Night Owl Cards

teamconfusion4u.com

2012-01-30T19:23:00.000-05:00

All right, I'm already regretting the title to this post, and I'm still not happy that I'm going through with writing this at all.

But my job on this blog is to document my collecting journey, and this is a part of that. Just know that this is a small, small, small inconvenience in what is a wonderful asset to the hobby.

Teamsets4u.com made my want lists what they are today. I haven't even accessed the site fully -- I know there are many other sets listed there that I need to add to my want lists. But if you scroll through the entire page of my want lists, it will take you a little while anyway. I owe that to teamsets4u.

It is an invaluable resource for team collectors. Every set painstakingly separated by team.

It's an amazing undertaking. All that patience, all that time.

I find periodic errors, which are perfectly understandable given the massive number of sets issued through the years, especially since the early 1990s. There is no way you couldn't screw up with all the ways sets confused collectors throughout the last two decades.

While going through teamsets4u, I've come across Expos listed as Dodgers and other obvious mistakes that haven't been an issue. I know that Steve Rogers never pitched for the Dodgers.

But there's one error that has tripped me up periodically. It's when a player is listed with the Dodgers, but he actually had recently left the Dodgers and appears in the set with another team. A couple days ago I was looking through last year's Heritage team set on teamsets4u and saw that Russell Martin was listed under the Dodgers. But he's obviously featured with the Yankees on his card.

I've often taken teamsets4u's word for it, listed the card as one that I needed on my want list, then much later realized that it was not a Dodger card and quickly erased it thinking "phew, glad no one sent me that card."

This time I wasn't so lucky.

This wasn't a case of a player recently leaving the Dodgers and being listed incorrectly with the Dodgers. This was the case of a player with the same name as a well-known Dodger.

Quite some time ago, I acquired the Ramon Martinez card that you see at the top of the post to complete my 1993 Topps Stadium Club Dodger set. Or so I thought.

Several months ago, I realized that there was a second Ramon Martinez listed under '93 Stadium Club in teamsets4u. This one was numbered 322. The one that I had was numbered 71.

"Crap," I thought. "There are two Ramon Martinezes in this set."

I assumed that's what it must be. In '93, we were well into the era of players receiving multiple cards in one set. I didn't necessarily like it and think it adds to confusion like this, but I shrugged it off as the game that I have to play if I want to collect modern era cards. Besides, Stadium Club had those Member's Choice cards. Probably one of those.

I dutifully listed "1993 Stadium Club Ramon Martinez (#322)" on my Nebulous 9 because I wanted to be done with the set once and for all.

Then months of blissful ignorance went by until a package from Johngy's Beat arrived and one of the cards to fall out was this:

Wha? Ramon Martinez -- a MARLIN?

I flipped over the card and, sure enough, it was card No. 322.

I'd been duped by teamsets4u.

This particular Ramon Martinez never made it to the major leagues. He never even made it above Double A. Shame on Stadium Club for creating a card for him in its set.

I'm sure Johngy was wondering why I had posted a Marlins card on my Nebulous 9 list.

Fortunately, another Nebulous 9 need was met in the same package:

This is 2006 Upper Deck J.D. Drew #243. There are two J.D. Drew cards in '06 Upper Deck. But I knew for a fact that both featured him as a Dodger, so there was no surprise here.

See? I get these things right some of the time.

Also, Johngy sent every last remaining 1993 Topps gold Dodger card that I needed:

I think this is the first gold team set that I've ever completed. Cool!

I'm still reserving the '75 minis that Johngy sent for another post.

Meanwhile, I'll remain firmly dedicated to teamsets4u. And if you're a team collector, I recommend that you use it, too. You'll come across a few glitches, but really they're minor. So what if you end up with a Marlins card from the early '90s? Small price to pay.

There is a contact email on the site for questions, and I've considered emailing to point out these small issues. But for some reason I've hesitated. I guess I just don't want to be THAT GUY who says, "Hey great site. You've got mistakes here and here and here."

Of course, maybe that's what I just did.

The opposite of going to a card show

2012-01-29T14:53:00.000-05:00

I was supposed to be at a card show today. But for this show the weather likes to play tricks on me. Throw in a cash shortage, and I'm home instead with nothing exciting going on at all.

So I thought it'd be appropriate to open a pack of 1991 Donruss Series 2, supplied by Padrographs. It's the opposite of going to a card show.

Well ... the real opposite of going to a card show is probably sitting in a dentist's chair, or getting mauled by a rabid possum. But staying within the hobby realm, I think opening an obscenely overproduced pack of unattractive cards is a long way from visiting table after table of vintage.

In terms of Donruss from the junk wax era, 1991 sits near the bottom for me. I've dubbed it the "Fisher Price set" more than once (although it hasn't officially received a Define the Design name yet). It just looks like something that would come with little kids' plastic/wooden toys. I can see one card of '91 Donruss encased in bubble plastic, along with one of those little people -- maybe the bald guy with the green body -- and a yellow tractor, hanging on a display in the toy department.

I hate it when I see cards in the toy department.

Anyway, before I get to the cards everyone has seen before, here is my ranking of junk wax Donruss. For posterity.

1. 1989 - Already confessed that I have a grudging admiration for this set. (No, I'm not collecting it)
2. 1988 - Growing to like the Tron set more and more (No, I'm not collecting this either)
3. 1993 - Merely meh. But during this era, that's a good thing.
4. 1987 - Don't get why people get so excited over this set. Rookies, probably. Whoopee.
5. 1990 - The red borders drown out the photos.
6. 1991 - I'm sure if I was 6, I'd love these cards.
7. 1992 - I have an irrational hatred for '92 Donruss. It almost makes me ill. One day I will explore this in-depth.

OK, on with the cards.

Willie Stargell puzzle piece. Already, I've been ripped off. Each pack is supposed to contain three puzzle pieces. I got one. Of Stargell's knees.

#634 - Jerry Willard, White Sox

Nice catcher photo. Willard gets a card despite all of 3 major league at-bats in the preceding three years.

#628 - Ron Oester, Reds

Key card a year after the Reds won the World Series.

#622 - Johnny Ray, Angels

Steve Sax is still better, Pirates fans.

#616 - Dave Clark, Cubs

#663 - Rance Mulliniks, Blue Jays

Real first name is Steve.

#657 - Dennis Cook, Dodgers

Dodger alert! Obviously, I have several of this card. It's also a future night card. Cook is quite zombie-esque.

#651 - Gene Harris, Mariners

#645 - Bob Welch, A's

Nice pull for '91, coming off his 27-6 Cy Young season. I'm still in denial about Welch doing so well after leaving the Dodgers.

#422 - Scott Aldred, Tigers

More evidence that Rated Rookies were often hype without substance. A little bit of Bowman inside Donruss.

#636 - Bob MacDonald, Blue Jays

#630 - Kevin Bass, Giants

I think Kevin Bass was the Carlos Lee of the junk wax era for me. A Bass in every other pack.

#624 - Joe Bitker, Rangers

#618 - Jack Clark, Padres

Second Clark in the pack. This one much more hated.

#400 - Roberto Kelly, Yankees, MVP

Yankees finished last in 1990. That sounds like the kind of team in which Kelly would be the best player.

#BC18 - Eddie Murray, Dodgers, Highlights

If this was 1991, I'd be very happy with this pack, as this was an insert and a Dodger. A much-loved Dodger at this particular time. But, alas, I probably have 5 or 6 of this card.

That's all 15 cards. Wasn't that .... uh ... funnish?

Did anyone ever pull a Ryne Sandberg autographed card that was advertised on the wrappers?

Anyway, if anyone needs any of these cards ... you are sad, sad, people.

Just kidding.

It's just that I missed a card show today.

Priceless

2012-01-28T17:10:00.000-05:00

I go to the post office about once a week. It's a small office in an almost vacant business building that houses everything from a bridal store to an outpatient chemical dependency clinic.

I've mentioned before that, except for Christmas time, hardly anyone knows the post office is there. So, at most, there is a line of three, and I'm in and out.

It's a familiar routine. I know the two guys that work there. One, Charles, is an older, pleasant type of few words. He walks with a bit of limp and usually prefers sweat shirts and sweat pants. The other, Dave, is flashier. He wears open Hawaiian shirts and lifts weights. Sometimes the portable radio blares behind him with a strange mix of AC/DC, Lady Gaga and Britney Spears (it's a bit uncomfortable waiting in a longer line when Britney is moaning "Gimme More," let me tell ya).

But both are efficient and friendly. I put my envelopes on the counter, and they plop it on the scale, and the amount pops up on the electronic screen to the right of me.

For the smaller packages, I have the price memorized. $1.71. Always. $1.71. Makes it easy to budget.

That was the routine earlier this week when, after a long bout of sickness, I returned to the post office. I placed my stack of envelopes, all of the small variety, on the counter. Charles put the first one on the scale. And the screen flashed the price ...

One-seventy ...

Wait, what?

$1.95?

"Everything's gone up. Everything," Charles says. He proceeds to tell me the CDs that he sends out cost more, too. But I'm too busy calculating what that's going to do to my budget.

Eventually, I shrug it off. Twenty-four cents more per package isn't going to kill me. No big deal. In fact, I bundle up a few more packages and am back at the post office for a rare second time in a week. This time Dave is there. No music though.

He puts my first package on the scale. It's going to Canada. I brace for the $1.95 to flash on the screen, although I should know better.

$3.15

"Overseas packages have almost doubled," Dave says cheerily but in an understanding tone.

I wanted to crack that there is no sea between here and Canada, but I'm sure he's heard this one before. Even though I was ready to make a joke, I was pretty shaken by the news. It hasn't been an easy month monetarily.

When I got home, I clicked on the weather forecast. I was supposed to go to a card show this weekend. But the weather was looking iffy. I didn't have a lot of money for the show either. Then the weather guy said the dreaded words "heavy accumulation in persistent snow bands." I would be driving through a persistent snow band to get to the show.

I checked the weather a few more times. Same reports. I took the money set aside for the card show and put it in the bank. We needed groceries.

This was on Friday, and I was beginning to wonder whether I could send packages out with the same frequency that I've done in the past. I'm not one to focus on the money aspect of things in almost anything. I budget stuff, but I'm not super vigilant about it. It's too much worry. But this? This kind of got me.

Then today, I received a big package from Rod at Padrographs.

I looked at the postage on the front.

$8.68.

"Not bothering Rod," I thought.

Inside were some cards, and an unopened junk wax pack, and some cool Dodger figurines that I have to identify later.

And there was this:

It's a children's book called "You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax?!" It features a holographic front and some absolutely terrific illustrations by Andre Carrilho.

On each inside cover is Carrilho's rendering of a famous Topps Koufax card:

Over lunch, I leafed through the book -- which is the story of Koufax's career -- mesmerized. What a terrific item, combining my favorite things, the Dodgers, Koufax, baseball, books, writing and illustrations. How thoughtful of Rod.

And all that for just $8.68.

Then I thought back a couple weeks ago to another large package that I received. It arrived in the middle of my sickness and I could barely look through it. I knew it was wonderful, but I just couldn't focus on anything.

The box came from Smed. He's sent me generous packages before. I don't remember how much it cost to ship this box, but I know some of his other boxes have hit double figures.

The box contained a few Dodger cards, like the Bowman purple refractor of Dee Gordon at the top. But the major part of the package was a whole mess of 1977 Topps:

Isn't that something?

I really need to get a list of wants for '77 Topps after I catalog these cards.

This is the last of the sets from the major Childhood Nostalgia Era that I need to complete. 1974, 75, 76 and 78 are already done. Once I finish with '77, I'll decide whether I want to tackle '79, which is kind of on the edge of the whole kiddie era.

But how much did it cost to send that package of nostalgia to me? Six bucks? Seven bucks? Ten?

Whatever it was, it was incidental (at least I hope it was for Smed). The enjoyment I received from these packages can not be measured in cash.

So, I'll continue to send out packages as often as I can. When the money runs out, it runs out.

This hobby is too important.

Joy of an upgraded card, #5

2012-01-27T19:38:00.000-05:00

Haven't done one of these for awhile.

1975 Topps mini Ken Reitz:

Obviously, I have held on to the rabidly creased Reitz for a long, long, long time. The card came into my possession the first year I started collecting, the very year the card was issued, in 1975.

I don't know how it came to be folded 10 times. I'm pretty certain that I didn't do the folding. I'm guessing I acquired the card from a friend in a desperate bid to accumulate every '75 mini that I could find.

Condition wasn't a deal-breaker then. If you had the card, you had the card. Appearance was incidental, for the most part.

But as the years went on, wrinkly Reitz began to stand out for all the wrong reasons. My other '75 minis from '75 were respectably worn. Rounded corners. Scuffed surfaces. Some minor writing on the back. But they weren't viciously worn like Kenneth.

Today, I received a Reitz more in keeping with my collection. It came with a bunch of other '75 minis from Johngy. Wow, what a cool package, which I will dissect in another post.

Meanwhile, obsessively creased Kenneth will remain, but be transferred to another binder -- the "I remember when I was 9" binder. I enjoy looking through that one quite a bit.

Thanks for the upgrade, Johngy.

But I'll never miss Bowman

2012-01-27T01:56:00.000-05:00

A couple of days ago, I wrote about how my decision not to collect any 2012 set would be fairly easy if it wasn't for this summer and Allen & Ginter.

Today, with the help of some cards from madding at Cards on Cards, I am going in the opposite direction.

There is a card brand that I am positively giddy about avoiding. I can't wait to avoid it. I do a good job of avoiding it now. But now I get to COMPLETELY avoid it. Forever. Yeah, I think it might be forever. I may never buy another pack of Bowman ever again.

The only reason I've picked up packs of Bowman in the past was to see what the hysteria was about. Every year there was some prospect everyone was going bat-poo over. I figured I'd check it out. But with the exception of Strasmania, I always struck out.

Bowman packs left me cold. Card after card of players I had never heard of and probably would never hear of again. This was no way to collect.

The designs rarely impressed (yikes, I didn't know Sellers had all those tattoos), and a pack of Bowman seemed more like a waste of money than any other pack that I purchased.

But still I'd get the urge to pick up something new. And Bowman always had something new on the shelves. Bowman. Bowman Chrome. Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects. Bowman Platinum. Bowman Now With Players Who Haven't Even Been Born Yet.

The worst part of Bowman, for me, besides not knowing the players that I am looking at, is the complete confusion I feel when trying to separate their sets. For example, these cards -- which I totally appreciate and which feature players I actually know (this is my first card of Nathan Eovaldi) -- are a complete mystery to me. I don't know which set they're from. I have a guess. But I'm not confident enough in airing my guess here. A million prospect-junkies will descend upon the comments and tell my why I'm an idiot because I can't figure it out.

But I can't, and that's the reason why out of all the sets that I am avoiding this year, this is the one that has the best shot of me completely bypassing it. Not one single pack. I just don't need the hassle. Or the guilt. Or the feeling that I'm a dumb-ass.

I'm kind of surprised I received these cards from madding. I don't think he's the prospector type. But he does understand that team collectors need every card, even from sets that are a complete mystery.

These might be the most baffling of all. Apparently there are black-border Bowman prospect cards? They're not numbered at all. Please don't make me figure it out, there's already so much that makes my head hurt about Bowman.

Even when I read blog posts from good-hearted people who attempt to remedy the Bowman confusion with their marketing plans, I zone out like the dumb chick when the topic switches from purses. And those are from people who are trying to help me.

If you look at my want list, you may notice that I have Bowman cards listed. I confess, I have no idea if they are accurate. Anytime I update my want list, I dread when it's time to update the Bowman category. It's like muddling through calculus class again. Fortunately, no one is grading my want list.

As usual, I'll take all your Bowman Dodgers.

I'm going to need your help. Because I'm done with Bowman.

Now, if Fleer was still around?

Then, I'd be in trouble.

(P.S.: Another One-Card Challenge success story!)

This is me being busy

2012-01-26T18:15:00.000-05:00

Imagine close to your ugliest day at work. I'm having it today. Throw in a sleep-robbing cough and there is no time for nothing today.

So here is a simple showing of cards from Baseball Dad at All Tribe Baseball:

Baseball Dad sent the stamps, too. He and I both used to collect stamps during our younger days.

Both of us also remember when stamps were 15 cents apiece.

Here's another thing we both remember:

The prices of baseball cards in 1979. Yeah, I think I'll pick up a mint-condition 1966 Mantle for $5, please.

Baseball Dad's a little older than me. Maybe he was able to jump on some of those card prices back then.

He also might remember collecting cards in '66. I don't.

Anyway ...

...

(*sigh*)

Is this day over yet? ...

Well, that didn't go as planned

2012-01-25T03:19:00.000-05:00

I was involved in Cardboard Heaven's Rose Bowl draft a few weeks ago. It my first card draft and a lot of fun. I quickly figured out that the objective, after finding a few cards you want, was to get cards that could be used in future trades.

And that's what I did. Some of the cards are already in packages waiting for All Work And No Play to get his dull ass to the post office. Some of the other cards you'll see here are posted in a pathetic effort to jump-start some trades -- not that I have any time for that.

The Prince Fielder bat card was obtained to work out a deal with a Brewers fan. Heh. That worked out spectacularly. Fielder will be making his imprint in Detroit for the next nine years. I don't even know if a Tigers fan wants a relic card of a guy in a Brewer uniform. I know, personally, I wouldn't. It's not like I'm clamoring for Angels cards of Juan Rivera. ... OK, bad example. But you know what I mean.

So, Prince may or may not stay with me, if I can accommodate his grocery bill.

Here are a few more cards from the draft that aren't going anywhere:

Dodgers, of course. I wish I had a lot of great things to say about these cards, but Victor Diaz never went anywhere, and the Zach Lee card -- which I made my No. 1 draft choice -- is honestly a lousy looking card. It's a minor league photo to begin with, and then there's the green tint thing, which just makes it look like there was a problem with the camera.

I'm so grateful, aren't I?

Other cards staying with me:

I didn't draft this card until round #23. "What the heck," I thought. "I'll nab it for a Ranger fan." Then I realized, "Crap! I need that card for the set (only 14 cards away). Please nobody pick it. PLEASE nobody pick it!" Nobody picked it.

I don't like Topps 206 at all. But this card? In mini form? A Polar Bear mini? Mine, mine, miney, mine. Forever.

More minis. I have this sudden, irrational attraction to last year's A&G minis. It means I'll always have something to buy in the card aisle. And that's a dangerous thing.

(P.S.: If you have a mini of Kershaw, Loney, Broxton or Ethier, find me).

OK, now for stuff that's up for grabs. The best things about these cards is I'd be happy to keep them if I can't find a deal. Or, if I get lazy and decide not to trade ever again.

Drafted round 7: I can't resist a vintage card. Even for a set that couldn't possibly be more boring.

Drafted round 25: I have no idea what Rockies fans think of Jimenez anymore. It seems weird that an Indians fan would want this card.

Drafted round 5: This card is so shiny and cool, I don't want to give it up. But I probably will.

Drafted 10th, 12th, 6th and 14th, respectively: Obviously, I had trading with an Orioles fan in mind. I don't know why. I probably owe somebody somewhere.

Drafted 9th, 24th and 15th: Same deal with a Red Sox fan. Although they all seem to have disappeared.

Last card, which I picked up in the bonus round. It's pretty nifty. It's been awhile since I sent something to The Troll. (Been awhile since I pulled any Rays). Maybe this can appear in a "howdy" package some day soon.

That's all of it, I think.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to rest up for that post office trip. It truly may be the most fun I have all day. Yes, it's been that kind of week.

Missing Allen & Ginter already

2012-01-24T20:27:00.000-05:00

When I say I'm not collecting any 2012 Topps, that means I'm not collecting ANY 2012 Topps, in all its forms. Heritage, Opening Day, Attax, Update, Allen & Ginter (gulp), none of it.

I'm reasonably confident that I will be able to stick to this. Even if I grab a few packs every so often, there's nothing there that's going to make me chase the set. However, Allen & Ginter is the one that could give me some hesitation.

It's not for the reasons you might think. I'm beyond the design (two straight years of disappointing designs will do that). I'm beyond the non-ballplayer subjects. I'm even beyond the quirkiness (there wasn't much quirkiness in last year's set).

No, the problem I'm going to have is next summer when everyone gets their boxes of A&G and the latest edition of Gint-a-Cuffs commences.

As a three-time Gint-a-Cuffs participant, I know that GAC is a heck of a lot of fun. It's even fun for a loser like me who never wins and always gets dud boxes. So how am I going to sit on the sidelines and watch people win without me? You need a loser to have a winner, right?

But the worst part will be knowing that I won't have those Gint-a-Cuffs posts to fill up blog space in the middle of July. That's like 6 automatic posts right there! I'm going to have to get even more creative -- which isn't good because I think I lost my creative chip somewhere in November and I have been cruising off of trade posts ever since.

The easy solution would be to collect just A&G and only A&G. One set from 2012 isn't going to kill me, right?

Well ... maybe not kill me. But I don't want to go through what I did in 2011 with A&G. I'm still trying to complete it and I'm sick to death of it. I really don't like the idea of trying to finish off a set I don't even like.

Fortunately, I'm a little bit closer to completing the 2011 set, thanks to some recent card packages. I'm only 21 cards away (I was 21 cards away in OCTOBER three years ago. What HAPPENED to me?).

Here is one needed card -- and one card only because I'm sick of looking at them -- from each of four packages:

Card: Carlos Lee
Number: 333
From: Section 36

Ron sent me a whole mess of A&G. In fact, if it wasn't for his package, I might've given up on finishing this set like I've given up on '08 Stadium Club and a couple others. I'm showing the Carlos Lee card because I didn't think it was constitutionally possible for Carlos Lee to be a short-print. It's everyone's God-given right to accumulate as many Carlos Lee cards as possible. In fact, I think they're going to be tax-deductible some day. So look for that. I'll be able to help you out when the time comes. A lot.

Card: George W. Bush
Number: 147
From: Smed's Baseball Card Blog

All right, settle down. This card isn't here for any reason other than it's a card I needed. ... Or maybe it ISN'T. Maybe it's here to counter a certain Democrat President's State of the Union speech! Or maybe it's here to remind voters what they could get if they vote for a Republican this November! Or maybe it's here because my father's father's uncle's cousin's daughter was once double-crossed by a Republican turned Democrat turned Libertarian turned Independent turned Modern Whig who promised her a chicken in every pot and instead gave her a rubber chicken swimming in a pool of watered down pork stock! The outrage! Where's that petition? Where's my picket sign? Oh my blood pressure ...

Politics.

Smed sent me a bunch of other cool cards -- not political at all -- that I'll show at a more festive time.

Card: Juan Pierre
Number: 229
From: Cards on Cards

I also received some other non-A&G cards from madding that I'll feature elsewhere. I almost posted the Josh Beckett card that he sent so I could talk about how much madding loves Mr. Beckett. But that's mean -- and even though fans of the World Series champions are fair game -- it's still just mean. So, instead, I'm showing the Juan Pierre card. Now, I know it looks cool to you all scanned here, all back-lit and snazzy. But in person I have to hold the card a foot from my face to know what's going on. That's why I don't like the horizontal A&G cards. They're too fuzzy and they're difficult to register at first glance.

Card: Mike Pelfrey
Number: 342
From: Cardboard Heaven

This was part of my collection of cards that I received in Cam's card draft at the end of last month. I'll show some of the other cards I received on another day -- at least the ones I have left. Some have already made their way into card packages.

I was reduced to drafting A&G cards in an effort to finish off my set -- which sort of backfired on me because then I received some of the cards from other bloggers. But, no worries, because I nabbed some minis out of the deal, and those are always fun. Plus, Pelf means I need only 10 more short-prints. Weeeee! (I better be able to get to this card show this weekend).

When I finally complete this set, I'm going to need another binder to house it. I'm starting to get to a stage where I'm running out of room for binders. Either I'm going to have to come up with a creative (ouch, there's that word again) solution, or the mass accumulations have got to stop.

Another reason for avoiding 2012 Topps. There are so many.

C.A.: 1967 Topps Arnold Earley

2012-01-24T03:23:00.000-05:00

(The best thing I can say about January this year is I've had to shovel snow once. Suddenly all the illness crap and work garbage doesn't seem that bad. No wonder people are so cheery in the south. Here's to freakishly warm weather. And Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 132nd in a series):

Veteran readers of this blog know that I once did a countdown of the best glasses to be ever featured on Topps baseball cards. Then I did a sequel to that, featuring the best glasses on non-Topps cards.

But even though those countdowns were well-received, I felt that they were lacking. I felt like I had only scratched the surface of the best glasses ever to appear on baseball cards.

Then I saw this card of Arnold Earley on Jim From Downington's 1967 Topps blog, and I KNEW I had a long, long way to go before determining the all-time best glasses ever to be featured on baseball cards.

I have taken the first step to achieving that goal, by obtaining this very card of Arnold Earley. What a magnificent card it is. It will make the countdown, guaranteed.

But that's not all. This card is on its way to me one way or another:

This is easily a top 10 or probably top 5 candidate. I can't wait to study those pink Cat Woman frames while cradling the card in my hands.

But even that's not all.

Weather-permitting, I will have a card show to go to this weekend. One of my objectives at this card show, will be to hunt down cards like this:

I am not messing around, people. This is going to be the Best Damn Countdown of the Best Glasses in the History of Baseball Cards.

It's going to take awhile to get them all organized. But I'm already looking forward to making the list.

Stay tuned.

Coming in April ...

(Yes, I said "April")

... THE BEST GLASSES IN THE HISTORY OF BASEBALL CARDS.

Period.

Arnold Earley says so.

Instead of 2012 Topps

2012-01-23T20:10:00.000-05:00

That's what I will be calling these posts that document my collecting path this year.

"Instead of 2012 Topps."

Maybe, I'll mix it up a little bit and sometimes call them "Instead of Pulling Cards of Lucas Duda," or "Instead of Another Crappy Insert of a Bald Topps Executive."

Oh, I'll still grab some packs periodically. You know me. But I hope to be doing more of what I did a couple weeks ago -- tracking down cards I truly want.

This "Instead of 2012 Topps" package was achieved with cash I received from Christmas. You've already seen some of the Lineage minis. Now it's time to see everything else. With assigned rankings and commentary, of course.

So let's get to reverse counting:

12. 2006 TriStar Prospects Plus Clayton Kershaw, ProTential

I went a little Kershaw crazy with this package. I did that even though the prices on Kershaw cards are annoying. I love the double-mark-up. Capitalism at its finest. And a real good way to not get me to buy your cards. Anyway, I wanted this card because Clayton looks like the saddest baseball player ever. Buck up, young man, you have a Cy Young Award in your future!

11. 2011 Topps Marquee Clayton Kershaw

I'm not clear on the numbering on Marquee cards. Something to do with the color of the foil, I guess. But everything seems hazy after seeing those cool '40s Dodger uniforms on a baseball card. I nabbed the Kemp Marquee card a little while ago. So it's only natural that Kershaw arrived soon afterward.

10. 2010 Topps Chrome Clayton Kershaw, blue refractor

This would've been ranked higher if not for the dastardly curly-cue disease that affects all 2010 Chrome. It's disappointing because this would be a fantastic card without the curl. It's also, I believe, my 11th version of this particular card, what with all the parallels, etc. But, of course, blue refractors are the king of all parallels.

9. 1975 Hostess Dave Lopes

Have you ever seen a more accurately cut Hostess card than this one? Someone had some superior scissor skills. Hostess and Kellogg's cards are at the top of my Git List this year, although Hostess cards often suffer from the dreaded Twinkie stain, which I can't seem to get past.

8. 2011 Topps Lineage Andre Ethier mini relic

Still not a fan of these Lineage relics, but I need to have all the Dodgers. Some of them seem like they'll be difficult to obtain. Duke Snider bat. Some relic from Campanella and Koufax. Good thing I got that tricky Ethier swatch out of the way! (Heh).

7. 2011 Lineage Clayton Kershaw mini; 2010 Allen & Ginter Clayton Kershaw mini

Two common-variety minis, but two cards that have avoided me so long that it drove me to distraction. The A&G mini resided on my Nebulous 9 for awhile. Now, both are in my clutches and will never haunt my dreams again.

6. 1972 Topps N.L. Pitching Leaders (matching pair)

Yes, you are seeing double. I obtained both of these cards in a sudden realization that I did not have this card for my 1972 set, and -- yikes -- there's a Dodger on this card, too! You see three Hall of Famers. I see Al Downing.

5. 2011 Topps Tribute Sandy Koufax

I have wanted this card since the moment I saw it on a blog. The numbers don't gleam behind Koufax as much as I remember seeing the first time. But it's still a pretty cool card. One of the best -- possibly the best -- of the many new Koufax cards that arrived last year. (I'm not including autographed cards in that list, because there's no way a lowly collecting surf like me will get his hands on one of those).

4. 1971 Kellogg's Willie Davis

Oh, man, what a great card. I've determined that the greatest cards are the ones that feature a player in a batting pose with the largest amount of bat showing. The more bat featured while in his stance, the greater the card. And this one has that going for it, plus it's in 3-D. I bow to its power and ingenuity.

3. 2011 Topps Chrome Clayton Kershaw, sepia refractor

Curiosity got the best of me on this card. What was a sepia refractor? Now, I know. It's a shiny, brown-colored card. It's a shade better than a "black-and-white" refractor, which I don't think we need to see. But there's a certain amount of classiness to this card that makes me glad I took a shot.

2. 2011 Topps Triple Threads, Matt Kemp, emerald

Yes, night owl bought himself a Triple Threads card. As you know, Triple Threads is not my thing. It's over-the-top, ignores the photo, presents weird combinations of players with weird sayings, and makes people say stuff like "sick!" when they see it. But I found this card much to my liking. It's simple. The photo is large enough. It features Kemp's nickname. And I love the green. It's well-presented. And it's pretty.

1. 1963 Topps Dodgers' Big Three

Scoring a vintage Koufax, Drysdale or Podres is always a priority. Getting all three on one card is as necessary as the air that I breathe. Of course, this year's Heritage will mimic the 1963 set, and Heritage often likes to use combo cards of the past with current players. I shudder to think of the Dodgers' current pitching staff with a "Big Three" label. But maybe Topps knows something about Ted Lilly that I don't.

So, that's the haul this time around.

I still have some Christmas cash left over, which likely will go to another "Instead of 2012" Topps package. You can expect to see that probably right around the time everyone is going loopy over 2012 hitting store shelves.

I may or may not be suffering from withdrawal by then. But all I'll have to do is fan myself with my Ian Desmond doubles from last year and I'll be OK.

Boston vs. New York

2012-01-23T00:57:00.001-05:00

Whenever anyone screams about the media's love affair with Boston vs. New York, I nod in acknowledgement. I agree. It's true. It's all true.

But I don't feel their angst. I like Boston. I've enjoyed my visits there. My brother used to live there. I have family from there. My family has an allegiance to a sports team from there that goes all the way back to before World War II.

So, no, when Boston vs. New York pops up on the TV again, I don't foam at the mouth. It gets a little tired, but before I know it, I'm rooting for the Red Sox to give those Yankees exactly what they deserve.

It will always be that way. The Red Sox will have a place in my heart. The Yankees (and to a lesser extent, the Mets) never will.

For me to experience what everyone else outside of Boston and New York is experiencing when the media fawns all over those two markets, I have to go to football.

Back when I really followed football, there were a select few teams that must be despised. Every Bills fan knew the ritual:

1. The Dolphins, without question, were slime.
2. The Jets, when they were good, were vile and disgusting.
3. The Patriots and Giants were just mean, full of mean people and simply unlikable.
4. The Cowboys needed to go away for a long time.

As the years went on, and I cared less and less about the NFL, I didn't care that much about the Bills or their enemies. I'll always hate the Dolphins, and Dan Marino will always be an object of derision. The Jets? I just can't get myself worked up. Same with the Cowboys.

But the Patriots and the Giants? I never want them to do well.

I'll never forgive the Giants for Super Bowl XXV, the only Super Bowl the Bills had a real chance of winning. And the Patriots have delivered numerous humiliating losses on the Bills over the years. Plus, the Patriots wear silver, which really needs to be eliminated as a team color choice. I can't stand what they wear or Bill Belichick's Old Mother Hubbard get-up on the sidelines. Also, Tom Brady's alien grin is unbearable.

If the Patriots brought back Steve Grogan and started wearing those red jerseys, maybe I'd reconsider.

But now we have the Patriots vs. the Giants in the Super Bowl, just like we did four years ago. And I am just as thrilled now as I was then.

Boston vs. New York.

Whoopee.

If it wasn't my job, I wouldn't tune in on Feb. 5th. And don't say "what about the commercials?" I can't take that stuff either.

I'll say one thing about this Super Bowl matchup. It's making me look forward to the first Red Sox-Yankees game this year.

(P.S.: Why, yes, that IS the only Patriot card and the only Giant card in my collection. So nice of you to ask).

Minis morph into much more

2012-01-22T15:10:00.001-05:00

When I was executing my big card purchase a couple of weeks ago, I actually wrote out a plan of attack, much like I do at a card show. Normally, I don't do that for shopping online -- which gets me into trouble periodically. But I just have this attitude about online shopping. I want it to be just like how I shop in stores -- go, get item, pay, leave. Unfortunately, with the online route, there's too much oh-let-me-compare-this-with-that-and-how-much-is-that-and-what-about-this-and-oh-there's-something-about-this-here-and-if-I-combine-this-with-AHHHAAAHHHH-STOP IT!!

But I made my list anyway and it worked out fairly well.

One item right up there with my card goals for the year are 1975 Topps minis. But I left it off this shopping list. That's because so many good people have said they think they have some minis to send me. I'm not going to order minis and then wait for dupes to arrive in the mailbox. I'll just wait until my collecting buddies ship something and then I'll get to work on filling in blanks.

Some of the minis have started to arrive. The first one was from Paul at Wrigley Wax. He had the one card of Glenn Abbott, future expansion Mariner. I gratefully accepted and now #591 has been scribbled off the list.

The next group of minis came from Paul at Phungo headquarters.

They're so, so, pretty.

A few have creases and markings, but all of them are just right for my mini collection. I'm not anywhere close to upgrading mode with this set. The John D'Acquisto -- even though he's a Giant -- is especially appreciated as his regular-sized card is one of the cards that I pulled from the first packs I ever purchased. Those minis get top priority.

But Phungo's package, of course, contained much more than minis. It's that time of year for Phungo cards, which always beat Topps to store shelves. Let's see what I got in my pack:

I like the design this year. Here is a very '70s/'80s-type card photo of Cliff Lee. Smart move taking a picture without his cap. The guy sure moves around a lot.

The scanner cut off the left edge of Billingsley here. The Dodgers really need Bills this season, because I don't like the looks of their rotation.

Oh, dear, is this what the Dodgers have become? Using 68-year-old pinch-hitters? Actually, it's nice of Phungo to reference the fact that the Phillies manager was a pinch-hitter with the Dodgers during the mid-1970s.

I really like this card, except for the question mark there. I'll have to photoshop that into an exclamation point.

Ooooh! It's instant redemption time! I love these things! Let's see what I got.

Hey, I've got a retired number Washington Nationals Jackie monument to go with the Phillies' Jackie number I pulled last year! I'll get the whole series yet!

Here comes the traditional cards in the pack. There are so many Heritage variations that I thought I had this card of Blake already. Turns out it's a shiny that I need. Wee for me.

Another awesome card. This is one of the cards from the Heritage short-print Jackie Robinson series. I believe this is my third one. I like this card because Robinson's complete regular season and World Series career stats are on the back.

What's this? Another instant redemption code? What number should I use?

I'll go with 42 again ... nah, I'll try 55 instead -- Hershiser's number.

Whoa!!!! It's the sleeve for Sammy Hagar's "I Can't Drive 55"! It looks like it suffered some water damage while trying to avoid the cops.

And there's the 45. I still love me some 45s. I now have dupes of this record -- I don't think I've ever had a double of a record before.

Well, that's an unexpected perk of a Phungo pack! But as usual there's more ...

Tobacco-mini card sheets! These will come in handy as I've accumulated a fair amount of A&G minis again this year. Not as many as 2008, but I'll probably surpass 2010 in a few days, and I need a place to store those suckers because I've already dinged up the corners on a couple.

Like with most great packages, Phungo included some newspaper reading material:

Read your newspaper, kiddies. You don't even have to turn to the sports section first, although I'll look at you weirdly if you don't.

So, that's how a post about minis turned into a post about other kinds of minis/newspapers/rock n' roll from the '80s/homemade cards and cool Heritage cards. Thanks, Phungo!

And now I can make some room on my desk. That package was a space-hogger!

Awesome night card, pt. 135

2012-01-21T16:03:00.000-05:00

Today is the first day that I have felt like my normal self since getting sprayed with demon disease spores, or whatever the heck happened to me, a week ago Tuesday.

I'm still coughing like a coal miner in an iron lung, but I think I'm even improving there. At least I'm not freaking out the dog anymore.

So it's time to get back into the rituals of the blog that I've ignored for a few weeks, starting with the Awesome Night Card.

Today's night card comes from my Christmas cash goodies that arrived a couple days ago. You'll see the rest of them next week, but I want to show the mmmiiinnnnnnnnnnniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiissssssss now.

I ordered up 16 of the Lineage '75 minis. But three of them turned out to be dupes, including Mr. Beachy here. That's a result of both having a fever when I did the ordering, and being overconfident with my knowledge of which minis I have and which I don't.

But I have now crossed the 50-percent mark with the set at 110 cards total. Finishing off this set is a primary goal for this year and will be pursued while everyone is discussing 2012 Topps, so I don't expect any obstacles. Of course, I have to take care of that tiny matter of me ordering dupes.

Anyway, here is the loot:

The Latos is a dupe for anyone that cares. The Campanella has been the most vexing card in the set for me, aside from the Clayton Kershaw card.

There's Clayton now! About time you joined all your buds, Clay! Make yourself at home.

The Sisler mini is one I have already, too. So I've built a very, very modest smattering of dupes if anyone else is wacky enough to collect this set.

I still have a little bit of Christmas cash left over, and I plan to do some more card hunting next week some time. Some minis may be in the mix yet again. I'll try to be a little less sloppy this time.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Night Card Binder candidate: Brandon Beachy, 2011 Topps Lineage '75 mini, #164
Does it make the binder?: Nah. I'll probably just throw it in Captain Canuck's pile. It could use some padding.

I'm not collecting this set, I don't really like this set, please help me complete it

2012-01-20T19:53:00.000-05:00

There is currently a race going on between two sets that are near completion in my collection.

One is 2009 OPC. I need three cards. I should have completed it months ago. But the cards always slip my mind. Marcus Thames, Scott Feldman and Justin Duchscherer are not guys around which anyone is basing their collection.

The other set is 2011 Lineage.

Good god, you're saying, why would I be collecting THAT? Yes, I know.

I'm not really collecting it. I just happen to have a lot of the cards because I like the minis so much. That results in a bunch of extra, uh, packing material left over. It's like when you order something and you have to dig through all the styrofoam peanuts to get to what you ordered. After you've found it, you're left with a box and a whole mess of styrofoam peanuts.

I figured -- hey, I might as well collect the styrofoam peanuts. I sure have enough of them.

Then there are people like Chris from Nachos Grande, who has even more styrofoam peanuts than me, who wants to help me out with this collection that I never intended to have. So he sent me a whole bunch of styrofoam:

I don't have anything more to say about these cards. They're dull, unmemorable, and the backs are worse. It's an obvious insert-based set.

But at 200 base cards, with no shortprints, you're not going to find an easier set to complete. Which is why, without even attempting to complete it for one second, I find myself just seven short of wrapping up an entire set of 2011 Topps Styrofoam Peanuts ... er, I mean, Lineage.

If you have one or more of the following:

#47, #70, #83, #93, #165, #171, #186

I'll take them, I guess.

Might as well say I completed something from 2011. Allen & Ginter is sure taking its sweet, darling time.

Just don't expect to see a big, old announcement when I finish off the thing. And certainly don't expect me to show off the cards. Nobody needs to see that.

In fact, you'll probably know I'm done with the set when you see this pop up on the blog:

It'll mean the 2011 Topps Styrofoam Peanuts set is fini.

Blog of the year spoils

2012-01-20T00:37:00.000-05:00

Before getting sick, I came up with the One-Card Challenge. The link to it is over on the sidebar. I'm pleased to announce that the first challenge has been completed. Johnny from Cards From the Quarry is the first person able to check off that last card from his set, thanks to Johngy at Johngy's Beat. (It was a '94 Bowman Ellis Burks, I believe).

I have intentions of finishing off the challenge myself. Just need to find some time this week. (Get back, work! Get BACK!)

The card that inspired the One-Card Challenge is the 2001 Heritage Jeff Shaw card. I received it from Cardboard Catastrophes after waiting quite a while to fill that hole in the set. Then, of course, I received the very same Shaw card a day later.

Gee whiz golly.

It came from Wes at Jaybarkerfan's Junk. It was part of my spoils as king of the blogs. Way back at the start of the month -- before I got sick, before the One-Card Challenge -- I was elected "Blog of the Year." It caused a little consternation and I kind of got a big head about it, but in the end, I ended up with free cards. And that's what it's all about, right? Free cards for me. Nothing else matters. I get free cards and everyone lives happily ever after.

In fact, it's probably time I got off my kingly posterior and showed some of the cards I won.

Many of them are '90s Dodgers goodies, which is always entertaining for some collectors, only because I can break out my puzzled look as I say, "I have no idea what this is."

Prepare to drop your knowledge on clueless:

OK, I know this one. A '94 Finest card is a great place to start. I really love this set. I've already named it the "Carnival Midway Set." But I could just as easily name it the "Ribbon Candy Set," except I hate ribbon candy and then these cards would just remind me of how many times I poked the roof of my mouth with nasty, liquorice-tasting shards. Oh, yuck.

This is some 1997 UD3 card with the clever name of "PROmotion." Get it?

I can't tell you anything else. I'm too lazy/busy to find my Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards book. And there's that wacky "I don't know '90s cards" ignorance" for ya. So, off you go, tell me what this thing is.

This Todd Hollandsworth UD3 card is about to be peeled, as you can see at lower right ...

Peeled. And much better. Despite all the dust flecks.

Both Jim Leyritz and Mike Blowers had forgettable stints with the Dodgers. It's because they were carrying around too much Yankee crud. Really. It's brought down many a player.

Topps Tek. I don't know what to say that hasn't already been said. The back says there's a patent pending. I wonder how that's going?

Every time I see Metal cards, I can't help but feel a bit offended. You know the idea for these cards came from someone who said, "Hey what else do nerds like? Robots! Spiders! Lasers! Let's put them all in a set for those dorks!" And Metal was born.

This card is very cool, although serial-numbering on the front is SO '90s.

One of the things I must do this weekend now is count up how many fake versions of the 1952 Topps Jackie Robinson card I have. I am guessing "5." I wouldn't be surprised if it's more.

Let's end it with the Lineage portion of the package. Billingsley is currently part of my work password. I don't even care if you figure it out. It's not like you'd find anything fascinating or useful. I comment just about every day at work how ridiculous it is that we have passwords. It'd be like if you needed a password to turn on the lights. Why?

Hey, it's Cloth Dukie! I have two of these now. Come at me with an offer. No one ever makes me offers. I feel like the pretty girl without a date.

My favorite card of the bunch. Platinum Kershaw gives me every easily attainable parallel of his Lineage card. (I finally had to order the '75 mini myself -- that thing is as rare as the American Pie Frank Zappa card).

It's been great wearing the Blog of the Year crown so far. I promise I won't fall to peasant status.

I'd have to become a Giants fan for that.

My suppliers through the years

2012-01-19T02:03:00.000-05:00

I'm always fascinated when collectors can recall the name of the store they went to for their cards when they were little.

Maybe it's because they're still young, or maybe it's because they still live in the town with that store, or maybe they have excellent recall.

I, on the other hand, am not young, do not live in the same town where I first bought cards, and have the memory of six-month-old summer squash. Every time I try to recall the name of a store where I bought cards as a kid, all of my memories are orange and mushy.

But still, I thought it'd be fun if I could break down where I bought cards through my collecting life. Even if I don't know the names, it'd be like a little diary of my cardboard suppliers through the years.

These days most current cards come from one of two places -- Target or Walmart. Neither of those are going to produce many happy memories. Nothing in Walmart makes me happy. I'm even sad in the card aisle half the time. Target is much too filled with estrogen, which makes me feel alternately annoyed, grateful, and perverted. Really not a combination I want on instant recall.

So, here's to the times when you could go to the corner store, get the once-over from the graying, bald man behind the counter, and grab a few packs:

1975-1978

My earliest "shopping for cardboard" memories revolve around a small, green, corner store that was maybe a mile-and-a-half from my home. I didn't know the name of it then, and I don't know the name of it now. It's possible it didn't even have a name. Even calling it a "corner store" is deceptive, because the corner it was on bordered on a freakishly short, dead-end street. The street was called "End Street." How can you be on the corner of an end? It's the end!

I remember climbing the few cement steps to open the front door. The inside was everything you remember about a corner store. Just one aisle, traveling from the front of the store to the back. But except for taking a peak at the freezer treats immediately to the right, we would grab the wax and cello packs on the left, hand over our coins and go.

The store sat directly across a busy street from our elementary school, so it was a popular stop for kids. But I was only there for the cards. As I recall, it wasn't open on the weekend, which kind of annoyed me, because that was when I bought most of my cards. For those times, we would walk several more blocks down that road, until we got to a busier area of town. On the left, was a strip mall, that featured a drug store. Again, I have no idea of its name.

Many of the cards I bought later in 1975 came from that drug store. I continued to get cards from that store in '76 and '77. I think the green corner store closed down somewhere in there, because I never went back there for cards after that first year.

1978-1983

We moved in 1978, and I had to search out a whole new area to find cards. There was a corner store not three blocks from our new house called "Paul's Market," which was where all kids went for the usual kids stuff. I think I bought cards there that first year. But Paul's, which had been around for awhile, disappeared quickly once we arrived, and I had to find somewhere else.

The next-closest place was "Monroe Market," just a block further from Paul's. But Monroe was a little scary unless you were a guy looking to score girlie magazines and alcohol. Although the thought of being one of those guys was intriguing, the thought of trying to sneak that into the house was not. And besides, the dudes that hung around in that store were big and intimidating, and, um, kind of smelled different. So I got cards there when I was desperate (my memories of first seeing Fleer and Donruss are from that store). The cards were rightnext to the magazine rack with Playboy and Penthouse. I knew I had to find somewhere else for cards, if I still wanted to keep caring about cards.

That somewhere else became my main source for cards from 1979-82. It was a family-owned drug store on the main commerce drag in town. Three stores down from the Subway store on the corner. Again, I don't remember the store's name -- it had a very generic name -- and it sold dollar-store type stuff before "dollar stores" became a big deal. My brothers and I would walk the 2 or 3 miles there and back to get our fix.

I remember the cards were displayed on an end-cap right near the cash register. I loved how convenient it was, although the store manager probably was keeping his eye on any squirrely shoplifting collectors looking for the big rookie cards.

Later, we discovered a Greek food store that we walked past on the way to the drug store. It also sold cards, including things like early '80s Topps stickers and 5x7s, that weren't available at the drug store. We made sure to stop there, too. Have no idea what it was called.

Meanwhile, there was a CVS further up the main drag that never sold cards. I think I checked about 74 times.

1986-89

I skipped over 1984 and 85 because I bought virtually no cards from a store those years. I purchased complete sets of Topps from a friend and washed my hands of collecting each of those years.

By 1986, I was in a new city, going to college. Cards were silly, baby things. If I brought cards into a bar, I would be banned for life, but not before all the pretty girls laughed at me. So I kept card purchases, especially in '86, '87 and '88, to brief visits to the drug store, usually after classes. The stores were all the way over on the other side of town -- 40 minutes away -- so there was no chance of my college buddies spotting me.

I'd stop at one drug store about 2 miles from my grandmother's. It was in a plaza with a laundromat, a diner, a pet shop, and couple other stores I don't remember. There was another drug store farther north, out in the suburbs, where I went to quite a bit. Next to a pizza place. I can't remember the names of either store, but I know almost all cards I saw at the time were in rack packs. I began to wonder if wax packs existed anymore. Rack packs were everywhere. But I liked rack packs. Who didn't like seeing the cards you were buying? The last football cards I ever bought came from the store next to the pizza place.

By '89, I was out of college and full of free time. I found another drug store, this one in a sweeping shopping mall, which was across from another shopping center, which was not far from yet another mall (if you know anything about Amherst, N.Y., this does not surprise you). I went to that store one or two times a week every week of baseball season and bought 4-6 packs at a time. Out of all the stores that I bought cards, this is the one who's name I should remember and it's a total blank. I probably went there 50 times, just to buy cards, and can't remember the name.

1990-93

I had moved again, for my first full-time job. I was in the middle of nowhere, living among people whose "urnotfromhereRU" antennae are longer than anywhere else in the country. I couldn't open my mouth in a department store without 10 sets of eyes suddenly upon me.

It took me a year to get over that -- OK, I never got over it -- and get out in the world to find cards. In 1991, I returned to collecting with a vengeance and bought every card I could for a three-year period. The vast majority of those cards came from a drug store in a strip mall next to where my newlywed wife and I shopped for groceries. The name of this I remember -- it was your common variety Rite Aid.

Damn, it had a lot of cards. Topps, Fleer, Donruss, Upper Deck, Score, Pinnacle, Ultra, Triple Play, Stadium Club, just about anything that was available in the overproduction era. Except Leaf. Nobody ever saw Leaf.

A co-worker of mine had bought a pack of 1990 Topps when we first started working together in the spring of '90. I thought, "how quaint, baseball cards" even though it was just a year earlier when I subsisted on nothing but cardboard. That's how much my world had changed then. But that pack touched off a fever that lasted until '94, when the hobby died for me.

1994-2005

The dead period. Bought a couple packs in 1995. One pack in 1997. Found a few packs of 1998 Topps in a bookstore, of all places. "Aren't they cute?" I bought them. A few more packs in 2000. Couldn't tell you where.

By 2002, 2003, I was noticing cards at Walmart and Kmart. It seemed very weird. But I embraced it. The 2004 All-Time Fan Favorites set was the first modern set I had collected since 1993 Upper Deck, and I bought virtually all of it at Walmarts.

The revolution had begun. I was coming back. And cards were at Walmart.

2006-present

What a crazy time '06 was.

I've detailed this before, but I bought some rack packs of '06 Topps at Walmart, and the packs advertised "3 vintage cards" in every pack. Many of the "vintage cards" were from 1993. But I'd find stuff from 1983 sometimes, and for someone trying to figure out what this modern thing was all about -- THAT WAS COOL.

Those rack packs sucked me in and I still haven't found the eject button. I made trips to Walmart twice a week for those rack packs and the vintage cards -- ah, hell, might as well collect the '06 set, too.

Then I discovered boxes of repacks. A dangerous concoction, but the newbie's got to learn. I accumulated a crazy number of 2006 Upper Deck. Not nearly as much as I have of '06 Topps, but I'd have a hard time convincing anyone I'm not an Upper Deck fan after they saw my '06 UD.

This set into motion the ritual of the last five years. Get your paycheck, and sometime in the following 3 days, figure out a reason why you absolutely MUST travel the main drag in town, drive all the way to the end, enter a store you'd never be in any other way, and find that freakin' card aisle.

I really don't like that I do this. It's not because I think retail is for suckers, or think online is the way to go, or any of that. It's just that for so many years, cards meant hitting the small drug store, waiting in a line of maybe three people, and being on your way.

Cards were part of the drug store experience. Oh yeah, I'm buying cards. You're buying some band aids, and you're buying wrapping paper.

It's never like that in Walmart or Target. Half the time I feel like I should put the cards away and instead buy a bike, or bunch of paper towels, or eyelash enhancer, or whatever. Not one other person in those stores is buying cards. No one in the drug store was buying cards either. But there were 5 people in the drug store, not 281.

This is why I still look for cards in every drug store in which I happen to be. Sometimes I get lucky. More often, I don't, and every one of those "nope" times, I'm disappointed.

Drug stores always should sell cards. I promise I'll remember your name if you do.

I like my blog ... please let it live

2012-01-18T02:46:00.000-05:00

Today, much of the online world is on strike.

If SOPA or PIPA become laws, the cards you see here may look like this.

OK, that's silly. If SOPA and PIPA are ways of life, people probably won't even be able to get to my blog to see whatever "illegally-obtained," "creatively-owned" images I am featuring. And that means my blog will simply cease to exist because I'll pull the plug.

Perhaps that's a drastic way of looking at things, but I don't like Hollywood-created bits of legislation that may kill what's become my main diversion in life.

SOPA and PIPA will eventually ruin blogging as I know it. And it will ruin it for you, too.

If you don't know what all of this is, I encourage you to read up on it.

Here's a good place.

Here's another.

And here.

And here.

And here.

And here.

I'm sure there are many others.

I hate getting political on this blog, and I have avoided it at almost all costs the last three-plus years. But when something directly affects Night Owl Cards, then I have no choice. It's also very disappointing to me that every major sporting organization, including Major League Baseball, supports these poorly constructed, poorly defined acts.

MLB can be assured that if I am forced to shut down my blog, it will not see a single cent from me in any form ever.

I collected Matchbox cars, coins and stamps as a kid. I can go back to doing that.

I have a difficult enough time with the government worming its way into a variety of aspects of my life. I certainly don't want the entertainment industry and its collective of glittery fuck-ups trampling through my little corner.

Join the fight against SOPA and PIPA.

Stop the internet thought police.

I wasn't the only one who suffered during my illness

2012-01-17T12:23:00.000-05:00

Today, I'm planning to head into work for a full day for the first time since Wednesday. We'll see how that goes. I'm still coughing like a nine-pack-a-day puffer and unless my co-workers consider that comforting background music, things could be bumpy.

Also, I haven't exactly been in touch with the normal rhythms and customs of life for the last week and have done a variety of things to almost get myself and others killed, including: driving at night through a snowstorm for a mile without headlights, leaving the stove burners on while making chicken soup, sailing through a stop sign, and other things I'm sure my wife will tell me about when she's sure I'm my old self again and can be sufficiently embarrassed.

Staying home and lying on the couch when you're sick isn't only to get you healthy and keep others from catching your illness. You're also there because sick people lose the direction manual to life's little rituals.

Fortunately, no one got hurt during my episode. Except some cards. From one of my trade packages.

Ouch. Yes, I know.

I have no idea how it happened. The last six days have been a haze. During some of my vaguely clearer moments, I'd shuffle over to my baseball card desk and update one of my Dodger binders. The Dodger binder du jour rests in the middle of the desk. To the right of it are trades in process. What a sorry corner that is right now. Lots of work to do there and I have no idea when I'll feel up to re-firing that puppy.

To the left of the binder are trade packages that have arrived that haven't yet been blogged. I keep them order from the oldest to newest.

The oldest trade package was from Spiegel. I was just about to scan his cards when the illness hit. So the cards sat there and moved up the line as more cards arrived that I was too delirious to care about. Somewhere along the way in my careless, feverish state, I must've squashed some of Spiegel's cards. Because a few now have the dreaded bottom left-corner ...

Ding!

Ding! Ding!

(You probably can't see it on the A&G scan)

Of course this sent myself into yet another session of self-loathing -- a common ritual when you're sick -- but it's no big deal. The cards are all still going in the collection. I may replace the Berkman A&G card, but I've ended up with two of Tejada anyway.

Besides, Spiegel sent plenty of other cards that are just fine in their own way.

OK, I spoke too soon. It's Jason Schmidt. But at least he's shiny!

Two versions of Todd Hollandsworth. One is a parallel, maybe a Museum Collection card? I don't know. I'm still in recovery mode. I haven't gotten to the point of caring about stuff like that again.

A '75 Lineage mini of mini Morgan!

Chrome Orel Hershiser was too powerful to get dinged.

Konerko sure had some fancy cards for being nothing but a prospect at this point. This is my 63rd Dodger Konerko card, or eight cards more than the number of games he spent in a Dodger uniform.

Spiegel always sends some '77 Topps my way, which is great. There were lots of terrific cards that always take me back to 6th grade. Gorman Thomas, Cesar Cedeno, the Cubs floating heads team card. But these are my two favorites just because they replace two of the worst-conditioned cards in the set for me.

The Pirates team card that I had before was one of those that came from the team-card sheets you could order through the mail. Those do not hold up well over the years.

My original Tito card looks like this:

How many creases are in that thing? 13? 14?

Lastly, I was the beneficiary of Spiegel's quest for Dodger autographs. I've stopped doing the TTM thing, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate autographed cards from former Dodgers.

Especially when they look like this:

I don't think I have ever seen so much thought go into a signature. And so loopy! I'd say it looks like a 14-year-old girl signed Andy Ashby's signature, but that'd be a little mean.

And then you've got this thing that exploded in the lower left corner. I'm never going to be able to convince anyone that Kevin Gross signed this.

Quite an interesting assortment of cards from Spiegel that I'm now just getting the strength to appreciate.

OK, now I have to go through a mental list of what I need to bring to work tonight:

1. Cough drops
2. Tissues
3. Medicine
4. Reminder to turn on headlights

Ready to go!

Mr. Loney's found a loophole

2012-01-16T20:06:00.002-05:00

I have only two rules when a card inquires about taking up residence in one of my Dodger binders:

1. Do you declare somewhere on the front of the card -- whether in print or in the photo presented -- that you are depicting a member of the greatest team ever, the Dodgers of Brooklyn/Los Angeles?

2. Are you unique when compared with any Dodger card already in the binder?

In other words:

DOUBLES NEED NOT APPLY!

The only Dodger dupes that make it into the binders are those rare breeds, the highly coveted rookie cards, the iconic cards, the vintage from the '50s. But I can count those instances on two hands and probably one foot. Doubles just ain't gettin' in.

But there is one card that has found a loophole. I have two of this card in one of my binders. Yet the second version of the card is not intentionally unique from the first. By the rules above, it should be tossed in the dupes box. But I just can't get myself to do it.

Here is the first version of the card:

It's a 2006 Bowman Heritage card of James Loney. I've never cared for this set. But I do know enough about it that the red background is one of several colors repeated throughout the set.

OK, now here is the second version of the card, which is really exactly the same as the first version, as far as I know.

I'm guessing this is some kind of printing error. There is no pink/salmon background in the set, and I've never heard of color variations in 2006 Bowman Heritage (if there is, then forget I ever wrote this post).

When I came across these two cards, I looked for mention of such a variation in the set, but couldn't find any. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense that someone merely forgot to spray an extra coat of red behind Mr. Loney on the second card. Or maybe someone left the pink card out in the sun too long.

Essentially, the second card is just a dupe -- and should be denied admittance into the Dodger binders.

But I can't do that.

As a card collector who values color in baseball card design more than a lot of collectors do, I can't possible consider the two cards the same. Red and pink are not the same.

So "pinkie Loney" sits next to "red Loney" in my 2006 Dodger binder, and when I come across them, I tell myself pinkie is some super-secret variation that no one has discovered yet.

Hey, it's just as legitimate as all those colored foil-stamped variations we've received the last 15 years.

So, what have I been doing?

2012-01-16T07:21:00.001-05:00

It's 5:30 in the morning and I've been up for four hours now -- not by choice, which is always possible for a night owl -- but because of a beastly cough that will not let me lay quietly for even 30 seconds.

They say that a cough is usually a sign that an upper respiratory infection is on its way out, but since a cough is how this sinus infection began (yeah, I know, sinus infections often start in your head -- even the nurse was perplexed) and has been with me all the way through, I could simply be embarking on a new point in my life when I'm known as "The Coughing Guy."

I've had sinus infections before. But the symptom that threw me off the scent was the cough. I started hacking, then picked up a fever and thought "hmmm, I've got some sort of virus." If I had known it was a sinus infection, I could have gone through the ritual of sinus infection sufferers four days ago, instead of just starting on Saturday.

The first few days were spent just trying to get through. I couldn't possible go to work -- although I tried to do so on Friday. Major mistake. Not only did I feel like a garbage dump, but winter decided to arrive on that exact day and give us a foot of snow. A co-worker needed a lift because she couldn't get plowed out. As the only available option, I drove out in my feverish state. I was so out out of it, that I didn't turn on my lights, even though it was dark out, and then I drove through a stop sign.

I'd come home those first few days and sit in a chair and stare vacantly, disinterested in everything. I couldn't focus on anything, and bizarre stuff would set me off. I literally yelled at the weatherman because he was off on his prediction of snowfall by four inches.

I tried to read the blogs, but anything requiring any kind of of thought was impossible. Plus, reading someone saying, "check out the cards I scored!" while I hacked up a lung or carried about 50 pounds of mucous in my head ... well, let's say I felt a bit resentful. For the first time in a long time, I didn't want the cardboard world to exist.

By Saturday and Sunday I noticed slow improvement, meaning I could focus on a few things. But only a few things. So you know what that means -- I parked myself in front of the TV.

I don't watch much TV when it's not baseball season, and I can't remember the last time I've watched TV around the clock. But I did around the clock on back-to-back days. I'm pretty certain I'm not as intelligent as I was last week.

The good point was I got to watch all four NFL playoff games. Well, two-and-half really. I took a nappy during the Texans-Ravens. And fever boy couldn't stay up for all of the Patriots-Broncos. Besides, I was sick already. The combination of the media's insane gushing over Tim Tebow and my well-crafted hatred of the Patriots may have finished me off.

The bad point was this:

I was reminded of all the reasons why I was driven away from watching the NFL originally. The commercial interruptions are relentless and repetitive. There needs to be a limit on how often a commercial can be aired. I honestly don't understand how football fans can take it.

Here are some of the phrases I never want to hear again after viewing four football games:

"You guys know how to post videos to Facebook?"

All cell phone commercials are pushy, unappealing, unfunny and useless to me. But this one is so annoying that I may just go without any communication device for the rest of my life. If you're going to air the same commercial over and over again, at least try to make it appealing. Your commercial is so 27 seconds ago.

"We count our victories by the bombers we get to their targets. By the husbands we return to their wives. By the fathers we give back to their children."

The movie Red Tails looks interesting and commendable, but I cannot listen to Terrence Howard's voice one more time. See what you do when you shove stuff down people's throat?

"I want people to jump rope with our cheese."

Listen. Dominos sucks. It's the worst chain pizza I've ever experienced. And the commercials are just as bad. And why is it that Dominos is the only pizza chain that exists in television advertising? I vaguely remember something from Pizza Hut, but Dominos sure is in-your-face for a business that should be spending more time on how to improve their pizza and less on annoying viewers over discussions over cheesy bread. Have some pride.

Even commercials that I liked back in the first stages of illness -- like the Direct TV "don't end up in a roadside ditch" commercial -- was just a bunch of white noise a couple days later.

And finally, I do not care how much you beat me into submission, I am not watching your little show about Alcatraz. Got it?

When football wasn't on, I've been watching old episodes of Frasier or Cheers. I think those are the only times during this period when I was actually able to enjoy myself. Well, except that any laughing threw my body in into coughing convulsions and I'd proceeded to miss the next 10 lines of dialogue.

I've taken more medication in the last five days than I've ever taken in my life. At first it was the "please get the fever down" variety, and then it was the "remove the vise from my head" kind and then it was the "I really, really, REALLY need to get some sleep" version.

But as you can see, the sleep medicine isn't working too well.

So, you're probably wondering when I'm going to get back to my two-posts-a-day self.

I still don't know.

I have to be doing fairly well to write this much -- I never could have done any of this a few days ago. I couldn't even send out a simple one-sentence email to my mom three days ago.

So I say, give it a couple of days. By then, the thought of scanning some cards won't make me nauseous.

Look, there's a freshly scanned card now. Can't be too far from getting back on the pony.

I smartly requested Monday off a few weeks ago (no I'm not a government or school worker, I don't usually get MLK Day off). It will give me another day to recuperate. Especially if I'm going to function on three hours of fitful sleep.

As far as getting sick, you couldn't pick a better time. January is boring. It hasn't been above zero for the last two days. But that doesn't matter to me because I haven't been out of the house for two days.

So don't you worry your pretty little head. Night Owl is starting to see the bright side and is on the comeback trail.

On the other hand, Night Owl could change his name to The Coughing Guy.

You don't want to know how many times I spit up green stuff writing this post.

I'll get there

2012-01-14T17:31:00.001-05:00

I am still not over my illness, but there are a few signs that things are improving. Things like being able to focus enough to type these sentences or concentrate on a football game on television.

I rarely get sick, so this was a doozy. And I still don't feel up to it enough for a proper post. I have never been so disinterested in blogging -- or just about everything -- in the last few days.

But I thought I'd get on here and show some cards I received, because, you know, that's what we do when we're healthy:

These are three high-numbered '71 needs from Matt at Card Anathema. Thanks to Matt I'm down to needing just nine cards to complete the set.

I owe Matt some cards. I owe several people some cards. Obviously, with the way things have been I am behind in every aspect of life, including trade packages.

I'll get there.

But for now, just know it took every ounce of energy to scan these three cards.

Shopping for cards with a 100.8-degree fever

2012-01-12T01:14:00.000-05:00

I left work today three hours into my shift because I felt like garbage. I'm pretty sure I contracted something from a co-worker coughing away at a work meeting a couple days ago.

I came home and my dog licked the germs off me. I proceeded to not eat dinner then slept through whatever was on television.

That's how you know if I'm sick. I can never sleep with the TV on if I'm healthy.

About an hour-and-a-half ago, I felt as awful as I had all day. Chills. Horrible cough deep in my chest. But I've taken some medicine and now I'm eating something that I'm probably going to pay for in a couple of hours.

I'm also ordering cards online.

This is amazing. Because I have a difficult enough time ordering online when I'm semi-coherent. As I've said before, it's just not as simple as pulling a blaster off the shelf and throwing it in the cart. There's all this searching and comparing and budgeting and ... oh, now, I feel overheated.

But this was the day that I had set aside awhile ago to get some cards with some Christmas money. I have another day set aside later in the month, too. I can't be changing those dates. They've been established for maximum purchasing pleasure.

So, when the cards arrive in a week or so, I hope I'll be satisfied with whatever I found for myself in a feverish haze.

Here is a look at a few of the cards I did buy:

The last item isn't in as good of shape as this image, but it's still an awesome card.

I don't know, I think I did pretty good.

I'll be sure to show all the goodies when I get them.

Drugs are a wonderful thing.

(P.S.: I won't get to the team set blogs today. I'm not equipped mentally to do any research. Hopefully, I'll feel better tomorrow).

My one-card contribution to the one-card challenge

2012-01-11T19:09:00.000-05:00

I'm happy to say that I've been notified of at least two transactions that are in the works because of The One-Card Challenge. Hopefully, there will be many more. Any day in which someone can finish off a set is a great day, really.

One of those people on the verge of finishing a set is Mark from Mark's Ephemera. Not only will he have the final card in what, no doubt, is a very cool collection, the '94 Ted Williams Company Negro League subset. But he'll probably end up with a couple of cards from me for devising this logo for The One-Card Challenge. Isn't it charmingly retro?

The logo -- it's based on the '63 Fleer checklist -- has booted my lame attempt on the sidebar. From this point on, click on that logo to get to the post where you can leave your pleas to finish off a set, or to see if you have a card for someone else that will finish off a set.

I'm still tempted to turn this into a page of its own -- much like Mark's Got It. Got It. Need It. If you have any thoughts on which direction I should go with this, let me know.

But as of now, all my focus has been to complete The One-Card Challenge myself.

It wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be. I went through the whole list of everybody's solitary card needs. I thought I would be able to fill a couple, but in each case the card seems to be loose in the house somewhere. (More searching awaits). I have a card for a couple of other people, but others have beat me to it -- and that's fine by me.

A lot of the cards are from sets I've never seen, a couple I've never heard of ever. I wish those people luck. Who knows, someday I may turn into a Bowman Prospects fiend or start collecting football, and I'll have cards for everyone.

But now, I have just one:

Captain, it'll be on its way to you whenever I get my life together. OK, whenever I get it 20 percent together.

Of course, one suggestion for The One-Card Challenge is that mailing the card might work better if you put it with a few other cards that the recipient may like. You don't want to be bending that one, treasured card in a PWE.

I'm not stopping with Murph here, though. In the months to come, I hope to fill other people's requests, and I hope there are more requests to come. Again, if you receive your desired card from someone, either leave a comment on the One-Card Challenge post, or send me an email so I can cross the card off. (This is where a page for One-Card Challenge may be more useful than a single post).

Meanwhile, I've started to receive a few packages in the mail now that the holidays are over. I'm behind as always, but here are a few cards from Kyle and JABO's Baseball Card Blog.

After going weeks without a single A&G need filled, the wheels are in motion on getting this set completed. It won't be done before Topps base comes out. But I hope to finish it off before the spring.

This is the card that I wanted though. The parallels for Topps Marquee are as pointlessly goofy as anything Upper Deck did, but the rest of the card is fantastic.

This is my first Marquee card and I can't think of a better one to have. It pretty much sums up the season Matt Kemp had last year.

Is it too late to revise the Card of the Year for 2011?

It's amazing how much one card can make a difference.

No direction

2012-01-10T20:59:00.000-05:00

I looked up how often I've written housekeeping-type posts in the past, and I've done them exactly twice a year for the last four years.

That's pretty consistent, although I'm sure there have been a number of other "no direction, completely random, what-is-the-point-to-this" posts in the past that weren't labeled as "housekeeping."

So, at risk of throwing off the curve, I'm going to compile a housekeeping post 10 days into the new year. That means I have only one more left for 2012, unless I want to set the most meaningless record of all-time.

Here goes:

1. 75 MINIS

I have already produced a want list for the 1975 Topps mini set. It is grouped in with all my other want lists, and it is massive. I counted up my minis, and I have exactly 160, meaning there is a nice, round 500 more to go.

If you have some '75 minis that you're thinking about sending me, chances are very good that I don't have what you've got, but there's a list now to double-check. Many thanks to those who have already said they have some for me.

I'm not too particular on condition. If you send me something ripped, stained, folded in fifths or barfed on, I'm sure I'll upgrade it. But the card featured here is a good indication of something I'll accept. Scuffed and worn within reason is perfectly fine. Of course, if you have something freakishly mint, I'll take that, too.

2. THE ONE-CARD CHALLENGE

The project has had some decent interest the first day. That means I'm linking it on the sidebar. If you are in need of a single card to complete a set (whether it's a base set, team set, insert set, whatever), click on the link to go to the post and leave a comment on what card you need. Hopefully, someone who has that card will see it and send it to you.

If you want to leave your contact information in the comments, that's fine. If you need me to find a contact for someone, I can do that, too. I just ask that you keep the "I need this card" comments to that particular post. Also, if you do receive the card you need, it'd be nice if you could comment that you got the card, just so you don't end up getting multiple copies from people.

If comments continue at this rate, I may create a blog page devoted to the One-Card Challenge and link from here. It can be the one-stop site for helping a fellow collector complete whatever set is nagging him/her.

Also, the logo I created in 5 minutes is an insult to anyone with graphic ability. If you have the time to produce a One-Card Challenge logo for me, I'd appreciate it. I may be able to send a few cards your way for your effort.

3. BEST OF THE '70s

The card that I thought would win the vote for the best Dock Ellis card of the '70s did win, easily. The 1973 Topps card received 28 of the 56 votes, exactly half. It makes me wonder how the '73 Ellis would do against the '72 In Action Ellis, which feature essentially the same photo.

Here is the final tally:

1. 1973 Topps - 28 votes
2. 1971 Topps - 10 votes
3. 1975 Topps - 4 votes
4. 1976 Topps - 4 votes
5. 1972 Topps - 3 votes
6. 1974 Topps - 3 votes
7. 1978 Topps - 3 votes
8. 1970 Topps - 1 vote
9. 1977 and 1979 Topps - 0 votes

My personal favorite is the 1975 Ellis, mostly for nostalgic reasons. But I'm sure if I saw the '73 Ellis when I was a kid, I'd think that was the coolest one, too.

Dock will take his rightful place in the tabs as soon as I get a chance.

4. MORE TRADE STUFF

A couple of weeks ago I tested the waters for a Tigers fan, as I had been pulling Tigers parallels at a pretty rapid rate lately.

I didn't get any interest. Maybe Verlander is the only collectible Tiger? I don't know. But since then, I've added this Kaline Lineage mini card to the pile. If you're interested in this card or any of the other Tigers, they're still available.

Well, except for this card:

It's on its way to Spiegel. He jumped at the chance to own it and I have no trouble trading with Spiegel at all. So it's all his as soon as I get the chance to send it.

And while I'm at it, I've accumulated a small amount of Cardinals, too. Usually all of my Cardinals go to madding, and I hope these do, too. I just haven't seen him around lately, so I'm wondering if he's laying low on the trading front.

This may perk him up though:

A Bob Gibson cloth card. Woooo, I like that one!

Unless someone bowls me over with an offer, this will head to madding anyway. Got to keep those regular traders intact.

OK, I that's it for now.

I think I am now going to bask in the glow of college football season being over. One more sign that baseball season is on its way.

The one-card challenge

2012-01-10T03:11:00.000-05:00

In the few years that I've been running this blog, communicating and trading with fellow collectors, I've noticed a few things about us collecting types.

I'm not going to list them all because that would mean I would have to sit down in a darkened house at 3 in the morning and actually try to come up with a list. No way I'm doing that.

I'm just going to mention one thing. And that thing is: have you ever noticed how fired up collectors get when they find out that another collector needs just one card to complete a set? They get fired up. I mean REALLY fired up. I'd say it's like when the teacher asks a question and a student knows the answer and raises his hand so vigorously that he practically dislocates his shoulder.

But it's more intense then that. It's almost as if a siren goes off in every collector's head and they immediately run to their collection to see if they have that card for their fellow collector in need. Before you know it, two hours have passed, but the collector has found that 1992 Topps Doug Dascenzo card.

This is a tremendous instinct we have. I love it.

I just experienced it myself a few days ago. In a post, I mentioned that I was one card short of finishing off the Dodger team set for 2001 Heritage. All I needed the Jeff Shaw card.

I wrote this post on a Wednesday.

BAM!!!!!

I had the Shaw card in my hands on Saturday.

That's three days!

And it came from about a thousand miles away!

That's crazy. But that's the helpfulness of a fellow collector.

Many thanks to carlsonjok for shipping this to me so urgently. I'm now done with the '01 Heritage Dodgers' team set.

I've experienced this phenomenon several times now. And I've actually participated in it myself, responding to that pleading voice, that someone needs a certain card to finish off a set, and, wonder of wonders, I HAVE THAT CARD! OK, it's taken me a little longer than three days to send it out. But I got it there. Because there was a needy, hungry collector with a single hole in his collection.

This is one of the coolest parts of blogging that I have experienced. And I thought I'd try something here and see if we can help some collectors in need.

I'm calling it The One-Card Challenge.

If you are lacking a single card from a set, whether it's a card to complete an entire base set, or a team set, or whatever, leave a comment on this post with the name of the card and the set. If you know the card number, throw that in, too. The more details the better.

The comments will then be available for all to see. If I have the card, I will try to fill the need, but anybody else can send the card out, too. If people don't know how to get in contact with the collector who needs the card, I will try to track down an email address for the collector.

I'll link this post up on the sidebar so people can consult it whenever they want. Also, if this becomes successful at all, I'll provide periodic updates and maybe fine-tune what is a very off-the-top-of-my-head idea.

So if there is one card that has been pestering you, keeping you from finishing off a set, never fear. Rely on a collector's basic instinct to help fill this need! We can't help it. It's who we are.

We must meet the One-Card Challenge.

All I can manage is this post

2012-01-09T19:32:00.000-05:00

We're reaching a period of time -- or maybe I'm reaching a period of time in my life -- in which the Baseball Hall of Fame, especially who's inducted and who's not, doesn't matter much to me.

Don't get me wrong. I still tune into the announcement of who gets in each year. I still enjoy the history and listen to the speeches. I've been to the Hall enough that it will always be cool.

But I just can't get into the whole discussion anymore.

Part of this is because the people who are eligible for election are mostly players from an era in which I didn't pay a lot of attention to baseball. This was true when Roberto Alomar was elected last year, and I struggled to find cards of Alomar. I almost have to root for someone to stay on the ballot a long time -- like Bert Blyleven -- to have an eligible player to which I can relate from a rooting standpoint.

So, I'll just offer a simple congratulations to Barry Larkin. It's well-deserved. But I have about 12 of Larkin's cards.

That's pretty pathetic considering the first part of his career was during the junk wax era. But Larkin's cards were never a goal of mine, and especially when I cut myself off from collecting during Larkin's peak period. Didn't collect anyone at all then.

Here are my favorite Larkin cards of the few that I have:

I still stand by the '88 Topps Larkin card as an all-time favorite. I love '88 Topps and I wouldn't be surprised if this card was the inspiration for Topps' Walmart all-black cards. Looks fantastic.

The others are great, too. But I know that he has many, many other fantastic cards, probably many better than this, that I don't have.

So that's all I've got about Larkin. I'm sure other Reds bloggers can give you lots of other good stuff.

I suppose this is where you expect me to address the other players who didn't get in -- who should get in, who shouldn't, who should be burned at the stake, who should have their press pass ripped up in front of them in 40 million pieces and sprinkled over their head, blah, blah, blah.

Nope. Not doing that anymore.

As recent as a couple of years ago, I was as fired up about the elections and inductions as anyone else. It's one of the great debatable times of the baseball season. And I was right there, debating.

But I've gotten tired of the debate. In everything, not just sports. Everything is debatable these days. Everything can be argued. There is no universal "this is great" or "this sucks" anymore. I suppose that's good. Or maybe it's not. I don't know. I just know I get weary of everyone arguing all the time. Everyone is so angry. Talk radio. Forums. Twitter. Other places that I don't want to mention or the trolls will feel validated.

Just shut the hell up. Everyone. Please.

OK, that's a little harsh. The Hall of Fame induction announcement period lives for debate. People who like to debate thrive during this period. Sure, I've got opinions, too. But maybe I just like giving them and not receiving them anymore.

Is that a sign of getting old? Or being a recluse in the woods?

The truth is, I've been growing tired of the debate for quite awhile. The fourth post I ever made here touched on that in a facetious way (Perhaps you've noticed, many of my posts are done in an attempt a humor. Apparently sometimes it misses the mark with some). That doesn't mean I have issues with others debating. There have been plenty of posts from many blogs that I know and like about the Hall today. I've read as many as I could (it's been busy again).

But they're more cut out for it than me.

I'll just stick to:

"Hey, Barry Larkin's in the Hall!"

"Wanna seem some cards of him?"

"Sorry, I only have 12."

Be the Mudcat

2012-01-08T22:17:00.002-05:00

You know that saying about how pet owners tend to look like their pets?

Well, what about players who tend to look like their team's mascot?

I SAID, what about players who tend to look like their team's mascot?

Do you think the owner of the Carolina Mudcats gave the players some extra cash if they could make like a mudcat for the entire season? Imagine how many souvenirs they could sell if fans could get a stuffed mudcat that looked just like their favorite player!

I can hear the owner talking to his players now:

Stop thinking ...

Let things happen ...

And ...

Be ...

The ...

Mudcat!!!!

(Minor League cards are too much fun).

The solution

2012-01-07T20:25:00.000-05:00

I was a little cranky yesterday as the last post and some of my comments on various other blogs probably indicated.

Yesterday wasn't an awful day or anything. It was just one of those days when I couldn't get to the cards or to blogging no matter how hard I tried. Anytime I turned around, there was always something else to do. Something minor, something harmless, but something "not cards," to do.

I find myself getting cranky in situations like this. Which isn't good, as that seems like a red light for addictive behavior. But at least I'm aware of it. If anyone calls me on it, I'll say, "I'm aware of it! I'm aware of it!" and then go back to staring at cards. See? Problem solved.

During yesterday's rant, I wrote about how frustrated I was with collecting current sets. And I AM still frustrated. That just wasn't crankiness speaking.

I'm frustrated by the short-prints, and the inserts dominating base cards, and the possibility that some base cards are more prevalent than others. The look of the product is fine, some of the inserts are fine, too. But the other stuff, well, it's time for me to end it.

I'm pretty certain that I will not be attempting to complete any set that comes out in 2012. No Topps base. No Heritage or Gypsy Queen. No Chrome. And, for the first time since 2007, no Allen & Ginter. That last one is a big one, but unless it's the best A&G product ever, I will not be trying to complete it.

I'm probably going to have some withdrawal pains when A&G comes out in June, but I hope to be immovable. I'll probably have this post and the previous post on speed dial on my phone if I start shaking when the first A&G posts start popping up.

Now, this DOESN'T mean I will stop buying packs of 2012 cards when I'm at Target or the convenience store. It's impossible for me to stop doing that. I like opening packs too much for that. And current cards are always cool. They just are. You have to sample the latest and greatest. New stuff is fantastic to look at ... always.

I've written plenty of posts recently about why I still open random packs. Here is one now. And here is another one. Oops, here's another one, too. The thrill is still there, and I don't see it disappearing. Still way too much fun.

I can't get myself to buy complete sets, whether it's a full base set or even a team set. If it's a certain team set that's not readily available, then fine, I'll order it up. But if I can complete it through trades and a few packs at the store, I'd rather do it that way. I won't order a factory set at the end of the year or any complete set off ebay. I need some sort of connection to those days when I was a kid, and opening cards the way I did as a kid is the best way I can get that connection. It keeps the collector alive in me.

But pack-opening will be for sampling this year. Not for serious collecting.

So, what will I seriously collect now that I've sworn off 2012 cards except for sampling purposes? Well, this is where this post becomes a "My Collecting Goals for the New Year" post, which I had planned not to write because it was boring to me and probably boring to everyone else.

Now it's less boring to me, and as for everyone else ... well, who cares about you?

See, Topps? This is what you've done to me. You made me write a "collecting goals" post and get all nasty about it. You, bad, bad, swarthy, monopolistic company you.

So, here it is. This is what I'll be collecting in the new year:

I'll start with the Dodgers. Got to collect those Dodgers. I'll be attempting to finish off every team set that I can find, including 2012 ones. I'll probably be trying to pick up some more Kershaws and Gordons and Kemps and Ethiers and Billingsleys, maybe even some fancy ones.

I'll attempt to finish off the two sets from 2011 that I committed to until this wave of rational thought hit me. So I'll knock off '11 A&G and the mini set from 2011 Lineage. That'll keep me busy.

But the majority of my collecting talents will go toward finishing off those sets that are more in line with the way I knew sets to be for the first third of my life.

That means wrapping up the 1971 Topps set, and attempting to get as close to finishing the 1972 and 1977 Topps sets that I can before 2013 hits.

I still don't have a '77 want list up, but it'll get there in the next month or so.

Also, I'll slowly, ever so slowly, pick up cards for the 1956 Topps quest. No plans to be done with that anytime soon.

But, if you haven't figured it out yet: my No. 1 goal will be to complete my most favorite set of all-time.

1975 Topps m-m-m-m-m-iiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As you can see, I acquired a few recently (I always have to compare them to the regular-sized card so people can see that they are actually mini-sized). These all came from Steve of The Greatest 21 Days. I always say that receiving '75 minis in a trade is probably the best kind of card that I can receive. And it still holds true. 1975 minis never, ever disappoint. They never cheat on you behind your back. They're always there when you come home. ...

Oh, wait, that might be something else.

This probably gives me close to about 160-170 mini cards from the '75 set. Not a lot, but certainly enough for me to create a want list for them.

Most of the cards are in pretty good shape. Some dings, some scrapes, but nothing that stands out among the rest of my minis, many of which are holdovers from that first year I collected in '75.

I may upgrade these and some others in my collection (the red on the Pat Kelly card may be crayon or it may be BLOOD -- which is a little disconcerting). But I'm in no hurry. Mission No. 1 is to collect as many cards in the set that I can.

My favorite cards among the group that Steve sent are the Buck Martinez card (any mini of a card that I remember pulling from my childhood is automatically fantastic), the Jeff Burroughs card (my brother had the Burroughs mini when we were kids), the Giants mini (only because the back is not checked off because who in the world would want to search for Giants cards?), and this Sonny Siebert card (because it's worn like the way we wore down cards as kids).

A collector collects, the saying goes, so that's what I'll do. But I'll collect on my own terms. No artificial short-prints. No inserts getting in the way of what I'm really trying to do. Ordering cards online may not be considered "traditional collecting." But there has to be a compromise between what Topps is doing to us set-collectors and just buying the whole set and being done with it.

This is my compromise. Buying a few cards online and trading for the cards that I want, trying to keep the spirit of collecting as I know and like it, but not surrendering to the current world of collecting that Topps has created.

Perhaps buying a pack of 2012 product here and there will draw me back into exactly what I'm trying to avoid. But I don't think so. This is a feeling that has been coming on for over a year. Perhaps trying to have the best of all worlds will be too difficult to achieve. But I doubt it. I've seen other collectors do it.

So, that's my solution. My collecting goals.

With a whole bunch of '75 minis mixed throughout.

I tried my darndest not to make it too boring for you.

When base cards drive me to drink

2012-01-07T01:27:00.000-05:00

As of tonight, I finally have all of the Dodger base cards from 2011 Allen & Ginter.

My collecting self from about two years ago is absolutely in hysterics, laughing at my sorry ass right now. If you've been following my blog the last few years, you know that I have completed the entire Allen & Ginter set by November, or by early December at the latest, the last three years.

This year it's taken me to January to even finish off the Dodgers. And I'm still working on that full set.

The most antagonizing part of this uncompleted work are the base cards still on the want list. Forget the short-prints. I still need a couple dozen base cards to eliminate this thing.

This is the part that gets frustrating -- more frustrating that finding that rare card to finish off your player collection, or finding that elusive insert, or finding that short-print. Because these are BASE CARDS. They should be readily available.

I am convinced, that when I collect a set these days, that all base cards are not created equal.

I've already written about my theory of secret double-printing. I'm fairly convinced that Topps double-prints cards in a set and tells no one about it. I pulled another Chris Iannetta A&G card today. I've lost track how many that makes now. Eight? Nine?

Yet it's seven months since A&G arrived on my store shelves and I'm just now pulling card #226 of Andre Ethier.

It can't be chance. I'm not convinced. Not when endless cards of Austin Jackson and Aimee Mullins and Eric Jackson fall out of my packs of A&G.

In fact, I'm thinking that there are levels -- tiers -- for base cards in A&G and probably Heritage.

There are the cards that show up all the time. The Gregory Infantes of A&G.

Then there are cards that you see frequently, but not enough to find irritating.

Then there are the cards that you go months without seeing, even though you buy your fair share of packs and blasters. In many cases these cards seem to be less common than short-prints. I have duplicates and even triplicates of some A&G short-prints. But they all came before my first Ethier card.

I wish I could put a number or ratio on this. I don't even know for sure if Topps produces more of its base cards than others. But it sure as hell seems like it. The thrill of the chase? The chase is seeming less like a thrill and more like a confusing spin through a house of mirrors.

Just another reason not to collect 2012 cards.

You're finally doing it, Topps. You're finally killing the set-collector in me.

C.A.: 2009 Topps Chrome David DeJesus

2012-01-06T02:29:00.000-05:00

(This is the anniversary of something I can't mention on this blog. ... Hey, LOOK!!! ... CARDS!!!!! ... I knew that would distract you. Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 131st in a series):

All right, the scan of this card is going to sabotage the point of this post. But it's too late to be tinkering with settings on my scanner.

What I want to say is this card here is a perfect card. Well, as perfect as a card of a non-Dodger can be.

This is why:

There are really only three elements that I consider in what makes up a perfect card.

1. Card design
2. Photograph
3. Something special that enhances the photograph.

That's all that needs to be evaluated. Nothing about the player's rookie-ness, no super-bwahaha patch, no autograph, no piece of loin cloth. Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be.

Just:

Card design
Photograph
Something special that enhances the photograph.

The 2009 Topps Chrome David DeJesus card has it all.

The 2009 Topps design is one of the best that was ever created, so it's got that going for it. The action photo is one of the best in the entire set. So the photograph aspect is covered. And finally, it's a chrome xfractor card. I know you can't see the xfractorness -- which is very disappointing -- but it's there.

For me, xfractors or colored refractors are about the only thing that can enhance the photograph on a card. Too many relics and autographs crowd out the photo, which is THE essential element of a baseball card for me.

So, really, this DeJesus item is cardboard perfection.

It's just too bad he isn't a Dodger.

(No, Colletti, that doesn't mean you can trade for him).

Miscut detective

2012-01-05T19:27:00.000-05:00

I have my ways of knowning that some of you haven't checked out my new 1971 Topps and 1985 Topps blogs. So get over there, take a peek, and please, please add it to your blog rolls.

If you need another reason to visit those blogs, how about this? It might help you in some blog research some day.

Don't laugh. I do research for my blog all the time. Without it, my blog would be:

Look.

Card.

Like.

Done.

I try to make things a tad more interesting.

So here is my example of how one of those set blogs can help your own personal blog:

I received some great 1975 Topps cards from Steve at The Greatest 21 Days. Most of them were minis, which are the best cards ever and which I'll show some other time.

But he also threw in some terrific miscut cards, like the Cubs team card that you see above. It's funny how great miscut cards are from vintage sets, but if we see one in a current set we start dialing the president of Topps and THEN The President Of The United States! (Yes, I've written that post before).

One of the best parts of miscut cards is trying to determine the other card on the piece of cardboard.

For instance:

A less perceptive collector might think that Bill Russell was traded to the Indians. But don't be silly. Of course that's just some other Indians card attached to Russell's Dodgers card through the wonders of errant trimming machinery.

Who might that Indian player be? Well, we know that the card has an orange border at the top of its card. For more clues, we go to the back of the card:

The Indians portion of the card back is at the bottom, obviously. We could go through a list of all the players born in "Bogalusa," wherever that is. Or we could compare cartoons on the great resource web site, otherwise known as 1975 Topps (it's far out, man)!

I knew that thing would come in handy.

First, I do a search for all the Indians cards in the set. Then I find the ones with orange borders at the top, and then I look for a cartoon of a guy who appears to be trying to balance on a log.

Voila!

The partial card attached to Bill Russell's card is Charlie Spikes!

And the cartoon character isn't balancing on a log. He's getting the hook. Or, rather, Ted Williams is getting the hook. And Bogolusa is in Louisiana!

Wasn't that fun?

Here's another:

It's ballplayer-by-day, accountant-by-night, Rich Folkers. And there's a White Sox card attached to him.

Right away, Bill Melton springs to mind, because I know that Melton was a White Sox in '75, and he has an orange border in the set.

But let's turn the card over to see for sure.

OK, I know I'm wrong already. Because the cartoon on the miscut portion of the card is surrounded by a squared-off box. In the 1975 set, that means this is a card of a longtime veteran, with lots of stats.

That can mean only one thing:

It's Ron Santo!

The cut-off cartoon is a winged Hawk Harrelson. A pair of announcers on one card.

Another mystery solved.

Let's try another one:

Poor Tommy Helms has a stinkin' Giant attached to his card. But which one?

A search of all the Giants cards in the '75 set comes up with four players with orange borders on the top.

So, here is a look at the back of the card:

OK, there appears to be a cartoon figure socking a home run on the back. A search of all the cartoons on the Giants cards comes up with one player with that cartoon.

It's Jim Barr's card. And the cartoon is of Willie Stargell.

Jim Barr has an odd connection to my childhood. It has to do with stuffed animals and the weird imaginations that kids have. If I can dig up the card of Barr's, and think I can keep myself from dying of embarrassment, I'll show the card here someday.

OK, let's try one more card. This is a toughy.

This card isn't cut as drastically as the others. I can tell that the other card is another Giants card. I also know that the top of the card has a blue border.

But the back of the card tells me nothing.

Searching through all of the Giants cards on the '75 Topps site turns up these candidates:

But which one?

The back won't tell me.

Fortunately, there is this post.

Through the help of Jon of the Fleer Sticker Project, I looked at all five scans of the 1975 Topps uncut sheets, and the fifthandfinal sheet yielded the correct card.

First column, sixth and seventh cards down.

The card attached to the Jerry Moses card is Charlie Williams.

And that's the cartoon you couldn't see on the back of the miscut card. (The answer is in error, by the way. The distance from home plate to the pitcher's mound is not 60 feet, 60 inches. It's 60-6).

So that's the kind of info you can get from reading a set blog.

If that's your kind of thing.

I'm updating the '71 Topps and '85 Topps blogs about once every other day. So it'll take some time to build up some research goodies. But I'll get there.

Many thanks to Steve for these cool cards. Who knew you could pick up miscut 37-year-old cards at a card shop. You certainly can't at mine.

Until next time, at Miscut Detective ...

Team colors: Giants

2012-01-04T20:44:00.000-05:00

OK, let's get this out of the way.

This is the funny thing about orange. I actually like it. A lot. Love orange soda. Always have since I was a little kid. Cherry has since past it as a personal favorite, but for the longest time orange soda was the best. There's some in my house right now.

I like orange flavor of any kind. Those chocolate oranges that emerge at Christmas time? Love them. Orange sherbet? Fantastic. Orange-flavored Chinese food? Yes, please. Creamsicles? I think the cafeteria ran out of them when I was in high school. Your common variety orange? Great stuff. I like all spin-offs, too. Tangerines, clementines, etc.

As for the actual color? I like that, too. The old Tampa Bay Bucs uniforms were amazing. Bring them back. The new Miami Marlins' orange jerseys? I don't know why people hate them. They fit perfectly with Miami. I'll never be a Dolphins lover, but whoever picked orange and aqua for colors was a smart boy/girl. Nice work. Even when the Mets wear orange, I like it. I know it's really a tribute to the old New York Giants. Still like it.

Here's where it gets really weird. I've always liked the Orioles' uniform colors. Orange and black just like an actual oriole! How delightful.

Yet, these are the same colors that the Giants wear and I hate them. Why is that? Well, I could say that unlike the Orioles, the Giants seemed to have pulled their colors out of a hat. They wore blue and red during most of the 1940s. Black was used periodically during the early part of the 20th century. But orange didn't emerge until the 1930s and then didn't stay until the late '40s.

But it's not that. I just don't like the colors on the GIANTS. The black and orange makes them seem even more evil than they already are, like Willie McGee up there. He's a delightful, happy alien as a Cardinal. But as a Giant, there's something sinister going on. Dark. Ominous. There might be some brain-sucking about to happen.

I really dislike the Giants on the '86 Topps set, a set that seems to have been made specifically for that team I hate. And I still don't like Hammaker for giving up that grand slam to Fred Lynn. Way to break up the All-Star dynasty, Atlee.

I much prefer the 1980 Topps set. Use every color but the Giants colors!!!! Yellow, Green, Blue, Red!! Isn't that fun?

Anyway, here is the rundown of which colors Topps attached to the Giants for sets in which the colors used were determined by the team featured:

1964: orange
1965: purple, yellow, orange
1966: green and yellow
1967: green
1968: green and yellow
1969: green and yellow
1971: orange and yellow
1972: yellow, orange and red
1974: black and orange
1976: green and orange
1977: orange, green and blue
1978: purple and orange
1979: yellow and green
1980: yellow, green, red and blue
1981: red, orange and black
1982: green and orange
1983: orange and brown
1984: brown and pink
1985: black and orange
1986: orange
1987: orange
1988: yellow, purple and red
1989: orange, gray and black
1991: orange, gray and black
1992: yellow, black and orange
1993: orange, black and gray
1994: gray and orange
1998: black and orange
2000: orange
2002: black and orange
2003: orange and black
2004: orange and black
2005: orange and gray
2006: orange and gold
2007: orange and gray
2008: orange and gray
2009: orange
2010: orange
2011: orange and black

Wow. You can make a lot of squash out of those cards.

Giants team colors: orange and black
What Topps considers the Giants' team colors: orange and black

Bleah.

(The tally: Orange-32, Black-13, Yellow-10, Green-8, Gray-7, Red-4, Purple-3, Brown-2, Blue-2, Pink-1, Gold-1)

Blog of the year

2012-01-04T02:37:00.000-05:00

Oh, hello there.

You must be the worthless peon seeking knowledge from my kingly blog. How simple of you.

Perhaps you've heard that my blog was voted 2011 Blog of the Year. Of course, you heard. Everything that I write or everything that's written about this blog is instantaneously distributed among the masses.

In fact, I'll bet you want me to write something right now.

(*sigh*)

Fine.

But all you're going to get is a trade post. I don't have time for your little "entertain me" requests. I'm too busy fielding book offers, talk show appearances, and invitations to throw out the first pitch at all 30 major league baseball stadiums this year.

Yup, it's very, very, busy being Blog of the Year.

So here are some cards from All Trade Bait, All The Time. He's a fellow Dodger fan, so he is worthy of having the cards that he sent to me shown here. On the Blog of the Year.

Let's see what I so graciously agreed to display:

The only non-Dodger in the package. She's an Olympic gold medalist. I think that's almost as good as being Blog of the Year.

These 2001 Topps Gallery cards disturb me. It reminds me that not everyone can do as well in their craft as someone voted Blog of the Year. Those poor artists.

People have been withholding Andy LaRoche cards from me for years. But now that I'm Blog of the Year, they throw LaRoche cards at me. It has nothing to do with his plunge from prospect to backup player. It's all Blog of the Year, peoplz.

My first Topps Fusion card. This set confuses me. It's not recommended that you confuse the creator of the Blog of the Year.

Again, confusion. This is some Leaf concoction from 2003. The design looks like those early '80s TCMA cards celebrating the '50s and '60s. Your blog king is growing weary of this game.

A 2001 Heritage Dodger need. All that's left is a card of Jeff Shaw, which is going on the Nebulous 9 list as soon as I'm done with this post. Someone bring it to the Blog of the Year!

Fleer Greats! As Great as the Blog of the Year? Of course not! To be truly great, I need to have all the Dodgers!

Who let this card in here? Whoever did, you disgust me. Away with you!

Tommy John came to my town twice last year, and I didn't even talk to him. Because he wasn't worthy of the Blog of the Year.

OK, I'm done writing. I'm so sick of appeasing you people. The Blog of the Year is cranky and tired.

Be gone!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pssssst, never mind that. Too many leftover Christmas cookies. Sugar makes me bitchy. Actually, I'm grateful to anyone who thinks I run a readable blog. Blog of the Year? I think you could make a case for that title to be attached to several blogs. But thanks truly for the votes and the contest. I'll try to keep you reading. Hopefully, without drivel like this most of the time.

Now, really, be gone. I've got to rest up so I can deal with people who don't think I'm king of anything.

What it is, Dock

2012-01-03T19:10:00.000-05:00

I have to admit, my mind is elsewhere with kicking off two golden oldie set blogs this week. I'm trying to come up with ideas for this blog -- but I keep coming back to 1971 and 1985.

It'll be like this for a little bit. I hope you'll bear with me for a few days. It'll pass, and I'll be back to bashing on 2012 Topps, or featuring a bunch of trades, or something equally as annoying.

But for now, I'm sabotaging one of my other blogs by asking you to vote for the Best of the '70s card for:

Yes, Dock Ellis.

I'm sure everyone has seen this video 420 times by now. But if I'm going to devote a "Best of" post to Ellis, then I must at least acknowledge the video. It's weirdly trip-notic.

Ellis is truly a baseball product of the '70s. Not only because of his exploits -- the admitted no-hitter on LSD, the curlers in his hair, the attempt to hit every member of the Big Red Machine in a game in 1974 -- but also because of his baseball cards.

Virtually all of the baseball cards issued of Ellis -- during his career anyway -- lie within the confines of the '70s. He has one card in the 1969 Topps set and one in the 1980 Topps set. Everything else is '70s.

Therefore, he is a perfect candidate for a Best of the '70s post. And besides, it's been awhile since I've run a poll.

I had to grab most of the images from other areas because I just don't have time to scan everything. If you care, I do not have cards of Ellis from 1970, 1973 and 1977. All others are in my collection somewhere.

So here are your selections:

1970: Youngster Ellis. The year of his "enhanced" no-hitter.

1971: Kind of a sensation at this point. The Pirates won the pennant in 1970, and Ellis won 13 games as a consistent starter for Pittsburgh.

1972: That's a large jacket. Ellis had two cards in the '72 set. I thought about letting people vote on both of his '72 cards. But I didn't. Here is why:

This is his "In Action" card from 1972.

1973: And here is his 1973 card. Essentially the same thing. Therefore the In Action card is DQed.

1974: Dock looks really irked.

1975: The only '70s Topps card in which Ellis is smiling. This is also a personal favorite as I mentioned upon news of Ellis' passing.

1976: Ellis in full fu manchu. The background is making me dizzy.

1977: Those Yankees and their aversion for facial hair. Ellis looks like he's returned to being 18 years old.

1978: A capless Ellis. Dock had begun to bounce around by this point. Topps probably didn't know where he was going to end up, so it went with no cap.

1979: Surprise! Ellis is still with the Rangers. Although shortly after this card came out, Ellis went to the Mets and then the Pirates. On his 1980 card, he's featured with the Mets, but he had moved on to the Pirates and actually out of baseball by the time that card arrived.

OK, those of your choices. Pretty tame stuff for a guy like Ellis. But I know which one is my favorite.

Poll is on the sidebar.

And stay tuned for a Dock Ellis entry on my '71 blog. It'll be up late tonight. Most of you early birds will see it tomorrow morning.

Remembering "The Comeback"

2012-01-03T01:49:00.000-05:00

For those who are interested, the 1985 Topps blog is fully functional with its first post. Love the '80s? Then get over there.

One of the best things about the '80s for me was living in a football-crazy city. As you know, I'm not a big football fan anymore, but I used to be totally absorbed in the sport.

You couldn't help it, living in Buffalo. The entire city talked about absolutely nothing but the Bills during the fall. If you didn't like football or sports and lived in the city, then you faked it for four months in order to have something to say to the other people in your neighborhood/class/workplace. The Bills ensured that you would always have something to talk about no matter what the situation. It was so much better than talking about the weather.

As a college student, I had plenty of friends who were Bills fans (fans of other teams in that city were just being jerks). Watching the Bills in a bar and discussing the highlights in a drunken haze was a regular ritual. Later, I landed an internship with a newspaper and was able to cover the team for the paper. The first game I covered was Buffalo against the Packers in October of 1987. I had some very jealous friends.

These were exciting times for Buffalo and the Bills. After years of being labeled a joke by national comedians and a decade of joblessness and depression, the Bills -- thanks to the addition of Bruce Smith, Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas -- were emerging from some awful years. By the late 1980s, they were a playoff team and the city was beside itself with glee. Before TV newscasts addressed murders and fires, they addressed the Bills.

It was a great time to be alive.

And then I moved away.

The Bills moved on without me. In fact, they got better without me, and started making the Super Bowl year after year. I watched that first Super Bowl against the Giants in 1991 on my brand new 24-inch color television. It was just my wife and I. Newlyweds. In a different town. Far from the Bills. And without any Bills fans to join us.

Fast forward two years later. We had found some Bills fans and invited them over to watch Buffalo play the Houston Oilers in a wild-card playoff game. It was January 3. Nineteen years ago to the day.

The game was blacked out in Buffalo. Not enough tickets were sold. Absolutely scandalous for a city like Buffalo. I knew lots of people in the city who were mortified that they couldn't watch the game.

So we watched for them. And, good god, it was awful.

Warren Moon and the Oilers scored at almost every opportunity. Moon threw four touchdown passes in the first half. At halftime it was 28-3 Oilers. When the game resumed, Bills quarterback Frank Reich threw a pass through the arms of his receiver and an Oilers defensive back grabbed the pass and returned it 58 yards for a touchdown. 35-3. Early in the third quarter.

We all wished the game was blacked out where we were, too.

Then came the most amazing second half of a football game that I have ever seen.

Led by Reich, who had replaced an injured Jim Kelly for the playoffs, the Bills began a comeback. Laughable at first. And then, oh, so serious.

1. Buffalo takes advantage of a squib kick and ends a 10-play drive with a 1-yard TD by Kenneth Davis.

Oilers 35, Bills 10

2. Kicker Steve Christie recovers his own onside kick and four plays later, Reich fires a 38-yard TD pass to Don Beebe (who ran partially out of bounds on the play).

Oilers 35, Bills 17

3. An Oilers punt puts Bills on their own 41. Three plays later, Andre Reed is catching a Reich pass for a 26-yard touchdown pass.

Oilers 35, Bills 24

4. Bills safety Henry Jones intercepts a Moon pass on the Oilers' first play from scrimmage. Buffalo, on a fourth-down play three plays later, elects to go for it instead of kick a field goal. Reich connects with Reed for a touchdown (I remember this play distinctly).

Oilers 35, Bills 31

5. With just over three minutes left in the third quarter, after the Oilers flubbed a certain field goal, Reich and Reed connect again for a TD. Absolute bedlam in my apartment.

Bills 38, Oilers 35

6. The Oilers manage to hit a field goal before time expired to tie the game at 38-38 and send it into overtime.

Bills 38, Oilers 38

7. The Oilers win the coin toss, but Moon throws an interception to the Bills' Nate Odomes (by the way, Darryl Talley was an absolute beast in this game). Bills take advantage of a facemask penalty on the return, run two plays, and Christie kicks a 32-yard field goal for the I-can't-believe-what-I-just-saw victory.

Bills 41, Oilers 38

Buffalo would go on to the Super Bowl and get demolished by the Cowboys -- Buffalo's third of four straight Super Bowl losses.

But even that could not diminish the scene in my apartment after the game. The calls back "home" to Buffalo (yes, Buffalo was still "home" then). The "see what you missed?" gloating and discussions.

We were part of an exclusive club, Bills fans from Buffalo who got to see The Comeback, even as an entire city who loved the team (but not enough to sell out the stadium) didn't get to see it at all.

God, football was great back then.

2012 collecting go ... never mind, here's some stuff I noticed

2012-01-02T20:07:00.000-05:00

I thought about listing my 2012 collecting goals as others have, but I quickly lost interest in writing about that. That's because, first, any collecting goal that I have on January 1, is likely toast by the end of the month. I've found that life absolutely hates specific collecting goals. Or goals of any kind. Life wants you to do the same thing you've always done, be the non-contributing blob you've always been, always. Life, basically, is an insecure control freak.

Secondly, I've already recorded my collecting goals for everyone to see. They're right here. I'll make any 2012 additions as soon as I know what the hell is out there.

So, instead, for tonight, I thought I'd just ramble about a few things that I've noticed, probably only of interest to me ... just like, you know, personal collecting goals.

One has to do with Lineage (I promise this is one of my last posts about this set -- except for the minis). I have noticed that Lineage is a tremendously day-centric set.

So far, I've spotted only four night cards out of the 200 cards. Ichiro is one of them.

Bert Blyleven is another. This is probably taken from the 1987 World Series. Blyleven pitched Game 2 in Minneapolis and Game 5 in St. Louis. I think this is in St. Louis, based on the Dressed To the Nines site. It's too difficult to tell whether it says "Minnesota" or "Twins" across Blyleven's chest. But the site says that the Twins wore the word "Twins" with a baseball on their sleeve on the road as opposed to an interlocking T, C on their sleeve at home.

John Smoltz is the third. He pitched in a stack of postseason games, so this picture could be from any one of those or just a regular season night game.

I find this one the most interesting even though it's a Giant. I'm not 100 percent sure that it's a night card, given what passed for photo technology in the '70s. McCovey played with the Giants through the 1980 season, so if it is a night game -- nice work by Topps with squeezing that in there.

I'm 33 cards short of completing Lineage and really should finish off the thing, even though I don't care about the base cards at all. But because I'm a few cards short, I may have missed a night card in the set.

Here's another thing I've noticed. I was reading through the 1986 Topps Blog earlier today, and I saw something minor that I had never realized.

The position circle is placed in the lower left for every player card no matter what. I was under the impression that it bounced around from bottom corner to bottom corner, depending on the photo. But it doesn't. It remains committed to the left corner on principle.

It doesn't affect much. The worst that happens is the position circle covers up a foot or a leg that could been on full display if the circle was moved to the right.

But if the circle was moved to keep from obscuring the player, we'd be prevented from the delightful visual of Buddy Biancalana appearing to be plunked in the hip by an errant blue baseball.

Or Steve Trout hurling what appears to be a red baseball with a monogrammed "P" on it.

Sometimes the position logo must be left alone.

Lastly, I know that some of you are going back to work and school tomorrow after a long holiday break.

If you find yourself struggling through an unpleasant day, here is something that may put a smile on your face. It comes under the heading of "things could be worse."

You could have created a fancy Gallery baseball card and then spelled pitcher Ramon Martinez's first name as "Ranon."

I bet there was a meeting after that one.

(P.S.: The Timeless Teams blog is LIVE!)

(P.P.S: The 1985 Topps blog should be live by the time you wake up tomorrow morning!)

I'm talkin' 'bout '71 Topps

2012-01-02T00:48:00.005-05:00

For those who don't know, the Topps 1971 blog is officially operating. Can you dig it?

I'm a little late on the anniversary celebration, since starting the '71 Topps set would have been more appropriate exactly 40 years after its appearance. But really, is anyone besides me keeping track of things like that?

At any rate, give the blog a try. Even if '71 was long before your time. You might learn something. Or you might catch me making a mistake. I know how much some of you enjoy that.

Also, you might like to know that I've made Richard Roundtree, a.k.a. Shaft, and singer Isaac Hayes my non-official representatives of the '71 blog, as you'll see when you read the first entry.

I was in kindergarten in 1971, so I don't know much about the year. But I DO know that Shaft was a sex machine to all the chicks. And that sounds bad-ass enough for the blog.

I hope you enjoy.

Also, please know that the first post of the 1985 Topps blog is only a day or so away.

Good gosh, this is going to be a busy year.

Starting slowly

2012-01-01T14:40:00.000-05:00

Until today, I hadn't been in a store since December 23rd. I hadn't purchased a pack of cards since December 15th. This is a result of both saving cash for Christmas gifts and continuing my lifelong mission of avoiding crowds whenever possible.

The worst kind of crowds -- at least in the places where I have lived -- emerge the week after Christmas. Just horrific. So, I always wait until January 1 when I think everyone is too hungover to shop. Yet, still, I saw two people today who appeared to be brother and sister, or boyfriend and girlfriend, or very close friends, each talking on their phone to different people. This happens all the time and annoys me to no end, although I suppose it would be worse if they were talking on their phones to each other. And it's why, for health reasons -- mine not yours -- I need to stay away from crowds.

While out today, I mostly bought necessities for the coming winter storm (the first of the season around here). But just because nobody wished me a Happy New Year on the previous post, I thought I'd punish everyone with a pack of American Pie.

This is my first opportunity to see these cards. But I witnessed enough of it on the blogs to know it's not anything I need to buy again. My hope with this pack is to pull one of the Muppets cards, or the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer card, or the girl with the big '80s hair card. But there's little chance of that.

So, let's see what kind of stupid/boring/depressing cards I pull, OK?

Wee.

#50 - Disneyland Debuts

Possibly the most colorful place in the world. Yet it's black-and-white here.

#64 - The Peace Symbol

With a lot of these cards, I've wondered how long it took from concept to final result. I'm thinking about 90 seconds with this item.

#1 - World War II Ends

And everyone celebrates with Bald Heads! More Bald Heads! More Bald Heads! ... People in the '40s were so weird.

#181 - September 11

Wow. Heavy card for a pop culture set. I don't mean to rag on this card -- it's poignant in its own way. But a problem I have with this set is there are too many cards in here that I don't consider "pop culture." I know pop culture has many definitions and one of them is mainstream ideas of the time. But pop culture to me is defined as popular diversions from the everyday struggles/difficulties/horrors of life. Don't give me a pop culture set and then a card remembering terrorist attacks -- save that for a set about American Heroes or Defending Liberty.

#186 - Saddam Hussein Captured

See above. I don't want politics in a pop culture set.

#171 - DVD introduced

Card pulled by a guy who still has VHS tapes in his home. And why does that dude have a halo?

...

And that's $2.99 I'll never get back. No muppets. No hairsprayed girls.

Oh well. Apparently, my January 1 tradition is starting the new year slowly.

It's all uphill from here.

(P.S.: To make up for this post, I hope to kick off the '85 and/or the '71 blog later tonight. Happy New Year again!)

(P.P.S: The '71 blog is LIVE!)

Should auld acquaintance be forgot ...

2011-12-31T18:42:00.000-05:00

Sheesh. It's these guys again. Haven't they learned from last year? You don't go around bashing heads with baseball bats on New Year's Eve. It's just uncool.

But before you have to return your tux, I thought I'd regale you with a tale of the past year, Night Owl style. I don't know if it was as interesting as 2010, but it sure had its moments. Fortunately, it had its share of baseball cards, too. Which is the reason we're all doing what we're doing.

So, pour your favorite beverage, grab yourself some disgusting food (pickled herring? Really?), and let me bore you with some ancient news from a whole year ago.

Hey, it could be worse. I could be predicting what will happen in 2012.

JANUARY

While berating myself on the way back to the car after purchasing Bowman Platinum at Wal-Mart at 2 in the morning, the spectre of the most horrifying-looking ballplayer in the major leagues appeared from behind a row of shopping carts. I immediately passed out in the parking lot. When I awoke, a team of legless ballplayers appeared and I passed out again. The only thing that could keep me from reliving those terrible images was counting up my trifectas, dividing Stadium Club photographs into thirds and determining which Dodgers had been perfect 10s. But not, too perfect. That's reserved for Bo. ... Derek, I mean.

FEBRUARY

Something about the Duke's passing causes me to get all melancholy on the reading audience. I wonder why things have to change so quickly. I wonder why nobody can be satisfied with anything. I wonder what happened to simpler times. To top it off, I refuse to try to complete 2011 Topps. But then someone has to go and spoil all the misery and send me one incredible card package. With -- get this -- uncut sheets!

MARCH

I learn that Topps has been reading my diary when I crack a pack of Opening Day and a glow-in-the-dark night card falls out. I repay Topps by finally agreeing to collect 2011 A&G, a decision I'm almost regretting to this day. I run through a list of old-time ballplayers that I never want to see in modern sets again, and Topps responds by fighting dirty and burying me in new cards of Sandy Koufax. And, just because I have nothing to do in March, I decide to figure out how many Dodgers cards I have. In summation: it's a lot. And I have no life.

APRIL

Diamond Diecut Fever hits the blog and I land a Babe-o-licious item almost immediately. Babe turns into a much preferable Jackie, which I store in my super-secret, sorry-if-my-cards-offend-you, rolltop desk. Freshly organized, I am free to wonder whether I should boot Alyssa from my blog, why Topps caved to Tim Raines' demand to call him "Rock," and what makes those Sonics that I never see so gosh darn thirst-quenching?

MAY

Diecut Fever is still raging as I manage to land a bunch of Brooklyn Bums from the '50s for a snazzy diecut. Then at the end of the month, someone sends me a Jackie card with what may or may not be Robinson's never-disclosed wooden leg (those write-ups on the back are so vague). As if that wasn't enough, a new disease called Bryce Harper S pazz-mania envelopes everyone. Well, everyone except cranky-pusses like me. But the best news of the month is I figure out that my Harmon Killebrew autograph is real. Thanks, Killer!

JUNE

Good gosh, what a cranky month. My excuse was I found out the file cabinet was sold. I don't know what was up everyone else's butt. Could've been the joke trades on the diamond giveaway site. Could've been the infiltrators on your baseball cards. Or maybe it was the football card found in a pack of baseball cards. Makes me grrrrrrr just thinking about it.

JULY

Ooooooooooooooooohhh!!!!! I pull my wife's most favorite card ever. A dealer ignores me and I blow the cash meant for him at Target. My parents give me a gift of buttons and I'm happy about it. And I quit Twitter because people are really nasty in 140 characters or less.

AUGUST

I am introduced to the 2011 set I come closest to falling in love with -- unfortunately it is an insert set contained in the middle of a set that "has a great personality." The disappointment deepens when I find out my favorite player was a (*gag* *wretch**weeeeeze**hurl*) Will Clark fan. Then I determine that Topps included two cards of Jason Hammel in its base set and absolutely nothing in my world makes sense anymore.

SEPTEMBER

I don't know what it is about September that always makes me post pictures of buxom babes, but I'm blaming the Chrome. Mmmmmmm, sweet, sweet, soft, supple, chrooooommme. ... But enough of that. There was serious journalism this month, like, um, well, for instance ... is this the worst Sandy Koufax card ever? Are blasters for suckers? Why are diamond giveaway traders so stupid/mean? But mostly, is this the best damn pack opening of all-time? The answer to the last question is, "of course. Don't be an idiot."

OCTOBER

Somone sends me the above card. Do I even need to go on? OK, I will. I set a personal record for shortest time spent at a card show. For my reward I get dragged through a girlie store. I finish up one blog and spend my new-found freedom by finding shockingly similar photos of the same players in back-to-back sets (I'm such a nerd). Oh, and I change my blog header. Perhaps you heard. It was in all the papers.

Lastly: it's Topps, Bowman, Fleer, Donruss, Score, Upper Deck, Pacific, Pinnacle ... in THAT ORDER.

NOVEMBER

The Astros, an American League team? Someone find Selig a rest home. I can't do it myself. I'm too busy compiling the all-fish team, determining the Allen & Ginter Babe of the Year, and trying to figure out why Topps painted a "B" on the cap of Sandy Koufax, even though his uniform says "Los Angeles." By the way, where's my Pulitzer Prize?

DECEMBER

Some helpful tips: It's worth landing a mini card of the real MVP only if you know the back way through Wal-Mart. Never store wrapped baseball cards under a Christmas tree with a known four-legged enemy of cardboard in the house. Never look at 1989 Bowman cards on a Monday morning. And finally, if you think you're pretty good at card blogging, here's a reality check.

Well, I guess that was an active enough year. Considering everything else that was going on in my life of chaos.

I hope your 2011 had at least as much cheer as all that other stuff. It's all in how you look at it I guess.

I'll be looking at it through the beverage of my choice tonight. Hope you are, too.

Thanks for reading in the last year. Thanks for reading in the next.

Happy New Year.

C.A.: 2011 Topps Update Rene Tosoni

2011-12-30T19:36:00.000-05:00

(I just read a lighthearted column in the paper about how this week is "the week that nothing happens." Speak for yourself, missy. The show goes on where I am, only with less people because of vacations, and more basketball scores to take over the phone. It should be the week that nothing happens. But it's not. ... Anyway, let's appreciate some cardboard. This is the 130th in a series):

Not a lot of time again today, so let's see if I can squeeze in some half-brained thoughts before I get interrupted.

This is the card to which I was referring in the previous post. It is about as obvious an advertisement for a product that I have ever seen on a baseball card. Advertisements on cards are a lot more common than they were 10, 20, 30 years ago. That's mostly because advertisements at ballparks are much, much, much more common than they once were. And, I think it's also because Topps now has little problem with showing ads on its cards. Although it's not like it has any choice.

But I've written about that all before. The aspect that I wanted to address is how ads featured in cards have become "cool." They've become cards that collectors think are the best in the set. They draw our focus (like any good advertisement or logo should) and we instantly consider them desirable cards. Colorful cards. Awesome card.

I'm one of those collectors. I have no idea who Rene Tosoni is. And I don't have any time to do any research to figure it out. But he is instantly memorable to me now because his card features the official beer of major league baseball. Look at all that red and gold and bubbles! Who wouldn't like that card? Other than a Budweiser competitor, I mean?

It didn't used to be this way. Companies like Topps would go out of their way to avoid advertisements in their photos. Movies and other media not related to advertising would do the same. Later, during the '80s, it became fun to point out the product placement in movies, because it was a new phenomenon.

It's not new anymore. One look at an auto race will tell you that.

I still don't know whether Topps is getting any kind of cash for showing ads in the background of its cards. I'd tend to think they were.

And if that's the case ...

Exactly how much did they get for this photo?

(Project '62, if you're still around, I've still got this card for you).

The best cards of 2011

2011-12-29T19:41:00.000-05:00

Not a single Allen & Ginter card made it onto the list of the best cards of the past year. That's not too much of a surprise since many of the cards in A&G -- especially of the baseball players -- look the same.

But when A&G zaps us with a revolving door card or a Pluto card, that is when it is at its best and ends up on the countdown. Unfortunately, the closest 2011 A&G came to inanimate objects on cardboard is the chair propping up Kristi Yamaguchi. Red chair is just not going to cut it for the best of the year.

So, it's all ballplayers this time around. I just know that breaks some of your hearts.

Like past "best ofs," I have eliminated any parallel or hit cards for consideration, since the countdown is meant to recognize the photo itself, not the gimmick. However, as usual, the first five cards in the countdown mention some specific trend of 2011 that I liked.

So, let's get to it:

20. Topps Diamond Giveaway diecut cards: I had a lot of early luck redeeming these things and put away the Dodger versions pretty quickly before being stonewalled by the Koufax hoarders. These cards are super-fancy and a great way to make the giveaway site all the more appealing. I still think they look like Christmas tree ornaments though.

19. Topps diamond parallels: A parallel that looked so great that collectors instantly vowed to complete a whole set of the cards. I don't know if any ever managed to finish it off, but Topps found itself a moneymaker here. Unfortunately, it verged on overkill by the end of the year.

18. Topps Gypsy Queen framed paper parallels: The next three entries are just repeats of the last Blog Bat Around. So I'll keep them brief. These framed paper cards illustrate how great GQ could have looked without the backside of dried-out, faded, wallpaper from the '50s surrounding each image.

17. Topps Opening Day Stadium Lights inserts: My kind of insert: subject that I love, easy 10-card set to complete, glow-in-the-dark gimmick. Only complaint is that there are two Yankees in a 10-card set. Can we all agree that no one but no one needs another card of A-Rod?

16. Topps Lineage '75 mini inserts: Once I get out from under my holiday/company/no-I-don't-get-a- vacation-to-handle-the-previous-two-things-I-just-mentioned chaos I plan to finish off the other half of this set. It will be one of the craziest /smartest things I've ever done.

15. Zack Greinke, Topps Update: Here we begin the official countdown. I really like this card a lot and don't know why it didn't get much mention. Maybe because the shadow on Greinke's face kills the mood a little bit (especially when you see the card in person). Still a great shot.

14. Henry Blanco, Topps Update: As many have noted, there are some terrific photos in Update. In fact, all-around the pictures in Topps' base set are as good/if not better than they've ever been. Remember how nice the photos were in '09? I think they're consistently better two years later.

13. Trevor Cahill/San Diego Padres, Topps: OK, I cheated a little bit with these as it's recognizing uniforms rather than the actual photo. But I love these old-school '70s uniform tributes when they appear on cards. I can't help it! I love the ugly, gaudy '70s! We need more plaid!

12. Heath Bell, All-Star, Topps Update: "Moment in time" cards are great. Capturing a baseball moment that was one of the most talked about of the season -- Heath Bell running in from the bullpen and sliding into the mound at the All-Star Game -- is even better. I used to not like Bell much. But after this I'm a fan. The guy has some kid in him, for sure.

11. Chicago White Sox, Topps: Maybe not the most exciting card, but the boys are having fun. It's at night, you can see the lights, you can see the scoreboard. Awesome, awesome night card.

10. Adam Wainwright, Topps Heritage: Heritage has a similar problem to A&G. Nothing to distinguish itself from card to card. But I still like this photo a lot. It's bright, sunny and screams baseball. So what if Wainwright still has the ball in his hand? That didn't stop the photographers in the '60s, did it?

9. Jason Donald, Topps: The newspaper editor in me is cheering at this photo. Maybe not the most unbelievable shot, but photographers know that it is not easy in baseball to get an action shot with both teams in the shot. Plays at second sometimes get too routine. Plays at the plate don't happen all the time. Rundown plays are just good fun to watch and to see on a baseball card.

8. John McDonald, Topps Update: That's right, I just followed Jason Donald with John McDonald. And I get the two confused ALL THE TIME.

You're going to see a lot of leaping in the next few photos. There is just something pleasing about the action on this shot. And it has nothing to do with the "Jake From State Farm" advertisement in the background.

7. Seth Smith, Topps: Another card that I think should have received more attention. What a story this one tells! Smith seems to think he was out because he appears to be in the process of beginning a protest to the umpire, who is no doubt yelling, "I'm SAYING you're SAFE!" Meanwhile, the catcher needs a medic.

6. Casey Blake, Topps: This card takes a plunge from when I ranked Series 1 cards last March. It doesn't mean I like it any less. I've just grown fascinated with some other cards. Besides, I already know that Blake is SAFE, SAFE, SAFE! So let's move on.

5. Oakland Athletics, Topps: This is one of the greatest dugout shots I have seen ever. Just fantastic. One of these days I'll go through the trouble of identifying the A's. You know how much difficulty I have with that team.

4. Eric Young Jr., Topps: Another repeat entrant. Young has made the best of the year two years running. That's what happens when you can float.

3. Roy Campanella, Topps Gypsy Queen: The only non-insert GQ card on the list. Campy's foul-pop catch and the delightful '50s crowd in the background overcomes that blindingly dull border. Also, Campy, unlike some of his GQ brethren, doesn't look zombified.

2. Michael Saunders, Topps: Once upon a time, it used to be difficult to photograph an outfielder leaping to catch a ball at the wall. I'm guessing it's still difficult, even though it appears on cards a lot more. But to capture Saunders at the apex of his leap as he's snagging the ball, with the Mariners logo in the background, well, that's impressive. ... Of course, Saunders could have dropped the ball and three runs scored. But we don't have to know that.

1. Dee Gordon, Topps Update: Best, best, best!!!! Your protests are futile!!!!

Countdown complete.

So, as you can see, it was all about Topps and its base set this past year. What choice did we have? Not much else out there.

But, really, some of the images were great. I didn't even finish off the set or the Update set, so I probably even missed a few. (Some, like the Ramon Hernandez broken bat and the Twins dude with the Budweiser ad, missed the cut).

That doesn't mean I'm redoing the list though.

Do your own list.