Night Owl Cards

Dinged Corners recently asked a question. And thank goodness they did. I have no time for an original concept of my own today. This work week is full of transition and "big games" and scheduling/traveling nightmares. All of my brain cells are invested elsewhere. Thanks for the nongovernment bail-out, DC. I shall spend wisely. Dinged Corners wants to know what my favorite card photo is in which the main action isn't why I like the card. Well, I have a lot of those cards. I'm not sure what my absolute favorite it is. One day I'll lock myself in the house for a week and figure it out. But two spring to mind for now. The first is at the top of the post and I've already written about it before. In fact, I believe DC has this card, too. It's a Psychedelic Tombstone masterpiece. The Phillies in the background appear to be plotting to "pants" Rick Wise. He looks too nerdy not to be humiliated in some way. But, DC, mentioned "main action....

One of my favorite blogs, Dinged Corners, hasn't posted in a week. It's my hope that they're doing something delightful: vacationing, obsessing over the Olympics, or journeying to their favorite spring training site. But, like dayf , I'm going to try to draw them out anyway with a direct DC reference. It's time to play the 6-in-30 game. This is the DC brainstorm where you pull six cards that make you happy, but take only 30 seconds to do so, or thereabouts. Mine was more "thereabouts." I pulled six-ish cards in a minute and 30 seconds. I went directly to what I call my "vintage binder." This is a binder with sets that I have not reserved for their own separate binder because I don't feel I have enough cards from the set yet. I have several of these kinds of binders, but the "vintage binder" is special because, duh, it's all vintage. I'll start with one of my favorite cards from the 1969 set. I like it when the design...

(I miss the days when time moved slowly. Every kid sits in class agonizing about the clock moving backward. Even many adults I know do that, as they spend countless hours in mind-numbing meetings. I have very few meetings at work. Because there's no time for them. Time never moves too slowly for me. Never. It always moves too quickly. So I'd really appreciate an hour or two to sit back and relax for once. Cardboard Appreciation will be the closest I get to that today. This is the 50th in a series): How old do you think the guy is in this photo? Thirties? Fourties? Fifties? He is 28. This topic has come up a number of times across the blogs. I wrote about it back in the early days of Night Owl Cards. For some reason, players of the past look older -- in many cases much older -- than players of the present who are the same age. I haven't examined why that is a perception almost universally shared among collectors. I don't have time to do a thesis on it, so I...

Today is my seventh straight day of work. If everything goes correctly, I will have a day off tomorrow, work three more days, and then -- what a concept -- actually have two days off in a row. I find myself repeating "at least I have a job, at least I have a job" over and over more often these days. That can't be a good sign. But anyway, tonight will be a busy one. So I need a quick and easy post. Fortunately, Dinged Corners has bailed me out by asking me for my favorite on-card autos . I don't have a lot of autographed cards because I'm not much of an autograph hunter. I've detailed this before. The short version: I don't have the personality or interest to devote time to tracking autographs. And I'm a bit wary of a pursuit that is plagued by forgeries and fakes. But, like most collectors, I sure do appreciate an autographed card that I know to be real -- certified or otherwise. And, yeah, the stickers bother me a little. I can see the fundamental pr...

The thing that I like about minor league card sets -- and by minor league card sets I mean the sets issued at the ballpark, not the Bowman/ Tri -Star stuff -- is that you really get a feel for being at the game, even more so than with major league cards. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe it's that the cards aren't as slick. Maybe it's the photo choices. Maybe it's that they have cards like the one here -- of Albuquerque Isotopes "base cleaner" Sophie -- that give you a glimpse of what you'll experience at the ballpark, moments that major league cards skip. I received the 2009 Isotopes set from Dinged Corners , whose proprietors happen to live "down the road" from the Isotopes' home park. Or at least a lot more "down the road" than I am. They know I like the Dodgers (how could you not?), and sent me the full stack of L.A.'s Triple A team. The Dodgers are back in Albuquerque where they belong, after years of banishment in L...

First, I'd like to direct your attention to the card that matches my blog layout the best (EDIT: that is before I changed my blog layout). I need to feature this card permanently on the blog somewhere. It's perfect. It's even better than the 1984 Topps Dodgers, which also had the yellow/blue theme going. This is one of the cards that came from Patricia and Lucy at Dinged Corners . They sent a great collection of Dodgers all the way from the land of Isotopes. I'm a bit jealous that folks like Patricia and Lucy, as well as Kris of Cards in the Attic, can see the Dodgers' Triple A farm team on a regular basis this season. I know if I lived there, I'd be in the stands all the time. The team's nickname needs some work, though. I much prefer the old Albuquerque Dukes. I know why they picked "Isotopes," but when I looked up the definition of the word, it just gave me a dull pain above my left eye. "Isotopes are any of the different types of atom...

Don't you have a smile for me? Come on, just a little smile? That's a start. Can you smile bigger? There you go! Just a little more! PERFECT! (*click*) In honor of the one-year anniversary of Dinged Corners . (I only know of the milestone because the fine folks at DC made reference Tuesday to a time when they were baby bloggers. Like a good reader, I clicked on the link to a date from last February. That got me pondering -- when did DC first start? I quickly went through the archive and found it. DC's one-year anniversary was Monday! And here I didn't even get them anything. Consider this my gift, DC -- that is until I get a card package together! I love what you do. Godspeed and many more smiles ahead).