Night Owl Cards

  I've mentioned many times that I returned to collecting current cards in 2006. So that makes it 15 years I've been back.   I probably didn't make the wisest choice with the year I chose to come back, it certainly can't compete with the first year I collected cards, which was 1975. But sometimes collecting chooses you, not the other way around, and I couldn't resist those rack packs in Walmart in '06.   I did end up buying quite a bit of 2006 Upper Deck that year, too, but I never saw Allen & Ginter (didn't know to look for it). Same deal with Heritage and Fleer and Turkey Red and anything besides what I was trained to look for way back when: FLAGSHIP.   So, I was stuck with one, super-flawed set upon my return. Foil everywhere, possibly the most foil-tastic (and therefore unreadable) Topps card set ever. It's just not a great design, even though the look of the cards still gives me the warm fuzzies because I was back in the game, baby!    Look at t...

There are some cards that cause me to emit an audible "ugh" when I see them. This is one such card. It is definitely not "awesome." I'd much rather call it an "unfortunate night card," a "disturbing night card," or a "jerk-face night card." Let's get the "jerk-face" part out of the way first. My dislike for Will Clark is well-established. Prickly, shrill, Giant-loser, these are some of the words I use and have used to describe Clark over the years. I'd like to say he was more enjoyable as a Ranger, but there was too much Giant stink on him by then. Kenny Rogers, meanwhile, was a plain idiot. I will never forget his unprovoked assault on cameramen before a game in 2005. Terribly inexcusable and it blackened my perception of him forever. Don't like the guy. To a lesser degree, there are a couple of other guys on the card who have never been my favorites. Ivan Rodriguez, while an admirable player, fre...