Night Owl Cards

I am a participant in one of those team dump trades -- what I like to call an "everything must go" trade -- with Pat at Hot Corner Cards . He is offering team lots in exchange for all the Tigers one can muster. I'm still mustering Tigers, but Pat sent the Dodgers a long time ago, so it's about time I acknowledge something about this deal. Whenever I receive a whole mess of Dodgers sight unseen, there is always a weeding out process. With an abundant number of Dodgers already in my inventory, I need to take the time to figure out what cards I really need. All of this usually happens behind the scenes. So, I figured this time, why not put it in front of the scenes? I'll let everyone in on determining which card I need from the piles of Dodgers I received! It can be one big What You Need party! Sound like fun? No? Sorry, I've drafted you anyway. So what I'm going to do here is show six cards each and let you determine which one I need. Let t...

A few weeks ago, Topps announced the release of a product that kind of set me off. The $100, online-only, limited-edition, god-help-us-if-this-is-the-wave-of-the-future Heritage High Numbers set threw me into full rant rage , and I basically swore off collecting current Topps product for 2013. Then I turned around and obtained the Dodgers from that dirty set. Rod from Padrographs grabbed a box of Heritage High Numbers and sold off cards from it in a team break. It cost me under 5 dollars to get the Dodgers, plus a few other cards that are already coming in handy. You may wonder why I'd buy cards from a set that annoys me so. Well, that's easy. First, I'm a Dodger collector. I see a Dodger card, I want it. It's kind of like when a dog hears bacon sizzling. There's no thinking involved. Get bacon. What's to explain? Second, the set was already purchased by someone else. In my ideal world, no one would buy any of the sets, and Topps would head crawling ...

The recent news that Chad Billingsley is finished for the season because of sore elbow is not going to help the Dodgers' playoff chances any. It's very disappointing because I've always been a fan of Billingsley, through all of his infuriating struggles and his endless habit of playing head games with himself. The fact that he was struck down in the middle of one of the greatest success streaks of his career -- possibly the "ah ha!" moment of his career -- is even more heartbreaking. But I'm not ready to write him off, even though it's possible that he may need Tommy John surgery. If you're someone from my generation, TJ surgery is the "Uh Oh" announcement of baseball medical procedures. The sign that a player may never be right again. This goes back to the fact that I remember the news of John recuperating from the surgery and all of the "experts" who said how dicey it was. Even though John recovered in spectacular fashion t...