Night Owl Cards

The last time I wrote a post, I led off with a Nolan Ryan card. The last time I wrote an Awesome Night Card post, the topic was no-hitters . And I'm showing a card I received from Johnny's Trading Spot for the second post in a row. I can repeat myself with the best of them. I'm showing this card basically because I've never seen it before and I am fascinated with it, mostly because it's taken me so long to find this particular night card. It contains a lot of things that I love in a card. It captures a moment in time -- Nolan Ryan's sixth no-hitter on June 11, 1990 against the A's. It shows a salute to the fans, a tip of the cap. It comes from that time when satin jackets were the height of cool. You can also see a scoreboard in the distance and that's awesome. And, of course, it all happened at night. The only dorky part is the lettering on the photo that says "No Hit KING". I don't know why "king" is all in caps and...

This is my favorite card recognizing a Dodger no-hitter. Donruss also put one out of Kevin Gross in its 1993 set, but it scans like crap, and the Score one lays it all out for you. Who, what, when, where. It's there. With the first no-hitter of the season pitched last night (yes, I was working and thank goodness for earlier Saturday start times on the west coast), I looked back on which cards I have that recognize Dodgers no-hitters. There aren't a lot of them. If you pitched a no-hitter before the 1990s, good luck, unless you're Sandy Koufax. Really, the boom in no-hitter cards, recognizing personal achievement on the field, was in the '90s. Score, again, brought it to the forefront with its marvelous no-hitter subset , acknowledging the surge in no-hitters during the 1990 season. The Kevin Gross card followed two years later. The next Dodgers no-hitter happened in July of 1995 when Ramon Martinez pitched one against the Marlins. This is what I have t...

After yesterday's post, I have this modest bit of no-hitter research sitting here on a post-it note when it should be properly presented out in the open so anyone can look at it and twist it into whatever they like. So, without further ado, a list of how many times each major league team has been no-hit in the last 40 years, separated by division: American League East Orioles - 6 Rays - 5 Blue Jays - 4 Red Sox - 2 Yankees - 1 American League Central White Sox - 4 Indians - 3 Tigers - 3 Twins - 2 Royals - 1 American League West Angels - 6 Astros - 3 A's - 3 Mariners - 3 Rangers - 3 National League East Braves - 5 Expos - 4 Marlins - 3 Mets - 3 Phillies - 2 National League Central Cardinals - 3 Brewers - 2 Pirates - 2 Cubs - 1 Reds - 1 National League West Giants - 8 Dodgers - 7 Padres - 6 Rockies - 3 Diamondbacks - 2 A few brief observations: -- Every major league franchise has been no-hit in the last 40 years (if we lump ...

So, the Dodgers were no-hit last night, and judging by the usual social media reactions you would think this was an excuse for team management to fire everyone and start from scratch. At the very least, according to these people, Mike Fiers' no-hitter exposed fatal weaknesses in the Dodgers' make-up that will prevent it from winning in the postseason. I admit I used to think like this. And, while I confess I have little confidence in this Dodgers team, and I think that they're too undisciplined and reliant on their natural abilities to go far in the postseason, I don't think a no-hitter pitched against them means anything about what they'll do in the future. I noticed last night in myself a sense of resignation as Fiers pitched the no-hitter last night. While other Dodgers fans flailed around in a panic, I didn't care all that much. Yes, it sucked that the Dodgers were being no-hit (especially at the same time the devil magic Giants get HRs from their p...

This is one of my favorite Nolan Ryan cards. It has a lot going for it. It's a night card. It's a "moment in time" card. It's a "moment in time" card of the last out of a no-hitter. If we are to believe the sideways writing on the card, this is the final pitch of Ryan's sixth career no-hitter. And that is Willie Randolph directing a fly ball foul to right field, which will settle into Ruben Sierra's glove to end the game and set off Rangers pandemonium. A few other IDs: The catcher is John Russell. The umpire is Don Denkinger. The shortstop is Jeff Huson. The left fielder is Pete Incaviglia. Of course, the stadium is Oakland-Alameda County Stadium, before the Raiders returned to town, and before a number of other renovations. I am so glad the Jack In The Box and Michelin signs were not cropped out of the photo. They make the card. (I can identify the smaller Oakland Tribune sign to the lower left, but I have no idea what the other sign...

For the record, I'm not 100 percent sure that this is a night card. Dennis Martinez does appear to be pitching underneath artificial light. It could be in the Astrodome, and Martinez's appearance in the Astrodome in 1987 was a night game. Or maybe it's the Vet, or Three Rivers, in which case it's definitely a night game. But no matter. If it's determined not to be a night card, I'll just change the post title to "Should've Been a Night Card." I haven't done one of those in a long time. Anyway, Martinez is here because as you know the Dodgers were no-hit last night. It happened in Seattle in an interleague game, so I don't think it really counts (Dee Gordon was safe, by the way). But I'm a big enough fan to admit when my team is no-hit and not ignore it. Besides, the Dodgers have been no-hit so many times in their long history that it barely fazes me anymore. Since 1900, the Dodgers have been no-hit 14 times. And they'...

(June greetings everyone. The suckiness is about to end. That is all. Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 144th in a series): Remember when you thought that a cool photo of a player on a card automatically signaled great things for that player in the upcoming season? In 1981, I was already a world-weary teenager. But I still clung to that childhood fantasy. When I pulled this card of Len Barker and basked in its action-packed awesomeness, I just knew that his 1980 season, in which he won 19 games and struck out 187 batters, could not be a fluke. The card didn't let me down. On May 15th of that year, Barker pitched a perfect game against the Blue Jays. I remember reading about it the following morning as I filled my newspaper bag before heading out on my paper route. That was my form of Sportscenter back in '81. Barker would go on to another decent season in 1982 -- his slightly less fantastic but still cool '82 Topps card signaled what was about to ha...

This might give you an idea: Yeah. That theory that no-hitters happen only on my days off? Officially dead. But at least Johan had the consideration to get it done by 9:30. (P.S.: Never fear, our newspaper does print in color. Stupid work printer is black & white).

About a year ago, I mentioned the love-hate relationship that we sports editors have with the no-hitter. We love it because big events are always fun to put in the newspaper. We hate it because it's unexpected, which usually means overhauling everything that we've done at a very late hour with deadline looming. I also mentioned that I have been lucky enough to avoid this ritual for almost three years because, mostly by coincidence, I have not been working during the last nine no-hitters. It's been an incredible string of luck because the chances of me working during a no-hitter was basically 50-50. But not since Jonathan Sanchez hurled a no-hitter on the west coast on July 10, 2009, had I had to scramble to put a no-no in the paper. The odds in my favor increased further about a year ago when my hours changed. No longer was I in charge of producing the daily sports section, and I left for the evening often as the night's ballgames were just ending. I was als...

The strangest thing about Justin Verlander's no-hitter today is the fact that I was not at work. That might not mean anything to you, but it will definitely be the topic of discussion when I return to work next week. Here's why. The no-hitter is a unique moment not only in baseball, but also among newspaper sports editors. So many of the events that happen in the sporting world are scheduled -- games, press conferences, award announcements, etc. You know they are coming, so you can prepare. Even events they are "surprises" -- firings, hirings, trades -- usually happen early in the day, so you have plenty of time to adjust before producing a sports section. Except for the rare tragic event (usually involving an NFL player), the only regularly occurring "sudden events" in sports are the death of a famous athlete and the no-hitter. Someone may score 65 points in an NBA game, but that's not a regular event. A no-hitter happens semi-regularly. Th...