Night Owl Cards

I put a 40-inch NFL roundup in the newspaper last night. For you people who don't speak "column inches," that's around 1,320 words. That's a tremendous amount of words for a sport whose season ended 23 days ago. But I've learned over the last few years that football, particularly the NFL, never ends. It shows up on the wire, on TV reports, everywhere, around the calendar. I'm trying to think of a month in which the NFL doesn't broadcast itself: June, maybe. There doesn't seem to be much NFL news in June. That's about it. (You could probably say the same for baseball, although the baseball news is pretty slow in parts of December and January. But I'm never ready for baseball to end, so seeing offseason baseball news is never a bother). I'm probably contributing to the ubiquitous NFL info glut by publishing a post that features mostly NFL cards. I recently received a few cards each from readers Chris and Henry. And NFL cards wer...

Have you ever come across a terrific factoid for the first time and wondered why no one else has discovered it already and then realize you've misread or misinterpreted something and that's why no one has discovered it? Because it doesn't exist, dumb-ass? Oh, if I had baseball card for how many times that's happened. The most recent example came a week or so ago as I was filing away some unwanted 2016 Topps into a box to hopefully never pull out again (except if someone wants them, please, please take them). I came across Caleb Cotham here. I had no idea who Caleb Cotham is. I stopped watching the YES Network about three years ago in an effort to know much less about the Yankees. Since first coming across the card I've realized there isn't a lot to know, he was traded to the Reds after just 12 games in the Aroldis Chapman deal and then struggled with Cincinnati for 20-plus games in 2016 before becoming a free agent. In my ignorance, I misread the name...

I finally found a few minutes to watch a spring training game on television today. Spring training always coincides with the busiest time of the year for me. I'd love to do nothing but watch spring training games every day -- I'd love even more to travel to Florida or Arizona to do nothing but watch spring training games in person every day. But every year all I can do is catch a snippet here or there until the very end of March when I have just a little more time. Anyway, I was able to watch some of the Dodgers against the Brewers today. It was delightful, seeing the old familiar faces and a few new ones. The relaxed setting, the wonderful weather, the weird Dodger caps. It's nice to reacquaint myself with April Through October again. As I was watching, I began to think about the Dodger player that I looked forward to watching most this season. I always enjoy watching Clayton Kershaw, and now Corey Seager, too. But the one player that I want to see more of -- to...

Today is Eddie Murray's 61st birthday, and for that occasion I have now trotted out this 1985 Topps card of Murray on two social media sites. It really is the greatest Eddie Murray card. Even though I am a Dodger fan, I identify Murray with the Orioles, of course. He played for Baltimore for the first decade of his career and only a handful of years with the Dodgers. For 10 years, there was nothing but Murray Orioles cards in my collection. Murray almost never talked to the press, which is a reason for me to dislike him. But I can't help it. I still like him. Someone who I know also likes him is Commish Bob . He just happened to showcase a bunch of Murray cards on his blog yesterday, Murray's birthday eve. And I just happened to receive some cards from Commish Bob recently. None of them are Eddie Murray cards, but they sure are great. I'll lay the most spectacular on you first. Those are a bunch of 1956 Topps off my want list. Not many names I know -- alth...

Topps Heritage is scheduled to be released next week and already images of what is on the way, in the tribute to the 1968 design, are all over the internet. Of course, the only cards that have been shown so far are cards that will be almost impossible to get. I've seen the dual signature Nolan Ryan-Johnny Bench card about a dozen times now (it's been declared the card of the year -- I don't consider a card whose access is limited to deep-pocket collectors as "card of the year"). I've also seen the signed Mike Trout card a few times. Again, this isn't anything I am looking to pull. There also have been recently published looks at the 1968 Topps set since everyone -- god help us -- is going to see that burlap design for all of 2017. Topps just issued its own retrospective of the set. It's worth the read, especially for collectors who don't know a lot about '60s sets. But the piece focuses on the same three items that I often see from th...

One thing I still can't get accustomed to with modern shopping is the sheer variety all in one place. For years I operated in a world with only four channels on my television, a handful of station on the radio and a sports magazine that arrived once a week. Much like someone who grew up during the depression (my apologies for comparing the '70s to the Great Depression), that period will be with me forever, and I'm still adjusting to the grand smorgasbord that appears before us whenever we fancy. The best example of my inability to fully grasp this is whenever I select cards on COMC. I absolutely cannot focus. I have a variety of collecting interests, so that plays a part, but I cannot commit myself to a single shopping task and finish it. There is just too much other goodness to absorb. I had a little bit of cash to spend recently and went straight to my favorite online card site. The first card I threw in the cart was the above Pete Rose In Action card from the 19...