Night Owl Cards

    Back in January, when we knew the five former players who were going to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame for 2025, I wrote a post on those five players, mentioning how many cards I had of each of them.   I went back to that post to see if I had gained any cards of Dick Allen, Dave Parker, CC Sabathia, Ichiro Suzuki or Bobby  Billy Wagner since.   I did. None for Sabathia or Wagner, but one each for Allen and Suzuki and five for Dave Parker. That makes sense, since Parker is from my era and I always want his cards. But I was surprised I had gathered a whole five and I didn't know which ones those were (the one above is one of them though). The key thing to know is it gave me more than 100 Parker cards as in January the total stood at 99.   Dave Parker's induction was the one I was looking forward to most. Unfortunately, he passed away last month and now the induction ceremony is a lot less interesting to me as both Parker and Allen are gone. ...

  I keep forgetting to acknowledge TCDB and their members for voting my blog as "Favorite Blog" again this year. This makes it five years in a row and six out of the past seven. "Favorite blog" seems like an outdated award even to me -- sounds something like "favorite cassette tape" -- but it shows that people are still reading and still enjoying and it's nice to have that reminder. Or maybe it's like the Gold Glove award and people vote purely on reputation.   There is the medal table, except I get a crown. Now on to the honor that more people care about -- and they really do care about it. The Baseball Hall of Fame announced the baseball writers' selections for this year's Hall of Fame class. Three players are going in -- Ichiro, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner -- joining the earlier committee picks of Dave Parker and Dick Allen. This means I need to update the Most Hall of Famers tally, which I'll get to when the 2025 class is inducted....

  What I like about the bloggers who still swap cards with other bloggers -- what are we down to like a dozen now? -- is that they're persistent. Most of us have been collecting publicly for awhile now and have accumulated a lot of cards because of that. It's a little bit tough to crack each other's collections -- I know, because I keep on trying. But if you stay persistent, you'll find something that another collector needs and you'll find something that I need.   Yes, even 15 years in, there's still plenty on my want lists.   Nick of Dime Boxes is one of those good collecting eggs that still tries and I'm happy he does because he's still finding cards off my want lists, sometimes cards that I needed that I didn't even know existed. No-Neck Williams has a minor league manager card? OK, no idea, but, yeah, I needed that!    Nick remembers what I collect and keeps trying -- to find some cards that crack my Allen & Ginter frankenset binder. The bi...

  This 1976 Topps card is the first Dick Allen card I pulled out of a pack. It's the last card issued during his career. He wasn't finished playing. He'd return to the Phillies for the 1976 season and then play for Oakland in 1977 but no cards were made of him in those years.   Who knows why. Allen's career has always been wrapped in mystery. Much of it is because we were too stubborn to understand him. When I look back at how he was treated, by management, the media and especially fans, I'm saddened. I think when you're faced with that kind of repeated treatment, the criticism, the bigotry, the constant booing, the target of projectiles , it's going to affect you. It's clear it affected Allen, but everyone wanted him to be the perfect obedient ballplayer. They wanted him to change, but they didn't want to change themselves.   That first card I saw of Allen, I didn't know who he was. He seemed old to me and fat. I had no idea that he was one of t...