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Opening 25-year-old baseball cards with Bronson Arroyo

Mike Oz

There’s something to be said about being a 40-year-old pitcher in Major League Baseball. Veteran status means you can do and say more of what you want. Which brings us to this week’s episode of 25-Year-Old Baseball Cards with Cincinnati Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo.

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First off, Arroyo is fantastic. And second, he’s easily the most candid player we’ve had in this series. He’s happy to dish, for example, about the player that he says has been to more strip clubs than anybody in baseball (how’s that for a tease?)

From there, our baseball-card chat is all over the place. Arroyo has references to Koko B. Ware, Justin Bieber haircuts, how players wear their stirrups, how to spot rookies and lots more. It makes for a fun trip down memory lane and a fantastic episode of this series — even if he’s wrong about Bert Blyleven, who IS a Hall of Famer.

Bronson Arroyo opening 25-year-old baseball cards. (Yahoo Sports)
Bronson Arroyo opening 25-year-old baseball cards. (Yahoo Sports)

Arroyo, by the way, is back in MLB this year after missing two full seasons with injuries. His first start of the season was rough (six runs in four innings), but he’s back on the mound for the Reds on Thursday looking to better that.

If you’re new to this series (and if you are, hi, welcome) we open baseball cards from 25 years ago with various baseball folks, then reminisce about old players, share stories and sometimes make fun of what players wore back in the day. It all started because my grandma saved boxes of unopened cards for me, thinking they’d be worth a ton of money in the future. They aren’t, of course. So we do this instead and it’s a lot of fun. If you dig it, check out some of our previous episodes below.

PREVIOUSLY IN THIS SERIES:
• Terry Francona
• Brad Mills
• Kyle Hendricks
• Eric Davis
• Joe Maddon
• Todd Coffey
• Cliff Floyd
• Clint Hurdle
• Dan Plesac
• Dusty Baker
• Bruce Bochy
• Aaron Boone
• Clayton Kershaw
• Buck Showalter
• Frank Thomas
• Alex Rodriguez
• Scott Boras
• Bobby Bonilla

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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!