Monday, August 5, 2019

Hernandez and Fernandez - A pair of 2005 Retired refractors

Quick post with a couple more recent pickups for my Retired Refractor project. These are both 2005 Topps Retired cards of Mets fan favorites.

"I'm Keith Hernandez"
Really like the look of this Keith Hernandez, though the case has some scratches. Anybody know any tricks for buffing out case scratches? Someone once suggested to me some stuff that's meant for cleaning headlights and other clear plastic things-- supposed to clear up "smokey" spots and minor scuffing-- but I didn't really see any noticeable results with it. Of course I could just bust the card out of there, but I like keeping my Retired autos in their "uncirculated" cases when possible.


That's a solid Hall of Very Good career, right there. (In fact, according to Hall of Stats, his numbers are objectively worthy of Cooperstown.. so maybe someday a veterans committee will put him in.) NL MVP in '79. Won it all with the '82 Cardinals and '86 Mets.


In addition to an impressive career on the field, his exploits off the diamond may be even more impressive. He has worked with both Jerry Seinfeld and Snuffleupagus. Legendary! He's been part of the Mets broadcast team for the past several years, known as one of the better color commentators working today.




Keith's teammate on the '86 Mets, Sid Fernandez, is the other auto to feature today. The photo is a little strange because baseball-reference claims he only ever wore uniform number 50-- in honor of Hawaii being the 50th state, where he's from-- so I'm curious why he's wearing #10 here. Hmm. The only Mets shown to suit up as #10 during this timeframe are Rusty Staub (1975-1985), Dave Magadan (1989-1991), and Butch Huskey (1993).


No red ink on the back of his card, but to his credit, he led the league with a .737 winning percentage when he went 14-5 in '89. Was an All-Star in '86 and '87. "Fernandez has the fourth-lowest ratio of hits per innings pitched in the major league history, behind only Nolan Ryan, Clayton Kershaw, and Sandy Koufax." Wow, that's an impressive factoid from his Wikipedia entry.

Best part of this card?...


It's the Christmas Card!
Always love picking up new Retired refractors.. especially when they're numbered 12/25.

The Mets have a bunch of cards in this set. I've also got NYM refractor autos of Anthony Young, Dave Magadan, Ed Kranepool, Gregg Jefferies, Jerry Grote, and Jesse Orosco.

Missing from my team set are Gary Carter, Davey Johnson, Ron Darling, and Rafael Santana. I'll keep on keeping an eye out for those four. (..not that I really collect with team sets in mind, but just another way to track progress, I guess.)

That's it for now. Thanks for reading.

7 comments:

  1. I'm betting Keith Hernandez has made as much money off of the Just for Men commercials as he did playing ball.

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  2. Wow, I forgot all about Snuffy. That was a great little sketch!
    Congrats on the Christmas card!

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  3. Re the Fernandez card: The Mets only wore those uniforms one year, 1987. Looking at his '88 cards in the TCDB gallery, looks like he wore #10 in spring training and then switched to #50 in the regular season. See https://www.tradingcarddb.com/GalleryP.cfm/pid/1791/col/1/yea/1988/Sid-Fernandez?sTeam=&sCardNum=&sNote=&sSetName=&sBrand=. Also https://www.tradingcarddb.com/ViewCard.cfm/sid/59555/cid/3338891/1987-Fleer-Baseball's-Best-Sluggers-vs-Pitchers-13-Sid-Fernandez

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  4. I would have suggested giving car wax or headlight cleaner a shot... but I guess it didn't work. Awesome autographs though! Congratulations on landing another Christmas card.

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  5. Two great players there (great Sesame Street clip, too)! Watched a lot of Hernandez and Fernandez growing up in New York. Congratulations on the pickups.

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  6. Johnny - Yeah, I'd believe it!

    Tom - I've got a plush Snuffy xmas decoration (and Big Bird too), so he's never too far from my mind. lol

    Bo - Good research! Thanks for clearing that up. (Still, wonder why he wore 10 in spring training that one year. Was he letting another camp invitee use 50? Was there some significance with 10? The mind boggles.)

    Fuji - Thanks. Yeah, maybe there's a trick to using the headlight cleaner that I'm missing..? Maybe I should try looking up tutorials on YouTube or something.

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    1. Hey Gavin... I did some research (I have some PSA cases with scratches) and found a video on YouTube where a guy removes a huge scratch from his graded comic book holder. He uses a product produced by Novus. Here's a link to the video and Amazon page where you can find the product if interested.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NLD5z-_HgY

      https://www.amazon.com/Novus-7100-Plastic-Polish-Kit/dp/B002UCYRZU

      I'm gonna end up buying some and testing it out, so if you're worried and don't want to waste your money... give me about a week and I'll let you know how it worked.

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