Night Owl Cards

Gus Bell's card is here for one reason and one reason only. He is card No. 162 in the 1956 Topps set. He is among the better players to receive card number 162 in a Topps set. Some other notables: Gil Hodges was No. 162 in 1958 Topps. Bob Gibson's excellent World Series card commemorating him striking out 17 batters is card No. 162 in the '69 Topps set. The '72 Brewers rookie stars in which Darrell Porter is misidentified is No. 162. And Ozzie Canseco's first card is No. 162 in 1991 Topps. But in general, 162 doesn't mean as much in baseball cards as it does in baseball. Today, every team has completed its 162-game schedule, save for the Angels and Mariners, who played just 161. The season is now over for the Angels and Mariners, as well as the Orioles and Rays, the Tigers, Blue Jays and White Sox, the Royals, A's and Rangers. And the Mets, Phillies, Marlins, Braves, Pirates, Brewers, Reds, Cardinals, Padres and Giants. Bell, shown making an excel...

Christmas Eve greetings, all. When someone decides to blog about sports, they first must promise that they will write a post about their all-time team. It can be the "all-time best" at each position, even if that's rather pedestrian. Or it can be something less obvious. I prefer the latter. And I've already composed the All-Greg team , the All-Fish team and the All-Beer team . But it's Christmastime and any team on this festive day should be Christmas-related. So, how do you combine baseball with Christmas? They don't go together very well. Opposite seasons, you know. What to do. What to do. I thought about finding players' last names that evoke Christmas images. You know, Rob Deer and J.T. Snow and Jon Garland and Tim Mistletoe (he's a prospect you've never heard of). But that's probably been done before, possibly multiple times over the years. As I thought about it some more, I started to hear bells in the distance. Sleigh b...