Night Owl Cards

The major leagues and minor leagues are having a fight and it's a little bit upsetting to me. I can relate to the minor leagues. I think most people who don't live in a city with a major league team do. I've attended many more minor league games than I have major league games and the formative years of my career involved minor league teams. With the rift between the majors and the minors, it's difficult to see what will come out of this. The majors are threatening to walk away from the minors, which would be a disaster -- for everyone, but also the major leagues. They act like they will be fine without the minor leagues but they won't. It will likely be devastating and baseball will just keep regressing farther and farther behind football and basketball in terms of relevance. One of the questions that I've had since this news broke is how will this potential split affect minor league baseball cards? I'm sure since Topps is very wrapped up in its M...

I believe that Reggie Jefferson is taking his fielding stance at first base in a major league stadium. But the lighting in the photo on this card gives me the impression that he's in a minor league park. That's appropriate because right about now I should be taking in another Syracuse Chiefs game. No, it's not a night game, but the tickets were FREE, so I'm willing to suspend the night owl act for a day. The Chiefs, still the Triple A affiliate of your beloved Washington Nationals (still no Strasburg, still no Harper), are taking on the Lehigh Valley IronPIGS today. When I told the female members of the family that the Chiefs were playing the IronPigs, they both scrunched up their nose in that "ewwwwwww, yuuuuuuckk" way. But they'll get over it. I don't know what else to expect. I'm hoping for a game as interesting as last year . But I know I don't have a lot of time, so here is a quick look at who I am most interested in seeing: ...

I sure do write about this guy a lot, don't I? Hopefully, this is the last time. While everyone is talking about Strasburg on the Million Card site or in a complete 2010 Topps set or in Topps U&H or whatever, I went the simple route and bought the Syracuse Chiefs team set for a rather inflated 10 bucks. That's 33 cents per card. Or maybe it's 5 dollars for the Strasburg card ... ... another $2.50 for the Drew Storen card, and 9 cents each for 28 scrubs. This Strasburg card is staying with me. Not that it's rare or anything. There were more than a few being sold at the Syracuse Chiefs' game last night. And here was the vendor's chant as he walked up and down the aisles: "Get your scorecards and baseball cards. Strasburg right on top." And Strasburg is. They've got all the other cards in alphabetical order, except for Strasburg, who is conveniently out front. That was the highlight of my pregame purchasing. Once the pla...

(Today is "National Milk Chocolate Day." The order of those two words in the middle is important. I detest "chocolate milk." Always have since the time I was little. But "milk chocolate" is the most wonderful invention ever and much appreciated. This is the 74th in a series): If it doesn't rain, I will be attending a minor league baseball game tonight. It's already rained twice here today, but the game is an hour away, so who knows what it will be doing down there. The Syracuse Chiefs are facing the Indianapolis Indians, which doesn't mean much in major league terms, since those are the Triple A affiliates of the Nationals and the Pirates (I bet they pack the house for that series). But, as usual, we will be going merely for the spectacle of a relatively well-played game in my favorite kind of environment, one surrounded by baseball. Jason Marquis is scheduled to make the start for Syracuse. He's on a rehab assignment with the Natio...

The ballgame turned out to be a lot of fun (was there any doubt?). Beautiful weather. Decent crowd. No parking issues. About the only thing that went wrong was me looking at the wrong roster for the two teams when I wrote the previous post. There were quite a few players I recognized at the game: Daryle Ward (the hecklers' main target), Wilson Betemit , Norris Hopper, Elijah Dukes (hit by a pitch twice), Pete Orr, Saul Rivera and Jorge Sosa (throwing smoke). And Mike Morse was the big hero, hitting a two-run triple in the seventh inning for the game-winning hit as Syracuse rallied to win 5-3. But the biggest news was in the stands, in Section 105, Row 4, seats 5 and 6. Right behind the visitors' dugout. That's where my daughter and I sat. You see, it was quite the entertaining game. Not only was there a comeback win and a two-run triple, but there was also a home run, runners tagged out at the plate in the respective sixth and eighth innings, Charlotte manager Chris Chambl...

I'm headed out to the old ballpark tonight. It's been awhile. I've mentioned before that I don't live close to a major league park. In fact, I don't live close to any ballpark that features professional baseball. In the past, that wouldn't stop me. I'd hop in a car and head to any number of parks within driving distance. But ever since my daughter became old enough to care about where she was going, that practice has stopped. I've mentioned before that my daughter isn't interested in baseball. She jokes around with me about how worthless it is, saying swimming or Hannah Montana or Boogie Superstar (if you have a daughter and a Wii, you know what I'm talking about) is vastly more important. And I won't force her to go to games if she's not interested. But now -- maybe it's her age, or I've finally worn her down -- she's looking forward to a ballgame. And I'm not going to stand around waiting for her to change her mind. So,...