Night Owl Cards

The thing about starting a blog when you're in your 40s is the topic of death is going to come up periodically. The 40s is the decade when you begin to come to terms with your own mortality, at least it is for me. And so, various times, I pause on this blog to honor a ball player that's passed from this earth. And I'm particularly upset when it's someone who was featured in the 1975 Topps set, because that means he was playing when I was a kid. But former players dying who were active when I was in high school? That's just way too close to home. Last week I learned that two players who were featured on cards that I collected when I was in high school had died. One is Allen Ripley here. He was 62. Way too young. Ripley grew up in Massachusetts and he was considered a native son to Red Sox fans. Because there were two Red Sox fans in my family growing up, it was practically like we lived in Boston and there was great hope for any prospect like Ripley who ...