Night Owl Cards

  As a young baseball fan in the late 1970s, I really wanted the Baseball Encyclopedia.   The one I saw in advertisements in every baseball publication, The Sporting News, Baseball Digest, etc., had been just released in 1977 and it really drew my attention.   I eventually bought the softcover version of the Hy Turkin Baseball Encyclopedia from an ad in Baseball Digest. I don't remember how much it cost but it was a lot for me at the time, maybe $12.99 or something? When it arrived, I took it everywhere. I distinctly remember taking it across the street onto the porch of our lifelong friends, two girls who didn't care a wit about baseball, and just pouring over the details right there on the porch.   The thrill for me was having every player's record, every team's record right there for reference. I never had to wonder about this stat or that, I could pull it off the bookshelf built into my bed and read it right there in bed. And I did. Many times.   I don't kno...

  I received an email yesterday from Bob of the best bubble , informing me that my other Beckett magazine article is out. This one is about my Dodgers fanhood and is in the latest Beckett baseball magazine. I don't have a subscription to that, so I'll have to wait until I have time to find a Barnes & Noble or grocery store that's carrying it. I need the extra time anyway because I haven't even devoted a post yet to my article that is in Beckett Vintage Collector this month. So with two magazine articles out now, and writing almost every day on this blog, and an actual job that involves -- guess what? -- writing, it's obvious that writing is what I do. What I like to do. What I need to do. Who I am, basically. But how did I get here? You'd have to go back to when I was a kid with a flourishing and overwhelming need to read. I read as a child a lot. From Sesame Street books to the Hardy Boys to The Bronx Zoo. By the time I was about 10, just about the only thi...

I hope nobody minds that I'm moving a giant package that I received from Adam of ARPSmith's Sportscard Obsession up in the rotation. I try to show card packages in the order that I get them, and this big ol' box just arrived the other day. My daughter brought it in while searching the mailbox for college textbooks (poor dear) and said, "this is heavy!" But the stuff in here is so cool, I just had to get to it right away. I promise I won't forget anybody else's cards. As you might know, Adam purchased a huge collection from a collector and it's staged a coup in his basement. He needs to rid himself of some of the cards so he can, you know, move around in his home. There was so much variety in what Adam had to offer that I was bound to find something I wanted, and I did. Adam sent me a bunch of early '80s non-Topps needs, specifically 1981 Fleer, 1982 Donruss and 1983 Fleer. Also, since I'm always intrigued by Topps sets from when I w...