Night Owl Cards

  The Dodgers are retiring Fernando Valenzuela's uniform number "34" tonight. It seems like they just did the uniform-retiring thing and that's because it happened last year with Gil Hodges' "14" being retired. Valenzuela breaks tradition as he's just the second Dodger player not in the Hall of Fame to have his number retired. The other is Jim Gilliam. Last year I wrote a post about Hodges' number being retired and boasting about how the Dodgers don't retire numbers willy-nilly like some clubs, and now, I guess, the Dodgers are going to be every other team. But for Valenzuela it doesn't bother me much. Maybe I'm making excuses for my favorite team (you know, like every fan does) but retiring No. 34 seems right. Valenzuela's impact on the Dodgers is among the greatest of any player in team history. His legacy is felt throughout MLB and in two countries. He remained a part of the Dodgers long after his retirement. Also maybe the Do...

There aren't a lot of Dodgers who share my birthday. Have you ever heard of John Purdin or Tommy Tatum? Yeah, I didn't think so. Both of them were born on July 16 and both were Dodgers. Purdin was actually pretty interesting. He was signed by the Dodgers after a fan sent them a letter. In 1964, he won 42 games -- 20 for the Armed Forces in Germany, 14 for minor league Salisbury, 6 in winter instructional ball and 2 for the Dodgers. I know all of that because I have a baseball card of Purdin. And I actually read the card backs. I don't have a card for Tatum, which can be excused because he played during World War II. Not a lot of cards then. Probably the most notable Dodger to have been born on my birthday is Norm Sherry. He was a backup catcher for the Dodgers in the early 1960s. His brother was Larry Sherry, the N.L. World Series MVP for the Dodgers in 1959. Norm Sherry went on to become a manager for the Angels and a coach for the Padres and Giants. But he is...