Debut Part Deux.

       This evening marks the second time in the last calender year that a Grade-A capital-P Pitching Prospect has been recalled by the Mets.  And whether you believe TINSTAAPP or not, it will be one of the few silver linings in this horrible sow's ear of a season (mixed metaphor alert!). Last year it was Matt Harvey, who I immediately saw as the future, and then this happened.  I stand by my unabashed love of #33 and look forward to every one of his starts; they are usually the highlight of my week - though lately the Mets can't seem to score more than one stinking run for him *sigh* (UPDATE: they actually scored more than one run this afternoon for him and the bullpen tried to give them all back *double sigh*).  Tonight during the second game of a day/night doubleheader against the hated Braves we'll see the debut of the spoils of the Carlos Beltran trade, Zack Wheeler.

I have not gone 'all in' the way I have with Matt Harvey, but I have picked up a few of his cards here and there.  You will notice that I do not even have a complete page of him (yet) but the three I have in the Mets books share a page with the overflow of Harvey's. 

The bottom three are currently in top loaders, but I will be moving them to the books.  The middle Bowman Platinum card is a refractor and it is much shinier than the scanner wants you to think.  I especially like the high leg kick follow through shown on the Bowman's Best card there.

Are Harvey and Wheeler going to be a 21st Century Seaver and Koosman or the second coming of Generation K (would that be Generation L *pinky to lip*)?  Obviously I am rooting for the former and only time will tell.  We have seen that Harvey is the goods and on a team with even competent hitting, he would have 9 or 10 wins by now (though his other numbers so far are marvelous).  I was very impressed with what I saw from Wheeler in spring training, and while his minor league stats are not overwhelming, one has to remember that he's been pitching in Las Vegas (notorious hitter's haven) and he has been frustrated by the Mets keeping him in the minors to protect his arbitration clock - he is convinced he has long been ready for the big time.  I certainly hope he can channel that bravado into some good pitching so I can have two reasons every five days to watch this awful team. 

Recovery.

       First and foremost, we are all okay.  Hurricane Sandy blew through New Jersey and most of the northeast Monday & Tuesday and knocked some trees around and took the power out.  Luckily, my family and I all made it through in one piece.  Unfortunately, the power company says I will not be getting any juice back for another 5-10 days(!) so I am currently a refugee in Pennsylvania because my brother somehow kept his electricity thought out the storm.  I am making good use of myself by dog sitting his adorable puppy while he and his wife work overtime, so I have some time on my hands.  While the dog sleeps, I figured it would be a good time to post. 

I recently had some COMC.com purchases mailed to me, and since this is probably the last bit of mail I am gonna see for a while, let's take a look at those:

I have threatened to make a page of the Upper Deck Heroes blue parallel Mets and I plucked four on the way to that goal.  The Gypsy Queen base set isn't much to look at, but some of the inserts are marvelous.  I picked off the regular and mini version of the Endy Chavez Glove Stories.  For three innings, that was the greatest catch ever.  Still, six years later, it is pretty damn good.  I also grabbed the Gary Carter mini numbered out of /99 since these cards work well in mini and sepia tones.  Also here are a couple of David Wright cards (the Mets just wisely picked up his option for 2013 and *gasp* may actually spend the money to sign him long term....).  While I am not a big fan of plain white jersey squares, this year's Ginter picture of Wright is so good - and the price was so right - I grabbed it anyway.  The last card there is a 1976 SSPC card of Jerry Koosman and Duke Snider that Night Owl featured a while ago and I was so taken with the card, I immediately went online and bought it.  The internet = instant gratification.  Of course, I waited almost 4 months to have it sent to me, so I also delayed gratification on that one too.

The second part of the batch; I was on a Tom Seaver kick:

The card that started that kick was the Allen & Ginter What's in a Name insert.  I found that one and decided to grab the other two 2012 Golden thingies I needed.  I also then got the Archives base and floating head rubdown.  The 2012 Ginter search lead me also to the Sketch card, which I grabbed, and then, somehow, I got to the 1984 traded (which I could have sworn I owned but it turns out somehow I didn't) and also some 1984 ultra oddball rubdowns.  Twins fans would like that one too.  The last card there is a Mike Piazza manufactured patch card.  Something seems a tad amiss with that one...let's take a close look:

Enhance!!!

Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick, look at that!  That's not even close, Upper Deck. Nice quality control.  What you can't really see there is the smear of glue where the patch was placed and then somehow slipped off.  I guess UD should also put the "contents may settle during shipment" warning they place on cereal boxes on their wrappers.  Oh, and this was not the card they had scanned into COMC either. I don't know who to complain to about this one...well, other than to you guys.

And on a serious note if you were in Sandy's way, I hope you and your family are safe, that the damage isn't too bad, and that the power and insurance companies are expedient.   Plus, it is times like this when we all pull together and figure stuff out.  As long as you and your loved ones are safe, that is all that matters.