Vintage??? From THIS guy?!?

Well, after my 250th consecutive post about Topps 2012, I thought it was time to up my game. And judging by some of the blogosphere's rantings about "final topps 2012 post" or the allusion to "another topps 2012 post," I felt I needed to branch out a bit. And as a Mets fan in 2012, unless I am thrilled by seeing Justin Turner and Jason Isringhausen on a card, I decided I needed to bring back some Mets names that elicit a different reaction.

Agee looks to be about 75 in this card, but best I can figure, he's 30. In the Mets glory year of '69, he hit 26 homers and finished 6th in the MVP voting. He followed that up with his best overall year in '70, hitting .286, scoring 107 runs and stealing 31 bases. His last good year was '71, and his steep decline resulted in being out of baseball after the '73 season.



Kranepool is a name I remember, and looking at the back of his card, I'm not really sure why. A trip to baseball-reference shows why: he actually played long enough to be playing when baseball entered my consciousness in the late '70s. A lifetime .261 hitter, he played his entire 18-year career with the Mets.









Bud Harrelson's real name was Derrel. I didn't even know that was a name. He was an all-star in '70 and '71, but for me, was more noteworthy as Mets manager in 1990 and 1991. He replaced Davey Johnson in '90, and playing "Buddyball," the Mets went 71-49 under him. But the team flamed out badly in '91, ending his brief tenure.