From the Vault -- Pictures from Wrigley 5

Back in the day I went to a number of Cubs games with my Canon FTb equipped with a telephoto lens.

The camera looked like this:

The lens looked something like the one below.  It's a fixed focal length of 400 mm, no zoom.  

Here are another handful of pictures from the Cubs-Phillies game.

Unusual First Names

Most people have names they share with others, be they first or last.  One only has to look in a phone book to see that.  When I'm not going by Hackenbush, I'm David Allen.  You can't get more common than that.  Maybe that's why I'm so fascinated by unusual names.

What started this train of thought was that while sorting a bunch of junk wax I came across a card of Kal Daniels.  I vaguely remember him from his time with the Red and Dodgers.  He even ended his last season (1992) as a Cub.  I guess it was knee problems that shortened his career to just seven seasons.

Here's the card :

 Check out the back-- Kalvoski?  Kalvoski!!?

 Yes, Kalvoski!

Here's the origins of the name as reported by Bill Plaschke in an L.A. Times article from 1991, "Need an Enigma? Go See Kal : Dodger Is Loved in Hometown, but Not by Some Teammates"  

"His mother had hoped it would be easier for him. That is one of the reasons she named him Kalvoski.
She had endured a difficult labor before his birth, and when he was finally born, she was too exhausted to remember any of the seven possible names she had picked out.
"I'm laying there all tired, and the nurse says, 'Why don't you name him Kalvoski?' " Ella recalled. "I said, 'What?' She said, 'It means, 'the great one.'
"I thought that sounded good to me.""

 Here's a couple of Kal's Dodgers cards:

Needless to say that Kal is the only "Kalvoski" ever to play in the major leagues.  In fact it's hard to find another person in the United States with that name.

I wondered about some of the current players on my favorite team, the Chicago Cubs, who have some unusual names themselves.  Using Baseball-Reference.com as the source I did a little research and came up with this:

There are five current Cubs players who are the only major leaguers ever with their first names.  They are:

Starlin Castro

Aramis Ramirez

Geovany Soto

Reed Johnson

Koyie Hill

In two more cases Cubs players are only the second major leaguers with their first names:

Darwin Barney -- Darwin Cubillan pitched for 4 different teams between 2000-2004. 

Marlon Byrd -- Marlon Anderson played for 6 teams in his 11 year career ending in 2009.

That's a lot of unusual names on one team.  Or is it?  How does your favorite team stack up?

Fan Pack Fun 2011 -- Atlanta Falcons

The Atlanta Falcons fan pack came in a plain white tyvek envelope with no logo but what was inside was just what I look for.  Here last years  similar fan pack.

Stickers

Keyrings

From the Vault -- Pictures from Wrigley 4 -- Who's on First?

Back in the day I went to a number of Cubs games with my Canon FTb equipped with a telephoto lens.

The camera looked like this:

The lens looked something like the one below.  It's a fixed focal length of 400 mm, no zoom.  

The whole setup was very heavy and cumbersome.  

After all these years I thought it would be fun to share some of my pictures here. Keep in mind that this was back in the days of film and the photos were scanned on my $50 scanner.  Hopefully they look OK.  Click to enlarge them. 

Ok, for this post let's change games.  We started at first base last time so let's do it again.

Garage Sale Packs #5

I went to a garage sale recently where a guy had a lot of cards.  Most of them were junk and mostly way overpriced.  The best thing I found was a box filled with ziplock bags of about 20-25 cards each for a quarter a bag.  Without opening them, which I didn't feel right about (and they were tightly packed), I could only see the outside two cards.  I did my best to at least get about a quarter's worth from each one.

This card was on the outside of the pack and I think I got my quarter's worth right here.  I love Greg's look on the back picture.

1994 Pinnacle #11

Mike will be on the 2013 Hall of Fame ballot.  Is he a shoe-in?

1994 UD Electric Diamond Fantasy Team #33

Hall of Famer

1991 Donruss #396

Hall of Famer

1990 Topps #730

Tim's one of those guys who's top of the second tier.   He ranks 5th all-time in stolen bases and another 20 hits a season and he'd have had 3000.  Here's another, "did everyone end up playing for the Yankees?" cards.

1997 UD Collectors Choice #182

Hall of Famer

1991 Pro Set #12

Even if Steve Tasker weren't a 7 time Pro Bowler I'd have posted this 1996 Topps Gilt Edge.  It's just cool.

1996 Topps Gilt Edge #51

Hall of Famer.  Here's Rodman again, and this time he's brought along Larry Legend.  Two for one.

1990 Skybox #91

A nice casual shot.

I'm not bothering to show you the front of this card.  It's the back that got my attention.  Can anyone tell me what's going on here?  Who's the little guy on the keyring?

1995 UD #114

Pardee was one of the best head coaches the Bears had between Halas and Ditka.  He was a great college player (HOF), a Pro Bowler in the NFL, and went on to coach in college, the NFL, the USFL, the WFL, and the CFL.

1991 Pro Set #150

Joe Nash is the Seattle Seahawks all-time leader in games played with 218.

1989 Pro Set #399

McGinest was a member of three Patriots Super Bowl teams (2001, 2003, 2004).

1998 Fleer Tradition #52

Gilbert is Jets DB Darrelle Revis' uncle.  In addition to other business ventures he is President and CEO of the record comapany, I Got Records whose slogan is "I GOT Records but you make them hits".

1994 UD Collector's Choice

Bonus photo of  Hall of Famer Steve Young.

Fan Pack Fun 2011 -- San Diego Chargers

Here's the fan pack I received from the San Diego Chargers.  I don't know if it's just the mood I'm in today but for a team with a lightning bolt for a logo this fan pack did not give me a charge.