Night Owl Cards

To me, there is no greater change in a player's personality than when one switches from pitcher to hitter, or from hitter to pitcher. This is why there is so much amusement/discussion when a position player pitches in a game, and so much amusement/discussion/outrage when a pitcher steps to the plate. The player is actually changing his very baseball personality. Pitchers and hitters are so different, and they are adversaries. They're on opposite sides of the battlefield. They're also narrowly defined. Pitchers "throw smoke," while batters are "sluggers." Hitters are "scrappy," while pitchers are "crafty." Seeing a position change on a baseball card from "third baseman" to "second baseman" is no big deal. But seeing the position change from "pitcher" to "outfielder," that is quite a big deal. This is why I have held on to this particular card for so long. I'm not a fan of the Ca...

Easy mojo hunters. I didn't pull a "hit." What I did pull the other day was the Kershaw card you see here. I bought a pack of 2008 Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects. The one with Joey Votto on the pack wrapper. Why a box full of these cards is still sitting in my Target is baffling. But it suited my habit of plucking a pack here and a pack there of product I'm not really collecting. I do this not only to find cards for fellow collectors, but to educate myself on what is out there. To me, it's a lot more fun than scanning ebay or other online sites. I have never liked window-shopping (which is why you probably won't see a Blog Bat-Around post from me this time). And every once in awhile I pull a card of someone that I collect. This is the refractor version of the '08 Bowman Chrome Kershaw card. It was one of the "2 Bowman Chrome cards in EVERY PACK!" Bowman is so criminally confusing that it took a little research to figure out what I had (...

A box of 2009 Allen & Ginter is in my possession. And I'll warn you right away: I make no apologies for drooling over these cards. If these aren't your thing, if you have issues with mascot autographs and DNA relics of Richard Nixon, then you're staring at the wrong blog. Because I'll defend all of the cards in this set as if they're members of my family. However, I have no time to show any of them. Two jam-packed days of fun-filled work are waiting for me. Maybe, if I pull something wonderful, I'll throw up a quick one-card post. But the full-fledged Gint -a-Cuffs compilation posts are going to have to wait until next week. So, I thought I'd show three cards I received from The Mojo Hand instead. Mojo , er, Jay is an expert in all things shiny, paralleled and scribbled on. And he is quite generous indeed. So, here they are: A 2009 Goudey relic of Matt Kemp, who was beat out of a spot in the All-Star Game by the fan voting when Shane Victorino was ...

We are holding a garage sale today. There are all kinds of questionables pulling up to the house. The dog has been whining all day. I want it to be over quickly. So I'll post some cards I received in a couple of trades to take my mind off the proceedings. The first are from Rob of Voice of the Collector . I keep sending him 20 th anniversary Upper Deck cards, and instead of sending me something appropriate back, like a restraining order or anthrax, he sends me Dodgers! I received several Topps Attax cards. I may or may not have the whole set of Dodgers by now (aside from all the foil variations). I have no idea if there is a checklist for these cards. I like this card because Lowe is wearing the patriotic Dodgers cap. I believe it's from his 4 th of July start from last year. Appropriately, it was in San Francisco, where it seems just about all of Lowe's Dodger card photos were taken. Lowe got the win even after giving up five runs in five innings. Russell M...

Marie, of A Cardboard Problem , was nice enough to send me some Dodgers the other day. One of the cards she sent was the first 2009 Bowman card I've seen in person (no Bowman where I live at the moment). It's a gold parallel of current Dodger minor leaguer Blake DeWitt . But even though I haven't seen any Bowman yet, the card photo seemed awfully familiar. So I did a quick inventory. Sure enough, the photo was the same one used in the 2008 Bowman Chrome set. This stuff drives me batty. It's bad enough when the same photo is used in multiple sets during the same year. But we've turned the calendar to 2009 now. Find an updated photo, please, or at least a different one. This isn't 1969. You don't need to keep using the same Hank Aaron picture. Even an exclusive card, like one with an autograph, isn't immune to DeWitt photo duplication. Here is the 2008 Stadium Club autographed card of DeWitt : Golly gee, DeWitt's arm has got to be tired maki...