Night Owl Cards

  Today is the absolute nadir of the sports calendar for me. There are two major U.S. professional sports events happening today and I have always had zero interest in both of them. I often say today is the black hole on the sports calendar. I usually don't bother turning on the TV on this day, maybe I'll look around for a hockey game or find an old baseball game on youtube to watch. But mostly what I'll do is look forward to baseball and miss football. With the weather outside (lake effect!) and no live sports of interest, it's a perfect time for blogging. I'm doing posts for both my blogs today, which is a rarity these days. Neither take a lot of effort though. Here I'm going through the latest gets from Diamond Jesters' Time Travel Trade series. This time I added six cards, none are major chases for me, just some fun cards. So let's see why I picked up what I did.   2001 Topps Archives, Warren Spahn Here is where that Archives set makes perfect sense...

  I shelled out for an off-condition card of the interestingly named John O'Rear to get me within one of completing the 1980 TCMA Albuquerque Dukes set that I have loved since I was a young teen. I'm in a bit of card buying freeze right now but I'm fortunate in that my tastes aren't that expensive. All that's left to finish the set is Don Crow. Yeah, not Scioscia or Stewart. Don Crow. But that doesn't matter for this post. Neither Crow nor O'Rear were in the back of the book that I cared about when it came to upcoming Dodgers prospects. Before Bowman became a prospects thing, I figured out who the hot prospects were in the Dodgers' organization by turning to the back pages of the team yearbook that I had ordered. Here is the first prospects page in the first Dodgers yearbook I ever bought, the 1977 issue. Here are the next two pages. In my mind back then, those were all of the Dodgers prospects. And I wanted all of them to make the major leagues and kick...

This is at least the third example of a fellow blogger facilitating a communication between me and one of my Dodger favorites of the past. A few weeks ago, Kenny ZZ contacted me and wondered whether I had some Pedro Guerrero doubles to spare. Guerrero, the former Dodgers all-star and World Series MVP, would be making an appearance nearby and ZZ wanted to get some card scribbles from my favorite player from my high school days. Almost as thrilled that I could provide some extra Dodgers cards for someone as I was excited about the chance for getting an IP Guerrero card, I dashed to the giant box of Dodger dupes and pulled as many Petey cards as I could and sent them off. A few weeks later, Kenny posted pictures of Guerrero signing my cards on Twitter, and on his blog , and then he sent one of those signed cards off to me. There were some hairy moments as the package -- which also included a couple extra binders -- was briefly delayed in Rochester. But the box arrived safely yest...

As one of the few card bloggers currently blogging who was also blogging in 2008, I can divide those who were writing nine-plus years ago into a few different categories: 1. Still blogging, who knows why 2. Quit blogging, but still collecting 3. Quit blogging, ditched cards, and took up butterfly watching or skeet shooting or whatever 4. Basically quit blogging but throws a post on the old site maybe once a year I don't want to speak for everyone who was blogging in 2008, but I think anyone who was writing about cards then, whether they're still blogging or not, is somewhat disenchanted with the current state of cards. Anyone who isn't, hasn't been blogging for almost 10 years. I think that's only natural. As you grow more experienced, your tastes become more well-defined. You know what you like and don't like. Newer items aren't appealing because they don't match your established tastes. And so it is when I buy current cards. I still mak...

You may have read, Dime Box Nick went to a card show over the weekend. Yeah, I know, hard to believe, right? Nick posting about a card show? With the number that he goes to he could rename his blog "I'm at a Card Show ... Again" and it would be completely accurate. It must be quite the feeling to have that many shows on the docket ( we're so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside! ). Last weekend's show appeared to be a hit, based solely on the Hostess cards he displayed. That's the kind of stuff I should be finding at my twice-a-year show. But as I've mentioned before, I am the beneficiary of Nick's many shows. He sent me a nice stack of cards recently and I'm pretty sure many of the cards came from his show-going. But come inside, the show's about to start. It's guaranteed to blow your head apart: He sent 19 Allen & Ginter minis in an attempt to crack my frankenset binder. The above seven actually did make th...