Night Owl Cards

  Hey, it's July. My favorite month. Maybe I can celebrate by surpassing the record-low number of posts I made to this blog last month.   I never would have figured that June would be the month with my lowest total ever. If I had to guess, it certainly would be March. But I posted just 12 times last month, four less than my previous low, which was in May 2019 when my mom passed.   Nothing happened in June nearly as tragic as six years ago but just a firestorm of everything: multiple writing assignments outside of this blog, constant vehicle issues, the present job schedule and this past weekend, in which I went out of town for my nephew's graduation.   It's the final high school graduation for all the nieces and nephews. All done. Probably no high school graduations again unless I make it for a grandkid's ceremony. While I was in Buffalo, I made sure to return to Dave and Adam's.     I never spend too much time around the clothing, it's all too expensive, e...

  I know, or have come across, several fans my age or older who are no longer interested in major league baseball as it's played now. I've also read or written a good number of profiles on former players who say they don't watch the game anymore. It just doesn't look like the game they know and played. Whether you think that is a closed-minded way of thinking or a natural reaction as people grow older, it's very apparent to me that those who play MLB now are different than the players who played in the '70s, '80s and even much of the '90s when I was younger and much more of a fan. Just about every day -- especially now that it's the postseason -- the difference hits me in the face. As I'm scrolling through the limited number of photos available (a rant for another time) to use when I'm producing the sports section for my paper, I regularly see players screaming into the air as if they had just smote the enemy on a bloody battlefield. It strik...

  I'm taking inspiration for this post from The Shlabotnik Report . OK, it's outright copying, but I can claim it's a Blog Bat-Around and it's all good. Shlabotnik's post listed the most common surnames according to the 2010 U.S. Census (this made me wonder if there was a 2020 U.S. Census and there was but apparently that same stat hasn't been updated, or I just can't find it because searching the web is much more of a disaster now). He then found the best Mets player for each of the 10 most common surnames . I shall do the same with the Dodgers. Per usual, the "best" can mean a couple different things. Is it the best player overall or a player at his best when he was with the Dodgers? I am going to interpret it both ways, depending on the name, as you will see. All right here are some names that I'm sure have also been used as aliases a time or two. I'll assume all these guys were using their real name when they were playing.   1. SMITH Th...

  Set collectors know that it takes a long time to get to the completion finish line. For example, I'm very close to finishing off a set (probably in the next couple days) that has taken seven years to finish -- and it took even longer if you count those random cards from the set I had as a youth. But, yeah, seven years is nothing in the set-collecting world. I admit, I don't think about the length of time much. I probably wouldn't collect sets as avidly if I focused on the duration all the time. I do, however, note mini-milestones along the way to completion. I need those little celebrations and it provides a boost to keep going. For example, the card above is the final card I needed from the non-SP portion of the 2024 Topps Heritage set. Yay, mini-milestone! It arrived from the Shlabotnik Report . (I think that may be the first time I've received cards from him, which is wild). The same card also arrived again today, which I'll get to. Isn't that always the wa...