Awesome night card, pt. 83

Thanks for the advice on storing the gigundo cards. I will probably search out some of those massive top loaders and store them in pages and a binder because I like the idea of how that looks. I may frame one or two, but there just isn't a lot of available wall room in the house, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, that's not why the night card is here. It's here because I was having trouble getting back to sleep the other day.

Normally, when I wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep, I switch on the TV or computer, or open a book. After an hour or so of that, I'm ready to drift off again.

But because of my wacky work schedule, my "middle of the night" often lands around 7 in the morning. If I wake up then and can't get back to sleep, there's no use in heading for the TV or computer because the rest of the house is running around like headless chickens getting ready for work and school. It's way too hectic and frenzied an atmosphere.

So on those occasions, I try to stay in bed, clear my mind and hope it works. Counting sheep and that kind of thing doesn't usually do it for me.

Except this time.

I decided to figure out which past player and which current player I think of first for each major league team. In a way, those two players symbolize each team for me. I left out the Dodgers because I think of too many players when I think of them. So, this is what I came up with:

AL East
Blue Jays: past, Dave Stieb; present, Vernon Wells
Orioles: past, Brooks Robinson; present, Nick Markakis
Rays: past, Wade Boggs; present, Carl Crawford
Red Sox: past, Ted Williams; present, Kevin Youkilis
Yankees: past, Babe Ruth; present, Derek Jeter

AL Central
Indians: past, Rocky Colavito; present, Grady Sizemore
Royals: past, George Brett; present, Joakim Soria
Tigers: past, Al Kaline; present, Magglio Ordonez
Twins: past, Rod Carew; present, Joe Mauer
White Sox: past, Nellie Fox; present, Mark Buehrle

AL West
Angels: past, Don Baylor; present, Howie Kendrick
A's: past, Rollie Fingers; present, Kurt Suzuki
Mariners: past, Randy Johnson; present, Felix Hernandez
Rangers: past, Nolan Ryan; present, Michael Young

NL East
Braves: past, Hank Aaron; present, Chipper Jones
Marlins: past, Gary Sheffield; present, Dan Uggla
Mets: past, Tom Seaver; present, David Wright
Nationals: past, Vladimir Guerrero; present, Ryan Zimmerman
Phillies: past, Mike Schmidt; present, Ryan Howard

NL Central
Astros: past, J.R. Richard; present, Roy Oswalt
Brewers: past, Robin Yount, present, Prince Fielder
Cardinals: past, Keith Hernandez, present, Albert Pujols
Cubs: past, Ernie Banks; present, Carlos Zambrano
Pirates: past, Willie Stargell; present, Andrew McCutchen
Reds: past, Pete Rose; present, Joey Votto (I want to say Dusty Baker to get a rise out of Reds fans).

NL West
Diamondbacks: past, Curt Schilling; present, Stephen Drew
Giants: past, Willie Mays; present, Tim Lincecum
Padres: past, Dave Winfield; present, Adrian Gonzalez
Rockies: past, Dante Bichette; present, Todd Helton

A couple notes:

For the past: some of these names are obviously influenced by my childhood. You could probably pick better representatives for the Astros, Cardinals and Twins, but childhood memories are strong. Also, I'm not crazy about the fact that I think of Ryan first with the Rangers. He was in his prime with the Angels and Astros. I consider his attention with the Rangers a little bit of a media creation, although he was still exceptional for someone his age at that time.

Some players, like Babe Ruth and Willie Mays, I never saw. But their history is just too overwhelming not to think of them first.

For the present: Wow, there were some teams that really made me struggle. For the A's and Pirates, I kept thinking of a name and then going, "no, he's not on the team anymore." I must've done that 3 or 4 times apiece for each team. It's a wonder I ever got back to sleep.

Oh, and I couldn't tell you one thing about Howie Kendrick. It's just the first name that popped in my head.

So, I suppose you're wondering, how did this work as a sleep aid? (and I don't mean the post, smart-ass).

It worked great. Feel free to use it.