Night Owl Cards

I asked a Pirates fan the other day what team was considered the Pirates' rivals. A Tigers fan interjected that the Tigers were considered the Pirates' rivals in interleague play, which I immediately dismissed for obvious reasons. The Pirates fan shrugged and mentioned that the Reds were the team's big rivals back in the '70s when they always met in the playoffs. I wondered about the Phillies and he said, yeah, maybe, but he didn't seem too sure about it. This was odd to me. For me, as a Dodger fan, having a team or teams that are well-defined rivals, hated teams, repulsive counterparts going back decades, is one of the key elements of fanhood. Buy your favorite team's cap, collect their baseball cards, watch their game late at night, and root vigorously against their longstanding rival. All of these are one-and-the-same to me. If I couldn't spit on the Giants every year, there would be a hole in my baseball experience. The Giants have always been t...

In my feeble attempt to catch up on trade posts, I thought I'd show some cards that I got from the operator of For Card's Sake . He shares his name with a former Dodgers player (I wonder if he knows this?). But I'm not here to reveal people's names. Everyone knows him as longlivethewho, and that's good enough for me. Longlive happened to mention that he had three 1975 mini cards and wondered if I'd like them. Well, considering that time stops every time anyone mentions '75 minis around me, I certainly WOULD like them. And so I have them. Unfortunately, the one side effect of getting '75 minis is that you then have to dig out your corresponding regular-sized '75 card to scan in order to prove that you in fact did receive '75 minis and aren't just making up a convoluted tale of '75 mini love just to have something to write on the ol' blog. So I have done the dirty deed and here they all are, freshly undug: That Bec...

The other day I went to the mall to buy some new tires. Always a fun purchase. As usual, they didn't have the tires that I wanted. They were "out." But, amazingly, they had another brand of tire that was "the cheapest one we have," but still more expensive than the one I wanted. I've been through this charade before. So, after a little haggling, I let them put some new tires on my vehicle and I hit the mall while they did the dirty deed. To ease my pain, I hit the overpriced hobby shop that is right next door. I didn't have much money, especially after taking a hit on the tires, but I knew I wanted to grab a couple packs of Finest for one reason only. And that is: I have never bought a pack of Finest in my entire life . Never. Shocking isn't it? But I'm still keeping my card collector badge. So I was prepared to take the plunge. The guy behind the counter was giddy when I asked for Finest. Then he reached in the box and pulled out the last...

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...