Night Owl Cards

I stumbled across the death of Garry Hancock today. His passing more than 20 days ago didn't make a peep on the usual places I frequent, which is why I'm just hearing about it now. Hancock's career was brief, and his death is notable only to those who knew him, and kids like me who grew up in the late 1970s and followed the Red Sox. Hancock, who hit .303 at Pawtucket in 1978 before the Red Sox were prompted to call him up, was one of those hopeful prospects from that period who my brother and I clung to in our continuing quest to ward off the Yankee ugliness of that time. Hancock didn't end up making the impact we had wanted. He was just another in a line of Boston prospects during that time -- between Fred Lynn/Jim Rice and Wade Boggs -- that disappointed. But his death at a too young 61 still struck me, and was made all the more stunning when I remembered this card: Allen Ripley died at this time last year. That's two guys on a card from 1979 that ar...

Less than a week ago, I figured I'd be heading into the card show with half the cash that I usually carry around the New York State fairgrounds horticulture building. Times have been hard these last three months with rationing of just about everything -- shampoo, napkins, mustard, you name it. So even though I tried to save in advance, there wasn't a lot I could put away. But strange things happen when you're both scraping by and working your butt off. You lose track of what you're doing. It turns out that I had saved more than I thought I did -- a day before the show, I discovered 20 bucks in a drawer put away months ago for likely this very purpose (at least that's what I'm telling myself). So I hit the card show with the usual amount of money and I did very well by my standards. From an objective perspective, the show was nothing great. No signing guest. A relatively slim crowd. But from my perspective it was fantastic. No signing guest means...