Night Owl Cards

I tried to find a night card that fits a Halloween theme, but this was the best I could do. Doesn't Gary Carter look like he is in a panic, running from what appears to be a shadowy, headless, umpire figure? Humor me, it's Halloween.

This card was among a group of the first night cards that I have received in a blog trade. I got them from gcrl of the garveyceyrusselllopes blog. Both gcrl and I are Dodgers fans, but it looks like he's accumulated many more Dodgers than I have. Yikes, the box I received in the mail on Monday contained just short of 200 cards, nearly all of them Dodgers! I've yet to send him his cards, partly because I'm in the midst of wading through all these gems.

Here is a look at some of the highlights:

Eric Gagne, 2004 Topps. I don't know what Topps was going for in 2004 and 2005 with their photos. Gagne is a big guy but he looks like you could pick him up with two fingers. Did they take this photo from the the second deck? Did Topps decide t…

I brought home my first packs of 2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes yesterday, even though I'm pretty sure that somewhere, either on this blog, or in a comment elsewhere, or in a rant at work, or talking in my sleep (I actually don't do that), I mentioned that I'm thoroughly unimpressed with this product. So I can't explain why I bought these. I guess I just wanted something different.

In opening the packs, I struck upon the reason why the Heroes cards work. It's a reason that I'm sure has been addressed many other times elsewhere, but I confess I often go into shutdown mode when certain card subjects come up (sheepish grin), so I might have missed it.

The reason why they work and that some people still collect these things is that the base card actually ...

... is the most god awful boring piece of cardboard I've seen on a current set (OK, there are a couple others -- UD SP Authentic isn't keeping me awake either). Using the background of what appears to be…

Wow, I didn't know giving away free cards would be so difficult! How is it that no one guessed that caramel creams were my favorite kind of Halloween candy when I was a kid? Am I that much of a freak? (don't answer that).

Perhaps my hint that it is a kind of candy you often find in movie theaters threw people off. But I know I've seen Goetze's caramel creams in theaters. I just saw them a few months ago. And, geez, the candy maker's been around since 1895!

What made things even more difficult in selecting a winner of 15 packs of 1993 Upper Deck was the fact that no one guessed the second part of my question either. The guesses on the first 2008 Topps Dodger that I pulled this year were:

5 for James Loney
4 for Brad Penny
2 for Jeff Kent
2 for Andruw Jones
1 each for Russell Martin, Chad Billingsley, Hiroki Kuroda, Andre Ethier and Fernando Valenzuela (ha!)

Here's the right answer:

Yup, it was the big boy, Jonathan Broxton.

So, in the event that no one guessed either par…

I'm not the least bit sad that my prediction didn't hold up. After the Dodgers were eliminated, I was rooting for the Phillies to win the Series all the way. Yay, Plan B team!

Congrats to Cliff at Capewood's Collections, and deal at Phungo, Chris at Stale Gum and Ross at Sports Card Info, and any other card blogger/Phillie fan that I may have forgotten. I'm happy for you all. The Phillies overcame whatever flaws they might've had and became champions. They're a likable group of players, too.

I guess I'll add Michael Bourn to the list of players traded away in the year before their former team won the World Series. Sorry, Mike, but maybe Cliff's prediction will come true.

In the meantime, no more baseball until March. Except around here, where it's baseball EVERY EVER-LIVING DAY. Like it or not.

I just came home from work, but before I could get home I had to clean at least six inches of dense, heavy, wet snow off my car. If you live in the Northeast, snow is a way of life, but a bleeping N'oreaster in October is WAY too much WAY too soon.

But it got me thinking about other "snow jobs." For example, my personal experience with the 1975 Topps Ralph Garr. When I was a youngster, this was one of my all-time favorite cards. I first spotted it during my first trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

For all of you readers, who when I mentioned the snowstorm, thought, "I'm glad I don't live THERE," here's another thing to think about: I've been to the Baseball Hall of Fame at least six times, probably more. That's one of the wonderful things about living in the Northeast. Cooperstown is right around the corner. And as my boss, who has lived in a variety of areas in the country, says, where we live, we can resolve most of our weather disasters…

I'm about to get sappy. But it won't last long.

Twenty-one years ago today, my wife and I started dating. She's been my sweet and beautiful girl ever since then. She's barely had an interest in baseball all these years, yet she's put up with my nonstop babbling about the sport and the piles of cards around the house without complaint.

We actually began dating in St. Louis, of all places. I live far away from the Gateway to the West, but the two of us and a bunch of fellow budding college journalists took a road trip halfway across the country for a four-day seminar. We partied for those four days, spent Halloween on Laclede's Landing, toured the old Busch Stadium, drank in countless bars, danced on riverboats, went up to the top of the Gateway Arch, and made memories that will last forever.

And in 2008, Allen and Ginter decided to make a card to commemorate Oct. 29, 1987. Thanks guys!

I received my box o' surprise cards from Indians Baseball Cards. Always over the weekend, thanks to his wonderful Trick or Treat contest. As always, David went above and beyond with the goodies. Do you think when kids come to his house on Halloween he tells each kid, "Ah, take the whole bag." That's how generous he is!

The catch to this contest is you might get some tricks with your treats, and David is an observant fellow. I was almost certain I'd get some San Francisco Giants mixed with my Dodgers or even some horsey cards. I even mentioned to my daughter that she might end up with a couple of my cards. Wasn't she disappointed when they all ended up being Dodgers!

Like other card bloggers, I tried to guess which box was mine when I saw them all lined up on the Tribe Cards site. I guessed wrong.

The circled box (circled in BLOOD RED, bwaaaaahahahahahahahaha!) is mine. Unfortunately, my box was delivered Saturday, which was an all-day soaker around here. So on…