Matt Riley, 2000 Skybox Metal Universe Talent Show #2

Tonight's schedule Game Three of the ALCS in Kansas City was a bigger washout than Matt Riley. The game was postponed due to heavy rains, called off three hours before the scheduled 8 PM start time. The Orioles and Royals will try again tomorrow, with Wei-Yin Chen trying to best Jeremy Guthrie and prop up Baltimore's flagging hopes. The waiting is driving me up a wall, but I'll hang in for another 22 hours.

Matt Riley, 2000 Pacific Crown Royale Card-supial #3

If you quit collecting baseball cards in disgust at some point before the turn of the century, and you're wondering whether you made the right choice, I present the Card-supial. I didn't think to scan it alongside a regular-sized card for scale, so you'll have to take my word for it: This card is about twice the size of a postage stamp (1 and 3/4"x1 and 1/4"), and I am certain that I will lose it before long. It was a one-per-pack insert in Pacific's 2000 Crown Royale set. Why the bafflingly stupid name? The mini-card was tucked in a pocket in the front of a full-size card. You know, like a kangaroo, opossum, or any other marsupial that comes to mind. Har har. Matt Riley here was tucked inside a Cal Ripken, Jr. card which I don't have. If you'd like to read more about this ill-fated insert set, I'll point you toward Cliff's blog post at Things Done To Cards. Meanwhile, I'm going to go pretend that I'm a giant.

Matt Riley, 2000 Upper Deck Pros and Prospects Future Forces #F9

I'll be honest with you: I have not exactly given this blog my undivided attention over the past few weeks. Oddly enough, the roundabout reason is fantasy football. I'd played for fun and bragging rights for several years, even though the condensed schedule and catastrophic injuries made it a maddening hobby. But this year was the first time I ever played for money, filling a slot in a 12-team NFL.com league with my uncle and his coworkers. I rode Michael Vick, Darren McFadden, Jahvid Best, Mike Wallace, Steve Smith, Dez Bryant, and the Ravens defense (as well as a good dose of luck) to an 8-0 start that included two head-to-head wins with the closest opponent in my four-team division. At the midway point of the season, it looked like the division title and the attendant share of the prize money was as good as mine.

Of course if you follow football, you can probably look at the names above and guess how the rest of the season went. My quarterback and my entire stable of running backs all suffered significant injuries, helping me sputter to four straight losses and a final winner-take-all head-to-head showdown with the second-place guy in Week 13. With a patchwork lineup that included Miami QB Matt Moore and rookie Redskins RB Roy Helu, I eked out the victory and the spoils by five points. Then I promptly got creamed the following week in our league's opening playoff round. Oh well, I'd already made back my entry fee 2.6 times over.

With that money burning a hole in my pocket, I bought an XBox 360 and a bundle of games off of somebody on Craig's List. Now, I've never been a hardcore gamer, but every once in a while I stumble across a game that's got an enjoyable premise and a low enough learning curve, and I dive in headfirst. Such has been the case with Fallout: New Vegas, a post-apocalyptic role-playing game that has grabbed me and won't let go. The first weekend I had it, I stayed up until 4:00 AM on consecutive nights wandering through the fantastic virtual wasteland, shooting mutants and warring rogues and salvaging found materials. It would be bad enough to be addicted to one game, but I also gave in to temptation and bought the newest wrestling game, WWE '12. As someone who's been playing WWF/WWE games since 1998 (WarZone for the original PlayStation), I am dumbstruck by the scope and customization options in this one. Thank goodness I've maintained enough sanity to avoid trying out the other couple of XBox 360 games I now own.

As the holidays approach, it's a slow enough time for baseball news that I've been able to scrape by with some news-light offerings. And now, here I am droning on about fantasy football and video games. At least I'm not talking about ponies...

Matt Riley, 2000 Topps #446

I mentioned that I received the 2000 Topps hobby factory set as a Christmas gift last month. That night, I opened the box and thumbed through all 480 cards one by one. This card was one of those that made me do a double take. You are most likely more than familiar with these three players...as long as you're an Orioles fan. Their career numbers, through 2009:

Matt Riley: 5-4, 5.99 ERA, 78 K, 72 BB. Currently out of baseball.

Mark Mulder: 103-60, 4.18 ERA, two-time All-Star, one 20-win season

CC Sabathia: 136-81, 3.62 ERA, three-time All-Star, 2007 American League Cy Young Award winner

Meatloaf may have said that two out three ain't bad, but he wasn't an O's fan. This card is a pretty cruel joke on the Baltimore faithful.

Matt Riley, 2000 Upper Deck Victory #334

I'm going to take a cue from those Southwest Airlines ads and get away for a while. I'm taking a half-day off of work tomorrow and driving down to my old stomping grounds in Chestertown. My alma mater is celebrating the grand opening of a huge, beautiful, brand-new performing arts center and I've booked my hotel room for the weekend. Not that I didn't enjoy dorm life, but these will be the finest accommodations that I've ever had in that town. I'm excited to see the large numbers of friends and acquaintances who are coming out of the woodwork for this event.

I've been getting bombarded with emails for weeks as more and more happenings are added to the itinerary. As of now, I'll be: witnessing one of my friends receive an alumni award for his playwriting talents (and attending a reception in his honor); seeing the first Department of Drama play in the new theatre; attending a toast and a crab and pizza feast (what, don't those two foods go together?) with other drama alums; and of course hitting some of my favorite haunts (Luisa's Italian restaurant, O'Connor's Pub, and Andy's bar). There was a small, nagging part of me that wanted to catch one last Orioles game on this final homestand, but this ersatz college reunion is kind of a big deal. I suppose you could argue that Melvin Mora's probable final game with the O's is also important...but I need to make a clean break, and come back refreshed in the Spring.

So, why Matt Riley? Because it's been almost a decade since I rolled onto campus in August 2000. That's incredibly hard to believe. Do you know what else is unbelievable? When I was a freshman in college, this guy was a monster pitching prospect and a guy who was going to turn around a couple years of misfortune in Baltimore. He scraped out five wins in 26 career games pitched with a 5.99 ERA, as injuries and immaturity dogged him for years. Now, we at least have more legitimate young arms and a superior rookie named Matt. Progress can be found if you're paying attention.

P.S.: While I was writing this post, the O's defeated the Rays 3-2 to momentarily stop the madness. Chris Waters two-hit the Rays over five innings and the bullpen turned in three spotless frames before Jim Johnson's now-customary ninth-inning horror show made things exciting. Somehow, this all makes perfect sense.