Night Owl Cards

  Wow, where is everybody? It seems like everyone ditched their computers the last 3 days. I'm glad I pulled all those Don Gullett cards.   That's OK. The Twitter crowd has my back.   Also, I know you'll be back. You can't stay away from cards forever.   I'll still be here (well, until I go on vacation myself). I'll still be discussing the cards, wondering why Topps suddenly changed from featuring players randomly on a 1952-themed insert in Series 1 this year to featuring players randomly on a 1965-themed insert in Series 2. Not only are there too many inserts, but Topps can't even be bothered with incorporating a consistent theme for them through a full year. This card arrived from Cardboard Catastrophes . Jeff actually found a 2021 Topps Series 2 blaster at Walmart. Lucky him. I went to Walmart yesterday for the first time in nearly a year. The card aisle displays were stripped bare. But I did find some pages, which are actually more useful than the cards...

I recently received a package from Tony of Off-Hiatus Baseball Cards , who is about the only man I know who writes baseball card blog posts as long as I do. Something he sent made me stop for a moment, and as usual, do a little research. But first, the most important thing: the Dodgers he sent. Let's look at them in all of their splendor:  This completes the 2014 Bowman Dodgers team set for me ... I think - one never knows with Bowman. And here's an extra blue parallel of Guerrero since he might get DFA'd soon because for some reason the Dodgers feel compelled to have Carl Crawford play for them again. Speaking of Carl, this card completes the silver foil version of the Dodgers' Chasing History insert set for me. There were way too many Dodgers in this set. Stuff like this almost convinces me to start collecting Colorado Rockies instead of Dodgers. Life would be so much simpler. Depressing, but simpler. I have an unhealthy n...

I just encountered one of the greatest frustrations of being a writer: Discovering there's a hole in your story. Now, I've been a writer for a two or three decades. I've dealt with story gaps many times. And they've been irksome many times. But the joy of blogging is that a lot of the writing rules that apply in my regular writing life don't apply here. I can start a sentence with "and" or "hey" if I want. I can curse if I want. I can call some baseball player a fat, worthless loser and not be required to support it. But sometimes, even in blogging, there are standards. I just spent a couple of hours scanning cards and writing up what I thought was a pretty cool post. Approximately an hour ago, I was ready to finally hit publish, when I decided to double-check my research one last time. The double-check was going very smoothly until I reached a particular year. And then I realized: I AM MISSING A CARD. I don't mean "missing...

I am conflicted about the color orange. Do I like it? Am I annoyed by it? Orange gets a bad rap. Some people consider it ugly, too bright. But where would October be without orange? Pumpkins, leaves, Chrome refractors. You need orange at least one month out of the year. Orange food is excellent. Oranges, sweet potatoes, sweet potato fries, sweet potato pie, pumpkin pie, carrot cake, orange sherbet, notice how I gravitate toward desserts. Ever since I was a rug rat, I favored orange-flavored food over any other flavor. Orange-themed sports teams? There is good and bad. The old-style Tampa Bay Buccaneers' creamsicle (yum!) uniforms need to come back --- now. The Houston Astros caps and unis of the late 1970s are a classic from the decade. Today, the Astros and Baltimore Orioles exhibit excellent use of orange, yet the San Francisco Giants never know what to do with the color and soil it with their very presence. The Padres tried orange in the 1990s. It didn't work fo...

I used to love Chrome. Really, really love it. And if you've read this blog for more than a couple of years, you've seen my drooling posts. Chrome is very difficult to resist. How else is Topps getting people to buy the same cards that are in the base set for the 19TH YEAR IN A ROW???? Chrome is the intoxicating woman spotted at the night club. You know you shouldn't. You know it will end horribly. But, yet ... you're in . Hopelessly. In. Fortunately, the last couple of years I've managed to keep my distance. I've limited my pack purchases of Chrome to just a rack pack or two. And after two years, I thought I had become immune to Chrome's siren song. Until today. In Walmart, hiding behind the discarded shopping carts (why is the card aisle the place where Walmart employees feel they can dispose of carts full of random goods? There are collectors walkin' here!!!) I heard Chrome speak to me and I instantly grew knock-kneed. I hadn't purcha...