Night Owl Cards

I made it to the card show. It's incredible the road blocks I dodge to get to one of those things. You'd think it would be a lot easier. A show at the mall, for example. Plenty of parking, easy to get to, peruse some cards while the significant others do some shopping, and grab a bite to eat at the end. Why can't it be that simple? No, around here, it has to be complex, oversized and inconvenient. You want a hobby, night owl? You're going to have to work for it. The show was at the state fairgrounds in Syracuse. That's slightly more than an hour away from me. Normally, the show is in the agricultural building. I know the routine, where to park, etc. But this time someone saw dollar signs and decided to combine the show with the grand finale of Super DIRT Week (this actually happened once before and I refused to go). If you're not familiar with Super DIRT Week, it's the last blast of the season for dirt track auto racers around the country and it...

There are two "motherlode" card moments from my youth. The biggest was the acquisition of nearly a third of the 1956 Topps set. The other was acquiring several 1969 Topps cards. My brothers and I obtained them the same way that we obtained the '56 Topps cards. They were hand-me-downs. A friend of ours had a brother who was almost 10 years older than him. The older brother was off to college and decided he didn't need the cards he collected as a kid. So he gave him to his brother and somehow they ended up in our hands (our friend was a manic Yankee fan, so I believe we were able to trade our late '70s Yankees for some sweet 1969 cards). I distinctly remember sitting on the porch of another friend's house and transacting with a bunch of '69 Topps spread all over the porch floor. These were the first 1969 Topps cards I ever saw, as I was barely out of toddlerhood in '69. And it was the first time we saw "old" cards in that kind of quanti...

Everyone notices that Pete Rose is in the background of this photo of Phillies starter Chris Short. But ever since I became a dog owner, I've begun to notice other things, this card included. For example, how could anyone miss the dog from the Alpo billboard insinuating himself between the legs of Short? Isn't that just like a dog? Were there some dog owners at Topps that saw the humor in this photo? I'd like to think so. And while I'm on the topic of dogs and baseball, I have come up with one reason why I'm pleased that TBS has the exclusive rights to broadcast the division series playoff games. My dog likes to carry things away and hide them, and he did that with the remote on Wednesday (we have no idea where it is). Fortunately, I do not have to get up and change the channel because all of the games are in one convenient spot! Bless you, TBS!