Night Owl Cards

Here is my 1953 Topps Frank Smith card. Frank, if you remember my story about him, was a former baseball reliever for the Reds and the Cardinals. I interviewed him three or four times. But I'd hardly call them interviews. They were more like conversations. He was a great guy who told me great stories about himself and the 1950s. When he died almost five years ago, I felt like I lost a friend. This is the only Frank Smith card that I have that is not autographed by Frank. That's because I just obtained it a couple of weeks ago. It came in my very first three-blogger trade. I feel like a general manager now! Travis P. of PunkRockPaint redeemed this card in the Million Card Giveaway thingy. He then traded it to fellow Padre fan, Doc T at Baseball Card Recollections . And then Doc T traded it to me. How about that? Trading with two Padres fans. You do what you've got to do to get one of your baseball heroes. I held off on posting this card until I had cards r...

So, the cool kids have been excavating up a storm the last two days, finding packs of 2009 Heritage, unearthing whole blasters of black parallel cards, setting off on searches for gray-back parallels and discovering '09 Upper Deck fat packs. Even though I can't play with the cool kids -- the area where I live doesn't allow it -- I get all giddy watching others find the snazzy stuff. I can't help but hit the few, scattered places that sell cards even though they disappoint me time and again. Hobby shop? Too expensive. Big box store #1? Topps blasters I've seen before. Big box store #2? Loose packs. And some weird-shaped $9.99 boxes of 2007 Topps. Huh? Big box store #3? Topps '09 cereal boxes. But the cereal boxes are news around here, even if it's a week or two later than everyone else has seen them. So I picked one up. Ted Williams of course. I can't choose Ruth or Mantle over Teddy Ballgame. I'd get disowned. The boxes are pretty cool and I got...

ME: So, I was leafing through my ... YOU: Hey, didn't you just do one of those night card things? ME: Yeah, I did. YOU: So how come you're doing another one so soon? ME: Just go with me on this, will ya? YOU: Your blog. ME: Yes. It is. ... So, I was leafing through my complete set of 1952 Topps the other day. YOU: Wait a minute. You have a COMPLETE set of 1952 Topps? ME: Yeah. YOU: You never told me anything about a complete set of '52 Topps. I didn't even know you had any 1952 Topps. ME: Well, there are a lot of things I haven't told you. I'm a complex and multi-faceted individual. YOU: Bleepin' loser. I don't know why I read your crap. ME: ANYway. I was leafing through my complete set of '52 Topps and I suddenly found this Satchel Paige night card that I had never seen before! YOU: What? Satchel Paige?!! Night card? There weren't any night cards in '52! ME: Yeah there was. This one. The first night card ever made. YO...

Sweet, isn't it? I've gone back and forth about this "card," beautifully created by PunkRockPaint. Is it a glimpse of a future that never was? Or is it a look into a past that could have been? That's the beauty of this creation. I imagined the possibility and PunkRockPaint (a.k.a. Travis) made it reality, and now I get to ponder Koufax's plight some more. A couple of posts ago, I lamented the sudden end to Koufax's career in 1966. Wouldn't it have been great if he pitched another 10 years, and I could've pulled a 1975 Topps Koufax that first year I started collecting cards? Travis read the post and quickly sent his creation to me in an email. He said he rushed it, only having time to add some gray to Koufax's hair (Koufax would have been 39 during the 1974 season -- not exactly old, but I'm sure many of you know he has sported gray hair for years and years). But, man, what a job Travis did. Rush job or no, his execution was flawless. I lik...