Night Owl Cards

I'm really trying to avoid all the baseball doom and gloom going on lately. But I guess it's probably my fault that I started a baseball card blog at the onset of middle age. Charlie Lea died Thursday at age 54. You don't need me to tell you that, as you've probably already read about it here and here and here , along with the usual news web sites. But I've been running around caring for a wife with bronchitis. I haven't had much time to check the news today. Appropriately, I learned about Lea's passing from the newspaper of all places. It was a little blurb in the baseball roundup. It's appropriate because that's also where I learned of Lea's most famous feat as a major league player, becoming the first French-born player to throw a no-hitter in the major leagues. I've already written about the impact of no-hitters on my life and profession. I've also already written about Lea's no-hitter. So there's a connection t...

Topps very nearly earned itself the first-and-only FIVE-disembodied-hand-clap rating for this 1982 Topps baseball card. Take a look at the scoreboard in the background of this photo. It says that the Giants play the Expos at 1. I am going to take a wild leap and assume that means it's going to be played at 1 p.m. or 1:30 p.m., not 1 a.m. What a pleasing backdrop to this baseball photo. Now, if you followed early 1980s baseball, you know that Charlie Lea is known primarily for one thing. He threw a no-hitter in 1981. OK, so here we have a photo of Charlie Lea, most likely taken in 1981, the year of that no-hitter, since this card is from the 1982 set. We also have a photo of Lea taken at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. With a scoreboard announcing a game between the Expos and the Giants. Lea's no-hitter was against the Giants. Starting to get interesting, no? Oui. What else do we know about this photo? Well, the picture was taken during the day. And the ...