Subway Series momentos

Sure, MLB unveiled this year’s spring training uniforms today and Topps released the first baseball cards of 2017 this week. We can totally talk about those in the comments if you want.

But I’m going to show you a couple of 17-year-old baseball cards I got from my friend Vinny back in December. (And wow, I didn’t really want to think about it being 17 years since the Mets and Yankees played in the World Series.)

At least in the New York metropolitan area, it was a really BIG DEAL that our two teams were playing in the Fall Classic. I had pretty much gotten away from following baseball after the 1994-95 work stoppage, but the excitement of the possible Subway Series developing had me glued to the playoffs in 2000. Looking back at the television ratings, I don’t think the rest of the country really cared for the match up that much.

But Topps decided that we needed a commemorative baseball card set, which was awesome because it included a card for every player on the World Series roster for both teams, managers Bobby Valentine and Joe Torre, and 48 cards showing postseason highlights for the two squads. The factory sets also included one of 36 special cards with an embedded, soon-to-be-obsolete New York City subway token.

Despite the World Series result, I absolutely had to have the set and it is still one of my favorite parts of my collection.

What I didn’t know until this past December is that Topps made a pair of promo cards for the set. I presume they were distributed at some New York football or basketball games during November or December 2000. One showed the Yankees winning the World Series, the other showed the Mets celebrating their NLCS victory.

The backs of the cards included information about how to get the Topps Subway Series set and enter a contest to win 2001 Mets or Yankees season tickets, among other prizes.

Vinny actually gave me a handful of the Subway Series promo cards, and I’ve since passed on most of the extras to friends that I thought would appreciate them. But I still have two of the Mets NLCS Celebration cards. They are not in mint condition, but I still think there might be some Mets fans out there who would appreciate them.

If you want one, leave a comment and I’ll get in touch with you. You can either send me a self-addressed, stamped envelope or trade me a 2016 or 2017 New York Mets or Gary Carter baseball card. Your choice. First come, first served.