Night Owl Cards

Every year on this day -- the day after Christmas -- I write a post about what cards I didn't get. I'm sick of writing those. So instead I'll address another post-holiday card activity, which is filing away the year's cards. I do this every year. From the beginning of the card season, usually in late January, until December, I stack the year's cards on a desk in the card room. Each set -- Topps flagship, Heritage, Chrome, A&G, Opening Day, Bowman, etc. -- receives its own stack. Whatever I decided to buy from that year is out in the open for all the world to see, provided they enter the card room. As the seasons change to spring, summer and fall, each of the stacks grow and more are added. Some years there are lots of stacks and they get so high that I have to split them up. In 2009 I had cards all over the place. In 2012 and this year, there wasn't much to notice. In December, I start cataloging. I file each of the cards into the spreadsheet an...

I stopped doing "Sick Scoreboard Card" posts because including "sick" in a blog post suddenly started triggering nonstop clickage by the web bots. I don't fully understand why this is or anything about the "bot" world really, but at the time I was trying to honestly evaluate which posts drew the most readers. Seeing any post with "sick" in it automatically surging to the top of the stats made the whole process laughable. I've since realized that it is impossible to get a handle on your blog readership (because we can't have nice things), and I've stopped caring anymore. Go ahead, make this post for which I'm dedicating very little effort, my most "read" post of all-time. Knock yourself out. I don't care. What I do care about is seeing scoreboards on cards. There aren't many good examples in 2013 Topps. The few that exist don't feature the scoreboard in anything but an incidental way. A cou...

It's Monday. The Monday after an extended holiday break. I'm in need of a softball post. How 'bout you? This is a card that won't get in the way of you figuring out which game is depicted on its front. In fact, you might have more difficulty figuring out the pitcher on the mound, given Topps' two-decade-long foil addiction. But I'll go easy on you on that one, too. It's Jon Garland, the two-time Dodger pitcher slumming it with the Diamondbacks. For the specific game information, we go to the broad scoreboard display behind our cardboard hero. It's immediately above the commercial for reblended tap water and the commercial that has ruined your viewing of the NCAA basketball tournament for most of the 2000s. (Sorry, Black Friday tends to bring out my anti-corporate side). It's obvious from the scoreboard that Garland is pitching in the middle of Interleague Season. Plus, since this is a card from the 2009 Topps Update set and Garland began p...

Sometimes I make things too difficult. And by "sometimes," I mean a good three quarters of the pie. Take this sick scoreboard card, for instance. It's one of my favorites from the 1977 Topps set. Why wouldn't I love a card of Maury Wills stealing a base against the Giants? But in determining which game the photo was from, my logic became a twisted mess. It started off well. Obviously, this was a game between the Dodgers and the Giants. Obviously it's in Dodger Stadium, thanks to the double tip-off of the famed field-level scoreboard and the Union 76 logo. And I assumed it was a game from 1962, the year in which Wills stole the 104 bases. I also assumed Wills was stealing third base, as the scoreboard was along the first base line. So far, so good. But then I sabotaged myself. The score on the scoreboard is blocked from view, so I looked immediately to the uniform number of the Giants fielder. To me, it looked like No. 42. So I looked up who was numb...

Let's do a little sick scoreboard faceoff, as that's all I have time for today: Sick scoreboard card #8: 2005 Topps Chrome Randy Winn Vs. Sick scoreboard #9: 1982 Fleer Rick Manning Pluses Chromey Winn 1. It's shiny 2. It's run-with-your-hair-on-fire action 3. It's horizontal 4. Randy's name is Winn and the Mariners appear to be winning. Get it? (At least I think that number is an "8" next to Seattle). Fleerish Manning 1. It's an '82 Fleer. Take pity on wonderful '82 Fleer 2. It's Rick Manning. I stood on a field 10 feet from Manning once 3. It's the Fenway Park scoreboard! 4. Manning is an outfielder positioned in the infield! 5. It's a lot clearer than the chromey card. Imagine that. An '82 Fleer card that is more in focus than another card! Minuses Chromey Winn 1. I can see fingerprint smears. Ugh 2. Mariners vs. Tigers? Zzzzz 3. That red scoreboard dot is disconcerting. It reminds me of those ...

I miss the carefree days of postseasons past. With the exception of last year's World Series, I haven't suffered through much angst over the two teams who have made it to the Series in recent years. They've been harmless enough participants. I picked a team to root for, but when you got right down to it, it didn't matter. Rays or Phillies? I was happy with either one, actually. White Sox or Astros? Dag nabbit, couldn't they both win? Such was the case with the Tigers and Cardinals in 2006. I sided with the Cardinals, but enjoyed watching the Tigers and their Rookie of the Year, Justin Verlander, contend for the title. I would've been happy either way. But not this year. In each playoff series there is a team I most definitely DO NOT want to win. For a lot of people, if they don't have a particular rooting interest in the four teams that are left, they are siding with the smaller market teams, the Rangers and Giants. But I can't think that way....

Topps very nearly earned itself the first-and-only FIVE-disembodied-hand-clap rating for this 1982 Topps baseball card. Take a look at the scoreboard in the background of this photo. It says that the Giants play the Expos at 1. I am going to take a wild leap and assume that means it's going to be played at 1 p.m. or 1:30 p.m., not 1 a.m. What a pleasing backdrop to this baseball photo. Now, if you followed early 1980s baseball, you know that Charlie Lea is known primarily for one thing. He threw a no-hitter in 1981. OK, so here we have a photo of Charlie Lea, most likely taken in 1981, the year of that no-hitter, since this card is from the 1982 set. We also have a photo of Lea taken at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. With a scoreboard announcing a game between the Expos and the Giants. Lea's no-hitter was against the Giants. Starting to get interesting, no? Oui. What else do we know about this photo? Well, the picture was taken during the day. And the ...

I have a boss of the very exacting sort. He's not an easy guy to please. You can work your ass off, produce high-quality work on a regular basis, and if there is one, tiny slip-up on one particular day, he will point out that slip-up and not mention any of the fantastic things you or your staff have done over the preceding months. He's also one of those guys who makes excessive and inexplicable demands. And they're coming fast and furious these days. Needless to say, he is not my favorite person. He's no one that I know's favorite person. But I am going to play the part of my boss right now and not even mention that the Upper Deck photographer snapped a great shot of Nate McLouth leaping in mid-air, or that it shows perhaps the best close-up shot of a scoreboard that I have ever seen. What I will mention is that: 1. The ball is not in the photo. 2. The scoreboard is not lighted. So I can only give this card two out of a four possible disembodied hand...

Since Topps has moved away from your simple "batter-takes-a-swing" action shot photos the last couple of years into what I would consider "quirkier" photos, the cards hold my interest more. I like the variety. The cards don't all look the same. They're entertaining. There's also more of an opportunity to see things that I'm particularly interested in, like scoreboards and on-field advertising and night shots. 2010 Topps has already turned out several examples in Series 1. I'm going to show two scoreboard examples here. Two SICK scoreboard examples. Yes, I just used "sick" in its untraditional sense and I don't even own a snowboard. I think that's irony. Or mockery. One of the two. The first example is happy-go-lucky Milton Bradley, and there's no way in the world you could miss the scoreboard in this photo. It's the star of the show. You'd think that would be enough to earn a perfect rating from me, but it do...

Oh, yes. I did go there. I was trying to think of a title for my new series on scoreboard cards. I wanted to try to tie it in with the "awesome night card" title somehow. So, I thought, why not use one of the most despised, over-used, ridiculous words ever uttered in conjunction with rectangular cardboard pieces? Then I would be using that irksome word for purposes of good rather than evil. I'd also be using "sick" to describe a common-variety base card. Wouldn't that make a mojo jojo's head explode? So that's what I'm gonna do. Like "awesome," "sick" is a word I rarely use in public, unless someone I know is running a temperature. But on the blog? Anything goes, kiddies. Today's SICK scoreboard card is the 1981 Fleer Rich Gale card. I like this particular card because it shows Exhibition Stadium's SICK scoreboard. Exhibition Stadium was the Blue Jays' home for their first 10-plus years of existence. It was SIC...

Quite some time ago, I mentioned on this blog how much I like cards that feature a scoreboard in the background. I devoted an entire Cardboard Appreciation post to it. And no one commented. So, I shrugged my shoulders, figured I was the only one who thought it was cool and moved on. Then, last week, Jeremy from No One Is Going To Read This Blog mentioned that he liked those kinds of cards, too. At last! A kindred spirit. It was a relief, because I had never really let go of an idea that I had, which was to show cards with scoreboards in the background in a regular feature on this blog. And, just to give me another plate to spin in the air, I thought I'd rate the cards, too. So, after months of the idea stagnating on the shelf, I officially give you a series called Awesome Scoreboard Cards (edit: Now called "Sick Scoreboard Cards"). Really, the standing ovation is unnecessary. Please sit down. The first card is the 2004 Fleer Tradition card of Lance Berkman . I like th...