Night Owl Cards

I am not sure what to do with this card. This card commemorates the disgusting moment in which Eric Gagne, at the height of his invincibility in 2003, gave up a game-winning home run in the eighth inning to Hank Blalock that led to the American League's 7-6 victory. I was at work during this game. I was totally enraged and appalled at the same time. And then I had to write a happy little "A.L. wins weeeeeee!!!!" headline, even though my brain kept screaming: "Hank Who? Hank WHO? HANK WHO??????" Not good times. From that point, I decided I would not work when the All-Star Game was scheduled. It took a couple of years for that plan to come together, but for the last four or five years, I have been on vacation during the All-Star Game, and that works so much better. But back to the card. My Dodger binders are happy little places. They are filled with warm memories and awesome athletes. Even though players like Delino DeShields and Anduw Jones make app...

With the arrival of Topps Series 2 and some of the other midseason card releases, there has been a re-examination of the photography in the sets. Several posts, including a couple today , have followed the theme that maybe Topps is trying a bit too hard this year. The cards are "too artsy." This topic makes me smile, because it is something that I deal with on a regular basis in my job. Every photographer is different and each photographer will shoot according to what they've learned, but also according to their personality. Some provide straightforward sports action shots. Some provide consistently fantastic stuff. Some stray toward the artsy stuff. Artsy is good sometimes, but in the sports world you're treading a fine line with that kind of shooting. Most sports followers want good, solid action photography, like the Hank Blalock card at the top of the post, which is a great shot. But "artsy" turns off a lot of folks. So sometimes we have to tell th...