Night Owl Cards

  Starting a Blog Bat-Around these days is kind of like announcing in 1989 that you just bought a vinyl record. Nobody cares, everyone's moved on to compact discs/TikTok.   But records came back, and are dumb expensive, so maybe blogging will, too. Anyway, this is a Blog Bat-Around for the seven of you that blog and care about this topic.   Not Another Baseball Card Blog has already kicked it off . This theme came from a Bluesky discussion and was specifically mentioned by Shlabotnik Report , I think. What are cards you like that feature a team you don't like?   This could get very involved for me. There are a lot of cards I like, often showing teams I root against. And my dislike for teams can spread like a disease covering two-thirds of major league franchises. It all depends on the baseball scene at the time, whether playoffs are involved, etc.   But to keep this manageable, I'll cover four or five teams. And most of the cards I'm showing are coming from ch...

A lot of people have more free time on their hands than they did a month ago. I'm not really one of those people. My job isn't nearly as hectic as it was when sports were happening, but I'm still blessed to be going to work, which means I'm often unavailable for good portions of the day. This is not good timing, because ever since the pandemic hit, the card blogging world has been struck by Free Stuff Friday mania. It is so pervasive across blogs that I often get confused about what I'm seeing: is this a post about giving away free stuff on a Friday or is this a post on a Friday about the free stuff received? Also, I always seem to be arriving late to claiming prizes. Rod from Padrographs has been offering up free cards just about every day of the week, but they first show up in the morning -- when every good night owl is sleeping -- and by the time I stumble out of the nest, the free stuff is gone. I'm no match for the prize hounds anyway so I count m...

I remarked the other day that I missed everything that was on this card. That's almost true. I do miss seeing Carlton Fisk behind the plate. I do miss food issue cards with team logos prominently on display. I do miss Drake's cakes. I even miss those goofy-yet-functional '70s-style sun hats that folks in the stands are wearing. But if I'm being objective -- and not merely nostalgic -- I don't miss the uniforms the White Sox wore then. Sure, I like the idea of those uniforms, the time period of the crazy, everything-goes uniform style. But, really, the White Sox looked downright dorky when out on the field with another team that was wearing a regular uniform. It looked like they were playing a split-screen game, one-half from 1980 and the other half from 1911. This made me wince because, really, the White Sox were better than that. I like my established teams to wear classic uniforms. These uniforms do not change every 10 years or so. They remain basically...

I wasn't going to do this, but another post idea fell through. So I'm following the crowd ... ick. The Chronicles of Fuji asks : "What's a cheap (under $5), cool card you feel every collector should add to their collection?" Well, this is a question that gets my indignities all in a knot. A card every collector SHOULD add? Something a collector SHOULD do? I collect because nobody is telling me I SHOULD do anything! And someone is saying, "calm down, it's just a question. We're having a little fun here." Yeah, OK, it's just that I've had a collector or two actually tell me that I should have a certain card or I wasn't a "real collector," and that really ticked me off. But I'm letting it go ... here I am, letting things go ... deep breaths ... pleasant thoughts ... hey, look at that palm tree! ... So, anyway, a card that I really like that others would enjoy? My answer to that on Fuji's comments was th...

It's really a shame that some of you are away from the internet this weekend, because you're missing out on my '75 mini extravaganza. These aren't just any old cards here you know. These are: THE BEST CARDS OF ALL-TIME So, if you're at a ballgame right now, or under a tent in the woods (you poor bastard), I can't help you. I can only hope you'll stumble across this post when you get back. As for the rest of you, you will be rewarded for your non-active lifestyle. And appreciation of electricity. As you know, I've made a recent commitment to the '75 minis, both the Topps Lineage version and the real thing. The pursuit of the real thing is a Long Term Project, but I'm already pleasantly surprised by how available they are -- even if I hardly ever see them at card shows. Right now I have maybe 125 minis from the 1975 set. Once I get done with my "1975 Topps (it's far out, man)" blog, I'll know how many I have for sure. I ...

(Y'all know what an appreciation letter is, don't you? It's one of those letters you write after going on a job interview to express gratitude for the  honor of being interviewed. It's basically a "please, please, please, PLEASE hire me" letter. I recently came across an old appreciation letter from an employee who doesn't work for me anymore. If I'm being accurate, though, it was more bullshit than appreciation. In the end, I was the one doing the appreciating when this employee got a new job. Anyway, that's a long way to go to say: cards never BS you. Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 54th in a series): Ladies and gentlemen, Topps 2010, Series I is complete. Georgie-Porgie here was the last card I needed to finish off the set. I actually landed two Posada cards on Monday. One was pulled from a pack. Then the mail arrived and Jorge showed up again, wagging his enormous ears at me. A big thanks to Mr. Dog Faced Gremlin for bein...