Night Owl Cards

  It's time for another birthday post.   It's a milestone one this time. The kind that you don't even want to say out loud because it can't possibly be right and if someone hears you, they're going to throw a blanket over you and haul you off to the elderly farm.   I shall distract myself with dinner out, gifts, cake, ice cream and this post.   I have posted almost every birthday since starting this blog and have tried to tie the occasion to cards or baseball. But I'm all out of stuff. In fact, I thought about not posting this time. But I can at least update a couple of past birthday posts with more information.   For instance, three years ago I posted about active players in the majors who share my birthday , focusing on a then-new discovery, Jarred Kelenic.   Kelenic is still going, on a new team since last time, and still over a year younger than my daughter.😬     I also happen to have recent cards of three other active players who are ce...

  A little more than two months ago I added this 1952 Topps Duke Snider to my collection during a card show.   That apparently woke me up out of my indifference over the 1952 set. No, I'm not attempting to collect it. I'm not even looking to add all of the Dodgers in the set.   But at some point after getting the Snider, I decided to see what I could do about getting the rest of the low-number Dodgers.   Just the other day one of those cards arrived.    This is such an odd card. Jim Russell had not played for the Braves for three years when this card was issued. He was with Brooklyn in 1950 and 1951, and in '51 he appeared in just 18 games with the Dodgers, spending most of the season with Triple A Montreal. He wouldn't appear in another major league game.   His obvious Braves hat and uniform is also the reason that it was one of the last '52 Dodgers I looked to get. He doesn't look like a Dodger at all!   Condition is not a requirement with addin...

  I'll say one thing for March, it's never not interesting.   I probably go on way too much about this month, but it keeps coming up with new and irritating ways to mess with my life. And I have a story to illustrate.   Since it's March, we're in the thick of state high school basketball playoffs, along with collegiate hockey playoffs and, heck let's start the spring season earlier and earlier because there's nothing else going on this month. It's always the busiest month at work and getting busier.   A co-worker was scheduled to work Thursday, Friday and Saturday and travel to cover our basketball teams in state play two of those days. On Friday, he sent a text saying he had a cold and wouldn't be in Thursday, he'd work from home. OK, no problem, nothing to cover that day. But late that night, I realized he did no work from home at all, and I had to do it, because we've been shorthanded since 2023 and we've got only two guys.   Friday came a...

  Father's Day ended in pretty sucky fashion yesterday. Right in the middle of a dinner prepared to my specific requests, I heard hushed voices coming from my laptop over in the living room. I ignored it for a little bit -- I really like burgers and deviled eggs -- but it kept hushing and I had to go and check it out. There I saw people hunched over Mookie Betts, who was having difficulty getting up. I couldn't see the number so I couldn't tell who it was, I just knew it was a Black man. It didn't seem like Jason Heyward, not large enough. It didn't seem like Teoscar Hernandez, not enough beard. Finally I saw the name and, well, that's how you ruin Father's Day. Thanks a lot, Dan Altavilla, who I had never heard of until yesterday. I used to write about the Dodgers as a fan quite a bit on this blog. A lot of rah-rah rooting stuff. I moved away from it because I never felt comfortable with it and focusing more on cards seemed more natural. But I am still a Do...

  OK, I have another weird card number thing for you.   Like I mentioned the other day, my recent sportlots order included me chasing down the final couple cards to finish several team sets.   One of the planned team sets to finish was the 2001 Topps Archives set. But I didn't get to finish it. I was distracted by some weirdness in that set and then all completion was lost.   Did you know there are two Ralph Branca cards replicating the 1952 Topps design in that set??? I sure didn't.   Before placing my sportlots order, I was looking at what I still needed for the Dodgers in '01 Archives. Oh, hey, I need the '52 Branca card, let me add that one to my cart.   Then I realized I already had it. OK, let me remove that from my cart. Then I realized there are TWO of them with TWO different numbers. Whaaaa?     There is this one and if you look at the small print along the left side, you see it's card No. 227. (Yes, having two different card numbers on ...

  I have probably mentioned a couple times that I feel like my era of collecting is underrepresented on social media. That's likely because folks who collected as kids in the '70s are less likely to be appearing on Twitter/X or Instagram. And I don't do cards on Facebook, which probably has a better chance of showing card stuff from my era. But it's difficult for me to match the glee for late '80s and '90s cards that I see constantly on those other social media sites. Like I've said before, it seems like every collector online began collecting in 1987. There's probably a book in there somewhere because it's definitely a thing. But I don't want to collect stuff from that time. I see pack-openings of 1990 Donruss a lot. I already know what's in those packs, they do, too. I don't have any desire to be trapped in a 1990 time loop. Also, and this is the key thing, I like cards issued earlier a whole lot more. Folks who collected those cards fr...