If I Were To Collect: New York Mets Edition

[The eighth in a series:  I’m picking one player that I associate with a team (whether they spent the majority of their career there or not) that I would strongly consider adding to my official want lists.  They may not always be superstars, or the most popular, and honestly they may not always be my favorite player from the team, but that’s what will make this fun, no?]

After a nearly two year hiatus, it’s about time to bring the series back, right?

The Cubs just recently completed a 7-game series sweep of the New York Mets.  The 10 year old me would have been devastated.  The 34 year old me is absolutely thrilled.  Generally I wish the Mets well, as they were the first team I chose to support.  But, I eventually defected to the hometown squad and I’m happy to trample over them to get back to the playoffs.

Simpsons immortal

I have a tie for my main picks for the Mets.  This was a no brainer.  Darryl Strawberry is #1

Dr. K

#2 is Dwight Gooden.  They were my boys as a Mets collector.  I still have their binders, and there’s some good stuff in there.  I have Leaf and OPC rookie cards, and in general, a very large portion of the pre-1993 stuff that was available.  When I went to card shows as a pre-teen, they were my sole focus.  I’ve outlined why I stopped collecting baseball in the past, and why I switched to the Cubs, and the personal downfalls of these two are a big reason why.  As I’ve said before, I have a morals clause.  Still, since this is hypothetical, and you can make the argument now that they’ve atoned for their behaviors, they get the vote.

Tough to find a card of him in my stash

Current player runner-up: Daniel Murphy

There are very few choices on the roster aside from young pitching that would be expensive now and could very quickly flame out later.  Murphy doesn’t set the world on fire, but he’s a pretty good player and I think I could get behind him if he were a Cub.  Plus, I respect his decision to actually take paternity leave (even though he got a lot of flack from the sports talk people).

Golden moment

Retired player runner-up: Mookie Wilson

As a young Mets fan, just starting to understand what baseball meant, Mookie Wilson was the savior for his World Series voodoo.  That team had a lot of great choices, but one moment can turn a player into a player collection.

The Series So Far
Angels – (tie) Jim Abbott & Vladimir Guerrero
Astros
Athletics
Blue Jays
Braves
Brewers – Bob Eucker
Cardinals – Jim Edmonds
Cubs
Diamondbacks
Dodgers
Giants
Indians – Jim Thome
Mariners
Marlins
Mets – (tie) Darryl Strawberry & Dwight Gooden
Nationals/Expos
Orioles
Padres
Phillies
Pirates –  Andrew McCutchen
Rangers – Nolan Ryan
Rays/Devil Rays
Red Sox
Reds
Rockies
Royals
Tigers
Twins
White Sox – Paul Konerko
Yankees