Night Owl Cards

Last fall, I mentioned that nobody will ever mistake me for a player collector. I list on my blog that I collect certain players, but that really never has been my primary collecting goal (I still can't get rid of the stalker vibe that I feel when I say I collect a certain player). I'm a team collector and a set collector first and that will always be my way -- at least until Clayton Kershaw has won his fifth Cy Young and I have accumulated enough of his cards that I can't maintain the "I'm Not A Player Collector" lie any longer. But, anyway, I mentioned in that post that I'm not a player collector because, despite my desire to collect specific players, I had almost as many cards of a player that I have not publicly stated that I collect than I had of any player that I HAVE publicly declared as a collecting target. And that player who is not on the official "Dodgers I Collect" list, but yet scads of his cards can be found in my collecti...

Hey, it's not me. The polls said it. As you'll remember, I wanted to know the biggest year-to-year improvement in Upper Deck's history and the biggest year-to-year bust, too. Well, 1994 Upper Deck came up the loser in each poll. Here are the results: Biggest Bust 1993 to 1994: 13 votes 1989 to 1990: 4 votes 1997 to 1998: 3 votes 1999 to 2000: 3 votes Biggest Improvement 1994 to 1995: 12 votes 1992 to 1993: 6 votes 2007 to 2008: 3 votes 2002 to 2003: 2 votes Not a ton of votes there, but I thank those who checked the little boxes. Look, 1994 Upper Deck isn't the worst base set UD ever put out. I think it's a lot better than some of those late '90s things they produced. In terms of photo quality, it's an improvement over some of UD's earlier sets, too. 1994 Upper Deck simply had the misfortune to appear between two of the most pleasing Upper Deck sets it ever produced -- the near perfect '93 set and the simplistic beauty of...

Recently, a certain shortstop in a certain city broke a certain record, and certain people celebrated and certain people scoffed. I tried to stay out if it. I mean, Derek Jeter doesn't really bother me. He's wearing a Yankee uniform, so I like almost anyone in major league baseball more than him, but at least he's not A-Rod or Teixeira . The record? If you're a Yankee fan, it's a big deal. Otherwise, why is anyone supposed to care? No one has given me a good reason for that. I don't think they can. The media -- especially television media -- sensationalizes what it wants, supporting arguments be damned. The hoopla really looks silly when you consider some of the greatest records in all of baseball. I mean if we were treated to all of that Jeter -mania for a franchise hit record, what would happen if a Yankee approached Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak? They might have to close the city down. Play their games in an empty ballpark. I don't think...