Night Owl Cards

  I received one of those mammoth flat-rate boxes from Johnny's Trading Spot recently. I don't have time to go through it all today, but the play-by-play is coming soon, maybe even tomorrow.   What I have today is just a small segment of that package.   Pocket schedules.   I've mentioned before that pocket schedules might be the collectible that most closely resembles baseball cards. They're about baseball, they're different every year while still containing some of the same elements, and for the most part, they fit in nine-pocket pages just like trading cards.   I don't go out of my way to add pocket schedules. Every one that I have that is Dodger-related has been sent to me by someone. (I have a few random ones from games I've attended or covered). But it would be nice if I could own a Dodgers pocket schedule for each year. So Johnny sent a few that I had and a few that were new. I've included them in pages already, so let's quickly go through wha...

If I want to be impressed/disturbed by how old the set is that I'm currently "attempting" to complete, all I have to do is look up the songs that were popular the year the set was released. For 1967 Topps, those songs would be "All You Need Is Love," "Respect," and "Groovin'," among many others. It doesn't take much analysis to know those groups and even many of the singers are long gone. "The Summer Of Love" is more than 50 years ago now, and what the heck am I doing trying to complete a set that old? Still "Groovin'" fits with how I'm attempting to collect the set. I don't want to think about the impossible high numbers -- as impossible as high numbers get -- right now. I just want to relax and enjoy the '67 Topps cards that are coming to me. Oh, 1967 Topps: life would be ecstasy, you and me endlessly, groovin'. Surprisingly, people have been sending me '67 Topps recently, and one...

The latest card release news is that Topps has resurrected its Total brand from around the turn of the century but has turned it into an online product that is distributed in stages, so they can hook collectors throughout the year. I am steering very clear of this reboot because even though 2019 Total contains the same vast checklist and a comprehensive view of each team, the cost aspect that helped make Total Total is not there. It appears that the new version will cost you a buck a card. That's too much for me for this set. Honestly, the look of Total has always been a drawback for me and it's enough to ignore it. Many collectors who bought packs of Total during its first appearances (when I was not collecting at all), pine for the days of Total and the very appearance of Total's dull, dull, dull, dull, duuuullll design throws them into fits of nostalgia. I appreciate the original Total's mission and its low cost, but, I am superficial when it comes to card...

There was a card show near me this weekend for the first time in months. I didn't go. This happens to be the busiest work weekend of the year (nice timing, card show). I've barely had time enough to blog, and you know how I must blog. Pre-scanned, non-cards are about all I have space for today. Fortunately, there was just such a thing in the draft folder. Julie, from A Cracked Bat, sent me this pocket schedule back in January and I showed it then. But I wanted to do a little contrasting and comparing. This schedule is from the 1974 season, the year in which the Dodgers played in the World Series, falling to the A's in five games. It was the breakout season for Steve Garvey, the All-Star MVP that year, and other players like Ron Cey, Jimmy Wynn, Mike Marshall, Andy Messersmith and Bill Buckner vaulted the youthful Hollywood squad into an era that would produce four World Series in eight years. But times were different then and all you have to do is look at the sch...

I just counted how many 1975 Topps minis I need to complete the set. And it happens to be exactly 100. I consider that a milestone to celebrate. If you knew what I have heard about collecting '75 minis my whole collecting life, you would be aware of how mind-blowing it is that I am just 100 cards away. Long before we were bombarded with "rare cards" and artificial scarcity, '75 minis were considered one of the more difficult cards to obtain from the '70s and '80s era. And yet -- 100 left. That's some cool beans. The person who got me down to 100 is The Junior Junkie . T.J. has this guy that he knows at card shows who always has '75 minis. In fact, he calls him "his mini guy." I really, really need one of those guys in my life. Where do you get one? But a sad little note accompanied this latest package of '75 minis. It said -- let me wipe away some tears here so I can read it: "This is the last of my mini guy's co...

Today is Shawn Green's 41st birthday. I recently received a bunch of Dodgers from reader and Dodger fan Stewart that included a smattering of Green cards. Green will always be my Mark McGwire or Sammy Sosa. I don't mean that in a negative, steroid-driven way, although there have been a number of PED accusations lodged at Green. I mean that in a "my team has a player who can MASH" way. The Dodgers don't possess as significant a history of sluggers as others teams do. I've mentioned that several times. Their slugging period was back in the 1950s. That was a long time ago. So when Gary Sheffield hit 43 in 2000 and Green hit 49 and 42 in 2001 and 2002, it was a feeling I've never felt before. "The Dodgers actually hit home runs! A lot!!!" While everyone was drooling over McGwire, Sosa and Griffey, I was picking up the paper to see if Green hit another home run or two. I still think it's an injustice that he finished sixth in the MVP ...