Night Owl Cards

  Apologies for the morbid post, but I'm discovering that this is going to be a difficult time of year for me from now on. My mom passed away two years ago on Mother's Day and my dad a month later. It's the second anniversary of that time period and the fragility of life is naturally on my mind. It doesn't help that the players on my baseball cards keep leaving. Nothing underlines one's mortality quite like the news that another player whose card you collected as a kid has died. I periodically recognize those recently departed players from my youth with individual posts but those passings of players from the very first set I ever collected -- 1975 Topps -- have been coming so frequently this year that I can't keep up. Often I'm just too shocked to write anything (For frequent commenter, steelehere, who often randomly mentions a former Dodger player's death on my posts, I do pay tribute to them on Twitter, even if I don't mention it on the blog. Here ...

A couple of weeks ago, when the Topps Million Card Giveaway was in full "Must Have Tickle-Me-Elmo" mode, I would pingpong between blogs that were featuring their million card "winnings" and salivate. The cards I redeemed sucked, but the ones others redeemed most definitely did not. I particularly remember this 1972 Rennie Stennett card popping up on someone's blog. As a periodic collector of the '72 set, I knew I didn't have that card yet. And it bothered me that someone else had redeemed it. Well, now, I have the Rennie Stennett card. And it's not because I traded with that blogger (I don't even remember which blog it was), or bought it online. It's because of a fine card collector named Randall, who has sent me many great cards over the months. Randall sent a number cool items that I'll show in a minute. But the cards came at a time when I could particularly use them. With the Giveaway smiling down on just about everyone else, I...

I've been thinking about this for some time. In fact, I've been thinking about it so long, that I've lost all perspective on whether it's a good idea or just plain morbid. It has to do with patch cards. I've mentioned a couple of times that I don't understand the fascination with them at all. I especially don't understand manufactured patches, which don't have any connection to an actual patch worn on baseball uniform. But one thing that might be intriguing would be related to patches that were used to commemorate a ballplayer or other baseball figure who had recently died. The No. 21 worn here by Rennie Stennett to honor the late, great Roberto Clemente. The No. 19 worn by the Dodgers throughout the 1978 postseason. The No. 10 worn by the Yankees after Phil Rizzuto's death a couple years ago. Is it too callous for me to suggest that it would be a good idea to later feature patch cards of the deceased player, in which the card consisted of pieces ...