Night Owl Cards

  I mentioned the other day that I picked up this 1953 Bowman Color Gil Hodges card on the occasion of his announcement to the Hall of Fame. It arrived yesterday and I'm proud to display it in all of its majesty.   The various creases and folds, the flecks of paper loss, cannot mask one of the greatest pictures of Ebbets Field to ever appear on a baseball card.   I'm aware that the setting is likely mid-day, possibly under overcast skies, but the yellow sign above and to the left of the red Bulova Watch sign makes it appear in my mind as a scene at dusk. Wishful thinking, of course.   But the star of the show, besides brand-new Hall of Famer Hodges, out in right-center field is the familiar Schaefer Beer scoreboard (with the Bulova clock at the top!). It's one of the certain indicators that your baseball card setting is in one of the most famous bygone ballparks in history.   The scoreboard began advertising Schaefer's beer in 1947 and I didn't know until today...

When I first saw this Score disc card (I'm not sure which year it is -- 1991 or 1992 it looks like), I had an instant flashback to the round cards that were sold with whiffle ball bats during the 1970s. Does anyone remember those? They were white and yellow and had a player's black-and-white head shot in the middle. My brother and I had a couple of those cards. Anyway, this card and a whole mess of other Dodgers came from reader Randall. He contacted me a couple of weeks ago and said he was a Dodger fan and had a bunch of extra cards he thought I'd like. It turns out that Randall is almost down the road from me. Just a few hours away. I love seeing Dodger fans on the east coast! I received the package on Monday, so it's about time I reveal the contents. Lots of good stuff in here from a very generous collector. I'll start with some old-time Dodgers since I've been watching that Don Larsen no-hitter on the MLB Network quite a bit since yesterday. (One of these t...

(Some more "appreciation days": Bike Messenger Appreciation Day (Oct. 9), Neighbor Appreciation Day (Seattle only), Elephant Appreciation Day (Sept. 22). But still no BASEBALL CARD COLLECTORS APPRECIATION DAY. Oh well, on to appreciating the cards. This is the 10th in a series): What is it about cards that feature scoreboards that make the cards so much more interesting? Is it the fact that it gives us something to read on the front as well as the back ? Is it the fact that we're so accustomed to seeing sky and stadium seats in the background that this is a welcome relief? I think it's the fact that there is nothing quite so eye-catching as a stadium scoreboard. When I go to a game, it is one of the first things I look at, whether the scoreboard is electronic or manually operated. Scoreboards are full of immediate information, and the modern-day bells and whistles are a plus. All the pretty lights and colors tickle my fancy! One person who is not tickled by the scor...