Night Owl Cards

For someone who is as revered as a part of Red Sox postseason lore as Dave Roberts, there are not a lot of Dave Roberts Red Sox cards. I had to swipe this image of Roberts from the Topps Red Sox World Series set because I don't have any Roberts Red Sox cards. I have many, many, many cards of Roberts playing for the Dodgers though. What is more interesting for the respective managers of the two World Series teams is that it's even more difficult to find cards of the two managing for their respective teams. Go on, go to your collection and try to find a manager card of Roberts with the Dodgers or Cora with the Red Sox. You'll be searching a long time. Thanks to the licensing hysteria that just gets worse and worse by the year, Topps doesn't produce cards of managers anymore, not even for sets like Heritage, which pays tribute to designs of sets that had manager cards. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr. So anyway, the latest giveaway post is appearing barely an hour away from ...

Two times a year, baseball fans prognosticate. Once at the start of the season and once at the start of the postseason. It's a fun activity. People seem to like it. I think some take it far too seriously, but if done in the spirit in which it is intended, as folks shooting the shit during a barroom conversation, it's good, clean, mindless entertainment. I've participated in the Prognosticating Games many times. And it's taken those many times for me to realize: I suck at it. I can't predict. I've lost my crystal ball. In fact I don't think I ever had one. My inner soothsayer is on permanent vacation. For years, even though I knew this, I'd still pretend that I could predict the outcome of games. I'd participate in weekly NFL pools. Didn't win squat. Because of my job, people would ask me to predict the score of the local college football game. That's a funny thing to ask someone who finds the squirrels scurrying around the backyard more i...

Hi. You don't know me. But that's OK. I don't know a whole lot about you either, or any of your teammates, actually. I hope you'll forgive me for that, because I have a favor to ask. You see, I watched your game tonight against the Tigers. Exciting stuff, although I have to admit, dome baseball isn't for me. I confess, I rooted for the Cardinals in 1987 just because of that blasted indoor arena. But you guys find a way to make it work for you, that's for sure. Great game. I was really trying to get to know your team while watching the game. Because I had a feeling I'd be seeing you in the postseason. I recognize you, Joe. And I know Justin and Joe Nathan and Orlando Cabrera when I see them. Delmon Young, too. But damn, I admit, I have a hard time putting a name to a face after that. And that's even with the guys who have been with the team for awhile, Cuddyer and Punto and guys like that. I just heard of Bobby Keppel today. He's only pitched in 3...

First, I'd like to direct your attention to the card that matches my blog layout the best (EDIT: that is before I changed my blog layout). I need to feature this card permanently on the blog somewhere. It's perfect. It's even better than the 1984 Topps Dodgers, which also had the yellow/blue theme going. This is one of the cards that came from Patricia and Lucy at Dinged Corners . They sent a great collection of Dodgers all the way from the land of Isotopes. I'm a bit jealous that folks like Patricia and Lucy, as well as Kris of Cards in the Attic, can see the Dodgers' Triple A farm team on a regular basis this season. I know if I lived there, I'd be in the stands all the time. The team's nickname needs some work, though. I much prefer the old Albuquerque Dukes. I know why they picked "Isotopes," but when I looked up the definition of the word, it just gave me a dull pain above my left eye. "Isotopes are any of the different types of atom...