New York, New York...and yes, Google is harshing my mellow

I grew up in New Jersey, just a short bus ride from New York. I never rooted for the Yankees or Mets but I was immersed in the 'culture' of those two teams. It was difficult not to be if you lived where I did and was surrounded by the people I was surrounded by.

Pulling cards from vintage boxes always spark a few memories. Sometimes I buy the cards, sometimes I drop them back in the box in favor of cards I like better. On my last trip to the card show I bought some Yanks and Mets. Maybe I was feeling particularly nostalgic.

My trips to Shea Stadium were usually with friends to watch their team, the Giants, Dodgers, Braves or to see 'my' NL team, the Phillies. But no matter who we were watching I'd always root for Ed Kranepool. Damned if I know why. He played 18 years in the bigs, all for the Mets. He made one All Star squad, hit a World Series dinger and won a ring in 1969 and always seemed to be having fun.

If I had a favorite Mets' pitcher I guess it would be Al Jackson. He put together a pretty respectable career on the mound for some pretty terrible Mets clubs. I always liked the Mets' announcers a lot more than I liked the Mets and they all seemed to have a man-crush on Jackson so maybe that's where I got it from. 

Of course, due to the '69 World Series the Mets and I had a bitter breakup. Not that we were ever really an 'item' anyway. 

Hector Lopez was one of my Dad's favorites. I think he just liked the name 'Hector'. This card reminds me of the closest we ever came to snagging a baseball at Yankee Stadium. My Dad was returning from the concession stand when Lopez fouled off a pitch that came back into the upper deck just as he was coming up the ramp. The ball went right past him on a hop.

My friends and I thought Dooley Womack had the dumbest/coolest name in baseball. We liked to say it in our 'Bob Shepard voices'. I have the ticket stub from his one and only major league start. It came in July of 1966. Womack started the second game of a Sunday doubleheader against the Senators. I don't remember anything about that fact. Or that Whitey Ford pitched three innings in relief. I'm guessing that since the Yanks were getting whipped and had already lost the first game that we left early.

Semi-off topic rant #1: I've noticed over the last few months that I no longer consistently get notified what a post receives a comment. Some comments trigger and email, others don't. There doesn't seem to be any pattern as to which ones I am alerted to. I've set and re-set my notification settings any number of times.. Anyone else experience this?

Semi-off topic rant #2: Google is phasing out Picassa Web Albums. I don't know what you bloggers use but PWA has been a valuable tool. I usually scan a big stack of stuff and can easily upload the scans to an album. Then I can post from any device, any place with almost no fuss. I know that I will still be able to upload scans directly into posts but I rarely ever post from my home computer. Google Photos, the 'new' picture site they are pushing sux big time for this. You can't get a direct image URL without jumping through hoops. And alternate sites like Dropbox, Imgur and others either require you to pay for the storage I'd use or are too clunky. Flickr belongs to Yahoo and I think Yahoo is teetering financially. I'll figure something out.