Night Owl Cards

(Happy National Bird Day! On this day, I think someone like me should have the day off. And I do! Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 347th in a series):     The 1978 Topps Manny Mota wasn't the first Mota card I ever saw -- that would be the '71 Topps Mota that I spotted in the street -- but the '78 was pretty prominent during my younger collecting days. That Mota card was one of the double-prints in the 1978 set. Topps graduated to 726 cards in '78 and that caused some of them to be printed more often (I don't know the printing math behind this but every year that Topps totaled 726 cards -- 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981 -- some of the cards were double-printed). So since I was pursuing Dodgers, the Mota was easy to find. So were the Mike Garman, Steve Yeager and Tom Lasorda cards -- all double-prints. But Mota showed up most (though not quite as much as Jose Baez and Barry Bonnell). Multiple versions of the same card was still a novelty for someone who couldn...

  I hate to be the blog known for bringing up the deaths of past ballplayers. Part of me wishes the blog could be happy and light all the time. But whenever I hear about one of the players from my younger days moving on, I feel like I need to recognize it as a form of respect from a longtime baseball fan. Today I heard that Bill Plummer passed away. He's known as the backup catcher to Johnny Bench during the 1970s. I've mentioned before that I almost had the chance to interview Plummer. He was managing a minor league team in California at the time and a player from our area was playing for the team. But the interview with the player fell through (he wasn't keen on talking) and I never talked to Plummer. Plummer is the 181st player or manager featured in the 1975 Topps set who has died -- yes, I keep track of that, too. It's alarming that so many of those people who I collected in my first year of buying cards are no longer with us. So, I decided to put a positive spin o...

I asked a Pirates fan the other day what team was considered the Pirates' rivals. A Tigers fan interjected that the Tigers were considered the Pirates' rivals in interleague play, which I immediately dismissed for obvious reasons. The Pirates fan shrugged and mentioned that the Reds were the team's big rivals back in the '70s when they always met in the playoffs. I wondered about the Phillies and he said, yeah, maybe, but he didn't seem too sure about it. This was odd to me. For me, as a Dodger fan, having a team or teams that are well-defined rivals, hated teams, repulsive counterparts going back decades, is one of the key elements of fanhood. Buy your favorite team's cap, collect their baseball cards, watch their game late at night, and root vigorously against their longstanding rival. All of these are one-and-the-same to me. If I couldn't spit on the Giants every year, there would be a hole in my baseball experience. The Giants have always been t...

Back in the early days of this blog, I addressed finding this 1971 Manny Mota lying in pieces at the curb of a busy street while I walked home from school. Since then I've mentioned this same story a couple of more times, including here , because the idea of finding free cards on the street for the taking fascinates me. Since that time in the mid-70s when I found broken ol' Manny, I've probably discovered a stray card on the ground a handful of times. But it's been so infrequent and so underwhelming (I'm sure we're talking about a 1990 Fleer Brian Holman or something similar) that I don't remember the occasions. That brings me to this past Sunday night. I had to go to work, and as I backed out of the driveway and headed past the house, I noticed a small piece of discarded paper in front of the curb. This was nothing worth noting. I live very close to two separate schools and there are kids walking down my street at all times. I'm forever pic...

Leave it to Frank McCourt to ruin a half-assed tribute to Spinal Tap. But if I'm going to 11 , as in the Dodger uniform number, I've got to keep it in the family, as ugly as the Dodgers' family situation is right now.  The story of the Dodgers who have worn the number 11 is the story of players who have made the most with their limited capabilities, mostly. Back in the '30s, the No. 11 was worn by catcher Clyde Sukeforth, who isn't remembered much for his playing career. That's because he was the man who scouted and helped sign Jackie Robinson. He also was the manager in Robinson's first major league game, as he was filling in for a suspended Leo Durocher. After Nick Tremark, George Watkins and Fred Frankhouse took turns with the number during the rest of the decade, No. 11 found a eight-year home with the most talented Dodger to wear the number. Dixie Walker is one of the greatest outfielders in Dodger history. He became known as Robinson's ...