Night Owl Cards

I "borrowed" a little cash over the weekend to get some cards. This almost never happens. I faithfully save my pennies and budget my expenditures so that I have just the right amount of cash for cards. But I have a weakness when it comes to Chrome. It's difficult to explain. I never complete a Chrome set, I don't even find it all that appealing after a few weeks. But yet, when it arrives, I've GOT TO HAVE IT unlike any kind of card product I know. I don't act like this around anything else. Well ... I said any THING else. But, yes, I've made the Chrome-female of the species connection a number of times before, and it's a good way to describe my behavior in both instances. So, as you may have surmised, I have already purchased way too much chrome with borrowed money and I feel lousy about it. I really hate that my first post on this year's Chrome is negative, since the first sniff of Chrome is supposed to be like the first pitt...

When the news broke today of the Angels' crazy 10-year-deal with Albert Pujols, I was sound asleep. I can sleep through anything if I'm tired enough. While reading about it those first groggy minutes of wakefulness, I kept coming back to one thing. Well, two things really. The first: What the hell happened in St. Louis that would let Pujols give up all that he established there? I can't help but feel that some day he will be sorry for this move. But the second thought is what stuck with me the most. And that is: the Angels have done this before, and haven't been too successful at it. OK, maybe they haven't done it on this scale. Pujols is the superstar of superstars. And C.J. Wilson is pretty good, too, although I've already mentally voted him as "the free agent most likely to crash-and-burn." But perhaps these names mean something to you: Rod Carew, Joe Rudi, Lyman Bostock, Reggie Jackson, Bobby Grich, Doug DeCinces, Mark Langston, Dave Hol...

There is one unmistakable truth about this major league baseball season: The Dodgers are a bad team. I'm OK with that. I expected it going into the season, although maybe not on this level. But it's OK. My focus is on seeing a brand new owner in the executive offices as soon as they can get McCourt to slither out of his gold-encrusted hole. What I'm not OK with is an unmistakable truth that has gone on for the last 15 years. The Dodgers cannot beat the Angels. Interleague play is bad enough without the Dodgers getting a six-game lesson in failure every year. How am I supposed to work up any enthusiasm for Selig's pointless gift to the fans when my team goes in the tank every June because they have a mental block over the Angels? The Dodgers just completed another futile series in Anaheim, scrambling to come back in the 9th inning to salvage one game of the three. They'll face the Angels again this weekend and we'll see what sub-.500 record they ar...

I've mentioned before that sometimes when I receive trade packages featuring Dodgers, I'll get a random card or two of another team that often gets confused with the Dodgers. Often times it's the Royals, since their uniforms look similar to the Dodgers. Less often it's a Blue Jay or a Met, two other teams that feature blue. Within the last week, it's been something different. And I totally blame Upper Deck. Or, maybe Topps. Or maybe Major League Baseball. One of them. Let me illustrate, in my usual roundabout, backward way: BA Benny and his Big Buffet of Cards scooped a few cards off the buffet table, slapped them together with some macaroni salad, and mailed them off. ... OK, there was no macaroni salad. I'm just hungry. Anyway: An emerald/kelly/neon green parallel of Big Brad. One of my last '88 Score needs, only because Young is already in my Dodger binder. Three of the finest from one of the finest years of Finest. 2003 Finest (and 200...

As the resident color freak, my favorite card sets often hinge on color. Like many collectors, I most appreciate it when a card set features colors that match the respective teams. I've covered this before. I like it when a set features blue for the Dodgers, not pink or gold. Topps and Upper Deck have been fairly good about that recently, although this year's UD set is about as colorless as it could possibly be when it comes to design. No chance of that with Topps this year. The colors are all over the place and quite bright. I like that. I like neon signs. I like girls in their summer clothes. I like colorful cards. So, I'm quite pleased with the 2010 cards in terms of coloring. And, for the most part, the colors match with the respective team. I did notice a bit of a difference when I was leafing through my cards yesterday. Here are the few Angels cards I have. You'll notice Topps chose a red swoosh for the Angels. Or did they? Howie Kendrick is...

Why am I posting about a player I have barely heard of, about a player that two dozen blogs have already posted about, about a player who didn't even have a full season in the big leagues? Because the news of Nick Adenhart's death last night in a car accident, apparently caused by a drunk driver running a red light (and let's not forget two other people died in this accident, too), compels me to write something , anything on the very off-chance that my blog is the only one someone reads today. In fact, I think every baseball blog should have a post about Nick Adenhart today. Write about what you knew about him, how you saw him play, how you saw him pitch, how you saw him in the parking lot, how you saw him laugh, how you saw him grow up. If you didn't know about him, write that. Write about how you wish you had gotten to know him. Write about how angry drunk drivers make you, how we have been talking about the evils of drinking and driving for decades , yet some shit...

Everyone has seen this year's Topps Chrome offering, I'm sure. But I'm a sucker for a pack-ripping, as I know a few others out there are, too. A Pack A Day is the best. Set up a ripping of 1991 Donruss and I'm there. So anyway, I picked up a couple of packs Sunday. Lest anyone think I wasted precious gas on cards only, let it be known that the family also purchased toothpaste, cake frosting, a CD for my daughter, spray paint and a pet bed. Now that's one fulfilling afternoon. It's all about the Yankees tonight, so I'll try to keep it in a New York State of Mind: Too late. First one out of the gate is a Dodger, albeit an injured one. I don't know if Brad Penny is ever going to get back to his former self, and that's too bad because he was my favorite player during that year-and-a-half with L.A. when he was just bad ass. And that was before he started dating her . OK, the Yankee theme can start with Mr. Cocky. If this guy stays in a Red Sox uni...