Night Owl Cards

Bowman is not meant for me. I try to say that every time I mention Bowman because I'm sure there is some Bowman lover reading me bashing on his favorite product who is saying over and over "BOWMAN IS NOT FOR YOU! QUIT BITCHING!!!!" So, just so you know, I know that Bowman is not for me. I know this because of the Scott Van Slyke card here. I received this card way back in one of my first blog trades almost four years ago. I believe it was from Dinged Corners. They liked to send wacky photos like this and this is a wacky one. Van Slyke is the son of former Pirates outfielder, the wacky Andy Van Slyke, and I've said before that I'm convinced Bowman only printed a card of Scott so they could use the photo here. He wasn't considered a big prospect at the time, which is evidenced by the back of the card in which the first line of his resume says "Placed sixth on Great Lakes roster in 2007 with 89 hits." Placed sixth. In hits. On a Low Class A...

Unless Ned does something Ned-like, the deal between the Cardinals and Dodgers is virtually done and Rafael Furcal will be hauling his 476-year-old body to St. Louis. Raffy spent six seasons with L.A., which translates into roughly 1.45 years when you measure it in Furcal's time present on the field. A friendly warning, St. Louis fans: when Furcal is playing, you will be convinced that he is the most amazing player in all of baseball and puzzled why he is not getting his due. But when he's not playing -- and, damn, an entire country could go into and out of and back into a recession in the time he spends on the DL -- he is a frustrating, infuriating, old, old, old man, made out of glass and put together with model airplane glue. But Raffy was destined to be gone by the offseason at the latest, so I just hope we can get someone out of this deal who can turn into a starting catcher, or third baseman, or second baseman, or first baseman. I think we're going to be ...

If you're a home owner, then you might know the joy of water in the basement all too well. I am currently dealing with this delightful diversion and have had little time for blog following or writing. But I want to get this post out before the house starts floating down the street. Ron Cey's 63rd birthday was last Tuesday. Since he is my most favorite player of all-time, I had ordered this little beauty to post on the occasion of his special day. Unfortunately, the mail has been exceedingly slow the last few weeks (snow must be kicking the mail carrier's butt), and packages aren't arriving in the mail box at the usual pace. So, the card -- a 2004 Topps Clubhouse Relic -- didn't arrive in time to post on his birthday. But I still want to show it because it's not often that I can find a Cey card that I don't have. Plus, it's a snazzy-if-mysterious item. The background kind of reminds me of those Soundgarden videos from the early '90s. I don...

We here at Define the Design do not shy away from the tough questions. After all, anyone can come up with a descriptive set name for 1987 Topps or 1982 Donruss. Finding design answers for a few other sets is a lot more challenging. Score, when we get to it, will be a bear. Some of the Upper Deck sets out there are almost indefinable. And then there's Bowman. The early days of Bowman produced some memorable sets and nobody is going to have much trouble coming up with a name for some of those '50s cards. You plaster a giant wood-panel TV set on each card and you've named the set, too. Done and done. Even when Bowman returned in 1989, it at least made the look of its sets relatively different from year to year (1990 and 1991 excluded). The problem arises at the turn of the century. Here is the 2001 Bowman card. Bowman went with a very cool black-and-red design. You can't argue with black and red. It always looks great, as the Atlanta Falcons have shown for years. ...