Night Owl Cards

(*Sigh*) Nice try, Mr. Oswalt. Hope you're around for Game 6. Anyway, ever since Roy Oswalt came over to the Phillies late in the regular season, there's been a lot of talk about the name "Roy." When you've got two dominant pitchers on the same team with the same first name, everyone falls all over themselves to come up with a cutesy title for the two of them. Like you, I've suffered through the teeth-grating attempts at cleverness. And I've never heard more talk about the name Roy since the mid-1970s when Roy Scheider needed a bigger boat and Roy Clark was a-pickin'-and-a-grinnin'. I was a mere lad of 10 back then, and the name Roy meant a lot to me. It's the reason why when I hear the name, I don't think of Oswalt. And I don't think of Halladay (better be on your game Thursday, sir). I don't even think of this guy. I don't think of Roy Smalley, Roy Face or Roy McMillan either. Instead, the person that I ...

"You wouldn't know I'm a 53-year-old man. Look, not an ounce of gray. I can still trick 'em." "I'm a little out of it tonight if you haven't noticed." "Everything I do, it's right off the top of my head. Something pops in my head and it comes out." "I missed all the outs. What happened? 4-3, 6-3? Broadcasting partner Gary Cohen: "4-3, 3-1, 6-3" "The white-outs, these new ones they have now, they're more like tape ... now they have the one with the tape, and it is spectacular." "I'm worried about my lawn back home." The above comments were uttered by Keith Hernandez during his regular job as a color man for the Mets broadcasts on SNY. I need to start a running account of his Keithisms. I wish I had a transcript of him recalling his first encounter with a tornado when he was in the minor leagues. During a broadca...

Some of you may be ready to take away my Dodger badge. After all, there is only an hour left in Jackie Robinson Day, and I hadn't even mentioned it until now. There are a couple of reasons for that. The first is it's been a frenzied day on a few different fronts, and baseball hasn't been on my mind much. The second is, Jackie Robinson Day is better known to me as Dad's Birthday. Yup, April 15 is my father's birthday, and I'm sorry, Jackie, but he will win out every time. But that doesn't mean I'm not prepared to recognize Robinson on this blog before a new day dawns. For starters, I'm placing him on the semi-neglected list of my 100 most favorite players of all-time on the sidebar. At the rate I'm going, I'll have to be reincarnated twice to get to 100 names. Robinson is name No. 3. Also, I am officially adding Robinson to the "Dodgers I Collect" list. I've been stuck on the same five players for awhile, so it's tim...

You may have read that Jerry Reuss commented on my previous post. If you haven't read it, I'll let you take a moment to go back and read it now. And I won't lecture you about how your world should revolve around this blog by now. Kidding. You people are so serious. All right, done reading? Now, isn't that the most awesome thing ever? I really hate that I sound 14 years old at the moment, but it's mind-blowing. Mr. Reuss, thanks for making my day. So aside from becoming president of the Jerry Reuss Fan Club, I wondered what I could do to celebrate one of my favorite players reading my blog. Matt of the Project Baseball 1976 blog had the answer. Find out which Jerry Reuss card is the best! That's right, it's the first poll of 2010. You knew I couldn't go long without taking a poll. I just needed an opportunity. A couple of changes, though. Normally, I stick with the 1970s cards of a player. But because Reuss played a good chunk of his career with the Dod...

I've decided to start another series on this blog, but it is more for my personal purpose than anything else. I have always had a list in my head of my favorite baseball players of all-time. But it's never been a concrete 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... etc., etc., list. It's more of a jumble of names and reasons. But I thought if I could categorize it here, I would be able to figure out who my 100 all-time favorite players are and why. And then I would have it for posterity. Then, if someone was to pull me aside on the street and say, "quick, name your 100 favorite baseball players of all-time or I will start yammering something about 'Jon & Kate' in your face," I would be able to avert disaster. I know who some of those players are already. You know who some of those players are already. Ron Cey will be there. Sandy Koufax will be there. There will be more Dodgers than players on any other team. But there will be players from other teams. And you're going ...