had a short note somewhere on the front or back of at least the date or game the photo was from?


Well, that is all of them. I have a feeling that 1996 is going to be a tough year to beat in the battle for Rey Ordonez supremacy! Don't forget to play for the 24 body Count contest above this week!

GCRL Cards - HoJo

The next set of cards I am featuring from the super box received from Jim @ GCRL is a gaggle of Howard Johnson cards.

Below we have
1992 Topps Staduim Club Members Choice
1990 Topps All Star
1990 Fleer All Star
1993 Topps Stadium Club
1989 Topps All Star
A Different 1990 Topps All Star
1990 Topps Base

We all know of my affinity for Mets third basement - so I love me some HoJos and all of these cards are now proud members of the HoJo collection - thanks again Jim - dont know who is next yet!

GCRL Cards - Gregg Jefferies

Lately I have really been struggling to post - I'm sorry to those of you who look here regularly - between The Show, Fantasy Leagues, stress at work and such - really just dont have a lot of motivation. So I will be doing some posts here and there for a while until I get my groove back, but probably not daily until I really get back into the swing - but who knows, that could be Wednesday - we'll just have to wait and see.

The cards I am showing today are more from the bounty that Jim @ GCRL sent over. Below is the Great White Hope Gregg Jefferies. A very talented kid who just happened to be a complete asshole. A Couple of odd ball cards - all of these besides the Score card are new to me. I don't know why - but no matter what happens - I always find myself happy to find a Jefferies as a Met cards. This may be because he does sign cards through the mail (I'll post up my success at some point) so that does make me like him even more! Either way - Gergg went on to have a nice career - but was the never the superstar for us he was supposed to be.

Now, a set that I get cards of every now and again that I wish I was collecting when it came out is this Topps Fan Favorites set. I don't know what it is, but I absolutely love these cards. Does anyone really have info on what this set was all about? I did a quick search a few days ago and didnt find anything out really. But Jim - thank you again - next up will be HoJo!

GCRL Week Continues! - Dr. K

As mentioned a few days ago, Jim over @ GCRL sent me a herculean box of Mets for my team collection. I could not decide which ones to feature - so over the course of however long it takes - we will get to see them all, player by player. The first player we will feature is no doubt one of the premier players/names in Mets history - especially my era (80s and on) Dr. K Dwight Gooden.

Of the cards received - I already had the 89 Score, 90 Fleer, 90 Topps, both 87 Topps, and the 89 Topps flashback card. Now I always love getting Mets doubles because they are great for mailing off in hopes of getting signed so now I can send a few more risk free if I don't get them back, I have more!

Now, the best cards were all the odd ball cards I didn't have! The coolest was the 87 Fleer Mini - am I that out of touch that I thought the only minis made then was that Topps league leaders set?

Also new to me

- 1986 Granola Chewy
-1990 Topps All Star
-1992 Topps Stadium Club Member's Choice
- 2002 UD Piece of History
-1989 Baseball Magazine 59' Reprint
-1986 Fleer Limited Edition
-1986 Fleer Baseball's Best

So Jim - thank you very much for the cards - Tomorrow we will look at Gregg Jefferies!

Gifts from GCRL part 2 (of many)

First off - in my carelessness I called out 1 death in 24 this week in fact, the dude wasn't dead! So we have Duane winning AGAIN! the man is on fire, or has advance dvds.... maybe he's juicing... who knows for sure - but the cards are their way out - thanks for correcting me guys!

So while things are slow and motivation is low here in Binghamton NY (where I work just laid off 30 people in my office, I was fine, but one of my best friends got let go...pretty bummed for sure) I am just going to be featuring a lot of the Mets cards that Jim from GCRL sent over.

When going through the package my wife came in the room and saw the 3 cards below and said

"Boy, these are stupid"

no no no honey - they certainly are not! We are looking at three Donruss big cards from 1986 of Ron Darling, Dwight Gooden, and Darryl Strawberry! and they are awesome....I've always wanted some BIG Mets but never came across any - I know that storing them is an issue, but I might get some kind of frame or something for them. I know that this is a 3some that any team would be happy to have in their heyday!

More Dr. K tomorrow!

It's GCRL week (or 2) at the Easy Life

So 2 days ago my wife comes upstairs with a 400 count box that came in the mail. I wonder - wow - this is sweet - who sent this. A look at the return address shows Jim from Garvey, Cey, Russell, and Lopes. (GCRL going forward). Now this is what I thought was from a simple UD Timelines trade. He gets simple yellow mailer - I get 400 count box. This is not acceptable - I will have to scour through old cards and find some dodgers for him one day - but now, I will just devote much of this and next week to digging through this gigantic and wonderful box of cards!

The first cards I will feature are the ones I knew were coming. Some UD Timelines!

Here are two base SPs Of Nick Adenhart and Micah Hoffpauir. These are a few guys with all the talent needed to play in the bigs, just really haven't put it together yet. Both got some PT last year and saw some success. Haffpauir did enough that I have seen some call him the heir apparent to Derrek Lee. Adenhard I feel still needs some AAA time until he is ready.

Next we have Hernan Iribarren. I know nothing about him except that he fills a need for me in my set. For that, I like him - for now.

Next up are my favorite cards from the set - the Black and White floating head subset (I know its a re print of something, but I don't really care/remember of what). Jim sent me over a future Hall of Famer and few All Stars to boot. Randy Johnson (sleeper pick for fantasy this year), Chien-Ming Wang (the most boring player on the Yankees), Derrek Lee (not what he once was, but still a nice player) and Alofonso Soriano (It must be frustrating to be a Cubs fan).

Finally, we have some of the die cut prospects (or guys who have been int he league for a few years and haven't become full time players yet). We got Glen Perkins (had him last year on my fantasy team at the end - seems like a capable lefty starter or long man), Jeff Baker (I see a lot of things stating this is the year he could see 400 ABs for Colorado) and Nyjer Morgan - this dude sucks and I always pull his auto from stuff.

so thank you Jim! This is the first of many posts from your box of awesomeness - tomorrow the Mets parade starts!