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Craig Swan, Card Subject

Edgy MD
Jun 12 2012 11:54 AM

1974: "What? Me? I was hoping you wouldn't notice me."
1976: "I don't like this job. They make you work."
1977: "Merely seconds later, but I'm already starting to shed my winter weight!"
1978: "I'm handsome, tan, in shape, nice haircut, no 'stache. Is this even actually me? It's Steve Austin in my uniform or something, isn't it?"
1979: "Don't make any loud noises. Me and Nino got wasted last night."
1979: "That guy had 177% more wins than me. I have 177% more mustache."
1980: "Here I am, captured in action. I know. I'm surprised too!"
1981: "Mental note: Take it easy on the ribs. I'm starting to look like a fucking whale."
1981: "Stop counting my chins. I'm a guy who likes to party. I LIKE to party. That's all there is to it."
1982: "This all came so easy until Hodges hit me with the fucking ball.
1983: "I love being a pitcher. But the pitching part of it is starting to be a real pain in the ass."
1984: "What the fuck is a Donruss? That's not really a real thing, is it? For serious?"
1984: "We've been coming to the same party for 12 years now, and in no way is that depressing."
1984: "I suck. Gimme that damn ball before I get released."
1984: "Clean slate time. You release me. I release my mustache."
1984: "My shoulder is for shit and somebody still wants to give me beer money. Psyched!"

HahnSolo
Jun 12 2012 12:29 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject

Looks like Meathead Stivic in the 1976 card.

John Cougar Lunchbucket
Jun 12 2012 12:37 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject

Where's he pitching in that 81 shot? Looks too "big" for Wrigley.

Benjamin Grimm
Jun 12 2012 12:52 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject

My Spidey sense tells me that Craig Swan will one day discover this thread while Googling himself.

cooby
Jun 12 2012 01:05 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject

I hope so.

Hi Craig Swan!

metirish
Jun 12 2012 01:21 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject

Gold, all of it , even you Swanie.

Edgy MD
Jun 12 2012 02:01 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote:
Where's he pitching in that 81 shot? Looks too "big" for Wrigley.


The 'Stick?

batmagadanleadoff
Jun 12 2012 02:01 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote:
Where's he pitching in that 81 shot? Looks too "big" for Wrigley.



Looks like Wrigley to me. It's not the big stadium -- it's the tiny crowds.





Edgy MD
Jun 12 2012 02:09 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject

Donruss 1982: "So the crossfire had me and Rick pinned down.
And wouldn't you know it but we start hearing the unmistakable
sound of TC's chopper. Rick looks at me and I knew we just had
to hold them off for three minutes. Longest three minutes of my
life."


Where the heck is 1975?

batmagadanleadoff
Jun 12 2012 02:12 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject

Edgy DC wrote:


Where the heck is 1975?


There ain't no 1975. You have to boomph your way out.

Edgy MD
Jun 12 2012 02:21 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject

That sucks. And he gets no less than two cards with two faces for his five lousy innings with California in the second half of 1984.

It's amazing how little productivity the Mets got out of Swan and Stearns from 1981-1984.

Those two and Apodaca a few years earlier --- dissolving into the sunset on an eternally rotating rehabilitation program.

John Cougar Lunchbucket
Jun 12 2012 02:22 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject

Where's he pitching in that 81 shot? Looks too "big" for Wrigley.



Looks like Wrigley to me. It's not the big stadium -- it's the tiny crowds.







You are right. Looks like the Jackson and Scott cards were taken on the same day -- check out Juan Epstein in the white T-shirt in the front row of both. That game could only have taken place then on Sept. 24, 1979.

Swan shot from the same angle pitched the day before.

edit, Whoa, check out Scott's line in that game: He started, went 1/3 of an inning and surrendered 7 runs on six hits and a walk.

Falcone is shot on a different day, maybe a weekend by the size of the crowd.

batmagadanleadoff
Jun 12 2012 02:28 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject

Edgy DC wrote:
That sucks. And he gets no less than two cards with two faces for his five lousy innings with California in the second half of 1984.


At least Swan's represented. I'd guess that about 25% of all Mets ever never appeared on a single card in a major league Mets uniform.

Edgy DC wrote:
It's amazing how little productivity the Mets got out of Swan and Stearns from 1981-1984....


Didn't Swan get hurt like right after signing what was then the most lucrative contract in franchise history?

batmagadanleadoff
Jun 12 2012 02:35 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject

Edgy DC wrote:
Where the heck is 1975?


SSPC produced large sets in '75 and '76. Swan appeared in the '76 set but was MIA the year before.

Edgy MD
Jun 12 2012 02:36 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject

edit, Whoa, check out Scott's line in that game: He started, went 1/3 of an inning and surrendered 7 runs on six hits and a walk.

I kinda remember that debacle. Look at him, though. He's pitching scared.

batmagadanleadoff
Jun 12 2012 02:40 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject

Nobody shows up for a Mets/Cubs game, last week of the '79 season. I am shocked. Shocked.

G-Fafif
Jun 12 2012 02:47 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject

batmagadanleadoff wrote:
I'd guess that about 25% of all Mets ever never appeared on a single card in a major league Mets uniform.


Nine Mets "never got a regulation-sized, acceptable card from anybody," majors or minors, according to Jason Fry of Faith and Fear in Flushing, both sources with which I'm familiar.

Brian Ostrosser got a 1975 minor-league card that looks like a bad Xerox. Leon Brown has a terrible 1975 minor-league card and an oversized Omaha Royals card put out as a promotional set by the police department. Tommy Moore got a 1990 Senior League card as a 42-year-old with the Bradenton Explorers. Then we have Al Schmelz, Francisco Estrada, Lute Barnes, Bob Rauch, Greg Harts and Rich Puig. They have no cards whatsoever — the oddball 1991 Nobody Beats the Wiz cards are too undersized to work.


Jason has not only created a special set for the "Lost Nine" (like what Grimmy does for the Schaefers, but he had them printed up on regulation Topps card stock "because I am insane") but is working on a new version because they just weren't perfect enough the first time.

John Cougar Lunchbucket
Jun 12 2012 02:48 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject

Wrigley was the scene for many of these thrilling shots:





Also, here's a weird one:

G-Fafif
Jun 12 2012 02:50 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject

Was Donruss based in the Midwest? How dare they not take every shot at Shea!

(I thought the same thing in 1981.)

batmagadanleadoff
Jun 12 2012 03:02 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject

I'd guess that about 25% of all Mets ever never appeared on a single card in a major league Mets uniform.


Nine Mets "never got a regulation-sized, acceptable card from anybody," majors or minors, according to Jason Fry of Faith and Fear in Flushing, both sources with which I'm familiar.

Brian Ostrosser got a 1975 minor-league card that looks like a bad Xerox. Leon Brown has a terrible 1975 minor-league card and an oversized Omaha Royals card put out as a promotional set by the police department. Tommy Moore got a 1990 Senior League card as a 42-year-old with the Bradenton Explorers. Then we have Al Schmelz, Francisco Estrada, Lute Barnes, Bob Rauch, Greg Harts and Rich Puig. They have no cards whatsoever — the oddball 1991 Nobody Beats the Wiz cards are too undersized to work.


Jason has not only created a special set for the "Lost Nine" (like what Grimmy does for the Schaefers, but he had them printed up on regulation Topps card stock "because I am insane") but is working on a new version because they just weren't perfect enough the first time.


Yeah, but Fry's gotta rely on decidedly non-Metly cards like these to fill out his Holy Books:

G-Fafif
Jun 12 2012 03:08 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject

Yeah, but Fry's gotta rely on decidedly non-Metly cards like these to fill out his Holy Books:


Oh, that's a given. Nevertheless, I'm surprised he hasn't reanimated those who are no longer with us, placed them in period-specific uniforms and issued Topps updates for all of them.

batmagadanleadoff
Jun 12 2012 03:12 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject

Yeah, but Fry's gotta rely on decidedly non-Metly cards like these to fill out his Holy Books:


Oh, that's a given. Nevertheless, I'm surprised he hasn't reanimated those who are no longer with us, placed them in period-specific uniforms and issued Topps updates for all of them.


That sounds like the super-secret project I'm working on.

SteveJRogers
Jun 12 2012 07:27 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject


Also, here's a weird one:


Guy out on Long Island runs a Mets Collector's Club, and they regularly trot out a handy Mets Collectables checklist every couple of years, now it's in a CD-ROM format.

Well, anyway, in that set's listing they list a card that supposedly shows Burris in his Met uniform. I have yet to see this variation.

I think there may be another variation that has been corrected to say Cubs as well.

metsguyinmichigan
Jun 12 2012 07:38 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject

I had completely forgotten that Swan went to the Angels.

Edgy MD
Jun 12 2012 08:42 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject

That Burris card is weak. The guy led the Mets in wins, which, granted, was as impressive as Daniel Murphy leading them in homers.

It was nice of Joel Youngblood to come down from the mountain for that photo shoot. What a Beach Boy that guy was. He's like Mike Love's lost baby brother.

batmagadanleadoff
Jul 01 2012 04:51 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject

Do you consider this Burris card

to be a Mets card or a Cubs card? Neither? Both?

Then what about these:






The Burris and Smith cards are similar in that the players are not photographed in a Mets uni, even though the cards identify each one as a member of the Mets. But Smith did play for the Mets in 1964, the year of his "Mets" card's release.

Zimmer ('62 Topps), Rogers and Olerud (2000 Fleer Focus) -- pictured in a Mets uni but listed as a member of another team. Zim was a '62 Met. Rogers and Oly were not 2000 Mets.

Zvon
Jul 01 2012 06:12 PM
Re: Craig Swan, Card Subject

I collected Met baseball cards for a long time and in the mid 90s had every Met card ever put out by the big card co.s.
I also had cards like the Kelloggs 3-D ones and all kinds of other cards (had most of the SSPC cards but not that Swan one).
If it listed the team as the Mets, or if the player was pictured as a Met, I included it in my collection. Id put "traded" cards on the last page for that season. So, for me, both.