Night Owl Cards

  Take a look at this 1977 Topps Bobby Murcer card. Notice anything different?   Sure you do. The card face is cloth, not cardboard.   This fascinated me as a young collector. I was around 12 or 13 when I saw 1977 Topps cloth stickers advertised, probably in our subscription to Baseball Digest magazine. I couldn't conceive of how they could make a card sticker out of cloth. The fact that they were the same size as a regular Topps card and showed the same photos (in most cases) as the regular set made me want them even more.   But I never ordered them, didn't have the money at the time and then later when I got back into chasing cards from my youth, the set was just a little bit cost prohibitive for me. Still, I put them on the "someday" list where they waited for years upon years.   Fast forward to Christmas week 2025. For someone who didn't receive any cards as presents this year, it's been a productive holiday as far as the hobby. The day after Christmas I p...

    OK, now that I've established myself as an oddball in the current collecting landscape -- preferring vintage cards and all -- it's appropriate that I show off some recent "oddball" arrivals in my collection.   This runs the gamut and covers 85 years of trading cards and some of it isn't even cardboard.   Let's see:   Fired-up by my first acquisition of a 1960 Leaf high-number Dodger card in Rip Repulski, I decided to grab another one with this Joe Pignatano. It has a few minor flaws (it was listed as "good," which is usually "good enough" for me), but it still looks great.   That leaves just Stan Williams to complete the team set. Upon landing the Repulski, I received an email informing me that the Williams was available for a reasonable price on sportlots. But I didn't jump on it (I'm rarely financially ready to pounce on opportunities) and it's not there anymore.     Here's a card -- and an owlie greeting card -- that ...

Christmas greetings, you few folks reading blogs during this festive time of year. Over the last week I've shown nothing but cards I did git. I feel just a wee regretful about that, but not enough not to show even more cards I BEEN GITTING. TIS THE SEASON OF GITTIN'!!!!! (Those are the words of a person confident there will be no coal in his stocking, because there are no stockings hung up this year! ) Anyway, I found enough cash left over from shopping for others to squeeze in one small COMC order for myself. It's not close to the size of my Secret Santa package from Wes. It's just a few cards, that are just my speed, because I know exactly what I want. The last 2016 Stadium Club Dodger base card that I needed. This IS a merry Christmas. Look how happy Clayton is. Sure his cohort is now a Marlin and as Jerry Seinfeld once said, "that's not going to be good for anybody," but this is all about capturing the moment. And the moment is: I finally...

(Children: we are currently in the midst of the best week of the entire year. I totally intend to enjoy it in every way possible. Now, before I have me some more enjoyment, it's time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 72nd in a series. You are excused): I want the National League to win tonight's game very badly. I don't like it when people dismiss the All-Star Game as a worthless exhibition. It wasn't a worthless exhibition in the 1970s when the N.L. was pulverizing the A.L. The National League players truly wanted to win the game. I know things are different now, and a lot of players don't seem to care and act like it's an exhibition. There are deserving pitchers who won't attend basically because they're perfectly healthy . Tell me if that makes sense. But I still care and I still like National League baseball better than American League baseball. I know that makes me old-fashioned and backward and whatever phrase you use to slander th...

We here at Topps/Fleer/Donruss/Upper Deck/Score/etc./etc. have the best interests of you, the player, at heart. (Rusty Staub, swinging and looking absolutely goofy). Our mission is to serve you, the athlete. (Jerry Grote desperately attempting to run out a grounder). With our fine fleet of photographers, we will cast you only in the best light (Jim Fregosi watching as his foul pop up is about to be caught). You are the star of our show. We want to make you look as good as we possibly can. (Jim Wynn hitting one straight up in the air at Candlestick). The kids look at you as heroes, so what purpose would it serve to make you look bad? (Bobby Murcer fouling one off or possibly swinging and missing). You are the most talented players in the game. We want to showcase that talent (Len Randle yelling after taking a bad swing or maybe fouling one off his foot). Rest assured, you are in capable hands (Lou Piniella nearly spinning completely around and saying something like ...