Night Owl Cards

Last week, while navigating in the haze brought on by my work shift change, I happened to check my email and came across a note from the son of a major league baseball player. It took me awhile to figure out exactly what it was or who it was. I barely know the time most days of the week, but the man sending the email said he had worked the night shift, too, and, oh by the way, what a great write-up you did on my dad! The son of former Red Sox and Giants catcher Russ Gibson had dropped a line to let me know how much he appreciated my 1971 Topps post on his father. "Funny and factual," he said, which I'm happy to say are two key goals of my writing. He said he loved it, in capital letters. Then he told a story. The email was sent shortly after the Yankees-Red Sox brawl. A friend of Gibson's son on Facebook had asked why the Red Sox catcher had not tried to stop Tyler Austin from charging the mound (I often wonder this as I watch the catcher just stand there). ...

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...

I am always surprised by who is reading this blog. It's not that I don't have any confidence in what I write here, it's just that I wonder who besides card collectors could possibly find it interesting. A few days ago I received an email from a woman who merely wanted to comment on my reference to former player Steve Brye . I had stupidly mentioned that when we were kids, my brother made Brye the favorite player of his stuffed lion. Well, this woman found that amusing. She left a light-hearted email to tell me so. She also said that her husband is Brye's cousin. Of course, that makes me wonder if that bit of information I wrote will ever get back to Brye . In which case I will have gotten my brother back for every single time he got me in trouble with the parents. Anyway, I am going to feature some other viewer mail, namely card packages from viewers of my blog! Once again, I'm showing three packages at once, because I am at least a week behind on these things. A...