Night Owl Cards

(Oh boy, the stuff I do for this blog. Welcome to "Night Owl's an idiot, part infinity." Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 176th in a series): This just in. Austin Kearns is alive, well and trying to hook up with the Marlins for a second year. "Who cares," you're saying. Well, I do, for one. Because for about six hours on Sunday, I thought he was dead. This was the error to which I was referring in the post yesterday, the one I was happy that didn't get out. But I have no problem admitting to my stupidity when I catch it in time. Why not let everyone in on the laugh? There's nothing more annoying then a blogger who can't admit his own mistakes. Besides all the cards are scanned. And we can't let time scanning ever, ever, ever go to waste. I had confused Kearns with Ryan Freel, who most unfortunately took his own life in December. Both had played for the Reds about 10 years ago and, quite honestly, it was the last time ...

I feel a little guilty putting this set in the countdown, knowing what we know about the failings of Upper Deck Documentary. But the majority of those problem have to do with the front of the card. Namely, the photo of the player, or the blurb on the bottom, or both, does not properly reflect the game that the card is featuring. For instance, this is a photo of Austin Kearns of the Nationals (I think. Documentary won't tell us). The blurb mentions how the Nationals' bats were too much for the Cubs. On the back you see no mention of Kearns at all. Just something about Willie Harris. But let's not let the card front bring down the card back. What I like about the back of the card is that it's probably the closest I've seen to a set featuring every team's games in boxscore-like form. Who doesn't love boxscores? They are one of the most awesome things on this planet. Right there on the back, you have a linescore of the game, the date of the game, ...