Night Owl Cards

  This is a team fanboy post so please excuse me for all the Dodger blue. Julio Urias is getting the Opening Day start for the Dodgers tonight against Arizona. He is the 63rd pitcher in franchise history to start Opening Day. I know this because I counted.   I got curious, so I went through retrosheet.org and figured out all of the Game 1 starters for the Dodgers since they began as the "Bridegrooms" in 1890.   Here is briefly what I found: Clayton Kershaw holds the franchise record for the most Opening Day starts with nine. He set the record with his eighth season-debut start in 2018.   Kershaw broke the record previously held by Don Drysdale and Don Sutton, who each started Opening Day seven times in their careers. Kershaw also broke Sutton's record of seven straight seasons of Opening Day starts with his eighth straight start in 2018.   After the top three, Fernando Valenzuela has the most Opening Day starts with six, along with Brickyard Kennedy, who also ha...

  We tend to measure our collections cumulatively, stressing the total number of cards for a particular player or team. But percentage is an important tool, especially for us set collectors. It tells you where you are on the journey. I use percentages a lot in my hobby, but one area where I haven't bothered is as far as individual players' cards. I know the totals I have for each of the top players in my collection, thanks to TCDB, but I haven't bothered to look up the percentages. In other words, how far am I in terms of owning every card of a particular player -- or at least every card listed on TCDB?   I got curious when I received a handful of Mike Piazza cards from Mark, formerly of the blog Stats on the Back and currently of IDrawBaseballCards . He is downsizing his Piazza collection to just Mets cards, for whatever inconceivable reason, and offered me anything non-Met in his collection.   These are the items I did not have already (I'm not in the habit of grabbi...

The workload is something fierce these days, but I'm squeezing in another post because I like you. I received a PWE from reader Chris the other day. He roots for the Braves, big surprise. (Next time you hear about how many Dodgers bloggers and readers there are, take a quick count of the Braves bloggers/readers and be amazed. I'm willing to bet there are more. I can count six off the top of my head). Chris sent a handful of cards. I'll spare you the duplicates. Here is what I needed: I've been getting a good amount of O-Pee-Chee lately, which is a fantastic development. The next time you come across Steve Yeager's 1985 Topps card, look up his 1986 Topps card , too. Topps obviously didn't throw away the film. 1997 Fleer E-X 2000 stands out amid so much late 1990s awful. Awkward brand name aside, you can't go wrong with an acetate cloud display. We're still in the Fleer Skybox realm, with one of the most awkward sets of all-time, 1999 ...

Well, Fuji's contest is just about over. Another one has begun over at Nachos Grande, but I'm not a part of that as I have a maturity issue over writing about the same cards that others are. (By the way the Ginter code has been cracked . Seems Cynthia Pritchard was not as bubbly as everyone thought). I'm not at The National. Probably a good thing as long lines and I do not agree. So you're left with me and my dwindling thoughts. Totally overworked by the Olympics and without any time or ability to produce anything original. So let's just reach into the draft folder and see what I have here ... Ooooooooooh, golden sparklies!!!! I received these from Community Gum . I scanned them back before I went on vacation and then kind of forgot about it. I don't know if that's all the Dodger golden sparklies from Series 2. I've really stopped caring about 2012 product and have gotten all apathetic on checklist responsibilities. I DO know that I ...

Greetings! I have returned. Perhaps you were tipped off -- by the suspiciously themed, non-relevant content -- that I was on vacation last week. Indeed, I was. I had a lovely time, thanks for asking. Maybe the best part of the time off was that I wasn't around a computer for virtually the entire week. I know this may be difficult for some of you to believe, but a vacation can be enjoyed without access to the internet. Sometimes I wonder about this, because even though July is a common time for vacations (I happen to have another one coming up before the month is out), bloggers everywhere were holding contests last week. Now how am I going to enter a contest if I'm on vacation? Lord knows, my phone isn't going to allow me to enter a contest (I enter a very dark place every time I try to tackle commenting on a blog on my phone). Why one contest basically penalized me for celebrating the birth of our country. There I was, gathering together with friends and family i...

During my health funk, I mentioned that I didn't care about trading. It was all a part of being generally ill. You know what it's like being sick. You don't feel like doing anything, even the things you love the most. But I'm afraid I might have scared off a few people. "Night Owl is done with trading!" "Night Owl is retired!" "Have you heard? Night Owl doesn't want your 1991 Donruss anymore!" Well, that is entirely untrue. Except the part about not wanting '91 Donruss. That's always true. No, I may have a problem with pretending that people are breathlessly referring to me by my made-up nickname, but I don't have a problem trading. Sure, it's been crazy as hell around here. Sure, it's still freakin' March. Sure, I've got a new lifestyle that requires I take more time to work out and eat properly and certain old people stuff like that. But I still trade. At my own, methodical, pokey, you'll-g...