Night Owl Cards

It's November, which is traditionally the month in which I start putting away that year's cards. I've documented this before. Each year the year's cards sit in stacks on a desk until November. Then, if I'm collecting the set, I file them in a waiting binder. If I'm not collecting the set, they go in a box. They're filed in the box by year, then set, then team, then alphabetically. It's not exactly the best filing system for finding cards for trades, but it pleases my brain and that's the most important thing. During this process, I evaluate various elements from the year. Some of what I find goes into the end-of-the-year post that you see on this blog. And one thing I like to do is figure out the best night card from that particular year. This is getting more and more difficult because there are more and more night cards every year. I want to say the above Stadium Club card is the best night card of the year. I love the dugout shot, the te...

This was going to be a post about the one thing that I do like about the 2011 Allen and Ginter design -- the color-coded team logo in the corner. Add a splash of purple watercolor behind Huston Street and there is no doubt that this is a Rockies card. Very nice. I'll reserve comment about purple and sports teams. But after a little research, my post was derailed by the sight of this: That is not one, but two Topps 2011 cards of the Rockies' Jason Hammel, who got smacked around by the Dodgers last night. The card on the left is #338 and the card on the right is #642. BOTH of these cards are in Topps Series 2. Neither card is some sort of leader card or "season highlight card" (Hammel is a career 5.00 ERA pitcher, you know). These are two different BASE cards of a No. 4 starter from Colorado. Here are the backs: Except for the card number, the head shot at top left, and the blurb on the right about whatever random card shares Hammel's TWO card numbe...