Night Owl Cards

Today the Dodgers beat the Cardinals to catch the Giants. That might be my favorite sentence ever. In the latest example of you can't predict ball, the Dodgers won 3 of 4 from the Cardinals and are now tied with the Giants for first place in the NL West after San Francisco once held a 9-plus game lead. Oh, and Andre Ethier, who I think is hitting in Rob Deer territory -- minus the home runs -- delivered a three-run blast in today's game. I'm so elated all I can do is show these cards. They are from Chris at View From The Skybox , who I wish the best of luck in his job search. The Triple Threads Captain Clutch card is actually from last year, not 2009 when Ethier really was a clutch hitter. The card back reports that he's had 12 walk-off hits in his career. I'd be stunned if any of them happened since people admitted to watching "Glee". Clayton Kershaw exhibited his usual domination that will prevent me from ever acquiring another autogr...

Last month, Chris from View From the Skybox put on a charity group break to benefit children affected by the massive typhoon that hit the Philippines last year. I've pretty much cut myself off from all group breaks in the last couple of years, but this one drew my interest. Collecting cards is a hobby and is mostly about myself. This was a chance to make my hobby about someone else, something bigger. I missed out on grabbing the Dodgers in the break, which after viewing the acquisitions by the person who did get the Dodgers, is probably a good thing. Most of them would've been dupes. Normally not getting the Dodgers would eliminate my interest in a group break. But this was different. The money was going to people in need and I had to join regardless. So why not join in the spirit of charity and get some cards for someone else? So that's what I did. I got some good cards, too. Unfortunately, this is where the post falls apart. I can't show you the cards...

Here is an unusual card from Chris of View From The Skybox . It's a pretty cool night scene from the 1995 Phil Rizzuto's Baseball National Pastime set put out by Comics Images. It's an all-chrome set from back in the day when we were supposed to call it "chromium," in as reverent a voice as possible and then "ooh" and "aah" afterward. Like all of the images in this unlicensed set, it's a picture of a bygone era. This is Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, which was home of the Pirates from 1909 to 1970. It doesn't exist anymore and neither does its replacement, Three Rivers Stadium, which was imploded in 2001. Three stadiums in 31 years seems a bit excessive if you ask me. But back to the card. In hand, it's fairly dark. Holding it under a light brings it to life. It seems like one of those cards that if you kept it under a light for awhile and then went into a darkened room, it would glow in the dark. Sadly it does not (yes, I tri...

No, it's not Mariano Duncan. I just put that card there so the blog roll wouldn't give the title away. I'm sneaky like that. With the number of cards issued for everyone in baseball these days, it's pretty easy to obtain a sizable collection of your favorites. Although I wouldn't call myself a player-collector, my favorites happen to be Kershaw, Hershiser, Cey, Nomo, etc., and I have hundreds of cards for all those guys. I also have a decent collection of guys I don't care about at all. I have 16 cards of Jeremy Hermida. How that happened, I have no idea. I can barely tell you anything about him. I even had trouble typing his name out correctly just now. I have 36 cards of Todd Helton. He kills the Dodgers. What am I doing with that many cards of mountain man? I have 35 cards of both Milton Bradley and Ryan Braun. Hell, that's ugly. Even managers are relatively easy to obtain. I have nine cards for Whitey Herzog, 14 for Bobby Cox, 15 for Tony ...