Night Owl Cards

  Starting a Blog Bat-Around these days is kind of like announcing in 1989 that you just bought a vinyl record. Nobody cares, everyone's moved on to compact discs/TikTok.   But records came back, and are dumb expensive, so maybe blogging will, too. Anyway, this is a Blog Bat-Around for the seven of you that blog and care about this topic.   Not Another Baseball Card Blog has already kicked it off . This theme came from a Bluesky discussion and was specifically mentioned by Shlabotnik Report , I think. What are cards you like that feature a team you don't like?   This could get very involved for me. There are a lot of cards I like, often showing teams I root against. And my dislike for teams can spread like a disease covering two-thirds of major league franchises. It all depends on the baseball scene at the time, whether playoffs are involved, etc.   But to keep this manageable, I'll cover four or five teams. And most of the cards I'm showing are coming from ch...

First, I just want to say a little something. Just a little aside. Incidental, really. A minor thing. Here it is ... .... ... I TOLD YOU SO! Come on sports fans. It's so obvious. Here is what I've had to suffer through from others during this postseason: "Oh, gee, it looks like the Giants aren't going to win. Oh, gee, they're two games down to the Reds. The Reds look so good. Wait? What happened? The Giants won? How did they do that? Oh, those scrappy lovable Giants! What raspscallions! How unexpected they are! But the Cardinals are tough. They're defending champs. Look, see now they're ahead of the Giants three games-to-one. OK, this is it for the Giants. There's no way. Just no way. Nobody has ever done it. Wait? What? They did it again? How can this be? How? Oh, chuckle, chuckle, I don't care, they're such a do-or-die group of chums. Just so easy to root for, ho, ho. Jolly good show, chaps." Here is what I've...

OK, let's get this out of the way. This is the funny thing about orange. I actually like it. A lot. Love orange soda. Always have since I was a little kid. Cherry has since passed it as a personal favorite, but for the longest time orange soda was the best. There's some in my house right now. I like orange flavor of any kind. Those chocolate oranges that emerge at Christmas time? Love them. Orange sherbet? Fantastic. Orange-flavored Chinese food? Yes, please. Creamsicles? I think the cafeteria ran out of them when I was in high school. Your common variety orange? Great stuff. I like all spin-offs, too. Tangerines, clementines, etc. As for the actual color? I like that, too. The old Tampa Bay Bucs uniforms were amazing. Bring them back. The new Miami Marlins' orange jerseys? I don't know why people hate them. They fit perfectly with Miami. I'll never be a Dolphins lover, but whoever picked orange and aqua for colors was a smart boy/girl. Nice work. Even when...

No, I haven't lost it. In fact I've addressed this before (but can't find the post right now). Yes, the Giants disgust me. Yes, the very thought of someone rooting for that team while in my general vicinity repulses me. Yes, Giants fans stink like the dumpster outside Arby's (OK, that is only my personal experience with one fan, and a very small sample size). But they come in very handy in trading. Unfortunately, there aren't Giants fans around at all. I think everyone who blogs about cards realizes this. It had been almost two years since I've traded with a Giants fan. In that span, I've probably traded with 7 different Mets, Cubs, Orioles, Yankees, Red Sox, Indians, Braves and Tigers fans APIECE. Even the Giants lucking into a World Series title hasn't appeared to create any more Giants card collectors -- unless you include Tim "Smoky" Lincecum collectors. Until now. A Giants fan contacted me recently about a trade. I nearly de...