Night Owl Cards

No card era baffles me more than the late 1990s. Brian from Play at the Plate knows this. He knows I collected fewer cards during that time than any other collecting period in my life. And being the supertrader that he is, he recently sent a PWE that contained nothing but cards from between 1996-2000. In other words, he stuffed the envelope with homework. There is no way I will be able to figure out which late 1990s cards I need and which I don't unless I have a few quiet minutes to myself, alone, with a lamp lit above, equipped with my research materials and binders, with a pencil and paper by my side. Now does that sound like homework or what? It's the only way I can do it. Put a card in my hand from the 1980s and I know instantly what it is and whether I own it. Card from the late '90s? I have maybe a 50 percent chance. Can you hand me that giant research volume on the shelf so I can figure it out? I'll get back to you in a few minutes. So, I had a fe...

Yes, good people, it's time for a trade post. Don't look at me that way. I've just made it through the most debilitating month of the year -- made even more debilitating this time around by circumstances you don't want me to document. Trust me, you don't. The end results is March ate half of the days off that I usually get during a regular, non-hostile month, turned my general mood from happy-go-lucky to WHAT-THE-F***-ARE- YOU -LOOKING-AT, and I'm quite sure knocked a couple of Marchs off my life, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. So with April and baseball right around the corner, I am spunky and ready to go. Besides, I just got this email the other day: "Thank you for your order 1960-BB-TS1-265-NA Rip Repulski 1 03/29/10 SHIPPED 1968-BB-TS1-277-NA Jerry Buchek 1 03/29/10 SHIPPED 1972-BB-TS1-532-NA Fred Kendall RC 1 03/29/10 SHIPPED" My Million Card Giveaway items be shipped!!! (EDIT: My Million Card Giveaway items  BE HERE!!...

I'm starting to get down to the end of my list of Brush With Greatness subjects. I think I have only 5 or 6 left. As I've said before, my on-the-job writing/reporting has trickled down to next to nothing as my editing responsibilities have increased. On Sunday, for just the fourth time in the last year, a story with my byline appeared in my newspaper. And as always, I barely had time to write it. Still, if the chance to talk to a big league ballplayer for a story arose, I'd take it. Because those opportunities are slim around these parts. My opportunity to talk to former major league John Mabry came when I was doing the story on George Kissell , the late legendary coach of the Cardinals. The conversation I had with him wasn't terribly interesting, but it highlighted something that has always been on my mind. When you read an article in a newspaper or in a magazine or wherever, and you read the quotes, how do they sound to you? What I mean is, when you read the quote, ...

I recently picked up this card, which was very key because I believe I now have at least one card of every major league baseball player that I have interviewed. And I wasn't going to do one of these BWG posts if I didn't have the player's card. A lot of people probably haven't heard of or don't remember Alan Benes. He's the younger brother of Andy Benes, the former Padres pitcher, who is featured in the large mug shot on the card. Both Alan and Andy pitched together with the Cardinals in the late 1990s, and that's when I talked to Alan, up in Montreal. Alan was well-spoken, as a lot of pitchers are, and was happy to sit down at his locker and talk to me. But what I want to write about here, concerning Alan, is a brief comment on "prospecting." I am not a prospector at all. I've said that before. I have no interest in "who might be a star." And I've already mentioned how much I despise "speculation." I believe it may be ...