Night Owl Cards

Yeah, I know. I know. Why am I writing about the Tigers when I barely care about the team? I mean, when I think about them, my brain conjures up strange, disconnected images. Old white guys who looked like my dad (I'm thinking of the late '60s Tigers). A franchise dependent on mustachioed players (I'm thinking of the '80s crew of Morris, Gibson, Bergman, Parrish and Petry). A horrid team from about 10 years ago that relied upon Damion Easley and Mike Maroth. A team that seems to have wacky-named players like: Johnny Wockenfuss. And Jim Walewander. Also, way too many of their cards are covered in brown. Brown does not make for nice-looking cards. It's apparent that I just don't care enough about them to really delve into their history and find out what they're all about. In the '90s, I kept putting Bobby Higginson on my fantasy team because I thought he'd be a star. If I had been paying attention, I'd know not to do things like th...

In yet another unsettling development in the modern card scene, I have suddenly grown weary of rack packs. This is disturbing. In my cash-crunch state, I have subsisted on rack packs to obtain my weekly intake of modern card nutrients. Blasters bind up the system. But I have grown increasingly frustrated with the rack pack servings. It's basically my own fault. I'm looking for Dodgers only, and buying rack packs isn't going to get that done. But I never thought it would be this brutal. For example, I have pulled a grand total of two Dodgers (Ramirez and Martin) out of Topps Chrome. Meanwhile I have dupes of five different Angels. Last night I decided to try another Topps Chrome rack pack, plus a Bowman Chrome rack pack and a Topps Update rack pack. They were all hanging out together, side-by-side, and I couldn't resist trying out the newbies, along with my annoying friend, Topps Chrome. I'm not going to show too many of the cards, because they're di...

Thanks to the Wax Wombat and I Don't Know , I am very close to finishing off series 1 of the 2010 Topps set, which is pretty good considering I decided to complete the set less than two weeks ago. WW and IDK brought my set wants to 16 cards, if you can believe my want list, which I wouldn't recommend. I think I have enough of the set to do a review of what I believe are the best cards, at least prior to series 2 hitting the streets. I know you all have seen these before. But have you seen them in a tidy, top 10 countdown with sparkling Night Owl commentary? No, you haven't. Context is everything, people. And I'm bringing the context. To come up with the list, I used a tried-and-true method: lay 10 cards out on a table, and then slide them down when you come across a card that should be on the list. Trust me. It works. It's worked since I was 9. Do not question the card-sliding method. It's better than science. In the event that one of the missing 16 is ...