Night Owl Cards

When I say I'm not collecting any 2012 Topps, that means I'm not collecting ANY 2012 Topps, in all its forms. Heritage, Opening Day, Attax, Update, Allen & Ginter (gulp), none of it. I'm reasonably confident that I will be able to stick to this. Even if I grab a few packs every so often, there's nothing there that's going to make me chase the set. However, Allen & Ginter is the one that could give me some hesitation. It's not for the reasons you might think. I'm beyond the design (two straight years of disappointing designs will do that). I'm beyond the non-ballplayer subjects. I'm even beyond the quirkiness (there wasn't much quirkiness in last year's set). No, the problem I'm going to have is next summer when everyone gets their boxes of A&G and the latest edition of Gint-a-Cuffs commences. As a three-time Gint-a-Cuffs participant, I know that GAC is a heck of a lot of fun. It's even fun for a loser like me w...

2004. The year Facebook started, the year the Red Sox ditched that 1918 monkey, and the year Ron Artest went into the stands just to say hello to a few fans. 2004 also marked my return to collecting baseball cards. I hadn't purchased more than two or three packs in a single year since 1994. But in 2004, I came across a few people who collected and that spurred me on to try to complete the sets that I collected when I was a kid. That's where most of my collecting effort went in 2004. I didn't pay attention to modern stuff much. But like I had done the previous four years, I grabbed a couple of packs just to see what "this year's cards" looked like. "Hmmm," I said. "White borders." Topps hadn't created a flagship set with white borders since 1997. It looked good. Even if the borders were super thick, which made room for the photo rather small (and the images even smaller). But this isn't the "card front countdown....

You may have heard. The Syracuse Orange were bounced from the NCAA tournament last night. This means only one thing to me. The winter sports season is officially over. And life begins to return to normal. This week I enjoyed my first back-to-back off days in over a month. I spent the first day detoxifying. Didn't leave the house. I spent the second day desperately trying to catch up on what I neglected over the previous four weeks. I'm still woefully behind. On the trading/sending out packages front, I'm slowly returning to speed. I sent out a smattering at the end of last week. I sent out a few more yesterday. I sent out a few more today. And I botched the zip code with one  (Sorry, Project '62. I'll try again tomorrow). See? Out of practice. I'd like to get to the point where I send packages to people out of the blue. But that seems so far into the future. I've received several out-of-the-blue packages from others recently, and I wish I could be...

Today, Dodger fans bid farewell to Juan Pierre. I am sure some of us are happy about that. He made too much money for being a part-time player. And goodness knows the Dodgers need money. At the plate, Pierre didn't walk very much. In the field, he has the most pathetic arm I've seen on a major leaguer . It really was his time to go. The White Sox will give him a chance to start, and that's what Pierre has been used to all of his career. But it's trades like these (the Dodgers will get two minor league players to be named), that bring home the cold reality of life in the major leagues to me. The fact is Pierre did a lot of things well. Walks aside, he can get on base. He has registered more than 200 hits a season four times in his career, and came four hits short of a fifth time. He hit over .300 and had a .365 OBP last season. Also, he knows how to bunt. And a lot of major leaguers don't have a clue in that area. He is a student of the game. He work...

Scout Larry Pardo responded to my post here . He didn't like it very much. I can see where he's coming from. I called this one of the worst cards of 2009. He thought it was indictment of the scouting profession. He stuck up for his job. He belittled my blog. (Don't worry. Working in newspapers, I'm used to this stuff). You might want to go back and read the comments. But if you're lazy, let me just say, like I did in the comments, that I have nothing against scouts or the scouting profession. Being a scout sounds like a great idea, just like sportswriting sounded like a great idea to me as a youngster. Unfortunately, much like sportswriting , scouting doesn't pay much, it involves long hours, and requires endless travel and time away from family. When I was around 12 or 13, I read Roger Angell's article titled "Scout," in which he followed around a scout for the Angels, Ray Scarborough. That article stayed with me. And since that time, I have ha...

Chad Billingsley goes to the mound this afternoon for the Dodgers' home opener against the good-for-nothing Giants. I'm as excited as someone who resides 3,000 miles away can be. But while the opener is less than four hours away, I'm still trying to wrap my head around how the Dodgers scored their first run in yesterday's game against the Diamondbacks. Have you ever heard of the fourth-out rule before yesterday? I hadn't. Neither had a bunch of people playing in Sunday's game. Here is what happened. It is the top of the second inning with one out and Arizona leading 1-0. Juan Pierre is on second base after hitting a one-out single and stealing second. Andre Ethier is on third base after walking and advancing to third on Pierre's single. Randy Wolf, a pretty good hitting pitcher, hits a line drive that Diamondbacks starter Dan Haren catches for the second out. Haren throws to second baseman Felipe Lopez, to force out Juan Pierre, who was caught off secon...

While tons of collectors are waiting for the next 2009 release, and bloggers are cracking blasters of '09 Topps Heritage every which way, I feel a bit sheepish talking about this. So I'll say it in a low, quiet voice. (Pssst. Don't tell anybody, but I'm still collecting 2008 products). I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one. All of you still trying to complete 2008 Heritage, put your hands in the air. Yeah, I knew there were a few of you. Stay strong, people! Be proud. Don't let the glitz and glam of '09 make you feel ashamed. Finish off those '08 sets! As I've mentioned many times before, I am still trying to complete the 2008 Heritage set. I am also still trying to finish off the World's Greatest Victories subset in '08 Allen & Ginter. I know there are a few collectors that probably think I'm nuts. "Get on Sportlots or eBay and pick up the cards you need," they're saying. "Get on with it, man!" We...