Night Owl Cards

(If you haven't voted for your favorite Bert Campaneris '70s card in the last post, I invite you to do so ). So you've been away for a few years and want everyone to know that you're back. How do you do that? Do what The Diamond King did when he returned to card blogging last month: Bombard readers with contests and giveaways! Well, you've certainly gotten MY attention, sir! I'll start with the giveaways first. Since he returned, the Diamond King has issued multiple "Diamond King 9" giveaways, straight out of the chute and rapid fire in the last month-plus. As I've said before, I am very slow to get to these "first come, first serve" giveaways. I used to think "I spend too much time on the computer" and now I realize "I don't spend enough time on the computer at all!" But I was able to nab two cards out of the many giveaways. I won this key 1981 Fleer Star Sticker of The Hawk. I have since acquir...

I make my living as a writer and an editor, which automatically means I am not handy around the house. I don't want to make generalizations, but I haven't come across many writers who could build additions onto their homes. I'm sure there are those who can (and will now make themselves known), but being Tim the Toolman Taylor is not anything that I've enjoyed doing. My father is handy around the house. He grew up during The Depression and The War. People didn't have money, they did things themselves. It was an entire nation of DIY shows. When I was a teenager, he tried to get me interested in working on the car. I'd stand in front of the engine and try to keep my mind from wandering. It wasn't that I couldn't do it, or didn't understand, it's that my brain didn't want to go there. Now I have my own car and my own house. I often pay others to fix the car and the house. I've never been obsessed with being frugal. That seems to be ...

This is kind of a repeat of last year's post , which just goes to show you how well the Dodgers did in the '90s hanging onto superstars who would one day be Hall of Famers. Two straight years of this stuff. Mike Piazza announced today that he would go into the Hall of Fame as a New York Met. No surprise there. He's made his love for the Mets and their fans known just as he's also made his grudge against Dodgers management of the late '90s known. I've assumed this day was coming for a long time. But that doesn't change the way my brain thinks or what my collection looks like. Every time I see Piazza dressed in a Mets uniform, my brain is surprised. It has to be reminded again -- oh, yeah , Piazza played for the Mets, too . I have 460 cards of Mike Piazza. Three of them are Mets cards. A handful others are A's or Padres cards (no, I don't have any Marlins Piazzas -- why would I want those?). All of the rest of them are Dodgers cards. So, of c...