Night Owl Cards

I found myself getting out of bed, getting dressed, and actually eating something before 10 in the morning today. Usually that is not a good thing. The previously mentioned activities are performed under an impending sense of dread if they are done during the morning hours. That's because the only way I am functioning in the morning is for one of the following reasons: a) the car has gone on strike b) we have a lengthy, mind-numbing drive ahead of us c) an epidemic of some kind has invaded the house d somebody needs a lawyer e) I've got 3 feet of water in the basement f) the weather sucks beyond belief Otherwise, I'm in dreamy land until at least 11. But today, all the night owl rules flew the coop. Yesterday I received a pleasant pink notice in the mail, telling me a letter was waiting for my signature at the post office. It cheerily informed me that the post office is open between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Saturdays. Obviously, everyone who works at the pos...

(Welcome to "Moon Day," the day reserved to commemorate, among other lunar-related activities, man's first walk on the moon, which happened exactly 40 years ago today. And to show my appreciation for Neil Armstrong and the boys, how about the 40th Cardboard Appreciation post? See how neatly it ties together?): I have officially removed the redemption card watch from the sidebar. Johnny Cueto's signature arrived in the mailbox on Friday. I'm going to miss the card watch. It was a daily reminder of the foolishness of the redemption card system. And it illustrated nicely just how inefficient a system it is. Not only could Topps not produce a single autographed card within its mandated 105-day deadline, but it took them 67 more days to send it to their customer's address. I could go through a list of all the things that were accomplished during the seven months I waited for the Cueto Stadium Club card to appear, the card sets I completed, the autographs I rece...

It's another weekend of pulling together some loose ends here on the blog. After all, it's not like I have any Topps Series II to feature. I'll start with what I do have. Some of that ghoulish Upper Deck Goudey . And I'll begin by saying something nice: I still like the "heads-up" cards, like the Griffey Jr. here. I know some people are tired of them. I think it's just about the only thing redeeming in the entire set. Because without them you just have cards like this. Yikes. Look at LeBlanc's spooky right eye. I've never heard of this guy, which makes this card even spookier. Maybe it's some demon figure disguising himself as a baseball card with a made-up name in order to hypnotize every collector into joining his underworld army of the damned. On to a different matter and card brand. I recently pulled this gold card of Greg Golson , former Phillie/current Ranger. But I had already pulled a gold card of Golson earlier this year. (One i...

You don't think there are baseball card gods? You doubt that there are baseball card fairies or gremlins or pixies? OK, then how do you explain this? In the last post, I wrote about the slow deterioration of baseball players' penmanship skills. One MMayes of the 1972 Topps Baseball blog ended his comment on the post by saying: "For a fun current autograph, check out Johnny Cueto's card. Looks like a kindergartner printing." About nine hours later, I found myself in Kmart with the family. I was determined to buy something from the store's notoriously poor card selection (don't worry, it didn't cut into the card show budget). The only thing that whispered in my ear was a blaster of Stadium Club (yeah, yeah, I know, I vowed never to buy another SC blaster. Shut up). So I ponied up, and pulled this: Looks like I get to find out how much Cueto's signature resembles those of the 5-year-olds on my block. I've seen Cueto's signature before, so I k...