Night Owl Cards

 (Woof, blog views have taken another downturn, basically in the last two weeks. Maybe everyone was too busy watching the Olympics! Anyway, for those still reading, this is called Cardboard Appreciation and we're at the 365th in a series):   As far as I can tell, this is the first time Shoeless Joe Jackson has appeared on a Topps card.   I pulled it when I went back for a hanger box of 2026 Topps last week. I opened it at work. When I saw the card I didn't think anything of it other than "that's a weird-looking thing."   But later I remembered how MLB removed Shoeless Joe and other deceased ballplayers from its permanently ineligible list last spring, making them available to be voted into the Hall of Fame. Also, since Topps doesn't make a move without MLB approval, that means Jackson (and I assume Pete Rose) are eligible to appear in current baseball cards.   Up until now my Shoeless Joe cards have been created by Upper Deck, Donruss/Playoff/Panini/Leaf, vari...

Slowly unpacking and working my way back to speed. Let's start with some cards I received on my recent trip. As I mentioned before there were no cards under the tree for Christmas. That's not a problem, except for a bit of hurt feelings. There was cash under the tree and we all know what to do with that. The results of that cash are still to come. But meanwhile my sister-in-law bestowed upon me one of those glorious Target gift cards (I hear people get ridiculous things like wicker baskets and pillows with that bit of plastic. Just mind-boggling). And, for good measure, she wasn't scared to give me actual cards, too. But let's start with what I bought with the gift card. I grabbed a box of this year's Stadium Club and a discounted box of last year's Archives. Yes, yes, I know, last year's Archives. I'm powerless in the face of a green $12.99 sticker. As you know, those were the four designs chosen last year. Not great decision-making by Top...

If blogging was around when I was a teenager, I don't think I could have done it. As I've mentioned before, when I was a kid -- before the teenage years hit -- I'd set out to write my own fictional novel. One time, I got up to about 70 or 80 loose leaf pages full of pencil-scrawled writing before I gave up. Then the teenaged years hit and writing became work -- essays and outlines and literary analysis. Who wanted to write during their free time? Plus there is having the guts to put myself out in the public like one must do when blogging. I couldn't have handled that as a teenager. I had a difficult enough time raising my hand in class. But I've come across several teens and pre-college card bloggers over the years. Sometimes I don't even know they're that young. Sure, I know they're younger than me because of some of their references, but often times I'm surprised when I find it's an 18- or 19-year-old who wants to be involved this hobb...

I think everyone who went to high school knew a kid who hung out with the "cool kids" who wasn't really cool. You knew it, everyone knew it, maybe even the kid knew it, but there he/she was, laughing with the rest of them. The kid didn't belong. The popular kids were easy to pick out. They were popular because of social status, good looks, athletic ability or a disturbing talent for putting down "less cool" kids. But this one other kid, not as athletic, not as attractive, not as mean, was accepted as one of them. No one ever let on that this one person didn't belong. But I knew. And other did, too. To me, 2014 Topps Archives is that kid. Archives, in its current form, is a joke of a set. It was a major disappointment when it returned in 2012 and it's done nothing to improve itself. The card stock is lousy, the choices for past designs are perennially discouraging and, most irritating of all, the cards aren't that easy to obtain. That...

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but wearing the same shirt five days in a row just because your favorite team won the first time you wore it, isn't going to cause the team to keep winning. Neither is turning the TV off when your team isn't doing well and then turning it on again hoping that their fortunes have magically changed. You can sit in the same place in the living room to watch the game for 14 straight days and it's still not going to yield 14 straight victories for your team. No matter what you do, no matter how much you believe it, no matter how often it appears to work, there is one thing for certain: You have no effect on your favorite sports team. I know, because I've done most of the above and several other tactics, including drinking "magical" potions and watching the game upside down (I've probably done both at the same time). And it doesn't work. Your favorite team is going to screw up ... eventually. Yet, we p...