Night Owl Cards

   As a baseball fan it's fun to look back on games I've attended and remember the ballplayers I witnessed in person.   I'm not lucky enough to be able to go to a big league game every week or even every year. So seeing those notable players is extra special to me and, yes, I've written about that . I've watched Dennis Eckersley, Cal Ripken Jr., Vladimir Guerrero Sr., Reggie Jackson, Jim Rice, Adrian Beltre, George Brett and Jim Palmer.   But this post isn't about those guys. Instead have you have looked up the players you watched that you didn't know you watched?   I came across this idea off a BlueSky post when I realized that I watched former Blue Jays second baseman Damaso Garcia during the first game I attended in person. But I didn't see the Blue Jays in my first game. I saw the Royals and Yankees. Garcia was playing for the Yankees in 1978 and on July 15 he appeared in the game I watched in Yankee Stadium.   My mind was blown. I didn't even kn...

  The Dodgers announced yesterday that it will retire Gil Hodges' uniform No. 14 and that the ceremony will take place June 4 when the Dodgers play the Mets. It's been a long time since the Dodgers retired a uniform number. The organization, with one exception, does not retire a number until the person who wore it is elected to the Hall of Fame. I think this is the proper way to retire numbers, rather than the "just-because" reasons that several other baseball teams do. The last time the Dodgers retired a uniform number was on Aug. 14, 1998 when they retired Don Sutton's No. 20. Twenty-four years have gone by since, but, heck, people have been waiting for Hodges to reach the Hall of Fame for a lot longer than that. So I figured I would revive a blog series that I haven't done in years -- just to continue the whole "what you waiting for?" theme. This is where I review all the players who have worn a certain number for the Dodgers. Today we're look...

I spent three days researching yesterday's post and it received about as many clicks as one of those awesome night card posts that takes me 20 minutes to do. I know it shouldn't matter and that the only rule on this blog is to write about what I think is interesting. I know all that and have known it for years. But this is the continuation of a trend in readership that I've seen over the last month or two, and I'm coming to the conclusion that readership -- I'm not talking solely numbers here -- is not the same as it was four or five years ago. But that's a topic for another time. Tonight, in my cranky state, instead of occupying all of my time (and yours) on research that only I find fascinating, I'm going to rely on what everyone finds fascinating -- baseball cards!!!! In other words, cards that people sent to me! The truth is I'm spent. Yesterday's post only took some of my time. The vast majority has been occupied by work. For exampl...

Back in the early stages of this blog, I wrote about the concept of a player not being able to take a bad baseball card picture. They're photogenic, but on cardboard. They're "cardogenic." Some players just have a knack for appearing on excellent baseball cards every single time. No awkward portraits. No strange expressions. No weird action shots. My favorite in this area was Russell Martin -- before his Yankeefication, of course (his cards have taken a downturn that corresponds with his batting average) -- particularly his  2008  cards. But I've mentioned other players who have this ability as well. Hideo Nomo has gobs of fantastic cards. Just about every card he graces is a work of art. I'll even grudgingly admit that Eric Young Jr. can light up a baseball card every time. He's never been a Dodger -- like his papa was -- but he somehow acquired skills in the cardogenic category anyway. Good genes, I guess. But before these guys, there were oth...

Delino DeShields, 1996 Pro Magnets. Magnet on the back. Raul Mondesi, 1999 Stars N' Steel. Made from polished steel. Let the experiment begin ... Magnet placed on top of steel ... And ... ... ... ... They do NOT attract. I think we haves a '90s card FAIL. Oh, well. Maybe DeShields and Mondesi weren't meant for each other. Still love the '90s. Still love the '70s. Oooooo. Ooooooo. Ooooooaah . (Thanks for the "card," Greg L. )

(As I write this, the plumber is here. I love house issues, don't you? It's time for Cardboard Appreciation. Because I can find a lot more to appreciate in cardboard than my house right now. This is the 83rd in a series): I need a laugh right now, and this card is up to the task. I pulled it from a card package from Smed's Baseball Card Blog . It made me laugh when I took it out of the package. It made me laugh when I looked at it a week later as I realized I had to post the cards. And it's still killing me now. I've said a lot of unkind things about Delino DeShields in the past. When you're a Dodger fan and your team trades Pedro Martinez for this guy, and you know , in the pit of your stomach that it's not a good deal, and then it turns out to be perhaps the worst deal the Dodgers have ever made, then you are not a fan of Delino DeShields. At. All. Have I mentioned 124 strikeouts while hitting .224 in 1996? Yes I have . But somehow this card m...