Night Owl Cards

Thanks to all who voted in the comments for their favorite 1970s Topps card of Bert Campaneris. I didn't know how this little project would go, since I wasn't installing a poll and, let's face it, the whole theme of the post is how Campaneris these days doesn't get the respect he once did. (Also, I was stunned by the amount of folks who never heard about the bat-throwing moment. Where am I hanging out that I see that mentioned at least every other month?) A surprising 31 people voted for their favorite Campy and the one with the most votes was the one I saw first, the '75 Topps Campy card above. The voting totals: '75 Campy - 11 votes '70 Campy - 4 '72 Campy - 4 '73 Campy - 4 '76 Campy - 4 '74 Campy - 3 '78 Campy - 1 My thanks to the readers who indulged me with their votes, or even if they didn't vote, their comments on that post. To show my appreciation -- for reading, for commenting, for joining in my card talk ...

It's interesting how athletes from the past are remembered and whether they remain in the public conscious or not. Hall of Fame players usually survive in baseball conversations long after they've played because they've been immortalized in Cooperstown. Then there are players who didn't reach the Hall but were still very good and somehow, some way, are still remembered. Players like Dick Allen, Rusty Staub, Vida Blue and Mickey Rivers live on decades later as younger generations pick up on their legacies. Then there are all-stars like Bert Campaneris, who almost never get discussed anymore. There is just one memory of Campaneris that younger fans most assuredly know. I don't even need to mention it. You know what's coming, even if Lerrin LaGrow didn't . But there was much more to Campaneris than one momentary loss of reason. A couple of months ago, when watching old baseball games on youtube hadn't gotten old yet, I was watching a World Seri...

I just made print copies of the two 1973 Topps cards that are in my Dodgers binders so I can slip them into the empty spaces in my 1973 Topps set pages to signify that the '73 set is complete. They'll be place-holders until I get a second copy of the Walter Alston card and the Cey-Hilton-Schmidt rookie third basemen card. As you can see, I need a new ink cartridge, but this isn't the season for such "extras." So I'll have to make these copies again. I wanted to get them done now though because it's time for the "1973 Topps Set Is Done" post. I'm not pushing it back any longer. Completing the 1973 Topps set is cool for all the usual reasons, including that I have all the Topps sets from 1971-91 finished now, but for one other big reason, too. And that is to right a wrong. I didn't used to care about this set. Really. There's a post about it way early in my blog history. I ranked 1973 Topps at the bottom of all th...