The Tools of Ignorance & the Human Rain Delay

I went through the next block of 50 cards of 1980 Topps and saw a couple of cards that made me think.  It didn't take long to prove myself wrong, but I'll make my point anyway as this post goes along.

As I've done on previous posts, I fished out one team card to show, this time it's the Baltimore Orioles.

Warm up clothes are another aspect of cards that I get a kick out of.  Sometimes you find some funny looking cards, like these two...

Claudell Washington's duds look like something you might wear on a night on the town instead of a baseball fields.  Larry Parrish?  Not sure what that jacket is made of, it kind of looks like velvet to me.  If it wasn't for the Expos logo on the pocket(?) I would have said it didn't belong anywhere near a diamond.

Now here we have a little more normalcy.  Three solid players from the 80's; Armas actually had a good HR tear for a few seasons between 80-84, hitting 164 long balls in just over 700 games.  I had mentioned last week about Cooper and Oglivie from the Brewers being Blue Jay killers, Lou Whitaker was another one that always seemed to come up with big hits in big games against the Jays.  Don't know if he should have lasted only one year on the HOF ballot, I think he deserved a bit better fate than that.

Yoga before it was cool?  Don't know if I threw a ball such as Odell Jones did that I would end up still standing after each pitch. 

You know, I always forget Dennis Eckersley's time in Boston.  I remember his early years with the Indians, and of course the phenomenal run he had with the A's between 1988-1992, with a combined ERA of 1.90 and 220 saves.  Dodger fans still love him for the HR he gave up to Kirk Gibson in the World Series (which btw is still one of my favorite clips to watch, just for Vin Scully's call).

Is there a better nickname ever than the Human Rain Delay?   I've linked a YouTube video in Mike's nickname to let everyone have a little bit of fun (it's just under a minute) as someone pieced together Mike's routine in a couple of different jerseys.  I wasn't aware that Mike was the rookie of the year in 1974 for the Rangers, hitting .323 while playing first and left in Arlington.

You know, I loved these two cards because they show Essian and Davis in their catchers gear.  I thought to myself that I don't remember a lot of more recent cards showing catchers in their equipment.  I quickly proved myself wrong as I had a pile of 2016 Topps nearby and instantly found 3 catchers cards where the catchers gear was prominent.

Catcher is one position I never even thought of playing when I played baseball as a kid.  Just never appealed to me.  Watching guys take foul tips off the mask, the legs, arms and various other body parts during a game always reminds me that I made a good decision.

Not like I would have ever been good enough to play professionally anyhow...

Thanks for reading, Robert