Night Owl Cards

  I'm not sure where I got this post idea, it's possible it came from Nick's blog , but the spark from wherever made me wonder about switch-hitters and cards. How easy was it to find separate cards of a switch-hitter hitting from both sides of the plate, or at least posing as both a left-handed batter and right-handed batter? My guess was it's probably pretty easy. And in researching, I found that it's very easy. Just to have a frame of reference, I found this article from three years ago, presenting a lineup of the best switch-hitters in MLB history. Then I went to work going through my collection. Even in this era of being able to find almost any card image on TCDB, etc., I still would rather pull cards from my collection when I can. Yeah, it takes longer and, oh, the putting back , but I'm a slave to tradition.   Here is a look at the team (remember, I didn't pick this team) and a card of each player as a lefty and righty swinger:     Left field: Tim Ra...

I found myself at Walmart on Sunday. I don't recommend it. I was looking at book shelves and picture frames and pool filters. So were a lot of other people. Somehow, I ended up about 18 aisles west and south. Line up the latitude and longitude and you're staring directly at 2011 card product. On a hunch, I grabbed a rack pack of Bowman and a rack pack of Series 2. Bowman yielded a green parallel of Carlos Beltran. No big deal. But Series 2 yielded Superman Alomar. This is one of those legends shortprints. One of those  diamond parallel versions of the legends shortprint. Out of my first rack pack of Series 2. Very cool. But I know this card won't be in my possession for long. This guy gets first shot at the card. He's been too good to me. This guy gets second shot at the card. I've been trying forever to find something he'd want. If, for some reason, neither wants it, then I guess it's up to the next highest bidder. Now, if you'll...

The National Baseball Hall of Fame is expected to announce the 2011 induction class in the next hour or so. I think it's fairly obvious that Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven will be inducted this summer. Instead of raging over who did not get chosen and projecting all of my issues with authority figures onto the folks who select the Hall of Famers, or fuming over people who rage at voters like I did last year , I'm going to avoid all of that. It's starting to get cliche. Instead, this a simple happy post about my favorite cards. I present to you my three favorite Alomar cards and my three favorite Blyleven cards among the ones that I have in my collection. First, the Blyleven cards, because I like him better: No. 3, 1979 Topps: The background looks almost antiseptic, but Blyleven balances that out with a tremendous tribute to 1970s fashion. Square cap, fat golden pinstripes. You could not play for the 1970s Pirates with anything less. 2. 1971 Topps: Shock...

I have already mentioned that I am a set collector above all. Player collecting is not something I think I'll ever understand. Team collecting is something that grows more and more interesting by the day, and it may one day supersede set collecting for me. But for now, like it's always been, I am a set-builder. That said, I've never figured out exactly what my five favorite sets are of all-time. I've always known my absolute favorite -- 1975 Topps . But the rest just kind of hovered around in my brain under the general heading of "I LOVE these cards!" It took a card package from reader Randall to pin down my absolute top 5. He sent me card wants from two great sets -- 1993 Upper Deck and 1971 Topps . That caused me to stop and figure out which sets ruled above all. And this is what I came up with -- in no particular order, except that 1975 Topps is the undisputed king: 1956 Topps 1971 Topps 1975 Topps 1983 Topps 1993 Upper Deck That's the ...