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'm sure this happens to everyone, but when I'm shopping for other people, most of the time I'm also shopping for myself.   During the Christmas season, especially if I'm in a store that sells cards, I'll swing by the card aisle if there is any cash left after shopping for the significants.   And when I'm looking for cards online for someone, I find myself throwing a few things for myself in the cart, too.   Sometimes when you're shopping for someone else, you end up with a card just because! I think that's what happened with the Devin Mann Bowman Platinum autograph card up top. It arrived from The Diamond King .   I had snagged a couple of cards from his most recent Flash Freebie (it pays to look at people's vacation photos, you guys) to distribute in my 5,000-post giveaway and -- what's this? -- it's my second Devin Mann autograph card! (Devin Mann is in his second year of Double A in Tulsa, but I'll ignore that now).   These were all...

  It's Hall of Fame Week at Night Owl Cards. Normally, I think Hall of Fame talk is tired and I zone out when I see HOF cards or collections. I mean they're not bad or anything, but it's the same as viewing a Mike Trout or Ken Griffey Jr. collection. Another one? Let's move on. But, probably because there hasn't been a Hall of Fame induction ceremony for quite awhile, I'm actually more interested in the festivities than I have been in a few years. And, with very little effort, I've come up with a week's worth of posts regarding the Hall of Fame, which has been no more than a few hours' drive away from me all my life.   So apologies if you're over Hall of Fame chatter, too. I've got HOF posts lined up for today through Thursday. We'll see about Friday -- I've got cards of non-Hall of Famers I've got to show at some point!   Today's post is dedicated to the four people being inducted Wednesday: Derek Jeter, Marvin Miller, Ted S...

One of my childhood favorites was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame yesterday. I haven't been a fan of the Cardinals for decades, but there was a period during the '70s and early '80s when I rooted for them quietly. Some of my favorite cards were Cardinals, players like Lou Brock, Keith Hernandez, Bake McBride, Al Hrabosky and ... Ted Simmons. From the moment I saw his 1975 Topps "Dude Looks Like a Lady" card, owned by the cool kid up the street, something spoke to me about this Simmons character. His cards were pretty awesome and, looking at his stats on the back -- whoa! -- he was GOOD. From there I thought Simmons never received the attention he should have gotten. Overshadowed by Johnny Bench in the National League, and by Fisk and Munson in the American League, Simmons hit the stuffing out of pitchers, all while balancing it with being the Cardinals' primary catcher. Simmons, along with Bench and Fisk and Manny Sanguillen and others, was par...