Night Owl Cards

  It's a periodic tradition around here to find a Labor Day theme and blog about it on Labor Day. Heck, I'm working on the holiday most years (this year included). so might as well fully embrace it.   Showing the Mike Marshall buyback card the other day gave me the idea. There was a time when relievers were described as "workhorses" -- I don't know, maybe they still are -- implying that they were so reliable that you could call on them as often as you wanted and they'd get the job done. I thought it'd be fun to feature the most dedicated workhorses in MLB history and find a card for each of the pitchers who have appeared in the most games in a single season in major league history. You probably know the first two, but I bet you're kind of hazy on who comes after that. I know I was.     1. Mike Marshall, 106 games played (1974, Dodgers)   As remarkable now as it was then. Marshall appeared in 65% of the Dodgers' regular-season games in 1974 and al...

More than ever, I am cautious about entering group breaks. Sometimes it's for money reasons, but just as often it's because the sets being broken will yield a bunch of dupes for my collection. As a team collector I've accumulated quite a few Dodgers cards. I tried to figure out how many about a year go and came up with a guess-timate . I'd say I've added a few hundred more since then. And I've probably added about the same number of doubles. So I'm wary when another group break is announced. Nachos Grande , which holds a lot of group breaks, held one a month or two ago and the sets featured were ones where I didn't need many Dodger cards. I was going to skip it. But then Chris said that he'd be opening a box of 2001 Upper Deck '70s Decade. Goodness gracious, I love that set . Even though I had all the base Dodgers from the set, I was hoping for a hit or an insert of the Dodger variety. Even one of those would be worth the price. So...

So, it's the day after Christmas and what did I get? That's all you want to know, right? Well, I think you know my situation enough to know that there's no money to blow on hobby boxes or expensive hits. That was especially true this year when we decided to dedicate Christmas fund money to home improvements. That meant a lot less for individual gifts. But the good news is that finally -- what's this, year four that I've been begging my family for cards? -- the majority of my gifts were card related. There was a new card binder, which I've already used to replace the forlorn excuse for one that barely protected my far-from-complete 1982 Topps set. I used to dread looking for cards in that binder because I could barely turn pages, and when I did, it was a 20-minute project to get the thing closed again. There were lots of pages, too. Very useful. There were two rack packs of 2011 Topps Series 2 from my daughter. The first rack pack yielded the Campy 60...

This is another "for posterity" post. I'm trying to determine which major league records are held by Dodgers. I've always had the feeling that they don't hold a lot of them. They seem to be held mostly by Yankees or bulbous-headed steroid users or other such nonsense. Or maybe it's just my inferiority complex. The Dodgers have gotten along pretty well without setting a lot of records, but I think I'm missing some. So that's the reason for the post. I'm going to list what I know here, and then add more as I stumble across them. As always, if you know of major league marks held by Dodgers, please let me know. Here is what I've got right now -- basically off the top of my head: Karl Spooner, starting pitcher, 1954-55 MLB record held: Most strikeouts, game, rookie (tie), 15 (Sept. 22, 1954 vs. Giants). Gil Hodges, first baseman, 1943, 1947-61 MLB record held: Most home runs, game (tie), four (Aug. 30, 1950 vs. Braves). Sandy Kouf...

I am almost certain I will not be able to post again until sometime Friday, so I better write something now. Also, I'll be announcing the winner of "the completely random multiple choice guessing game" contest on the weekend, so get in your guesses (and I do mean guesses) on the previous post . OK, the card featured above actually isn't awesome at all. From my perspective, it is "the saddest night card of all-time." This is a card of the key moment of Game 5 of the 1974 World Series. In fact it was the key play in the entire Series. In 1974, baseball received a glimpse of the future with the first All-California World Series, Oakland vs. Los Angeles. The two-time World Series champions vs. the young upstarts. This was before I started following baseball, but if I was of "baseball-watching age," this would have been a big moment for me. Oakland won the Series in 5 games for its third straight championship. The clincher was a solo home run by Joe Ru...