I’ve been so bad at sharing the PWE’s I’ve received from Shoebox Legends that I honestly don’t know which of these scanned images came from the latest PWE and which came from the one before that… I guess it doesn’t matter, I’m still very appreciative of the cards I received… and as usual I need to reciprocate… I think. Probably. I’ve been a little disorganized lately. OK, a lot.
But not too disorganized to use my new “PWE Playhouse” artwork…
Studio was a hit or miss set for me, fortunately 2004 falls into one of the “hit” years. And it’s a newly-minted HOFer to boot!
I know that’s the Empire State Building on the right; I feel like I should know what the tall building on the left is.
Buddy Carlyle is one of those middle relievers that almost never gets on a card, so was happy to receive this “Pride and Perseverance” card. I believe that Carlyle’s previous cardboard appearance was in 2009 Upper Deck.
2009 was also the year that Buddy Carlyle was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, which is why he’s featured in this insert set. Not technically part of the team set since it’s an insert, but one I am very happy to have.
Former Oriole Jason Johnson is also diabetic, and was the first player to wear an insulin pump on the field.
Another 2015 insert I’m really enjoying is the Rookie Sensation set. I tried to count my Cal Ripken PC to see what this card brings the total up to, but I started to lose count somewhere north of 300. Let’s call this card #307, that’s close enough for government work.
The Cal PC is sort of driven by Mrs. Shlabotnik; she enjoys seeing new cards I pick up, but she never looks at the Cal binder I have set up. Not a big deal, I like both players and player collections are fun, no matter what the motivation.
Doc Gooden is a player I would be collecting regardless of my marital status. And this is a fine looking example of Doctor K cardboard.
I am ThisClose to finishing my 1973 set, so this card wasn’t technically a need…
…but much of my 73T set is in fairly rough shape, so this was a much-appreciated upgrade of “The Hammer”.
The rest of this post is taken up by cards from insert sets and subsets I hadn’t been aware of. First off is a 1997 Fleer Ultra Rookie Reflections insert of Rey Ordonez.
Rey Ordonez was a good-glove, no-hit shortstop that I always enjoyed watching… And he’s one of three Mets to wear #0 (along with Omar Quintanilla and Terry McDaniel).
Next up is a die-cut team checklist featuring Todd Hundley from 1998 Pacific Paramount.
It’s kind of odd to have a die-cut subset within a non-die-cut base set, but that’s Pacific for you. Pacific did some odd things sometimes, but I miss them despite/because of that.
Another Piazza, this one from the 1999 Upper Deck 10th Anniversary insert set.
Can’t think of much to say about this. Piazza. Yay!
This card is a 2000 Upper Deck “Second Season Standout” card of Edgardo Alfonzo.
Fonzie’s second season was in 1996, so I’m not sure what the point of this subset is, but it’s all good, it’s a nice-looking card of an underrated Met.
So that wraps up my PWE… or PWE and a half… whichever.
Thanks so much, Shane! Hope you survived the snow!