Night Owl Cards

As you know, I'm not a Bowman guy. I don't buy a lot of Bowman. But each year, for the last few years, I've tried to sample a couple of packs at least, just to see what I am missing. After a few go rounds of that, I decided that I'm not missing anything. It's still a pack of cards in which I've never heard of half of the players, and on the other half, I don't care because Bowman's designs never do anything for me. Last year, I cut my ridiculous habit of buying cards that bore me to one pack . This year, I'm trying to cut it to none. I'm doing an excellent job at it. I haven't looked at Bowman even once when I've been in the card aisle. And I don't think I'll look at it again ... ever. Well, at least in years when the "it" rookie of the year isn't a Dodger. The stupid part of all of this is that I still want Dodger Bowman cards. Because I have a sickness. A disease. It really needs a name. Something like...

The trade posts will continue until morale improves. ... Here are some enhancements to my Nomo collection from Offy : It was only within the last year that I figured out that there were both silver and gold parallels of these Bowman First Impressions cards. Previously I thought it was just a printing flaw. And while we're still in "clueless night owl" territory, I'm guessing that there is yet another parallel of which I'm unaware. "Destination Fall Classic." Isn't that cute? Unfortunately, Nomo never made the Fall Classic. He didn't even make an NLCS. But back-to-back NLDS losses? That's bragging material there. The stretchiest wind-up stretch since those old guys in wool uniforms. I'll excuse the appearance of Randy Johnson here, because Nomo has the better nickname. Tornado vs. Big Unit is not even worth comparing. What a wonderfully, wriggly little critter this card is. However, my scanner didn't like ...

I recently came across something that I thought I had thrown out a long time ago. It was a folder filled with reference type material from my first season of covering a professional baseball team, the now-defunct Niagara Falls Rapids. I've mentioned the team a time or  two . Like me, they were in their first season, too, in 1989. They played in the short-season Class A New York-Penn League. Throughout that year, we figured things out together. A lot has changed since 1989. Not only do the Rapids not exist, but many of the teams that were in the NY-P at the time do not exist. Also, entire careers have come and gone since that season and that's what I want to address. In the folder were rosters from almost all of the NY-P teams in the league at the time. It was interesting to look back at those rosters and see which players had made it to the majors. Apparently, I had done it once before, because there were marks next to the names of the players who were big-leaguers. ...

As I write this, Clayton Kershaw has struck out eight Giants through five innings. That would make me most pleased, except for the fact that the Dodgers are continuing the tradition that they have been known for over the last decade -- leaving abundant runners on base. So, I've decided to write a post during the game that will remind me of why I'm happy to be a Dodger fan, no matter what happens tonight. The following cards come from Mike at Sports Syzygy . I thank him for validating my appreciation for the greatest team on earth. Kirk Gibson. Author of the greatest baseball moment since ESPN hit the airwaves. Really. There were polls to figure this out and everything. We all know that if it's not on ESPN, it didn't happen. Sandy Koufax. Author of the greatest abbreviated pitching career of all-time. I think he has many more fans today than he ever did when he was playing. Roy Campanella. Perhaps the most inspirational baseball player of all-time f...

When I can, I try to make my posts about something. But lately I'm in a meandering thoughts kind of mood. There is no unifying theme to this post. In fact, I can't even give you a good reason why I'm making you suffer through a Goudey card of Jeff Kent, other than that it was sent to me by Jeremy of No One Is Going to Read This Blog , and I'm going to show some stuff he mailed my way. Oh, and Kent was with the Giants the last time I rooted against them in the World Series. Go, Rangers. OK, here is where I really start to meander. I am trying to condense my sidebar a little bit. It's getting overgrown. I started by creating a page for the Define the Design feature and putting a link on the sidebar. But what I really want to do is create tabs at the top of the page for a lot of the features. It would make things so much cleaner. But I can't figure out how to create more than one tab at the top of the page. I can create the "home" tab and then ...

I realize this will annoy avid followers of football, just as it does college basketball folks when someone who doesn't know a Cameron Crazy from a Zag wins the March Madness pool: I recently won a football card contest. Twice. Let me clarify something first, though. By "not following football" I mean that I'm not a fan and I don't sit and watch games. But I DO know what's going on in the sport most of the time. It's a requirement of my job. Every day I pour through story after story featuring sports that could disappear this instant without a word of regret from me (I'm looking at you, golf). So, information is bound to sneak into the ol' noggin. There is a reason why I know just about every NASCAR name without ever watching a single NASCAR race. So, yeah, I know football. Just don't ask me to enter a fantasy league. That little bit of knowledge enabled me to win Cobb and Halladay' s Super Bowl contest last month. I beat out a bunc...