Night Owl Cards

 (Hey, fellow Northeasterners, are you enjoying the special edition two-month long March this year? I hear things are going to turn around in a matter of days. I'll believe it when I feel it, but right now there's a freeze warning. Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 369th in a series):   There is no end to the cards that I've read about and promptly forgotten due to my brain's attempt to keep the real important stuff in -- and there's only so much room!   Topps Cards That Never Were mentioned this particular card a couple of weeks ago and I was immediately intrigued. It is one of nine 1992 Topps Pre-Production gold cards, cut off a sample sheet that Topps issued ahead of the 1992 set.   Jeremy wrote that this card leaves out the word "manager" on the front of the card and that was enough for me to think: "I need that card."     Here is the regular 1992 Topps gold Lasorda (such a great card) with "manager" mentioned.     It...

    I crab a lot on this blog. I know that.   This is how I handle stress. Writing gets it all out. I don't drink to excess. I don't speed down the street. I don't gamble or use substances. I don't talk to a therapist. This is it. Whatever is going on my life -- whether it's mentioned specifically or as vaguely as possible -- appears in some fashion on this blog. I'm getting it all out.   So I'm aware I'm turning some people off. I'm "too negative" or maybe not what someone wants to read in their down time. They want to see happy, little cards. I get it. Sometimes when I'm reading blogs, I just want to get in, see the cards, and get out, too. But other times I want to see that the people who are writing about the cards are human, too.   June was a difficult month and full of grousing, when I was blogging at all. So I feel like I should write about the good times, too. Like now.   Now is a good time. I started a vacation. Today. It's...

  I've mentioned many times lately how difficult it's been to post regularly to my blog.   It may not look like it because I'm still posting around five days a week, but there are lots of posts from the last few months that very nearly didn't make it. It's not a content thing or a lack of will (though I feel that creeping in a bit). It's almost completely a time issue.   I don't know why time is so precious now. I thought I was much busier when there was a young kid to take care of (and shuttle around), yet I was posting twice a day for some of that. But I do know I appreciate it, maybe more than ever, when I can save some time.   Large care packages are terrific. I think everyone agrees with that. It's like Christmas in a box. It also takes a long time to go through, and sort and put away. Days and days and weeks and weeks. Sometimes months. It can be a project in itself, a wonderful project, but it doesn't exactly save time.   Then there are the ca...

  I received another card package of complete opposites from Sportscards From The Dollar Store a week or two ago.   Like usual, the cards contained players from sports at opposite ends of the spectrum in regard to weather. Though both sports are taking place right now, baseball is played in outdoor warmth and sunshine and hockey is played indoors to get away from whatever nastiness you walked/drove through to get to the game.  Often, Douglas sends me Bills cards, but I've got no room for those anymore for the most part, so this is much more manageable. The baseball cards were customarily fancy. I usually don't come across stuff like this.   From the top, starting with Tommy, a bright parallel from that Cooperstown Panini set that I laughed at back in the day, but when it doesn't cut off the tops of heads, it's all right.  The Michael Busch is a Chronicles card, I thought I'd be done with Panini baseball stuff by now, but at least I'm not buying any of it anymor...

  A year ago, Topps released, seemingly out of the blue, a product called "2021 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary". That's right, it was 2022 and it was dated 2021.  I was prepared to ignore/spit on this product for obvious reasons -- the 1952 Topps design again , there's no saving Topps, is there? -- but, strangely, I found the cards pretty damn cool.   Now, me going "over the moon" for a current product is relative. I don't sink my teeth into a new set fully unless I really, really like it, and that happens very seldom. I am not buying box after box after box, which is what you'd think was a collector going "over the moon." But I did gush over these cards on the blog and I did buy one of those mega boxes of the product (albeit a gift card purchase) and I do welcome any cards from the set people want to throw at me. So that's "over the moon" for me.   A year later I have maybe 70 cards from this set (out of 700). No real less...

  My only experience with my favorite team finishing dead last happened exactly 30 years ago. The 1992 Los Angeles Dodgers team is famous for placing last, sixth of six teams in the National League West. It was the first time -- and the only time -- that a Dodgers team had finished last since the move to Los Angeles. And it was the first time the franchise, either while residing in L.A. or Brooklyn, had placed last since the 1905 Brooklyn Superbas were 8th out of 8 teams with a 46-104 record. Even those historically famous bumbling Brooklyn Bums of the 1920s and 1930s never finished at the very bottom. The Dodgers simply did not/do not place last. That's what made 1992 so shocking to me. What the hell was this?   I had known disappointment -- two World Series losses within my first three-plus years of being a fan -- but I had been spoiled, too. The Dodgers had pretty much ditched their "build your own stars" philosophy by the early '90s and were grabbing superstars as...

  I don't do a lot of posts that don't feature cards. I'm pretty much " about the cards " all the time with little use for various extras -- Funkos and bobbleheads and all that clutter -- that can't fit into a proper binder page or toploader.   That doesn't mean I don't own any memorabilia that isn't cards. I believe you've seen my Ron Cey-Fleetwood Mac lamp? I just make sure that it can fit sensibly into the card room without anyone thinking about calling the hoarders show.   For instance, I'm a sucker for ephemera. It's only logical that I wound up working in a printing medium, with my appreciation for the printed word and how it appears on a page. And so, I can't resist things like news clippings, scorebooks and yearbooks. People send me that stuff, too. I guess they know me. It's the one non-card thing that you can be sure I won't discard. I'll either put it on display or lovingly place it in a folder for safe keepin...