Night Owl Cards

You ever get paranoid about using the same blog title more than once? I do. I had to look up whether I had used this one before and it turns out I did. So I stuck a "2" on the end of it, like they do with movie sequels, which are automatically easier movies to make because no one had to come up with a title. But this title works because it refers to two envelopes that I received in the mail recently that both featured autographed cards. "Wow," I thought, "Is this what we're doing with card packages now? Because if we are, I'm in trouble." Here is a card certifiably autographed by former Dodger set-up man extraordinaire, that is if he wasn't injured all the time. This came from madding at Cards On Cards . I always remember Hong-Chih Kuo for dominating the Mets while I was out at some restaurant. I really wanted to see Kuo pulverize them on the TV that was tantalizingly close to me, but the people around the table kept demanding f...

When you sit and stare at a stack of cards, and then sit and stare at them again, and then sit and stare at them again , you eventually realize something about them. Some cards make me happy, some cards make me unhappy, and some cards, well, I just look at them and think "what's this supposed to be?" That's rather obvious, I guess, but I thought it was interesting that I could get all of that out of one stack of cards sent to me by Zippy Zappy Kenny from Cervin' Up Cards . I'll start with "happy" first because some people get through only the first few lines of a post and then are distracted by college football, or food, or going outside and actually living. Shallow people. Here is the happiest happy. It features the following happy elements: vintage, Brooklyn Dodger, card from the '50s, known baseball character, dude named "Preacher", card off my want list, and just the right amount of wear. Seven happy points for 1954...

The recent news that Chad Billingsley is finished for the season because of sore elbow is not going to help the Dodgers' playoff chances any. It's very disappointing because I've always been a fan of Billingsley, through all of his infuriating struggles and his endless habit of playing head games with himself. The fact that he was struck down in the middle of one of the greatest success streaks of his career -- possibly the "ah ha!" moment of his career -- is even more heartbreaking. But I'm not ready to write him off, even though it's possible that he may need Tommy John surgery. If you're someone from my generation, TJ surgery is the "Uh Oh" announcement of baseball medical procedures. The sign that a player may never be right again. This goes back to the fact that I remember the news of John recuperating from the surgery and all of the "experts" who said how dicey it was. Even though John recovered in spectacular fashion t...

AP If you're a Dodger fan and you're still trying to absorb this weekend's trade and what it all means, then, welcome to my little club. I call it "The Ghost of George Steinbrenner Has Possessed My Team." I have never witnessed such a gambling acquisition of star players since Steinbrenner was in power with the Yankees. It's a fantasy league trade. It's a trade dreamed up in comic books. It's crazy. It's bizarre. I'd almost say it's ridiculous, but I'm hoping that somebody in upper Dodger management knows what he's doing. I don't know how to feel because I've spent virtually my entire baseball-rooting career bagging on a certain team for buying players. It feels kind of good, but it feels kind of bad. And it all feels kind of unsettled. Throw in the fact that when Fox owned the Dodgers, it tried to do something like this on a slightly less grand scale and it exploded in every Dodger fan's face. I'm not ...

This is one of the fancier night cards that you will see. The base card version is snazzy as it is, with the artificial night light glowing behind Rubby De La Rosa's fireball delivery. But the diamond parallel version? Tremendous. I was lucky enough to be able to snare this from Jeff of My Sports Obsession . Jeff was just minding his own business, trying to post cards on his own blog, for crying out loud, when a gaggle of Dodgers bloggers descended upon him. When I first started as a young blogger, the primary team of choice for bloggers was Indians, Mets or Braves. Now it's Dodgers. It creates awkward situations in which unsuspecting bloggers don't have enough of my favorite team to go around because hungry Dodger collectors surround them constantly while screaming "FEED ME!" I've missed out on a card or two because of this, but I know how to work a room, so I haven't been forced to shop elsewhere yet. And I won't if I can continue to get cool ...

I am trying to rid myself of the habit of referring to certain major league ballplayers as "nobodies." I know it's a common phrase used by baseball fans. It refers to players who are on the fringe of the major leagues. They could be rookies, and others not so hopeful, who are called to the bigs. They could be pinch-hitters, mid-inning relievers, and late-inning substitutions. But the phrase has gotten myself into trouble a few times. In this hyper-sensitive world, some people have objected to reading my reference of a player as a "nobody." The protests usually come from those connected to the player -- family members, etc. -- or those connected to the team, fans proud of their knowledge of their squad and eager to share it with the less informed. I'm not trying to rid myself of the term because of those people. Those are their hang-ups, not mine. I'm trying to do so because calling players "nobodies" is in direct opposition to my colle...