Night Owl Cards

I never announced it on the blog, but I told myself this year that I wouldn't buy any brand of cards that didn't interest me. In the past, I thought I owed it to myself -- and somewhat to my readers -- to open whatever baseball card product I could easily get my hands on in order to get the general flavor of the collecting season. But I'm kind of beyond that now. My interest level in today's cards is still a lot higher than it was from 1996-2005, when I barely wasted a thought on cards, but I'd also say it's as low as it's been since the calendar changed from 2005 to 2006. I told myself that this year, I would buy some flagship, some Heritage, some Allen & Ginter, maybe a little Update and that would be it. Because those are the only sets, really, that interest me. What's the point of buying Gypsy Queen when all I'm going to do is trash it and wish the cards were out of my house immediately? Well, I've kind of failed on that promis...

All right, everyone is all apoplectic over Ichiro suddenly becoming a Yankee. I'm just not that upset about it. If you're a Mariner fan, then, yes, I'm sorry. I understand. For you, it's awful. Just horrible, disgraceful, unthinkable, galling, gagging, repulsive, puke-inducing, nasty, crushing, hurtful, agonizing, gross, dehumanizing, shameful, inexcusable and rotten. But if you're not, then, really, things could be worse. How much worse? Well, off the top of my head, I came up with 10 or so players who I would have much more of a problem seeing in a Yankee uniform than Ichiro. Suzuki is practically an icon and very good at what he does. But, let's face it, he's 38, and he's not the player he once was. If the Yankees want to try to capture 2001 in a bottle for a half a year, then, fine, knock yourself out, New York. I hope you fail. But these guys? No, I do not want these guys to appear as Yankees. Or I might have to start watching crick...

Tonight, yet another tired "Subway Series" game will take place, weather permitting. This one is being billed as a pitcher's duel between the Mets' R.A. Dickey and the Yankees' CC Sabathia. You know how that goes. It'll probably end up being a 13-12 fiasco, lasting five hours, and I'll be cursing the TV screen as I wait for a game story to put in the paper. This is why I never pay attention to talk radio and treat 90 percent of what passes for programming on ESPN as filler. All it is is blather promoted as "insight" by "experts," when in fact only about 5 percent of the talking heads have something to say that is both insightful and interesting. So, pitcher's duel, no pitcher's duel, it doesn't matter. I'll be paying attention -- as much as I can anyway -- and actually rooting for a Met. This doesn't happen a lot, but it is happening more often. R.A. Dickey can take most of the credit. There are a lot of...

I've got one pack of Bowman here for you, because I'm good like that. I wanted to buy just a single blister pack of 10 cards, but my Target seems to only offer card packaging in the vehicle that will cost you the most money. Last year's discounted blasters? Full price. Single packs of Gypsy Queen? They just have outrageous $9.49 rack packs for you, son. So these jumbo packs were the only thing available. I suppose they could have offered only the rack packs with purple parallels of nobodies, which would have cost more. So I'm getting a deal with these five-dollar-something packs. Because it's Bowman and I don't care about the players who haven't reached the majors, I'm only showing the guys I know -- and not even all of them. If you want the other cards of non-major leaguers -- for TTM tries or whatever -- they are available. I can barely get myself to TTM guys with big-league salaries. The pack: #151 - Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers Immediate ...