Night Owl Cards

As a fan who roots for the Dodgers, I find three recurring elements of the game more frustrating than any other. The first is leaving runners on base. I'm sure every fan of every other team feels this way about their team, too, but the Dodgers I am positive have led the league in runners stranded for at least the last 35 consecutive years. The second is seeing a pitcher that your team surrendered willingly turn around and beat your team. I witnessed this with Eric Stults just a couple of days ago. I could sit here for 15 years and not come up with a reason why the Dodgers couldn't hit Stults. The third is seeing a pitcher own your team year after year as if the only reason for his career is to beat the Dodgers. I've been aware of this one since I could root for a specific team. Over the years, I've come to know certain pitchers dominate the Dodgers. John Candelaria, Dennis Martinez, Mario Soto, Chris Carpenter. But I never had any numbers to back it up. Was i...

(I can't think of a better concept right now than retirement. Retirement for me, retirement for certain people at work, DEFINITELY retirement for certain people at work. I am really, really, really appreciating retirement in a big way. Because that's when there will be more time for baseball cards! Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 109th in a series): Pitchers batting. Yay or nay? You might think this is the start of a debate over the designated hitter. But that stuff bores me. I'm a National League guy, so I don't care that much for the DH, but what I really don't care about are the mind-numbing discussions about the merits/evils of the DH. I don't care about the statistical analysis. I don't care that each league has separate rules. I don't care to get into it. Period. What I want to know is how you feel about pitchers batting ... on baseball cards. Photos of pitchers batting on baseball cards was a phenomenon, I assume, created...

For the second time in a month, I received an email from out of nowhere from a generous collector named Joe. Now this Joe was not this Joe . It was a different Joe. But the package I received from this Joe was no less generous than the one I received from that Joe. And now I'm searching for cards to send to both Joes . I've got to tell you, Joes , you're making things a tad challenging in the card department. But you've certainly gotten my attention. The cards I received from this Joe were so successful in their effectiveness that I have to break them up into two posts. This will be part 1. The second part, hopefully, will be coming up very soon. But with Gint -a-Cuffs and some vacation plans all going on at the same time, that's a bit shaky. But I'll get to it. Don't you worry 'bout a thing. Part 1 will address the Dodger cards. You already saw one of them , although Jackie wasn't dressed in Dodger blue on that card. Here are most of the others: F...