Night Owl Cards

I like it when I discover cards in my collection of players who were Dodgers at another point in their career. I like it even more when I also find a card of that player as a Dodger. Ron Negray is featured on just two Topps cards. He's in the 1956 and 1957 Topps sets as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies. Because the Dodgers were so good at that time and there were relatively few teams, Negray spent much of his time with the Dodgers in the minors. He played seven seasons with Brooklyn farm teams like Valdosta, Newport News, Elmira, Pueblo and Saint Paul. He was traded to the Phillies in June 1955, just four months before Brooklyn won its first World Series. However, Negray did get to play for another famous Brooklyn Dodgers team. He appeared briefly with the 1952 Boys of Summer. Therefore, he received a card in the 1974 TCMA set: Outside of the 1990 Target all-inclusive Dodgers set, it is the only set where you can find a card of Negray as a Dodger. That is a...

Dick Williams is remembered as the manager who led the Impossible Dream Red Sox to the World Series title and the Swingin' A's to back-to-back championships in 1972-73. He's remembered for his hell-raising, do-what-I-say leadership style that worked with the Expos and Padres, too. But Williams was a Bum first. He was a Boy of Summer who hit .309 in 36 games for that Dodger team in 1952. He is immortalized in Roger Kahn's book as a single, free-spirit who joined Kahn in a night of ogling dancing girls during the sportswriter's year of covering the team. Williams, as you know, died Thursday at age 82. The Hall of Famer is the latest of several Brooklyn Dodgers from that period to pass away in the last year. Duke Snider. Clyde King. Billy Loes. Ken Lehman went before him. And, of course, Jackie, Furillo and Hodges are long gone. Each time a Bum leaves this earth, you'll hear or read baseball fans say, with a note of resignation, "that's too bad. T...