Night Owl Cards

This is the first card -- in my collection anyway -- that pairs up Clayton Kershaw and Sandy Koufax. It's from 2012 Archives. It's not a great card, but significant, as people on a national level were starting to see the Kershaw-Koufax similarities after Kershaw's phenomenal Triple Crown season in 2011. Tonight, Kershaw is facing the Atlanta Braves. It might be the biggest mismatch of the season, given Kershaw's roll and the Braves' moribund offense. But you know that as soon as a large segment of fans and pundits expect something to happen, that's when it won't happen. Baseball's tricky like that. So, let's see how it all turns out instead. OK, nobody's really interested in seeing my Kershaw cards (you'd rather see people argue in public. I'm wise to you, internet. It's not an attractive side of you). But this blog writer is interested in seeing my Kershaw cards. And he always seems to win. Here are Kershaw cards from "...

You may have heard that Clayton Kershaw was named the National League's Pitcher of the Month for May. I won't claim that Kershaw doesn't get his recognition. But with all the noise about Arrieta and Syndergaard and Bumgarner, it's nice to know that Clayton's still impressing the hell out of everyone. You've also probably read about Kershaw's record-setting walks-to-strikeouts ratio, which so far is the best in a single season all-time (granted, June just started). He's struck out 105 batters and walked just five. Madison Bumgarner gave up five walks in his first start of the year. But that's enough about something you can read on a bazillion other baseball sites (get our newsletter NOW!). There's only one place you can read about some Dodgers fan rambling about his Clayton Kershaw cards. ... well, one of only, like, six places anyway. I now possess more Kershaw cards than cards of any other player in my collection (and there are hundreds...

Player-collecting comes third in my hobby responsibilities. Set- and team-collecting goals far outweigh any thoughts of accumulating cards of a particular player. The easy test for this is when I go to a card show: not once have I walked into a show intent on finding multiple cards of a certain player. Still, I like my Kershaw cards, and this week I reached a milestone in the Kershaw collection. The above card, sent to me by Dave of Tribe Cards, was the equalizer. This card, also sent by Tribe Cards, was the record-breaker. I now have more cards of Clayton Kershaw than any other player in my collection. Even more importantly, unless someone drops a large stack of Hideo Nomo cards on my front porch or Kershaw suffers a career-ending injury in his next start, that is the way it will stay for as long as I am collecting. I see card companies making abundant cards of Kershaw for the rest of his career, I see myself collecting them (unless he leaves the Dodgers), and nobody e...