Night Owl Cards

My former favorite player is now a member of the team which shall not be named . But just as painfully, someone else has taken over Russell Martin's talent for making the best baseball cards of any current ballplayer. It's someone who used to be a part of the Dodgers organization. Someone with a great degree of hope and promise. This is the guy who has taken your crown, Russell: Yes, it's the former L.A. catching prospect who was traded for an aging Casey Blake in order to make room for a 15-year career in Dodger blue for Russell Martin. Urp. And we all know what the Dodgers' catching situation is now. I think Carlos says it best: That Carlos. He does it all. Adios, Russ.

I didn't think it could happen here. I mean, I've heard stories . They say it's getting more frequent. Things aren't the way they used to be. But I live in a safe area. People look out for each other. Not in my neighborhood, I thought. Things are different here. Then I received a package in the mail. There was something wrapped in plain, white paper. I opened it and looked at the top card: Gah ! Big Head Barry? Why would someone want to send me that? Little did I realize that this was just the start. Yes, there is something worse -- much worse -- than a single Bowman Barry Bonds card. Because one Bonds card is only a warning ... SEVEN Bowman Barry Bonds cards is a BIPPING . I've been bipped ! By Barry! Barry bipped me! The horror! I can feel my head growing already. I feel mean and whiny and self-centered. Joe Morgan is starting to defend me on the air. There's a guy in jail who is refusing to talk about me. I'm wearing a giant elbow protector and I DON...

... You have a contest. More on that later. First, I want to say that Chase Utley is my favorite non-Dodger since the beginning of TIME after his performance Sunday night. It's not just because he's an awesome player, or that he sparked the Phillies ' beating of the Yankees in Game 5. It's because his hitting allowed me to avoid writing a giant, clever headline about the Yankees winning the World Series. That makes me so happy. First of all, having to write something like that is pure torture for me. I did it in 1998, 1999 and 2000, and I was hating life then, but now the Yankees bother me even more. Secondly, I can't be clever when I am angry. When I'm angry, any creative side of me -- except exceeding sarcasm -- disappears. If my newspaper would accept a headline that said, "YANKEES BLOW," then I'd be golden. But they ain't gonna do that. But the biggest reason I appreciate Utley's performance is now if the Yankees win, I won...

I had a heck of a time picking the "Dodger of the Game" for yesterday's NLCS game. It was probably the most difficult decision of the entire year. Who do you pick for a game like that? I could have named Jim Thome , who had the big pinch-hit single in the middle of the two-run eighth inning to get the eventual winning run to third base. Or I could have picked Casey Blake, who started the inning by hitting a single after going 0-for-5 the night before. Or I could have picked Ronnie Belliard , whose bunt past a sliding Chan Ho Park, put runners on first and second. Or I could have picked Andre Ethier , who worked the bases loaded walk from J.A. Happ to score the winning run. Or maybe it was Vicente Padilla, who matched Pedro Martinez inning for inning. In situations like this, I usually end up going with the closer, which I did, picking Jonathan Broxton . The lead was a very tenuous one run when he came in in the ninth, and the Phillies had the top of the order up. But ...