Night Owl Cards

I was at the dentist earlier this month. I look forward to/enjoy the dental visit about as much as you can imagine. But I still go because I keep hearing about what happens if you don't. The last couple of visits have been slightly more enjoyable because I have a new dental assistant. The office features three different dentists and several more assistants. I couldn't tell you how many. It seems like about 50. They seem to try to keep certain assistants with certain patients, which I appreciate. And I think I like Rachel quite a bit. She's one of those people who talks about interesting, relatable topics, and even though I'm at least 20 years older than her, I felt -- right there in that dentist chair -- that she could be a long, lost friend. She also didn't talk to me when my mouth was full of water/instruments. Major bonus. So, there we'd be, talking about high school experiences or parents' unfamiliarity with technology when suddenly Rachel would...

I have a lot of items to tie together today. And it's a holiday weekend, so I'll try to make this brief. First, gaze your eyes upon this beauty (like you can turn away, I scanned this mega size so you wouldn't miss it). I received this from Matthew , who found it at the National. It's a Nu-Card Baseball Hi-Lites card from 1960, meaning it's not your average size. It's 3 1/4-by-5 3/8 large. (The 1961 cards are standard size). It's also the "black-letter" variation as most of the cards feature headlines with red type. The first 18 cards are printed with red type or entirely in black, like this one. You can read the write-up on the bottom if you like. Only a sports editor like me would cringe over the way it's written. As you know, I love newspaper-themed cards and any new version that I get makes me want to set up a display of newspaper-style cards. But don't start sending me more. I'd have to clear any grand display with other ...

I don't have a lot of nice things to say about the new play at the plate rule. Some call it the "Buster Posey rule," and although I never need an excuse to dislike a Giant, this just gave me ammunition that will probably last a lifetime. But Posey isn't the first player to lead to the creation of a new baseball rule. It's happened a few times. And it's happened regarding violence on the basepaths, too. In 1978, baseball created a rule that required base runners who are attempting to break up a double play at second base to make an attempt to touch second base in the process. This was created because of what the Royals' Hal McRae did in the first game of the 1977 ALCS as he landed a cross body block on the Yankees' Willie Randolph well beyond second base. How far beyond? Well this screen capture pretty much explains it: You can see second base in the middle of the picture. And McRae, bottom, and Randolph, top, aren't anywhere near it. ...

Not long ago, Matthew of Number 5 Type Collection asked us to select our five favorite teams from a list. I looked and looked for the word "Dodgers" on his list, but I didn't see it. So, I went with five other scrubs ... er, teams. Wouldn't you know it, I won a nice stack of cards consisting of the two teams that are most often confused with the Dodgers when people trade with me -- the Blue Jays and the Royals. It was nice getting a team lot that didn't consist of Dodgers for once, just because I enjoyed leafing through cards that were totally unfamiliar to me. When you deal exclusively in Dodgers, you tend to see the same cards over and over again. Variety is the name of the game in just about everything, and this underlined that fact, even if the jerseys were still blue. The cards were so enjoyable that I decided to list my 10 favorite cards from the lot in reverse order. See what you think of these: 10. Joe Carter, 1996 Select Certified A muc...