Night Owl Cards

  I came across this card while researching a topic a couple days ago. I have this card, acquired fairly recently in my attempt to complete the 1970 Topps set. I had no idea of its significance. It is the only card of Paul Edmondson. Even though he started 13 games in his first major league season in 1969 and pitched fairly well, he'd never have another card. He'd never pitch in another game. He was killed in an automobile accident the day after his birthday in February 1970, and so his card is another one of those cards that was pulled from packs after the player had passed. I thought I knew all the examples of players who died during their careers, of cards issued of players living when the photo was taken but no longer living when the packs were opened. Roberto Clemente, Don Wilson, Danny Frisella, Yordano Ventura, Ken Hubbs. I've written about some of them on the blog. Here is another one. I don't like writing about this one, not on this day, the anniversary of the ...

Have you ever stopped to consider your greatest collecting fear? Maybe you haven't. It's not exactly anything you want to think about in what's supposed to be a fun hobby. Fear should never enter any room filled with cards. But if you reflect for a moment, I'm sure you can think of the big fears that most collectors have, even if they exist only in the deep dark recesses of your brain. The two biggest ones I can think of are: losing your entire collection in a fire, or having no one to take on your collection after you die. Happy topic, right? But those terrible fears are too distant for me to keep me up at night. I operate on a more day-to-day level because it's more realistic. And for me, the greatest realistic collecting fear I have is that I will have some significant hole in an easy-to-complete set that I thought was completed ages ago. This is why it drives me crazy when I discover some card that I needed that I think I should have had already. Fo...

( Programming note: My printer/scanner is officially fighting with my computer. They're not speaking at all, and I don't see a peaceful resolution. This means that without an ability to scan, blog posts are going to dry up soon. I have maybe two or three thoughts worth posting here and then it will be a desperate attempt to pull something out of the draft folder, which isn't very deep. Then, when I am so guilt-ridden over the crap I'm producing out of there, it will go silent here at NOC for a little while. That also means anyone who has sent or will send me stuff, will wait awhile before you see it here. As for the two set blogs -- '71 and '85 -- I am instantly regretting that I didn't scan cards in advance as I did with the '75 blog. You'll have to wait for those to restart again. On the good side, this will allow me to make a more concerted effort to send out cards. I'm way behind again. And ... oh, yeah .. there's that thing called l...

Some people don't believe in God. An omniscient, all-powerful entity that sees all, knows all and loves all is beyond their abilities of comprehension. I'm not one of those people. I'm not going to go into the reasons why or have a debate. This is not a theological blog. But I will give you the one-word reason for why I do believe. Faith. Nothing different than the next believer. Faith, or "trust," runs the world in many ways. It runs churches, hospitals and schools. It's the undercurrent in business, government and functioning society. It creates good neighbors, marriages, parents and children. We owe a lot of what's good in the world to faith, the belief in the good of your fellow man, and the belief in the good of a divine god. Because, let's face it, if there were no believers -- no one who believed in the good of God and no one who believed in the good of their fellow man, anarchy would be everyone's No. 1 problem. Belief is v...

Nineteen years ago today, Darryl Kile tossed a no-hitter against the Mets in the Astrodome. He walked only one batter, but it was costly. Two batters later, Kile threw a wild pitch. Catcher Scott Servais thought the ball had hit the batter and didn't chase it. First baseman Jeff Bagwell ran in and tried to throw runner Jeff McKnight out at third, but threw wildly and McKnight scored. And that's how Kile threw a no-hitter in a 7-1 game. Of course, Kile is now known less for the no-hitter and more as a member of that club of sadness, baseball players who died while their careers were still active. A number of notables are in that group. Thuman Munson, Roberto Clemente, Ray Chapman and Addie Joss. More recently there's been Greg Halman, Nick Adenhart, Josh Hancock and Joe Kennedy. I am of an age where those who departed this earth in the late 1970s had the greatest impact. I was too young to be devastated by the death of Clemente or Astros pitcher Don Wilson. ...

I am conflicted about death. Oh, don't get me wrong. I think it's generally a negative. I'm not inviting it over to the house for crackers and tea or taking a bus tour to funeral homes. It's just that when death happens in baseball, opportunity follows. Last month, Billy Loes died. He's a former Brooklyn Dodger, who pitched during the team's 1950s heyday. I had read about him in several books over the years, but just about everything I had learned had evaporated from my memory. The only thing that remained was that he was a Dodger, he pitched in the '50s, and he was kind of goofy. But upon Loes' death, I had the chance to rediscover him. And what I found out was that Loes wasn't necessarily goofy. He was honest. Loes said what was on his mind, and I always appreciate that. When Loes was asked about being a 20-game winner, he said he didn't want to be one: "because then I'd be expected to do it every year." That quote...

I'm not breaking any news in saying that you're not going to live forever. Maybe it's something you don't think about that much. Maybe it's something that you think about a lot. My question is, do you think about it in terms of your card collection? I do. What will happen to my cards after, you know, the tombstone reads "Here lies the smartest man in the universe: he collected Dodger cards"? Do you think about that? Some people say they'll pass their collection down to their children. That's great. It's probably the best option. But what if your children aren't interested in cards? My daughter isn't. Perhaps you wait for grandchildren and hope they like the hobby. Or maybe you sell them. That's always a thought in my head. Whatever I'd get in exchange for my cards would be a paltry amount, but at least it would be more than what I had before I sold them. (To those of you who think, "why would you sell such treasured memori...