Night Owl Cards

(According to the always handy Holiday Insights calendar, today is "Bad Poetry Day." Isn't that redundant? I mean, isn't all poe ... OK, never mind, that's not very appreciative. On with Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 44 th in a series): I don't normally feature such a bland-looking card in Cardboard Appreciation. But the card is here more for the subject than its appearance. If you saw the New York Times article over the weekend, you know why this card is here. But if you didn't, I'm going to tell you a little story. Today is the 20 th anniversary of the last time a left-handed catcher played in a major league game. And that catcher was Benny Distefano . Distefano caught in three games for the Pirates in 1989, the last one being on Aug. 18, when he replaced Junior Ortiz in the sixth inning of a 13-6 loss to the Braves. The article mentions that one of the reasons that Distefano was able to catch was because his manager, Jim Leyland , ...