Night Owl Cards

  Joey Votto announced his retirement yesterday in his usual quirky-and-lovable way . It was another sad reminder that my old gang is breaking up. First Evan Longoria and now Joey Votto. I'll explain. I feel an odd kinship with the rookie class from 2008, at least those players who received rookie logos in 2008 product. That's because I started when they started. I began a blog in 2008, and that was the first year that I was fully into modern cards since the early '90s. I returned to modern collecting in 2005 and 2006 but 2008 was when I became aware of everything, every last dumb product available, because the wonderful blogging world had told me so.   So I knew all the rookies that were around that year, hot or lukewarm. You couldn't miss them, card companies were shoving them down our throats. Ross Ohlendorf, Brian Bass, Kevin Hart (no, not the comedian), Chin-Lung Hu, I knew all their names.   There were some decent players, too, guys like Jay Bruce, Carlos Gonzalez...

Back in the early days of this blog, I addressed finding this 1971 Manny Mota lying in pieces at the curb of a busy street while I walked home from school. Since then I've mentioned this same story a couple of more times, including here , because the idea of finding free cards on the street for the taking fascinates me. Since that time in the mid-70s when I found broken ol' Manny, I've probably discovered a stray card on the ground a handful of times. But it's been so infrequent and so underwhelming (I'm sure we're talking about a 1990 Fleer Brian Holman or something similar) that I don't remember the occasions. That brings me to this past Sunday night. I had to go to work, and as I backed out of the driveway and headed past the house, I noticed a small piece of discarded paper in front of the curb. This was nothing worth noting. I live very close to two separate schools and there are kids walking down my street at all times. I'm forever pic...

I'm not the most positive person. I suppose a slight negative bent is a common character trait for a writer. Inward thinking tends to highlight the pitfalls and road blocks along the way. That's why you hear a lot more about writers drinking themselves to death rather than meeting their demise when the rip cord fails on their parachute. This mind-set trickles into the hobby a lot and you've heard me whining in the past about how I don't have a decent card shop, how card shows are few and far between, how new product doesn't hit here first the way it seems to in certain other spots. I can't help but feel a tinge of jealousy when someone misses a card show because, hell, there's another one next month. But although I'll never be what you would call "perky," I'm not morose either. And I work very hard on seeing the positive side of things. Infrequent card shows create greater appreciation. Lack of a card shop helps me find better deals ...

OK, so what do I think about Omar Infante making the National League All-Star roster? I don't know. I know what my Out for Justice side thinks. He thinks it sucks. He thinks role players don't belong in an All-Star Game. He thinks Joey Votto got pillaged. He thinks it's a good thing that home plate umpire Angel Campos doesn't look anything like Charlie Manuel or he might have been picking up bits of himself all over the infield after he ejected Votto on Sunday. My Out for Justice side thinks that there are at least 56 players who are more worthy of playing in the All-Star Game than Omar Infante. Rafael Furcal, who is absolutely burn-your-skin-off scalding right now, would be a perfect choice. But here's the reason why Infante is on the All-Star roster. He's a damn fine utility man. You didn't know Utility Man was a designated position in the All-Star Game did you? You were still trying to wrap your mind around "designated hitter...

Yeah, Upper Deck, I told you I was coming for you. And you made it too easy. What the hell is this? Forget about the fact that this is a card from that awful, nausea-inducing Spectrum, or that Manny Ramirez's photo is cropped at the knees (a photo editing no-no). I'm talking about the fact that Ramirez last played for the Red Sox in July, this product came out in February, and Manny is still featuring his familiar, pine-tar gunked RED SOX helmet. So lazy. So I'm-going-to-sit-on-my-couch-eat-bon-bons-and-print-photos-on-foil-board lazy. Three months ago, we were ripping Stadium Club for photoshopping Ramirez (and the rest of the stadium) into Dodger blue. So if not being able to track down a photo of Ramirez playing in a Dodger uniform -- even though he played for the team for two whole months -- was unacceptable three months ago, then what does doing the same thing now make it? I'd say unpurchasable. I don't know why anybody is buying Spectrum anyway. Aside f...