Night Owl Cards

Right now the baseball buzz on social media is the World Baseball Classic. While I'm happy to see people talking about more baseball, I can't get into the WBC more than periodic glances. A few reasons just to make sense of how I feel:   1. We just had two weeks of an international sports event. I'm tapped out. 2. March has enough chaos and energy -- March Madness, right? I don't need more. 3. The WBC seems to run on star power, which really isn't my focus in baseball (Yes, I know the Dodgers have a ton of stars, I do feel conflicted about that).   For baseball all I need is the Dodgers and the other MLB teams that play the Dodgers. I have a difficult time getting invested in any other kind of baseball, whether that's Olympic, collegiate, Banana Ball or any of the many, many non-MLB leagues through history. I've found where my heart will reside forever -- as corporate as MLB may be now.   My collection reflects that -- in the pursuit of MLB-themed sets and, o...

I'd like the Dodgers to sweep tonight, but I'm not confident about it. The Yankees would really have to be in rough shape to lose to Brent Honeywell Jr. and friends. But it could be one those 13-11 games, so there's a shot, and if it's going to happen it will be the second time the Dodgers have swept the Yankees in the World Series. The first happened in 1963. I wasn't around in '63. So I've often wondered what that was like. The Dodgers sweeping the Yankees on the grandest stage is my dream come true (why it needs to happen today ). Damn, the only time in my life I've wished I was 10 years older. All I can do is read about it . And go back in time the way only my little blog can do to see what life was like 61 years ago.   Since this is a card blog, I'll address the card portion first. In 1963, the Topps monopoly was picking up steam with only Fleer mounting a minor challenge.   Fleer put out a dandy little set in 1963. (The green card backs might b...

  Over the past seven years, I've learned that if the Dodgers are in the World Series, I'm going to need to post about it -- and I probably can't post about anything else. It's just difficult to get interested in a regular topic when All Of That is going on (I actually get annoyed when following along on social media during a Series game when a non-Series post slips in).   The Dodgers are in pretty good shape as of this writing. But I've seen Series 2-0 leads crumble more times than I care to remember. And to make the 1978 memories worse, the Series has moved to New York for three games. I loathe viewing games in Yankee Stadium and the Series magnifies that by about a million. Fortunately, I'll be working all through the next three games. So I can fast-forward to what I want (or ignore altogether) at a later date.   I think the Dodgers could use another World Series boost post from me though. I did this four years ago . I'm going to change it up a little bit...

  The Dodgers have made it to the LCS, even though I had prepared myself long ago for an Astros-Giants World Series. Sure, call me a pessimist, but I lived through the '90s with virtually not a single rooting interest succeeding. Also, the Giants enjoyed that kind of charmed season that usually ends in a title. I had that "destined" tag on them since May (Darren Ruf? Come on). Now that the Dodgers eliminated the one team I most wanted them to, I am relaxing a bit. Sure, I'll get riled up when the LCS against the Braves starts, but it won't bother me nearly as much if they advance. Yeah, an Astros-Dodgers repeat would be ugly (although I know folks with no dog in the fight will consider it great theater). But let's set that aside now.   Everyone is always overlooking the LCS. No, not your local card shop. The LCS! The League Championship Series! Often the LCS contains more thrills and spills than the World Series. I can think of many a World Series that was a l...