How this could possibly be relevant to the Perfect Duluth Day website will be explained at the end, but up top we present the 30 best names of the 1981 Major League Baseball season, as preserved for history in 1982 Topps cards.

I’m not sure what the magic formula is for having an awesome baseball name, but I know it when I see it. One thing that helps is having an actual word in the name, like “bake” or “rusty.” An uncommon first name that is fun to say, like “Mookie” or “Vida,” goes a long way, too. But often it comes down to the way the first and last names work together to produce a harmony of syllables, like “Carl Yastrzemski” or “Fernando Valenzuela.”

If you collected baseball cards three decades ago, these names were forever engrained into your brain, so there’s more to it now than just the sounds of the name … there is nostalgia.

But what does this have to do with Perfect Duluth Day? Well, back in 2007 there was a strange meme on PDD that played out over three days in which people posted old baseball cards. It was fun for some, but drove at least one founder of this website nuts. So let’s not do that again.

Below are links to the old baseball card posts, compiled by Lithis when the subject came up a few years ago. Feel free to comment here with your favorite old baseball name, or upload an image of the card in a comment.

(Just don’t start a new post about baseball cards or we’ll turn the website off and send everyone to sit in corners.)

Totally Awesome Baseball Player of the Night – by Sherman
Upping the Ante
TABPOTN – 2 by Sherman
Oh Yeah?
the mustache always wins
Terry Freakin Forster
Bombo Baby!!!
The Champ !!!!!
It is SO on!
My take on the madness.
Eat some Hosken, bitches
Sweet Music.
Just for good measure
TABPOTN – 3
I’m Booger and More Powellful Than All of You
Jutze and Aase
My Contribution to This Madness
But who’s the most famous of them all?
So, it’s gonna be like that, is it?
And another thing.
No his face isn’t melting.
For Christa.
Biggest Claude of them all
New Hand, New Game