Night Owl Cards

  On Friday, I published post number 5,750 on Night Owl Cards.   It's not a number as nice-and-round as others, but it prompted me to do something I haven't done for the previous milestone posts. Every time I reach a round-number total and write about it here, someone always comments that the total is actually larger because of the various set blogs I've run. So I decided this time, for the first time, to total them all up.   Including this post, it comes to 8,268 total when adding the 1971, 1975, 1985 Topps and 1993 Upper Deck blog totals. I've got some posts on "A Pack To Be Named Later" but I'm not sure how many and I don't have time to search them out and add them.   Which brings me to the point of this post. You've probably noticed I have slowly decreased the number of times I post in a week/month. That's been going on for awhile but has noticeable decreased since last summer. That is completely due the increased workload at my job, in whi...

If you've been reading this blog long enough you know the routine: March arrives in a blaze of burning dumpster fires of all shapes and sizes. I dodge said fires the best I can. If I get to the end of the month alive, I buy a few cards to celebrate. Guess what? It's the end of the month. I'm still alive. I bought cards to celebrate! Per usual, it's just a few because who has the time? Plus there's a card show on the horizon, so I need to stock up. My annual "good riddance" purchases usually focus on whatever whimsical cards catch my fancy. And this year was no exception. Pow. It is my goal to obtain all of the 1980 TCMA Albuquerque Dukes cards I can. I've loved the border design since I was a wee one and many of the players on the team then were the first Dodger prospects I ever knew. But this card is particularly special because what do I mention first? Is it the bald-headed guy you'd never expect to see on a baseball card? Is ...

Although I believe the perfect period for All-Star cards was from 1975-81, that doesn't mean it was without its flaws. The most egregious, of course, was Topps' failure to reward All-Star notice to a player who was voted a starter in the previous year's All-Star Game. Richie Zisk is one such example. He was voted a starting outfielder for the American League in 1977 and went 2-for-3 with two RBIs in that game. Then kids pulled his card the following year and got the above airbrushed monstrosity with no All-Star badge. The double indignity. It would be easy enough to MS Paint the badge onto this card and attempt to virtually right a wrong, but I know someone else on another blog has done it already. Plus, I don't have the time, patience, ability -- you know, the usual excuses. So, instead, let me cite a couple of other examples of Topps All-Star snubs during this period. Reggie Jackson was an All-Star in the 1974 game, but when the 1975 set came out, he di...

I like to keep my work life separate from my blog life. But there is one area where they intersect, and that is where "brush with greatness" comes in. I write about sports for a living. I was a sports reporter for a number of years, and now I am an editor, but I still do some writing and reporting. I work at a small newspaper. I never pursued a big-time paper job mostly because I wanted to raise a family and not cart them from place to place. So, because my paper is concerned with the local scene, I've spent years going to high school and college sporting events. It's actually an enjoyable career, even if it's a lot of hard work, doesn't pay a heck of a lot, and is pressure-packed. It's certainly not as glamorous as it seems to people outside my profession. There is one area where it IS glamorous, though. Despite the fact that my job is mainly about local sports (I have covered everything from field hockey to walleye fishing to sled dog racing), I have be...