Living After Midnight... Or Slightly Before

As implied by the terrible Judas Priest pun in the title post, it's rather late to be posting on a blog.  I should probably be doing what other sane people do at this time of night (especially when they work at 5am) and sleep.  However, it is too early in my blogging career to fall into the bad habit of skipping days.

After a busy night of dinner with the girlfriend and my parents, I thought I'd be able to relax with a couple of envelopes to open.  However, the mail delivery's contents did not oblige.

No matter, today's (tonight's) topic will be a few recent acquisitions:

First we have Lonnie Frey as featured in one of my favorite and most useful card sets of all time, the Conlon Collection.  As someone trying to build a roster of players from a long running franchise, it has proved to be a phenomenal source.  

A 3-time All-Star, Frey spent most of his career playing in New York (the Giants, Dodgers and Yankees) and Cincinatti.  He played a capable second base in two, separate one-year stints (1937 and 1947) for Chicago, but of course, his best years were spent elsewhere.  

At the time of his death at age 99 in 2009, he was recognized as the second-oldest living major league ballplayer, the oldest living All-Star, and the last living player to play for all three New York baseball teams in the 1930s and 1940s.

Fritzie was one of the litany of third basemen trotted out by the Cubs in the post-Santo era.  He was drafted in the 7th round in 1980 out of Baylor. He was called up in September of 1983, but failed to make much of an impression.  

After the season, he was traded to the San Diego Padres as part of a three-team trade involving (among others) Craig Lefferts, Carmelo Martinez, and Scott Sanderson. He was done in the bigs by the end of 1985.  Being that Sanderson was part of 2 playoff teams on the North Side, Fritzie did contribute SOMETHING for the franchise.

Speaking of trades with an impact, Porfi came along WITH Bob Dernier and Gary Matthews in that famous 1984 deal.  As a reliever from Nicaragua, "El Guajiro" was a decent complimentary piece in the Phillie bullpen over the previous 2 seasons.  But, after 4 mediocre appearances (0-0 with 4.76 ERA in 5 games) with Chicago, he was shipped to the Yankees that December with Henry Cotto, Ron Hassey and Rich Bordi to the Yanks for Ray Fontenot and Brian Dayett.  He never pitched in the majors again.

These three cards came from three different LCS stops.  That's right, I have three: one near home, one near the girlfriend's and one near the office.  Can it get any better? It must be a reward for my original home away from home being shut down many moons ago.

Here's hoping that I have a few more new additions to my collection to write about tomorrow!