Night Owl Cards

Thousands of names fill the major league baseball archives. With the sheer volume of players who have competed in baseball for the last 140 or so years, there are bound to be names that repeat. Not just Smith and Jones, but less common ones like Darwin, Hampton and Moreland. Since baseball is a family game, the same names pop up all the time. Bell. Boone. Canseco. But have you noticed that every once in awhile, a couple of players show up at around the same time with the same name and they aren't related? In fact, you may have never heard the name previously, at least not in a major league setting. There are two players with the last name Cain in baseball right now -- Matt and Lorenzo (yes, I know Matt hasn't played a game this year). They've each played together in major league baseball for the last five years, after there were just three previous Cains spread out over 125 years of baseball. There are lots of other examples of this, and sometimes I wonder how it h...

Do you remember those "Dan and Dave" Reebok commercials about U.S. Olympic decathletes Dan O'Brien and Dave Johnson? Those TV ads were everywhere. You couldn't avoid them. I think they might've even killed the Olympics. I mean, the Olympic Games don't seem to be as well-liked here in the U.S. as they once were. In 1984, I couldn't get enough of the Games. I watched every single day, every last hour. But now, if you ask someone under 30 about the Olympics, chances are you're going to get this for an answer: "I hate the Olympics." I suppose there are lots of reasons for the downturn. I know the reason for me is baseball getting the boot from the Games. I am not pleased about that. Anyway, the reason I bring up "Dan and Dave" is I received two card packages in the mail this afternoon from Dan in Baltimore and David in Brooklyn. They provided lots of goodies to go through, and as usual, I must offer up the highlights. I'll start wi...