Night Owl Cards

  I tend to underestimate the size and depth of my collection. When someone says I should set up a table at a show to sell cards, I instantly scoff. I could never have enough cards that could interest people enough to buy them!   That's the way I'm built. I'm not a natural boaster and generally feel inadequate much of the time (though I'm getting better the older I get). I always assume others have more/are better. And that's the way it is in the card world, too.   None of that's true, though. I've been receiving cards from people around the world for more than a decade. It's obvious I have a collection that is both impressive and unique. But I also know there are people out there with far more cards, far more impressive cards, far more expensive cards than me.   I don't know any of those people, I don't think. The one collector that I know who comes close to that -- in my mind anyway -- is Johnny of Johnny's Trading Spot . He's the only ...

The Dodgers' win in Game 2 of the NLDS easily ranks in the top five of Dodger playoff wins in my lifetime -- in terms of epic nature, anyway. It could rank in the top 3 because all I can think of that tops it right now is Gibson's home run and the Vic Davalillo/Bill Russell NLCS rally in 1977. I happened to time it just right. While the Dodgers were struggling to score and frittering away a fine outing by Clayton Kershaw , I was slaving away at work. Then I finished up just in time to turn my attention to the TV in the office and watch the last out of the game -- what turned into Matt Holliday's muff of James Loney's sinking liner. I had a front row seat for the rest of the way -- Casey Blake working a walk out of a nine-pitch at-bat, Ronnie Belliard's game-tying single up the middle, the wild pitch moving the runners up, the walk to Russell Martin, and Mark Loretta's final flair into left center for the game-winner. I let out a subdued cheer, but it'...