Night Owl Cards

Up until the last day or so, trades had dried right up for me. I've had no time to strike up any deals, and with Listia and a card show and some online arranging going full force, cards were occupying my time in other ways. But the time has come for me to get off my ass and actually be a fully functioning member of the bloggery again. Now that I've scrounged up some money for mailing supplies, a few select people will be getting some cards next week. And then a few more after that. Before you know it, it will be 2009 again and we'll all be clawing our eyes out because of all the trade posts. One person who hasn't stopped sending out cards recently is Spiegel . I got a very cool assortment of cards from him a couple weeks ago and am just now getting finding time to discuss them. So let's see if I still know how this "show your latest cards" thing works. I think you turn it on ... Like this ... Is it working? Ah, here we go ... I shall st...

I'm paraphrasing here, but the Tigers' Delmon Young probably said it best last night when asked by TBS' Craig Sager about how the team persevered after losing a four-run lead in the ninth: "We're big league ball players. That's what we do," he said. This is why I disagree with the pronouncements by Yankee fans that the team is done after losing Derek Jeter for the rest of the postseason to a fractured ankle. As I always say to Yankees fans in these situations, "spare me the drama." They're big leaguers. They'll go on. They might even win. Believe me, I would like nothing more to have the Yankees completely fall part after this. I'm pretty happy that Jeter's not going to be playing. I'm not one of the many who said, "I really don't like the Yankees, but you hate to see that happen to anyone." To me, that's exactly what I want to happen. I want to see the best players on the teams that I don't li...

I rearranged my work schedule so I could watch the Dodgers' first game of the season tonight. It was no easy task because, aside from all-consuming work, I had to keep a couple of appointments unrelated to work, and I had to prepare for an upcoming trip. So, I didn't end up turning on the TV until the bottom of the fourth inning. I noted the score. Dodgers up 2-0. That's good. And then I heard Vin Scully discussing Dodgers reliever Josh Lindblom. I thought that odd. Why a discussion about a guy who will rarely see the first five innings of any game this year? And then I noticed that Lindblom was actually ON THE MOUND ... IN THE FOURTH INNING ... INSTEAD OF THE OPENING DAY STARTER AND DEFENDING CY YOUNG AWARD WINNER CLAYTON KERSHAW!!!!!! It's OK. Calm down. It's all right. There has to be a logical explanation for this. Collect yourself. Vin is sounding calm. So you should be calm, too. Get a grip. I'm sure a simple answer is coming soon. And I ...

More than ever, I am cautious about entering group breaks. Sometimes it's for money reasons, but just as often it's because the sets being broken will yield a bunch of dupes for my collection. As a team collector I've accumulated quite a few Dodgers cards. I tried to figure out how many about a year go and came up with a guess-timate . I'd say I've added a few hundred more since then. And I've probably added about the same number of doubles. So I'm wary when another group break is announced. Nachos Grande , which holds a lot of group breaks, held one a month or two ago and the sets featured were ones where I didn't need many Dodger cards. I was going to skip it. But then Chris said that he'd be opening a box of 2001 Upper Deck '70s Decade. Goodness gracious, I love that set . Even though I had all the base Dodgers from the set, I was hoping for a hit or an insert of the Dodger variety. Even one of those would be worth the price. So...