Night Owl Cards

  I was supposed to be watching the Bills playoff game today, which would probably mean no posting here. The game was moved to Monday -- during a time when I'm working, thanks a lot -- so now all I have to do is stare at the snow (we've haven't gotten as much as Buffalo but apparently it's coming tonight). There are NFC games today, but I don't have much interest in that conference. Sounds like I've got some time to post! I was happy to see the snow though because that means it's cold enough that we don't have to deal with the weird weather that led to the power outages last week. But on No Power Wednesday the mail did arrive and it included a package from Torren' Up Cards . Zippy Zappy's downsizing! It was just the thing to divert my attention from the no heat/no light.     Kenny doesn't send your typical card stuff so I had cards of the Dodgers' two most recent big-name Japanese pitching acquisitions to warm things up! He has the honor ...

This is the time of year that I usually whine about work. It's cosmically unfair that my busiest time of the year happens at the exact same time that others are taking entire weeks off to frolic in warmer climes. But this the lot I chose in life. I decided not to be a college student for the rest of my life. I decided not to be a teacher. I decided to write sports for a living (Nick, if you value lots of time off, you may want to stick to education as a career pursuit). And sports says that March -- yes, spring break time -- is the busiest time of the year. I'm realizing that the older I get, the more I don't care whether I get time off in March. That's both a product of mellowing out and of ... heh, receiving more vacation time (one of the benefits of getting older). So in April -- another time period when education types take weeks off when I usually can't -- I will be taking a little time off, too. And then everyone can be jealous of me. But right now...

A couple of weeks ago, during my anniversary post , I mentioned that I'd like to make some small changes on the blog and in my online approach to the hobby. Although these are such minor changes that I don't expect anyone to notice, I'm doing them for a reason. As much as I'd like this blog/collecting thing to be my job, it's not my job. I need to streamline, as they say in the auto industry. The easiest way to streamline is to scrap activities that I never have time to do. I operate three blogs and I'm on Twitter. That's plenty and there shouldn't be any more projects unless it involves cashing a paycheck. So, you probably didn't even notice, but the link to my tumblr page has disappeared. The page is still there, but I haven't done anything with it since January. I never have time to put anything on there, and tumblr is really an image-driven medium. I'm not a photographer or graphic artist and I feel uncomfortable posting images...

The Dodgers and Yankees are playing a doubleheader today and the first game pretty much went the way I expected. Plan on the same thing for tonight. It doesn't matter much to me because I was around for the previous time the Dodgers and Yankees played at Yankee Stadium (although it was the older stadium). In that game, the Dodgers demolished the Yankees 9-2 in the decisive Game 6 of the 1981 World Series and my satisfied smile was all my Yankee fan high school classmates saw the next day. The Dodgers and Yankees haven't played each other in the World Series since. That is why I will always like the MVPs from that Series, Pedro Guerrero, Steve Yeager and Ron Cey. It doesn't matter to me that Guerrero wound up a Cardinal, Yeager a Mariner and even Cey a Cub. No, the worst thing would be if they wound up a Yankee. Seeing Dodgers as Yankees or Yankees as Dodgers is very disorienting to me. They are two distinct franchises who are guided by different principles and back...

I received a follow-up physical today. They (and I) wanted to see if what they saw last June was just a fluke or whether I'm some kind of freak. How could someone diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in March not have it in June? Well, the results are in, and I still don't have diabetes. I'm a freak. Not only that, the doctor said my blood work numbers are the same as "an 18-year-old who just came in for his athletic physical." He also wanted to know if I wanted to give a clinic to his patients. Needless to say, that made me feel good, and it's definitely a great start to the new year. But let's steer it toward cards again, OK? Another bonus to the new year, for me, has been the return of some bloggers who were absent for a few months. No Relics Pulled , Indianaland Baseball Cards , Uncle Doc's Closet , Carl Crawford Cards  and The Lost Collector  have all emerged in the last couple of weeks. It seems "blog more" was on a lot of resolutio...

In the last post, I made an assumption at the end where I figured that everyone knew what I collected. But more than five years into this blog, I still get emails from folks who still aren't quite sure. So I thought the end of 2012 would be a good time to review. It's evolved somewhat, but, overall it's remained the same. Feel free to bookmark this post as I'm sure the first thing you do when you get up in the morning is wonder "what cards can I get for Night Owl?" And to illustrate this post, I've used the rest of the cards that reader David sent me. He's got a handle on what I collect, that's for sure. He pretty much hit every category. So here we go. What I collect: 1. Dodgers Any and all sets. If they're wearing a Dodger cap or listed as being with the Dodgers and I don't have it, I want it. Getting cards like this, from sets that I didn't realize existed (just because I list it on my want list doesn't mean I kno...