Night Owl Cards

Not long into starting this blog I discovered that people have it together far more than I do. While I'm stumbling through life trying to figure out where I put my snowbrush, how I'm going to pay for any Christmas presents and why I forgot to get a haircut again, others already have the who, what, when, where, why and how marked, targeted and checked off. But I did do one thing right. I started a blog about baseball cards. Because of that, those very together people take time out at this time of year to send me Christmas card packages. I'm in awe of their planning. Christmas card packages mean I will get exactly what I want every Christmas. It balances out the socks and gloves. It adds fun to what can be a humdrum part of the holiday for an adult. It basically means better Christmas gifts than before I had a blog. How do I determine whether it's a Christmas package? Well, they wish me a Merry Christmas, duh. Some are especially together and send a holiday ...

If you're a dad, like me, you probably don't want to be bothered today. That's my No. 1 request for today. Don't bother me. If you want to get me gifts, fine. If you want to tell me I'm great or that you love me, fine. If you want to do all the chores I usually do, fine. But, really, all I want is -- and don't take this personally -- is not to be bothered. Today, I plan to eat. I plan to sleep. I plan to watch baseball. I would like to get through the day without doing anything else. That would be a terrific Father's Day. Because, you see, dads spend just about every other day of the year being bothered. I know I do. Here are just some of the things that bother me: My job, my health, my folks, my neighbors, my boss, my computer, my computer at work, my taxes, my house, my car, my other car, my driveway, my garage, my dog, my inability to get anything done no matter how hard I try A few other things that bother me: The 48 million passwords I m...

The Dodgers are scaring me. They're starting to do things that make me take them seriously. As in, they seriously could contend for a postseason spot. They just swept the best-hitting team in the National League in three very unusual games. They just won their 12th one-run game, best in the majors. They did all of this with a left fielder, center fielder, second baseman, third baseman, another third baseman and a couple of relievers on the DL. Oh, and their shortstop isn't hitting or fielding at ALL. This is a team that scares me. A team that wins in spite of itself. I cannot help but get sucked in by a team like this. I mean, come on. A team with the best record in baseball, but no one knows how they got it? I am a major sucker for that kind of team. And that's what scares me. So I watched each day this weekend. On Friday, a catcher that no one outside of Los Angeles knows, who is unbelievably 10th in the National League in hitting, draws a walk-off walk afte...

Bowman is not meant for me. I try to say that every time I mention Bowman because I'm sure there is some Bowman lover reading me bashing on his favorite product who is saying over and over "BOWMAN IS NOT FOR YOU! QUIT BITCHING!!!!" So, just so you know, I know that Bowman is not for me. I know this because of the Scott Van Slyke card here. I received this card way back in one of my first blog trades almost four years ago. I believe it was from Dinged Corners. They liked to send wacky photos like this and this is a wacky one. Van Slyke is the son of former Pirates outfielder, the wacky Andy Van Slyke, and I've said before that I'm convinced Bowman only printed a card of Scott so they could use the photo here. He wasn't considered a big prospect at the time, which is evidenced by the back of the card in which the first line of his resume says "Placed sixth on Great Lakes roster in 2007 with 89 hits." Placed sixth. In hits. On a Low Class A...