Night Owl Cards

Happy Game 1 of the World Series everyone. We have a real old-fashioned one on our hands. Two teams that have been around for ages and have been terrible for almost as long, are playing each other for a championship. The winner will party like it's 1948 or 1908. Wouldn't it be a hoot if they played music from that time at the victory parade? Bing Crosby and Peggy Lee for the Indians and Tin Pan Alley songs for the Cubs -- Take Me Out To The Ball Game, over and over. Anyway, I thought far enough ahead to take a vacation around the World Series this year. It would have been a stroke of genius if the Dodgers had made it (perhaps the reason I'm especially bitter this time around). But it's still nice to be able to devote all my attention to the World Series instead of high school soccer playoffs. With my extra time, I was flipping through some cards online (yes, you can "flip" online), making all kinds of cool card discoveries when I remembered something: ...

There is only one color I think of when I think of the Indians. It is not blue. It is not white. It is not even orange or pink, which are the colors that Topps linked to the Indians repeatedly during the '70s and '80s. The color I think of is red. I see no other color scheme. The Indians can claim all they want that blue is part of that their uniform, but it does not register with me. Why is that? Oh, you'll see in a minute. But first, here is the rundown of the colors that Topps associated with the Indians for the years in which it used specific colors depending on the team that was featured. 1964: blue, yellow and black 1965: blue and black 1966: red and gray 1967: light blue 1968: gray and red 1969: gray and magenta (yes, magenta) 1971: green and red 1972: pink, yellow and light green 1974: red and yellow 1976: orange and pink 1977: pink, orange and blue 1978: green and pink 1979: pink and blue 1980: pink, red and yellow 1981: orange and blue ...

It's a pretty good team that they're sending, too. Their second baseman is Ronnie Belliard . Their third baseman is Casey Blake. Their first baseman/DH is Jim Thome . Their left fielder is Manny Ramirez. Their center fielder is Ben Francisco. One starting pitcher is CC Sabathia . And another starting pitcher is Cliff Lee. That's some team, isn't it? OK, I know what you're thinking. Thome doesn't play the field anymore. And you need three outfielders, a catcher and a shortstop to field a team. And two starting pitchers isn't going to cut it, even in the postseason. But if the Red Sox had made the LCS , Victor Martinez could have been the catcher. And if the Twins had made the LCS , Carl Pavano could have been the third starter. And if the Rockies had made the LCS , the reliever could have been Rafael Betancourt . You've got ex-Indians all over the place! Can't the remaining four teams get some sort of waiver from Major League Baseball and a...

It's time to play the latest (and first) edition of everyone's favorite Night Owl Cards game, "While I Was Away ..." A lot can change in a hobby in 10 years. I certainly found that out upon my return to collecting after being AWOL since 1994. I've been struggling to catch up and am getting there slowly (Chrome good , Opening Day bad ). With the help of the informative folks at Blog Community College, I know much more about cards than I ever did, and I'm closing in on that card collecting degree! But armed with all that new knowledge, I still puzzle over tiny changes that have been made during my absence. For example, this: What is the deal with the fences? Were players ashamed of their legs? Was Topps catching ballplayers making obscene gestures like school kids do in yearbook photos? Did Topps reach an agreement with the United Fencing Workers Union? Why did they ruin team cards (and my initial thrill at finding out that they had brought team cards back) wit...