Breaking News! John Franco will be inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame

I have to say that this was one of the more pleasant surprise emails I've read from the Mets lately.

I have written before about John Franco and how I was a big fan of his growing up, so I am quite happy to see him inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame.  I'm sure the fact that he is from Brooklyn and Italian played has into my fandom as well.  I might even try to find my way back to Queens for his induction on June 3rd.

He certainly has the credentials, being fourth on the all time saves list and the top lefty when it comes to saves (with two saves more than fellow lefty and former Met Billy Wagner). Franco played in 21 seasons, and 14 of those were with the Mets.

I've got a nice PC of Franco, about 95 cards in all including one autographed card which I posted about in the aforementioned post.  Here are four of my favorites from my collection.

Leaf 1993

Yes, the back of the card is what makes this one of my favorites.  Besides the great backdrop, there is also the little Mets hologram in the top left corner.

Fleer 2002

Retro uni on a patriotic card, what more can I say.

Circa 1996

The quote plus a backdrop that invokes Shea Stadium makes this one of my favorites.  Circa was an interesting line for a couple years there in the mid 90s.

Fleer Tradition 1999

What better way to close it out than with Franco and Olerud (another personal favorite) embracing after what I can only imagine is Franco saving another game.

Mets Sweep and New Background Pic

Big Pelf did it again, the Mets sweep, and I finally figured out how to use my own background image. Nice!

In celebration here is another of those autographed cards of mine I found a while back.

Franco was one of my favorite Mets and is underrated as an all time closer in my opinion, I was disappointed when Armando Benitez was awarded the closer's role over him. I was overjoyed for him that he could save a playoff win after Benitez blew the save earlier in the game.


As for the background image, much like my header it contains some old and some new. Enjoy!