Until today all my pieces had been made from cards. That was kind of the whole concept. Then this morning I was heading to the recycle bin to dispose of the scraps left over from yesterday’s “Fleer Face” Ripken when Gary Carter’s smiling face looked up at me and said, “You’re not really throwing me away, are you?”

Well technically, Mr. Carter, I was recycling you. There’s a difference. What kind of barbarian do you think I am after all?

Then I stopped and had those two words pop into my head that are the starting point for nearly every crazy idea: Why not!

I started out with various safe designs, but nothing looked right to me. I needed the card to be more fun. Ultimately I thought, “What could be more fun than baseball cards themselves?” and realized the right background for my Gary Carter was the rest of the cello box.

While it wasn’t part of this particular box, I remembered back to being a kid myself (no pun intended) and seeing the two most effective words in marketing to the elementary school demographic: “Hey Kids!” Well, this time the pun was intended as it not only captured the spirit of the box but of course incorporated Gary Carter’s nickname.

The “KIDS” come from the box, and the “Hey” is made up of letters from various 1989 Fleer team stickers. (You can probably guess at least two very easily.) I was happy just to have any letters that spelled “Hey,” but I was particularly happy to use the “E” from Gary’s time as a Montreal Expo. The Yankees “Y” may seem anathema to Mets die-hards, but I felt like it symbolized just how beloved Carter was. Even Yankees fans loved him, and they hate everyone! The “H” came from CHICAGO, the headquarters of Heavy J Studios.

I better stop with all the symbols before this turns into a Dan Brown novel. At any rate, the “Hey Kids” Gary Carter will probably go to a special auction in the next week or so.