Night Owl Cards

  I received some cards in the mail today that will require their own individual posts. But before I do that, I must clear the way for them with some earlier acquisitions that my feeble brain is unable to figure out how to make them their own readable posts. So, massive regurgitation of not-so-recent arrivals it is!!! Let's start with the marvelous Roy Campanella Shakey's Pizza card above and some sends from Rod of Padrographs . Rod recently held a small team group break in order to downsize his collection and I signed up for the Dodgers. All of the above cards (one is not a baseball player, I am aware) are either cards I didn't have or can repurpose in some fashion.   I don't associate Ernie Lombardi with the Dodgers at all -- 100 percent Reds. But the Dodgers are listed on the back of the 1980 Cramer card, with the other teams he played for, and Lombardi did begin his career with Brooklyn in 1931. He's also listed with the Dodgers in the set on TCDB, I'm not s...

  I shelled out for an off-condition card of the interestingly named John O'Rear to get me within one of completing the 1980 TCMA Albuquerque Dukes set that I have loved since I was a young teen. I'm in a bit of card buying freeze right now but I'm fortunate in that my tastes aren't that expensive. All that's left to finish the set is Don Crow. Yeah, not Scioscia or Stewart. Don Crow. But that doesn't matter for this post. Neither Crow nor O'Rear were in the back of the book that I cared about when it came to upcoming Dodgers prospects. Before Bowman became a prospects thing, I figured out who the hot prospects were in the Dodgers' organization by turning to the back pages of the team yearbook that I had ordered. Here is the first prospects page in the first Dodgers yearbook I ever bought, the 1977 issue. Here are the next two pages. In my mind back then, those were all of the Dodgers prospects. And I wanted all of them to make the major leagues and kick...

This is the most sentimental day on the calendar for me. It doesn't have anything to do with baseball (although I did take a tour of old Busch Stadium in St. Louis on that same weekend in 1987). So I avoid slipping into mushy thoughts here by putting a baseball spin on the day. Last year I celebrated a milestone moment for this day by opening a rack pack of 1987 Topps. And in previous years, I've talked about my fondness for the city of St. Louis because of Oct. 29, 1987. But since that time, I've soured on the St. Louis Cardinals, the media there, and some of their fans. In 1987, I rooted for the Cardinals against the Twins in the World Series and turned off the TV in disappointment when Minnesota won. But if the same two teams were involved today, I'd be rooting for the Twins. I'm not sure why I rooted for the Cardinals that year anyway. It was two years removed from Jack Clark, Ozzie Smith, Whitey Herzog and GOD, I hated that team. So what possessed me...