1992 Topps #943 Barry Lyons

This is going to be a fun post. Barry Lyons played in the Majors from 1986-1995. He came up to the Bigs in 1986 with the New York Mets, and spent '86, '87, '88, '89, and part of '90 with them. The rest of 1990 was spent with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and he split 1991 between them and the California Angels. He spent 1992-1994 in the minors, and played the final season of his Major League career in 1995 with the Chicago White Sox.

Barry's first Topps card came in the 1987 Traded set. He then got cards in the 1988, 1989, and 1990 regular sets. He is missing a 1986 Topps Traded rookie card, a 1990 Topps Traded, 1991 Topps, 1991 Topps Traded, 1992 Topps, 1995 Topps Traded, and 1996 Topps card from his portfolio. I have actually made all of these missing ones, and here is where it gets fun.

Back in 2017, I had the chance to visit my mother in Houston while on vacation that June. While looking on Google for images for customs, I stumbled on an article about the Biloxi Shuckers minor league team having a camp for kids hosted by Barry Lyons. Barry is the Ambassador for the team (scroll down to Community Relations and Outreach), and is a lifelong resident of Biloxi. I will spare you a long story, but here is a link to Barry's personal story, highlighting his time as a player on the Mets, some downs with depression and drugs, and high points when he came clean and met his wife.

Since we were driving to Texas, I suggested a stop in Biloxi. My wife was born there, and I figured we could stop at the stadium and drop some duplicate cards of Barry to hand out to the campers. Before going up to the stadium, I made customs of Barry's 1990 Topps Traded, 1991 Topps, 1991 Topps Traded, 1992 Topps, and 1996 Topps cards. We got to the stadium, and I met up with a contact from the team, and she ushered me down through the dugout, and through the clubhouse to the underground batting cages where Barry was speaking. It was the first time I had been in a clubhouse, and it was a nice place. After he talked, Barry walked out to the dugout before a session, and I introduced myself, gave Barry his 'regular' cards, and asked if he had time to sign a few customs. I told him I made the White Sox photo out of an Angels photo, and he was impressed. I gave him extras of the customs to keep, thanked him for his time, and was on my way. It was an amazing day, and I now have Barry in my Favorite Player Collection, and I am saving all of the Barry Lyons cards I can so I can ship them out to Biloxi for future camps. 

Here are all of the Barry Lyons customs I have, including the ones I got signed, and some random Donruss and Fleer ones I made.

 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy