Night Owl Cards

I redeemed this Topps Diamond Diecut card a couple days ago. If you're keeping track -- and you don't have to because I will not allow you to forget with my constant yammering -- this is the fifth Diamond Diecut I've redeemed. Don't worry. I am not tempted to go after the whole set. But there were times in my life when I would not have been able to say that. For review, here is what I've done with the Diamond Diecuts I've redeemed: 1. Babe Ruth: Swapped it on the Giveaway site for a much more desirable Jackie Robinson diamond diecut, which is now in my possession. 2. Marlon Byrd: Swapped it on the Giveaway site for a 1962 Larry Sherry, which is also here with me. 3. Roy Halladay: Traded it for several Dodgers cards from '50s and a Duke Snider autographed card. 4. Reggie Jackson: It's still on the Giveaway site, fending off idiot offers daily. That brings me to Tommy Hanson here. I've got no interest in Hanson. He is officially in "...

This post was inspired by the Spastik Mooss. So you can blame (or credit) him. You all remember the pop singer Tiffany, don't you? When she hit it big, I was in college. I didn't pay a lot of attention to that kind of music. The college alt-rock scene had boomed in the late '80s and that's what I listened to and liked. But you couldn't avoid "I Think We're Alone Now" at the time or the basics of Tiffany's story. She was 16. She sang in shopping malls. She ripped off a song from the '60s. OK, it was a teeny-bopper homage. Whatever. She seemed cute enough, but that's all I knew. Later it came out that she had family issues. There were career control problems and later an inevitable Playboy spread, and suddenly the perky teenager who sang before screaming kiddies in the mall was gone. Tiffany was not who I thought she was. Even though I hadn't given her much thought at all. OK, now for the baseball card parallel story. I...

I had the TV on in the other room today, tuned to the MLB Network. I heard our intrepid reporter Hazel Mae (do not disparage Hazel Mae!) ask Charlie Manuel about his workout routine. Yes, Charlie Manuel. Now, I know Manuel has lost a lot of weight. But it struck me as an odd question to ask a manager. They're not known as fitness freaks. And that got me thinking: you've all heard of the Freshman 15, right? That's the term for the theory that students add on about 15 pounds during their first year of college. Well, I've got a somewhat similar theory. It's called the Manager 45. And it says that if you're going to be a major league manager, you can count on packing on 45 pounds during the course of your managing career. That is if you stay on the job for any length of time. Some managers have somehow avoided the Manager 45. They come bouncing out of the dugout during every pitching change. But it seems strange when managers do that because the major...

I am coming up on the one-year anniversary of two happenings that have developed into an everyday fact in my life. The first is becoming a dog owner. The second is the discovery of sports card blogs. You may not think dogs and cards have much in common. In fact, I've documented more than a couple of times that the two are pretty much mortal enemies. But the past week has emphasized how useful they are in my life. I experienced probably the most heartbreaking week on the job I have ever endured. I won't go into it here, because I don't feel like rehashing and I'm sure many readers don't care. But what helped me avoid coming home and plopping on the couch in a depressed lump was a dog that greets me ecstatically each day and an army of card bloggers to take my mind away. Oh yes, and there are new cards to take the edge off, too. It took the experiences of this past week to finally succumb to buying the blaster of Upper Deck Timeline that I have been staring at for mo...