Night Owl Cards

  Fans have returned to the stands this season, but it still looks a little empty up there. I don't know what the vantage point is in person, but watching on TV there seems to be a lot of room to roam. Room enough to perhaps play baseball in the stands. Like they did about 15 years ago. You don't remember that? Well, when would Topps not tell the truth? There it is right on your baseball card. A player preparing to take his swings in the stands. This was a common occurrence on Topps cards between 2005-08. And seeing what you can convince card collectors do these days ("seal your card in plastic forever," "buy this one-of-a-kind digital picture of a card"), I probably could convince someone that MLB was playing baseball in the stands based on just a few cards from this time period. Pitchers threw in the stands, sailing throws that knocked the nachos out of spectators' hands.   They scooped up hot grounders. You should have seen those fans scramble.       ...

Topps Heritage is scheduled for release on St. Patrick's Day. Although I enjoy the 1972 design a lot -- have I mentioned I've completed that set? --  I won't be buying much of this year's Heritage, probably no more than a sampling. I'm still too involved with 2020 Heritage, because that's how long it takes for a rational collector to complete a Heritage set. Actually it takes longer than that: I'm still trying to finish 2008 Heritage. But I've gotten a lot farther on 2020 Heritage than I ever imaged at this time last year. Recently I received six needed cards from the set from reader Ben. He sent a very nice "thanks for blogging" package and you'll see the rest of the goodies another day. This card put me four cards away from completing the non-short-printed portion of the set. That's pretty damn good for someone who hasn't seen much of this set for sale since a year ago at this time.   The rest of the Heritage cards in the package ...

I've failed you and did not take a picture of my reorganization of my giant Dodgers box of dupes -- and accompanying satellite boxes of dupes. It took three days to finish and was conducted entirely while sitting on a hardwood floor. Needless to say, breaks were mandatory. I normally conduct this exercise once a year, in September. But life got busy and the dupes piled up and I finally found a little time last week. Normally I use the dining room table, but there were too many people about for that. So I commandeered the spare bedroom and started piling stacks of cards by decade that needed to join the rest of the dupes. Some may wonder why I go through such a tedious routine for cards that are duplicates. Why do I organize stacks, then ad those stacks to the box, then pull out more cards from the box, and join more cards from the stacks to the more cards from the box, and repeat the process over and over to a mind-numbing degree, more mind-numbing than reading this paragraph...

The year 2007 was not a shining example of the greatness of baseball cards. Out of all of the sets that were released that year, I think the only one that stood out as memorable was Upper Deck Masterpieces. The year also marked the real start of the variation plague that we're still dealing with today. The most famous incident is the Topps Derek Jeter card featuring a photoshopped George Bush in the stands and Mickey Mantle in the dugout. It turns out it wasn't a variation at all as Topps didn't issue a later "correction." This means that Topps had tricked collectors into spending crazy amounts of money on what was, and still is, a base card. Because of that, and other trickery foisted on the 2007 Topps set, I don't have a great opinion of it. It doesn't help that the inserts in the set (excluding the "Distinguished Service" series) are among the worst ever. Alex Rodriguez Road to 500 and Generation Now can die in a fire. I will supply the...

(The cake was wonderful, you'll be glad to know. The presents were nice, too. Just three packs of Ginter with nothing special. But I'll be spending some of my birthday cash tomorrow on, oh, I don't know, possibly baseball cards. So the birthday was a smashing success. Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 154th in a series): Angel Berroa: What are we going up in the stands for? Topps photographer: To take your picture for the set. Berroa: In the stands? Photographer: We're trying something new. Berroa (looks at Blanco): Whatever. Photographer: OK, this looks like a good spot. Blanco: What do want us to do? Photographer: Pretend like your fielding. Berroa: Both of us? Photographer: Yeah. Blanco: That would never happen. Berroa: Yeah. We're both shortstops, so we wouldn't even be on the same field together. Photographer: Don't be so literal. We're having some fun here. Berroa (rolls eyes): OK, so how do you want us to pose?...

Look at that fog looming in the background. Did Topps get the Rays out at 6 a.m. to take photos? Anyway, as you know there's still a wild-card race going on in the American League East. The Rays are trying to catch the morbidly inept Red Sox. I know there are a lot of fans snickering over the Red Sox's demise. And there are a lot of Red Sox fans covering their eyes. I'm doing neither. The sole reason I am paying attention to this thing, outside of the "general interest in baseball" reason, is that I need to know: which team has the best chance of eliminating the Yankees in the postseason? This is all I care about. Which team is going to take care of that problem of watching Teixeira, Martin, Swisher, A-Rod, Gardner, Posada, Burnett, Pajama Hamburger, gag, vomit, retch, puke, barf, spew, heave ... bleah. ... Excuse me for a second. .... ... OK, I'm back. Sorry. Automatic reaction. Anyway, which team is going to take care of that problem of ...

I admit I am quite enjoying the fact that the Padres are not in the playoffs. I knew they weren't good enough, and I didn't appreciate their fans laughing at my Dodgers. Unfortunately, the Padres' demise benefited a team that I despise even more. I dislike the Giants so much that I am actually rooting for the Braves, an activity I can remember participating in maybe two other times in my life. Ick. But that's the way the postseason works sometimes. You root for some strange teams, and you hate yourself when it's over. Recognizing that the Padres and my team, the Dodgers, are now both battling for tee times on Southern California golf courses, I've decided to dedicate my next "team colors" post to San Diego. What the hell. Let's let bygones be bygones. That is, if you can consider ripping a team's choice of colors as patching things up. San Diego is one of those teams that did a complete team color overhaul in midstream. Normally, I...

Hi there. I haven't written a blog post since Monday, so I'm a bit out of practice. I took a few days off to do some vacationing in the Adirondacks. Let me tell you, that is one place that will not only cut down on your posting, but will cut down on your blog reading. The internet and sparsely-populated mountainous regions do not mix well. Knowing what was ahead, I scheduled some posts in advance and hoped nothing notable would happen while I was gone -- you know, like the death of notorious owner or a long-awaited victory by my favorite league. And, phew, what a relief, absolutely nothing happened in baseball the past few days. Heh. I guess I missed out on commenting on a few things. Well, even while spending breezy days in an area where the log cabins out-number the people, news got back to me. As for Steinbrenner, I guess you're supposed to be kind to those who recently passed. But I tend to treat glowing words uttered by men he made millionaires with a raised...

I've really tried to sing the praises of our hobby. I'm fiercely proud of it and firmly believe in announcing the fun factor in collecting every chance I get. I hope that when I'm oooohing and aaaahing in a trade post or cardboard appreciation or awesome night card that you understand what I'm really doing. I'm broadcasting how fun and, yes, exciting it is to collect rectangular pieces of cardboard. Sure, I criticize sets or cards, but that's only because I love the hobby so much that I want to see it stay great forever. As much as I love vintage, and threaten to go all vintage at times, I would be sad if I had to do that. Because that would mean that I believed my hobby was on the verge of death. Truthfully, I spend very little time thinking about the negative aspects of the hobby. About the only time I do that is when I'm reading the blogs. That's right. You're all to blame. The vast majority of the time I spend in the hobby is pouring my ...

See that photo? That photo represents work life in 2009 for me. I am Albert in the middle, running from bad to worse, trying to get away, but feeling like there's no way out. I went to work yesterday, feeling fine, only to discover that it's still 2009 there. And 2009 + work = black hole of suckage. I should know that by now. I really can't wait for the year to get over, but I have a feeling it's not going to improve in 2010. I wish I had the money to go back to school, to go in a different direction -- although I don't even know what that direction would be. The truth is, I love to write. I always will, so I'm not sure if a different direction is the right move. So, I'll probably just stay in the middle, running from one bad thing to the next, clinging to whatever glimpse of freedom I own (I do have a vacation next week, they haven't taken that away ... yet). For the first time in my life, buying a lottery ticket seems attractive. I mean like som...