Night Owl Cards

  I received some cards in the mail today that will require their own individual posts. But before I do that, I must clear the way for them with some earlier acquisitions that my feeble brain is unable to figure out how to make them their own readable posts. So, massive regurgitation of not-so-recent arrivals it is!!! Let's start with the marvelous Roy Campanella Shakey's Pizza card above and some sends from Rod of Padrographs . Rod recently held a small team group break in order to downsize his collection and I signed up for the Dodgers. All of the above cards (one is not a baseball player, I am aware) are either cards I didn't have or can repurpose in some fashion.   I don't associate Ernie Lombardi with the Dodgers at all -- 100 percent Reds. But the Dodgers are listed on the back of the 1980 Cramer card, with the other teams he played for, and Lombardi did begin his career with Brooklyn in 1931. He's also listed with the Dodgers in the set on TCDB, I'm not s...

If I want to be impressed/disturbed by how old the set is that I'm currently "attempting" to complete, all I have to do is look up the songs that were popular the year the set was released. For 1967 Topps, those songs would be "All You Need Is Love," "Respect," and "Groovin'," among many others. It doesn't take much analysis to know those groups and even many of the singers are long gone. "The Summer Of Love" is more than 50 years ago now, and what the heck am I doing trying to complete a set that old? Still "Groovin'" fits with how I'm attempting to collect the set. I don't want to think about the impossible high numbers -- as impossible as high numbers get -- right now. I just want to relax and enjoy the '67 Topps cards that are coming to me. Oh, 1967 Topps: life would be ecstasy, you and me endlessly, groovin'. Surprisingly, people have been sending me '67 Topps recently, and one...

I was very excited to discover this card when it fell out of a package I received from Shane of Off the Wall a week or two ago. It was one of a selection of night cards that Shane so thoughtfully placed in a separate team bag. And it was the only player from those cards that I didn't recognize. Who the heck is Fritz Connally? That was the question that followed me in the minutes, hours and days as I went through my daily rituals? Fritz Connally? Who? Why? Fritz?? It turns out others have had the same reaction. What a relief that I'm not the only one and also to find some valuable information on the guy. He will be remembered for the first two home runs he hit as a major leaguer -- both with the Orioles in 1985 -- that were each grand slams. According to the online testimonials, Connally was a superstar athlete growing up in Texas, naturally blessed in every sport and an all-around great guy. His birth name is actually "Fritzie". Really. They do things d...

It's my third Jackie Robinson post in a row! We're celebrating the Memorial Day weekend with all Jackie Robinson all the time! It's Jackie Robinson Weekend! More programming brilliance of the kind you've come to expect from the dedicated folks at Night Owl Cards! Actually, it's just coincidence. And there's only one folk. And this is a poorly disguised trade post. If you haven't figured out, every Topps card set put out in the last three years is lousy with Robinsons, so I could probably extend Jackie Robinson weekend into the Jackie Robinson Summer of 2011 if I wished. Gypsy Queen is just one example of a set with countless Jackies. I showed the relic Jackie yesterday . There is also the Great Ones Jackie at the top of the post. Here is the framed green paper Jackie that arrived from Shane of Off the Wall . I didn't mean to steal Shane's thunder by showing the relic Jackie before this one. But just about all of my life is out of order ...

Did you know Bugs Bunny has a connection to the Brooklyn Dodgers? I didn't until I was looking up the origination of the nickname "Duke of Flatbush." Flatbush is a neighborhood in Brooklyn, mostly populated by African-Americans and West-Indians now, but during the times of the Brooklyn Dodgers was the residence of Italian, Irish and Jewish Americans. People who lived in Flatbush rooted for the Dodgers, naturally. Bugs Bunny featured a Flatbush accent, according to the original voice of Bugs, Mel Blanc. Also, according to Bugs' biography, he was born under Ebbets Field. So, this card ... ... makes perfect sense. Bugs is a Dodger, and ain't he a stinker? But the reason I went off on this cartoon tangent is because Shane of Off the Wall sent me the Snider card from the 1984 Donruss set. It's a former Nebulous 9 need, and I was beginning to wonder if it was rare, since it sat there on the list for so long. It turns out it's not so rare, beca...