Night Owl Cards

A lot of baseball followers may complain about the respective Boston and St. Louis fan bases and the respective cities' media, but I think what they're really saying about this upcoming World Series is this: "This just happened." People, now more than ever, want something new. They want to be interested, intrigued. They want to be constantly stimulated. A Red Sox-Cardinals World Series does not do that. Look at the two players celebrating on this card. They're both still on the team! It's from last year! Granted, Jason Motte's out for the season, but there are two people who were on the 1988 World Series champion Dodgers team who are DEAD. How is that fair? Yes, "fairness" enters into the equation, too. "What about my team?" lies under the surface of "this just happened," which lies under the surface of "those Red Sox and Cardinals fans are so smug." I can only imagine if the Yankees and Dodgers were fac...

Four years ago, I won this autographed Clayton Kershaw card by winning a bet with a certain Cardinals fan . That was the last time the Dodgers and Cardinals played each other in the postseason. Tonight, they're playing again, and although I'm less confident about the outcome than I was in 2009, I've renewed the bet with that same Cardinals fan and braced myself for purchasing an autographed card of Peter Kozma, or Joe Kelly, or some other St. Louis scrappy who will make me throw up in approximately 10 days. The Dodgers are trying to get to their first World Series in 25 years while the Cardinals are trying to win their first since -- oh, the tragedy -- 2011. And then there's the matter of 2006 and 2004, and unless you're one of The Best Fans In Baseball (throwing up again) or root for the Giants, Diamondbacks or Padres out of pity/self-loathing, you probably have no desire to see the Cardinals in the Series again. I hear ya. In the last five years, the Card...

(Greetings. Today is "Ditch New Years Resolutions Day." I'm not lying. Look it up. So remember all those collecting goals you made? DITCH 'EM! You're not going to do them anyway. And on that uplifting note, it's time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 170th in a series): I grew up during a time when the thing to do in baseball was play on a rug. The 1970s and 1980s, my prime baseball awareness years, were glorious days for carpeting your baseball fields. I don't know what overcame us, but I think when they put together time capsules for this period, they should save some room for artificial turf. We were obviously fascinated with it. During this time, the following teams played on fake grass: the Royals, Twins, Mariners, Blue Jays, Astros, Phillies, Cardinals, Reds, Pirates and Expos. Balls sailed over the heads of outfielders on a bounce. Players bounced throws to first. I once walked on the artificial turf at Montreal's Olympic Stadium ...

Thanks to our English language, "best" can be interpreted in a number of ways. This wasn't the "best" World Series in terms of quality of play. Too much "Oh no" for that. This wasn't the "best" in terms of the winner. The Cardinals inspire as much thoughts of "dynasty" as the Giants did last year. Even less so. But in terms of drama, excitement, stuff of which World Series Are Judged, then, yeah, this is the best World Series I have seen in 10 years, since Luis Gonzalez's barely there flair against Mariano Rivera in 2001. In fact, after a quick run through my brain of all the World Series I've witnessed since I started actively watching them in 1976, this series is in the top 10, easily. After the insanity of Game 6, which we can rank up there with Game 6's from 1975, 1985, 1986, 1991, 1992, 1993 (and 1981, if I get very biased), I settled in for Game 7 hoping to break a rack pack of 2011 Topps Update here on t...