Night Owl Cards

I'm in the middle of an extended vacation, which if I do say so myself, is well-deserved. One of the interesting occurrences of vacation is how you don't feel like blogging most of the time. While I'm working, all I can think of is "if I only had time to blog, I feel like everything is rushed." And then when I get the time, I'm too lazy. Got to always have that deadline, I guess. Anyway, because I'm not really feeling it right now, it's a good time clear out some cards that have been scanned but are really going nowhere. Yup, you feared correctly, it's an image dump! Come look at cards that are too good to toss but not good enough to turn into a clearly defined post. This is a card concept that I don't believe Topps has used in 25 years. Taking past cards of a significant player and republishing them as a kind of montage-series is pretty cool. You could even turn it into an insert series, if you must. Feel free to steal that idea, T...

The first time I was aware of a former major league baseball player moving on to a high level front office position was with former Yankees and Mariners pitcher Jim Beattie. He was GM with the Expos and the Orioles. There had been many other examples prior to Beattie, but because Beattie played when I was a kid, he was of special interest to me. It seemed odd that someone I knew only as wearing a baseball uniform playing a kid's game was now wearing a suit and tie, sitting in an office, dealing with salaries and bank accounts. So when other former players emerged in high-ranking "business" roles in baseball -- Bob Watson, Ruben Amaro Jr., Billy Beane -- I took note. It just doesn't seem like a job for a baseball player, many of whom are independently wealthy and have no need for the aggravation of a desk job. The most recent example is new Angels general manager, Jerry DiPoto, a former relief pitcher and someone who competed in the minors in the town where I ...