Night Owl Cards

  I tell ya, clearing snow on a daily basis is not only a lot of work but it's very time-consuming. Where's night owl been? Outside trying to put snow on top of snowbanks taller than me, that's where.   So, I don't have a lot here, just some self-examination.   I was thinking a few weeks ago about my favorite players when I was a kid. You know some of them. For instance, Ron Cey. He was probably a lot of fans' favorites, but he didn't have nearly as many fans as his teammate, Steve Garvey. Cey was the underdog. I gravitated toward him, probably partly because he wasn't Steve Garvey.   My interest in the underdog was even more pronounced when it came to the Dodgers' pitching staff from that time. My favorite was not Don Sutton. Nor was it Tommy John. It wasn't even No. 3 starter, Burt Hooton. No, it was Doug Rau.   I can't really tell you why. I just liked him. I think I liked to attach myself to the lesser-known guy and then urge him on to succes...

Circumstances over the past 24 hours have me thinking about legacies, specifically how you will be remembered and what you will leave behind. There was a shooting in my city yesterday, one of those horrific workplace shootings in which two people died senselessly and the entire community was turned upside down. This type of thing is disturbingly common now but it's an awful first for my city and it took place on the same block where I work. One building away.   It makes you think about a lot of things. One of the big ones is "have I done enough to be remembered?"   Oh, there are those who think that type of talk is selfish and "who cares" and "I'm going to live how I want to live and who gives a damn if anyone remembers me." Great. Enjoy that train wreck. I think it's natural to think about your legacy, your contribution. Legacies aren't just for famous people, celebrities or sports figures, Kirk Gibson limping around the bases on video for...

I've been sitting on an envelope from Billy for a little bit too long. Billy, who has crazy luck pulling cards, lately has been my regular supplier of two things: 1991 BBM Hideo Nomo rookie cards and 1975 Topps buybacks. If you're going to specialize in sending out two particular items, you cannot do better than that. Billy sent me another BBM Nomo rookie card a couple of years ago . I did a breakdown of the set and Nomo's relationship with it then. Suffice to say, Nomo doesn't just have a lot of rookie cards in 1995 American card products. He dominated the Japanese market in rookie cards a full four years earlier, possibly even earlier than that. So, Billy sent me two more of Nomo's 1991 rookies, the card above and this card here: Pretty cool. I now have three of the BBM Nomos. I think only two or three to go. Here are the backs of both recent pickups: I'm assuming the same text is on each card. Those most definitely are not Nomo's s...

We received the diagnosis on my mom last Wednesday. She has ALS. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Lou Gehrig's Disease. We already knew that she had it. We've known since January. Before that we thought she might have Alzheimer's, or a nerve disease, whose complicated name I once had memorized but so much has transpired since that there's only room for knowledge of what can help my mom right now. It's taken so long to get to this diagnosis because for so many years, my mom was in perfect health, a literal walking example of how to behave physically and mentally when you're in your 70s. My siblings and I now believe -- with the benefit of hindsight -- that she probably had this disease for two or three years already and either didn't realize it or kept it hid (we have found indications that she knew something was wrong). So, even though it feels like it took forever for a diagnosis to be made, many others have said, "it happened so quickly ....

I am not inferring anything about these two gentlemen. This is merely a blog title to get to a point. The February edition of Beckett Vintage magazine is now available everywhere and anyone who wants to read the article I wrote for it has probably done so or has pretended to do so. I've been charmed by the people I know who have absolutely zero interest in baseball cards who have read the entire piece and have supposedly enjoyed it. It's nice of them to say so. I am just getting going on another story for Beckett Vintage. I know my story topic and I have the deadline date. So this may be a regular thing, guys, and that's pretty awesome and also pretty weird. You see, in some ways I have been an adversary of Beckett and publications like it. I am the enemy of the very industry that I enjoy and adore so much, the magazine industry. I enjoyed magazines so much growing up and wanted to write for them so much that when blogs came along, I was instantly attracted to t...

My one sister-in-law, who is older than me, refuses to join Facebook. You may consider this a wise move given that the book of face is overrun with politics, babies and selfies. But that's not the reason why she's not on there. She's not on there because she's old and resistant. If she knew I was writing about this (or that I called her "old and resistant"), she would be quite upset. She also refuses to get a cell phone or text or do anything with a computer actually. We younger people laugh about it and lament how she's shutting herself out. There are so many things we could share with her if only she would budge a little. Then there's part of me that wonders if she's the wise one. Go with me on this: In today's world, we are inundated with what young people think is "cool," "wise," "important," "relevant," etc. This has been the way for a long time with advertising, etc. But it's louder...

When you get to a certain age, you are constantly aware of how little time there is. And, if you've played your life cards in a certain manner, you know that there are four important categories in your life. And figuring out a way to devote the proper amount of time to all four at the same time is life's greatest mystery. Faith, family, work and health -- go ahead -- try to spend time equally on each. It's almost impossible. I've found I can handle three of them perfectly well, but I have to ignore the fourth to do it. There are just not enough hours in the day to devote to all four in equal fashion. So that requires choices: which very important element of my life am I going to ignore today? All four require one's absolute attention. If you ignore one of them, you are sure to get a heap of shit for it at some point. So I spend most of my time ignoring one out of necessity, juggling the one I ignore to spread out the neglect a little, and then making it u...