Night Owl Cards

Once again, Canada Day greetings to all my Canadian readers! It's tradition around here to put a little extra on the last wing ... er, I mean, to recognize my Canadian readers with a blog post on their national day (sorry, binging on the Hot Ones series on youtube)! I've done it for the last five years now, and, quite frankly, I'm not sure how long I can keep this up. Since I live so close to the Canadian border, I hear a lot about Canadian-style this and Canadian-style that. Canadian-style beer (yum!), Canadian-style fries, Canadian-style bagels, bacon, chips, etc. (I don't know if there are Canadian-style chicken wings). I won't surprise anyone who reads this blog by saying there are also Canadian-style baseball cards. Or, there were anyway. I don't remember when I first came across O-Pee-Chee cards and their wonderful take on Topps' American version, I was probably a teenager. But I know I was fascinated immediately, in the same way I was with th...

I stumbled across another anniversary today. This year is the 40th anniversary of the debut of Toronto Blue Jays uniforms on trading cards. As many know, the first Blue Jays cards appeared in the 1977 Topps set. But none of the players shown as Blue Jays were wearing actual Blue Jays uniforms. Topps airbrushed the players into Blue Jays caps and -- having stumbled through various versions of the Blue Jay bird -- didn't dare tackle the uniform and kept the selection to head shots, airbrushing only the collars mostly. So, the 1978 Topps set provided the first lengthy look at the Blue Jays uniform for those who didn't live in Toronto or in one of the U.S. border towns (note: as someone on Twitter has already mentioned, 1977 OPC featured Blue Jays unis). It was quite a treat seeing those players, most of whom I didn't know at all, in their baby blue Jays uniforms with the electric letters and numbers. Most of what I gathered from the cards were that these players we...

Happy Canada Day, once again, to my Canadian readers. This is getting to be a bit of a tradition now that I've referenced Canada Day on the actual day the last three years. Tell me, non-Canadians, what's the first thing you think of when someone mentions "Canada"? If you didn't respond with "hockey," you need to try again. Hockey is such a Canadian institution that if someone were to tell me that a famous athlete from Canada never played hockey, I'd be more surprised by that than just about anything. Even professional baseball players from Canada played hockey before they made baseball their career choice. Larry Walker, one of the greatest baseball players to ever come out of Canada, wanted to be a goalie in the NHL when he was growing up. One of his childhood friends was Boston Bruins great Cam Neely. Walker never played professional hockey. But there are several MLB players who were drafted by an NHL team, played in pro hockey leagues an...

Happy Canada Day to all of my Canadian readers, of which I have many, I've discovered over the years. Last year on Canada Day I compiled an all-Canadian all-star team to recognize the holiday. It wasn't terribly difficult as there are few enough Canadian major leaguers that every time someone sneaks over the border and into a major league uniform, the U.S. media is all over it -- "hey, HEY! Canadian over HERE! IN THE BIG LEAGUES! HEY! HE'S NOT ONE OF US!" Also, as I've mentioned many times, I live near and have been to Canada often. It's almost common knowledge that Larry Walker, Terry Puhl, Fergie Jenkins, Eric Gagne, Joey Votto, Justin Morneau, Rich Harden, Matt Stairs, Rheal Cormier, Claude Raymond, Dave Pagan, Dave McKay, Russell Martin, Corey Koskie, John Hiller, Doug Frobel, Vince Horseman, Ryan Dempster, Jeff Francis, Erik Bedard, Jason Bay, Reggie Cleveland, Stubby Clapp, Dalton Pompey, Jim Adduci, Paul Spoljaric, Nigel Wilson, Kirk McCaski...

I am a bit embarrassed to admit that although I live about a half hour from Canada, it has been years since I have visited. That's what happens when a busier lifestyle, combined with less money and more aggressive border regulations conspire. During the '90s and early 2000s, I traveled north of the border quite a bit, both for business and pleasure. And I can recall good times in Montreal, Kingston, Niagara Falls, Ottawa and Toronto. A number of years ago, I spent one Canada Day -- which Canadians are celebrating today -- in that nation's capital. But I've addressed Canadian thoughts before . What I'm doing here is digging out my favorite baseball cards of Canadians and putting them on a team together. This is a slightly more difficult task than if these were hockey cards. But an increasing number of Canadians have reached the majors in the last few decades and I can fill out a basic squad with not too much trouble. So here they are. These are not necessa...