Night Owl Cards

Out of all of the card shows I have attended in my life I can count the number of times that someone has accompanied me on one hand. The first show I went to, I attended with my brother. Somewhere on this blog I documented the time when I had to drag my daughter around the show floor because of a scheduling issue. She was less than enthused . The other two times, I've gone to a card show with Angus, of Dawg Day Cards . He's been plenty enthused. Sunday was the most recent time. I had marked the large, biannual Syracuse show on my calendar for months. Angus just happened to contact me a week or so before the show and I asked if he wanted to come along. He made his way from Canada, we met in the parking lot of the Buffalo Wild Wings in town (our future dining destination) and hit the road for Syracuse. It was probably a little before 1 p.m. when we arrived at the show site, at the Science and Technology Building at the state fairgrounds. Now, when I'm by myself at ...

To me, there is no greater change in a player's personality than when one switches from pitcher to hitter, or from hitter to pitcher. This is why there is so much amusement/discussion when a position player pitches in a game, and so much amusement/discussion/outrage when a pitcher steps to the plate. The player is actually changing his very baseball personality. Pitchers and hitters are so different, and they are adversaries. They're on opposite sides of the battlefield. They're also narrowly defined. Pitchers "throw smoke," while batters are "sluggers." Hitters are "scrappy," while pitchers are "crafty." Seeing a position change on a baseball card from "third baseman" to "second baseman" is no big deal. But seeing the position change from "pitcher" to "outfielder," that is quite a big deal. This is why I have held on to this particular card for so long. I'm not a fan of the Ca...

One of the big drawbacks of living almost 3,000 miles away from the best team in the world is you miss out on a lot of things the team is doing. I have never been to a game in Dodger Stadium, and I don't see a point in the future when that might happen.  I don't get to participate in any of the various activities that the Dodgers put on in the area (although it sounds like the recent fanfest fiasco was best avoided). And I don't get to go down to the local strangely named, West Coast-only grocery store chain and obtain an autograph from Ken Landreaux or Tommy Davis or whoever is willing to sit in a chair and sign for strangers for three hours. This is especially excruciating for me since, near as I can tell, my favorite player of all-time -- Ron Cey -- is at just about every Dodger event there is. But, by far, the worst part of living on the other end of the country from the Dodgers, is not being able to find team-issued or other locally-produced Dodger sets. This ...