Night Owl Cards

Possibly my most frequent daydream when it comes to baseball cards is gaining unfettered access to someone's attic and finding cards in a box or a cabinet or under the floor boards. This thought actually goes through my head when I'm in someone's home for the first time. "I wonder if they have cards in the attic? I wonder if they know they have cards in the attic? Maybe they need someone to help them find them." Then I get a poke in the ribs because someone knows what I'm thinking, and I go back to being an adult. The "attic-as-a-goldmine" thought is so pervasive that the attic is literally my favorite room in the house. In any house. And to those of you who don't have attics, this is my face with pity in my eyes. I'm sure those people who take jobs whose duty it is to buy crap from people's homes have the same feelings that I do. An attic is an untapped resource of riches. Or at least cards. That's all I care about -- the...

One of the newer blogs that came to light right before Blogger started freaking out over the number of blogs that I had in my blog roll was Dime Boxes -- The Low-End Baseball Card Collector's Journey . If you're not familiar with it, then I'm sure you've already come up with a picture of a person who would name their blog that. He's probably 58 years old, right? He might not be married. Maybe he's divorced. Maybe his wife has long-suffered his card collecting habit for decades. Maybe he has never been married and lives in a basement apartment with his two cats and a collection of National Geographics. Who else would look for all their cards in dime boxes? Certainly not someone young and wide-eyed, who doesn't have to shield his eyes when he sees something shiny. Because his eye sight is perfect! He's young and on the hunt for MOJO! Well, I am telling you, you are WRONG with your stereotypes and biases. How could you compartmentalize the youthful...

When we bought our first home, my wife changed a lot of things that the previous owner had in the house. I was all for it. I support my wife. Also, I'm not one of those weird guys that you see in the home decorating shows who have to have an opinion on the chair rail in the foyer. I have no opinion on that stuff. And neither should you. Even the women reading this. Why do I know what a chair rail is, then? Well, to keep the peace. The TV can't be tuned to the MLB Network all the time. Anyway, the previous owner had style. But it was not our style. Out the door it went. Especially those lion planters on the front porch. Even I had an opinion on those. One thing that took a long time to remove -- because it permeated the house -- was the stenciling on the walls. My wife did not like this at all. I had never seen it before, so I thought it was sort of cool, until I was informed that I was never to think that again. Apparently, stenciling became popular in the late 1980...

That's "merry" as in "Merry Ol' England," not "Merry Christmas." But no matter, since I could use a whole lot of "merry" after the night I had. My wife got sick and it was about as unpleasant as it gets. She's recuperating now, but I'm on zero sleep, and I could use a pick-me-up. Fortunately, John A., of Pursuit of 80s(ness), sent yet another package of Dodgers all the way from the U.K. earlier this week and I'm just getting to them. Let's see some of the goodies he sent: Dioner Navarro, 2005 Donruss Team Heroes. You don't see a lot of cards featuring Navarro's face. Or at least I haven't. He always seems to be wearing a catcher's mask, or way off in the distance or something. Mike Piazza, 1993 Pinnacle. John found a way to send me a Piazza I don't have. Which is getting increasingly difficult. Ismael Valdes, 1999 Upper Deck, Foreign Focus subset. This card comes complete with a map on the b...

Steve, from one of the finest card blogs around, White Sox Cards , and I recently completed a team trade of Sox for Dodgers. He's already posted about the White Sox he received. Now it's my turn to post the Dodgers. The White Sox and the Dodgers have a bit of a history, being two of the older franchises in baseball. There's the bad: the White Sox still getting lots of use out of former Dodger prospect Paul Konerko. There's the good: that 1959 World Series when the Dodgers beat the White Sox for the championship. (I have interviewed a member of that '59 White Sox team, but as my aunt likes to say all the time, "We're not talking about that right now.") I've always liked the White Sox. Out of the AL playoff teams, they're the ones I wanted to make the Series. I much prefer them to that other Chicago franchise for several reasons. The White Sox and their fans just seem a bit more real than the Cubs and their cuddly sun-worshippers. Add the fact t...