Night Owl Cards

I was watching some of ESPN's Sunday Night baseball game between the Indians and Phillies the other day. As often is the case when the Indians' Carlos Santana pops up on the screen and I view his statistics, I quietly lament the Dodgers trading him away back in 2008. Then, sometime during Alex Rodriguez's pointless ramblings and awkward bantering, I started to fantasize about Santana's contributions for the Dodgers if he had stayed with the team. Perhaps he would have solidified the catching position back in 2011-13 or maybe helped out at first base. This "what could have been" thought process often happens during my fan reflections and I have a feeling it's a common part of being a fan. We always want the best for our team and we just hate it when a talented player gets away. The Dodgers have their fair share of "big fish" stories, some of the biggest, and I thought it would be interesting to put together a "One That Got Away...

Not a lot of love for 1989 Bowman is there? First of all, it's pretty damn dull. Secondly, it's too big to store in standard pages. Thirdly, it's pretty damn dull. ... Oh, did I mention that already? Sorry. It's just that it's dull. Also, 1989 Bowman -- ressurrected by Topps after an absence of more than 40 years -- seems quaint compared to what we know of Bowman today. Bowman is now synonymous with rookie card madness and is basically crack for Strasburg searchers. So, that gives the '89 Bowman set a little bit of charm, at least for me. But only a little. The other thing that draws my attention to the set are the backs: Bowman went with backs that were constructed in a way that I had never seen in 15 years of collecting to that point. Instead of the standard year-by-year statistics, Bowman presented the statistics in terms of how a player performed against each team. At first glance, this was confusing. But once you knew what you were looking at, i...

When I look back on my favorite card moments of 2009, I think Friday will rank in the top 10, if not the top 5. For starters, Topps '09 made a triumphant reappearance back in my neighborhood with the arrival of blasters and jumbo packs. Good things really do come to those who wait . I went with two jumbo packs, but I don't think I'm going to show them here. I needed almost all of the cards and I pulled 6 Dodgers (Ramirez, Park, Kemp, Kuroda, Sweeney and Campanella Legends of the Game), but I think you've seen 'em all by now. I think this officially means I'll have to put together an '09 Topps want list in the next few days. But for me, the bigger news was finding baseball cards at the dollar store across town. I often whine about how more dollar stores and drug stores should carry cards. When I was a kid, you couldn't find a drug store that didn't have cards. Now, you can't find one that does. Meanwhile, I'll find cards periodically at...