Night Owl Cards

  Have you heard, or noticed, that the American League as of this writing has just two winning teams?   I'm sure interleague play is to blame for that and it will straighten itself out during the season but it might be time to break out the old "junior circuit" label for the moment. That's a very National League fan thing for me to do.   Seven years ago I wrote a couple of posts about National League and American League MVPs. I wanted to update those posts while the National League and American League are still a thing. Also the Dodgers have won two MVP awards since I last did this.   In 2024      And in 2025   Also, since I last did this, two Braves, a Cardinal and a Phillie have won the NL MVP, so here are the updated NL MVP team standings:   Cardinals 18, Dodgers 14, Giants 13, Reds 12, Cubs 9, Phillies 9, Braves 8, Pirates 7, Brewers 2 (NL Brewers, we'll get to AL Brewers), Astros 1 (NL Astros), Marlins 1, Nationals 1, Padres 1, Rockies 1...

    One of my "unwritten" vows to myself in writing this blog is to try to make each post relatively original. I know not all of them are. I have specific blog series so each of those have a theme. And anything that is a "look at the new cards I got" can be lumped together as the same idea. But I try to make those trade posts and "got cards" posts as creative as I can. I've been trying to do that for years. I don't know why I'm so hell-bent on this -- other bloggers repeat stuff all the time -- but the thought of repeating a subject without knowing I'm repeating it, which I'm sure I've done, has been one of my worst blogging fears. Well, welcome to my nightmare. I made the same post within a year back in March and I'm just realizing it now.   It dawned on me that I wrote about the same topic two different times in remarkably the same way when I was writing the latest edition of the 1975 Topps worst to best countdown. As I often ...

  I'm in a writing stage that often happens around this time of year where ideas don't come easily and time is short.   I am fortunate to have a lengthy backlog of posts and several post themes. But even with those aids, it takes time to find the right one, expand on an idea, track down the cards, scan/upload the cards, and write, write, write.   Sometimes, like yesterday, I am down to the final 40 minutes before work or some other obligation calls, when I strike upon the right thing. But NO TIME!   So, that's why there wasn't a post last night but there is one now.   Several years ago, it's been nine to be exact, I wrote a post featuring all the Topps cards in which the card number on the back matched with the year of the card. For example, card No. 52 in the 1952 Topps set is Don Mueller. I showed each of the cards all the way up to the most recent year, which at the time was 2014 Topps.   I resolved to update that post yearly. Then I forgot. The next ti...