Night Owl Cards

  I hate to be the blog known for bringing up the deaths of past ballplayers. Part of me wishes the blog could be happy and light all the time. But whenever I hear about one of the players from my younger days moving on, I feel like I need to recognize it as a form of respect from a longtime baseball fan. Today I heard that Bill Plummer passed away. He's known as the backup catcher to Johnny Bench during the 1970s. I've mentioned before that I almost had the chance to interview Plummer. He was managing a minor league team in California at the time and a player from our area was playing for the team. But the interview with the player fell through (he wasn't keen on talking) and I never talked to Plummer. Plummer is the 181st player or manager featured in the 1975 Topps set who has died -- yes, I keep track of that, too. It's alarming that so many of those people who I collected in my first year of buying cards are no longer with us. So, I decided to put a positive spin o...

The Baseball Hall of Fame's official magazine, "Memories and Dreams," is delivered to my newspaper office about six times a year. Most of the time it doesn't have anything to do with my job, but I'm interested in baseball, so I take it home and read it. There's not a lot to it: a few stories about Hall of Famers and exhibits. Some stuff I knew, some stuff I didn't. But the magazine that arrived the other day drew my attention. It was all about baseball cards. The cover features the T206 Honus Wagner. And there are articles about the Wagner card, Jefferson Burdick (known as the father of card collecting), Sy Berger and baseball card exhibits at the Hall of Fame. There's also a story about the explosion of sports memorabilia and card shops in Cooperstown. People who have attended the induction ceremonies recently can't help but notice them. But when I was a kid, there weren't very many memorabilia shops when we visited. Later, I return...