Night Owl Cards

  When faced with the decision of watching the so-called "World Series rematch" between the Dodgers and Blue Jays or the Sabres' showdown with the Lightning last night on the TV, I chose the Buffaloes in their goat-head jerseys.   Rather easy choice actually. My wife's a Buffalo gal and back on the hockey bandwagon, the baseball game was No. 10 out of 162 and not worth the hype and, finally, have you seen the conditions outside? Does not look like baseball season to me!   It snowed last night and this morning. April 7th. I had to clear off the vehicle like it was February. And the wind hasn't stopped since February, too. That is nothing-to-do-but-watch-hockey-inside weather.    It turned out to be a great game (the Dodgers took care of business, too). The Sabres beat those annoying Lightning 4-2. Jack Quinn (see above) scored the empty-net clincher. The Sabres have been doing just about everything right since January and they're hanging onto their players, too...

  I received another card package of complete opposites from Sportscards From The Dollar Store a week or two ago.   Like usual, the cards contained players from sports at opposite ends of the spectrum in regard to weather. Though both sports are taking place right now, baseball is played in outdoor warmth and sunshine and hockey is played indoors to get away from whatever nastiness you walked/drove through to get to the game.  Often, Douglas sends me Bills cards, but I've got no room for those anymore for the most part, so this is much more manageable. The baseball cards were customarily fancy. I usually don't come across stuff like this.   From the top, starting with Tommy, a bright parallel from that Cooperstown Panini set that I laughed at back in the day, but when it doesn't cut off the tops of heads, it's all right.  The Michael Busch is a Chronicles card, I thought I'd be done with Panini baseball stuff by now, but at least I'm not buying any of it anymor...

  Even though everywhere I have lived it snows, I am caught unaware every year when the weather first gets cold and flakes start falling. Yesterday as I was driving to and from work in the evening, the temperature was around 18 degrees, the coldest it's been since last winter, and the dumb ski vest thing I was wearing (I never could get the handle of those) was not protecting me. Then it snowed the last couple of days, nothing more than an inch or two but the first snow of the year, and I was not prepared. I could not handle the thought of scraping a windshield and I sat in the car waiting to be spirited away. I'll get used to this in a day or two, hell, at this time last year we already had a monster storm a week before Thanksgiving. This ain't nothing. And it's enough snow to make things festive. It also is an appropriate backdrop for the latest send from Sportscards from the Dollar Store . Douglas always seems to send his cards during the winter season, or maybe I...

    Those of you who know what this sign means know both where I was the last couple of days and what quality food is.   John & Mary's has been a sub sandwich institution in Buffalo for 70 years, the first restaurant was opened exactly 70 years ago at the site of this very picture that I took on Harlem Road in the Buffalo suburb of Cheektowaga. My folks used to talk fondly about John & Mary's when I was a kid and every once in a while on our trips to Buffalo, we'd stop for lunch at one of the locations, usually outside the city. When I started going to college in Buffalo, John & Mary's was one of the only places that I knew that was neither fast food nor dorm food. So I'd go to the Sheridan Drive location quite a bit. A year or two later, I met a girl. Wouldn't you know, she knew about John & Mary's. Even better, her home was mere blocks from the original J & M's! Jackpot! I can't tell you how many take-out dinners came from the p...

  You don't need me to tell you that it's about to get bleak. Oh sure, it depends on where you reside in the world, but here in the northeast the weather is turning. The latest weekend monsoon transformed an extended Indian Summer into more typical fall weather. Temps in the high 40s and leaves everywhere. Snow will be arriving in a matter of weeks, if not sooner, and with it, no baseball. Yeah, the Dodgers still have a shot, they've come back from 0-2 deficits before and the Braves have blown 0-2 deficits before (the Dodgers have also blown an 0-2 deficit -- anyone remember the 1978 World Series?). But without Max Muncy, Justin Turner, Clayton Kershaw, an ability to hit with RISP and an overwhelming desire to change the pitcher the likes I have ever seen, there is just too much I can't ignore. Baseball is almost over, no matter what. And the chances are good your team and my team isn't going to win. Again. And then that'll be it. Then what's left?   Footbal...