Night Owl Cards

    Big news for a lot of people's card collections yesterday, the Hall of Fame announced the selection of six players for induction. My collection isn't nearly as exclusive as those that feature only rookie cards of Hall of Famers and such. My collection doesn't focus on Hall of Famers at all actually. I do need to update my "sets with the most Hall of Famers" series greatly now, although I'll wait until the BBWAA vote next month for a new post. But as far as my collection, it reflects what I think about who has played the game, not who is in the Hall. There has been a lot of greatness, whether they're on a plaque in a building or not. I've written about stuff like this before. In fact, I already voted a bunch of the guys who the Hall picked yesterday into the Hall years ago .   "Small hall/big hall," "stats worthy/not worthy," I don't have time for those debates. What I do have time for is focusing on the players elected and s...

When I was a kid making visits to the Baseball Hall of Fame, the least interesting part of the experience was that room with all the plaques. Oh, is that the actual "Hall of Fame"? Yeah, that . That was the dullest part. Some of my boredom had to do with the presentation -- staid head shots on hunks of wood mounted on a wall in a room that felt like church. My footsteps echoed. I thought I was about to be shushed. I could feel myself getting math-class eyes as I attempted to read the words on one of the plaques. The other sections of the building -- what I guess was the museum part -- were so much more interesting. Tales of the World Series and baseball players' feats. Famous teams and uniforms. Characters of the game and baseball cards. Giant photographs, batting gloves, awesome pitching feats, lit-up scoreboards, old contracts, quips and quotes, barnstorming ballplayers, the old Federal League, the previous year's postseason. Every last bit fascinating. ...