Mark of Fridays: Real Mark

Lynne says this picture looks like "the real Mark."
(As opposed to the fake Mark kept under the couch to scare the dog.)

Name fame

When Lynne and Matt chose Mark Stewart Hanley's name, they weren't thinking about how rare the name was, or how many other Marks there might be in his first-grade class. Obviously, they were honoring family members - trying to show Mark how important family should be in his life.
In fact, Lynne and Matt never gave much thought to how rare or common Mark's name is. Matt had a common name growing up - there was usually a Matt H. and a Matt A. in class - but it never bothered Matt much. And he figured Mark was pretty much a common name because, well, Lynne and Matt know a lot of Marks.
But, the new list of most popular baby names is out and Mark has fallen again. Who knew the name was so unique?
Mark is 154th most popular name in 2009, down from 140th. Right behind Omar.
This was totally shocking. Mark finished behind a few names that Matt would have considered unusual. Understandably, some of those names reflected ethnic or geographic differences. But others were just flat-out surprising.
Mark was also behind Trevor, Marcus, Emmanuel, Jonah (a whale of a name), Kayden, Cayden, Gage (huh?), Giovanni, Jaxon, Devin, Damian, Micah, Kaleb, Kaden, Jaden, Colton, Haden, Eli, Ayden, Josiah, Tristan, Ashton, Aidan, Chase (southern gentleman only), Hunter (no gatherer), Liam, Brayden, Mason (no. 34!), Gabriel, Elijiah, Logan, Gavin (boat captains only), Aiden, Ethan, Jayden.
All good names, just surprising. Matt imagines Lynne's freshman history class in 2026 when the boys are: Kayden, Aidan, Kaiden, Jaden, Cayden, Hayden, Ayden, Kaden, Aiden, Caden, Brayden, Jayden and Mark.

The rank of some other local names: Joshua - 6th; Matthew - 13th; Megan - 105th (in a free fall from 13th in 2000); Leslie - 160th; Laura - 235th; Adeline - 351st; Elaina - 462nd (Eliana 193rd, Elliana 515th); Marc - 560th, Markus - 642nd, Elyse - 651st; Stanley - 676th; Diane - 903rd (Diana - 165th);
Not in the top 1,000: Lynne (or Lynn), Barry, Sue (Susan - 763rd), Mookie

Advice from Beckett Baseball Card Monthly

Matt has been going through some of the artifacts he stored at his parents' house, trying to lower the ratio of people-to-PEZ-dispensers in their home. While sorting through old stuff, Matt came across a copy of Beckett Baseball Card Monthly magazine. It's difficult, now, to put in perspective how much this magazine meant to Matt as a kid. For a baseball card collector, Beckett was a monthly holy scroll delivered to your house.

Each magazine had a price guide in it and articles about baseball card collecting. Each month, Matt would studiously look up his best cards.

Actually, he only had two valuable cards. 1983 Topps Traded Darryl Strawberry, which at one point was listed at $130; and a Carlton Fisk rookie card, valued at $75 in 1990. Now, the Strawberry is probably worth a dollar and the Fisk is worth maybe $15, at best.

But Beckett said they were worth hundreds so they were! Although Beckett supposedly based their prices on what dealers were selling the cards for, the dealers were setting their prices off Beckett. It was like a mind warp. We were kids. What the heck did we know? According to Beckett, we were hundredaires!

The edition Matt was looking through was the August 1990 edition, pictured above, with Ryne Sandberg on the cover. Looking back, there are many things to enjoy about the magazine:

- The not-good writing. It's terrible. It appears to be mostly articles from newspaper writers and freelancers who did a minimum amount of reporting, besides compiling stats. Of course, at the time, you didn't have baseball-reference.com so stats were harder to come by. Still, these articles tended toward extremely cheesy and dumb. Not to mention that article on Paul Molitor is titled, "Flame on!", which is a bit strange.

- The absurd investing advice. People would write Beckett with questions about obscure cards, possible errors they had detected or baseball card investment strategies. Granted we have 20 years' hindsight, but the advice still had to be hilarious to anyone who understood a little bit of supply and demand. (10-year-old Matt didn't.) Here's a particularly poignant letter, from Don in Kansas: "When I began collecting cards 10 years ago, only Topps produced (cards) in quantity, and dealers were few and far between. .... Today, we have six manufacturers ... Everyone keeps their cards in Mint condition by placing them in plastic sleeves or by not opening them at all...Everyone expects to make a major profit from them someday...(but) collectors are saving their newer cards, waiting for eventual appreciation in value. Supply will exceed the demand and values will never be very high. And, finally, cards are printed in much greater quantities today, making them much more available in the first place." To which Beckett responds: while Don from Kansas has some valid points, if the number of collectors continues to explode, the enormous supply may turn out to be very small, thereby making cards a solid investment. Uh-huh.

- Finally, just for fun, the Hot and Cold Lists. Each edition contained a 30-player/set HOT list and 10-player/set COLD list. Readers would send in their votes, then Beckett would just make up the rankings or something.

Here's the HOT list from 1990:

1 - Ken Griffey Jr., 2 - Bo Jackson, 3 - Nolan Ryan, 4- Jose Canseco, 5 - Will Clark, 6 - Cecil Fielder, 7 - Ryne Sandberg, 8 - Mark Grace, 9 - Rickey Henderson, 10 - Don Mattingly, 11 - Eric Anthony, 12 - John Olerud, 13- Kirby Puckett, 14 - 1990 Score, 15 - Lenny Dykstra, 16 - Mark McGwire, 17 - Delino DeShields, 18 - Ben McDonald, 19 - Todd Ziele, 20 - Andre Dawson, 21 - Ruben Sierra, 22 - Barry Larkin, 23 - Roger Clemens, 24 - Glenn Davis, 25 - Greg Vaughn, 26 - Jim Abbott, 27 - Kelly Gruber, 28 - Jerome Walton, 29 - Chris Sabo, 30 - Bobby Bonilla.

Nothing wrong with that list. In fact, a lot right with that list. Probably 9 Hall of Famers and only 7 washouts. Not too shabby.
The NOT list includes: 1 - Pete Rose, 2 - Sportsflics (cards that appeared to move and were awesome); 3 - Chris Sabo (huh?), 4 - Darryl Strawberry, 5 - Matt Nokes, 6 - Gregg Jeffries, 7 - Sam Horn, 8 - Jose Canseco, 9 - Dwight Gooden, 10 - Ben McDonald.

No Hall of Famers and you can see a lot hatred for big-time prospects who burned out early.

So, in conclusion: put all your money in Sportsflics; Chris Sabo is great/terrible; it's always a good investment strategy to believe that unusual trends will continue unabated forever; and Matt still loves baseball cards.

Mark of Fridays: Swinging on a ...swing

The eight-month Mark

Mark Hanley, at eight months

The measurements: Chunky, short.
Best friends: My dad says that there is nothing he's experienced that is more rewarding and enriching than when he walks into the house and I burst into a huge smile. And he says that experience is in no way diminished when he takes me into a room and I give the same thrilled reaction to a ceiling fan. The point here is: I really like fans. They're interesting, don't you think? Fascinating.

Enemies: This new thing in my mouth. It showed up about a week ago and just sits there, sticking right up out of my bottom gum. It doesn't feel all that great and it doesn't serve any purpose that I can figure. I think it even woke me up a few nights. Mom says some day it's going to help me eat pizza, so I guess I'll let it stay. But this pizza stuff better be good.

Just found out about: This is easy. Clapping. Shaking my head. Waving.

Who knew it was so easy and so cheap to be so happy? I'm sort of embarrassed that last month I was bragging about sitting up for 10 minutes. There's so much more to life than just sitting up. Why not clap your hands together? Or bang two toys together? Or bend your hand at the fingers so people know you're saying 'hello'? Or how about just shaking your head back and forth like a wild man?

I encourage you to try it! It's amazing. It's hard to imagine that six months ago I was barely smiling. I'm starting to communicate!

I'm not so sure about: Easy - clapping, shaking my head, waving.

I like all this stuff but it's still a little hard to remember which action goes with what and when. Clap when people walk in the room? Shake my head when I want more food? Oh, to live in the carefree days as a seventh month old! There was so much less to keep track of.

Favorite activities: Art class with Daddy! Two weeks ago, we had a great time. I got to put my hands in paint and then dad ran around the room, his eyes getting wider and wider while I got bluer and bluer. It was a blast! I can't wait to see what he color he paints me for Memorial Day.
I have a crush on: All my new friends! Not only did I get to meet Elaina, but I met my great aunt Maryanne, my cousin Kait, my great-uncle Roger and my great-aunt Candy. That's like a 40-percent increase in my rolodex!
Major accomplishments: The aforementioned clapping, head shaking and waving. With the support from my family, I've nearly kicked my oatmeal habit. Donated my hair to the oil rescue efforts. (And that is the reason I'm pretty much still bald.) Became an honorary smurf.

I'm Blue, Dabba dee Dabba dye

So it's the day before Mother's Day, and Matt, fulfilling his role as New Daddy, tells Lynne to go downstairs and have some breakfast. The boys, he says, are going to be upstairs in Mark's room...er...doing...errr...something. Read: "making mommy a Mother's Day present"

Lynne, happy for a chance to eat beakfast in peace and maybe even work a crossword puzzle, goes downstairs. She takes a bit of time preparing the cereal. She finds a real stumper in the Games Magazine. She gets the pencil poised to write.

Then from upstairs: "Uhhhh... Lynne? I think we're going to need a little help up here."

"What kind of help?" she yells up the stairs as she makes her way to the landing, confused at how mothers-day-gift-making could have gone wrong in four minutes.

Then, at the top of the stairs, she sees Matt and Mark. The baby is stripped down to his diaper. And he is blue. Blue hands, blue arms, a blue belly, blue feet, bits of blue hair. Matt's green shirt is smattered with blue handrints. And behind them, in the doorway of Mark's room, is a scattered array of white paper and smeared blue paint.

"What happened?" Lynne asked, laughing. Mark, who was getting bluer by the second, laughed too.

"Well," Matt explained, "I wanted Mark to put his handprints on paper for you, so you could have them for Mother's Day." A thoughtful idea, Lynne agreed. "But," Matt admitted, "it got out of hand very quickly." Lynne agreed about that, too.

They ran a bath for Mark to de-blue him. And they all laughed a lot. And in the end, Lynne ended up with a wonderful Mother's Day Gift after all: a hilarious story that she can hold over Matt's head for the rest of their married life. And a picture of Mark that's sure to impress his first high school girlfriend.

Mark of Fridays: The last days of cold and sweatshirts

Happy Mother's Day!

As soon as Mark and Mommy met, it was True Love.

Mommy loved Mark.
Mark loved Mommy.

She smelled nice.
She sounded nice.











As he got older, Mark grew fast.


But Mommy and Mark's love grew faster.
















Oh sure, sometimes Mark wears her out.












And there may have been a few surprises.
(Like the time Daddy painted Mark blue?)














But there's no doubt about who is Mark's True Love.


Happy Mother's Day!

Mark and Elaina

Recently, Mark met his new friend, Elaina Lynn Burton.

Mark couldn't believe that he ever used to be that small. Mark looked like a giant!

Elaina is so beautiful and lucky to have great parents like Sara and Tripp.

And Mark has his first girl friend!

Mark of Fridays: Books are for reading, not for eating

Mark loves books, mostly because they are so tasty.