Gold Gloves, Pujols and Beavers

I know that this news is more than 24 hours old, but I wanted to give my congratulations to Yadier Molina for capturing his fourth Gold Glove award as the top NL catcher in 2011. Yadi had a few down moments this year, but with the way they choose to award these things nowadays, I would have been pretty disappointed if he hadn't won considering that he had one of the best offense years of any of his competition this year. I realize that the Gold Glove is purely a defensive award, but it seems like in the current climate, it actually takes a standout season at the plate to have a chance. It makes no sense, but if someone is going to tell me there's a better catcher out there than Yadi, I'm going to probably laugh.

Reader David from IL was kind enough to send me some goodies in a package recently, and hopefully is kind enough to continue to be patient while he waits on me sending my end of the deal. I really should not agree to trades when things are this busy in my life, but I've had an unexpected run of chaos that started at the beginning of September and is only now beginning to show signs up letting up.

Along with some Cardinals merch and a cool Pujols (sign him already!) die-cut insert, I also got something I don't see every day: old Portland Beavers minor league cards. I received several cards from the 1980 TCMA team set. Not only is it a fun design, but it also gives me a great chance to look at some of the old Beavers gear that I'm almost too young to remember. This Gene Pentz card shows off a close-up of his face and their white cap.

Here's a white home uniform with a dark cap, sported by Rick Rhoden who would go on to quite a bit of success with the Pirates. His stats suggest he was injured and probably had to play his way back to the majors as a member of Pittsburgh's AAA affiliate at the time.

Here's a red uni and another black cap.

Finally, what's up with the stars on Odell Jones' cap? Does anyone know? I want to know.

Portland really needs AAA baseball again. Stupid disinterested jerks.