Night Owl Cards

  OK, back by popular demand, here is a look at my collection based on who is in the Division Series (what used to be the lowliest of the playoff series, but now we have a bunch of wild-card hoo hah and fandoodle).   There are four new teams to consider. Of course, there are four holdover teams that I've already considered, so for those four repeats, I'm going to select my second "oldest" and "newest" card for that team. The random is still random.   All right, I have the Dusty Baker card above that represents three teams in this postseason. Let's do this:   ORIOLES VS. RANGERS   Baltimore Orioles (cards in my collection: 2,574. Overall rank: 14th)   Oldest card in my collection: 1956 Topps Chuck Diering (I decided to leave a lot of these uncropped, because I like the effect ... or did at the time).     Newest card in collection: 2023 Topps Heritage New Age Performers Gunnar Henderson.  Random card in my collection: 1988 Topps Jim Dwyer Thou...

  I'm still working on the third of my series of Head Count posts, in which I show notable cards of hat-less players for each decade. The '60s and '70s were easy. The '80s, not so much, there is a lot to weed through. But at least it's not the '90s. In fact, that can be the 1980s motto: "at least we're not the 1990s!" It applies in cards, and in so much more. So, anyway, the '80s Head Count post is coming up. It'll be next week. But before I get to that, I wanted to relay something I thought was interesting (operative word: I) while looking through those '80s cards. There are several players who showed up repeatedly with their caps missing. This can only be an '80s phenomenon, or later decades, because with limited cards, you didn't get a ton of repeats in the "no hat" category. Maybe a player had three -- I can think of Billy Martin, for example. But it's nothing on the scale of the '80s. Certain players wer...

Game 1 of the ALCS is already in the books, and I haven't even told you who will win the thing yet. Normally, I'd go through a careful position-by-position examination, presenting intricate mathematical formulas and graphs, simulated games and painfully detailed reasoning to come up with my prediction. But sadly, I need cards of the present day players for that, and I don't do enough modern collecting to showcase a card of each starting player on each team. What I can do is show you cards of each starting player from the last time each team was in a World Series. Let's face it. The only reason the masses are more interested in the ALCS matchup than the NLCS is because it's been so long since the Orioles and Royals did anything in the postseason. ... Well, that and the NLCS is filled with satan spawn. Outside of the Cubs and Pirates (and the teams that have never been to a World Series), no team has waited longer for another Series appearance than the ...