Night Owl Cards

A few U.S. players from the 2009 A&G National Pride insert set: Reportedly tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. His only statement (other than the automatically dismissed "official statement") is that the result is "BS." Admitted to steroid use after previously denying it. Reportedly drank beer and ate fried chicken in the clubhouse during games. Also reportedly filed for divorce from his wife who is battling breast cancer. His near nude photos sent to his girlfriend were publicized when her email account was hacked. His relapse resulted in the publication of photos in which he is seen licking whipped cream off the body of young woman who is not his wife. Owned an assault rifle. It was stolen. Dropped an f-bomb in front of an enormous crowd of people and a large television audience. Known for his volatile temper tantrums, over-the-top celebrations, and rift with his father. Arrested for DUI. Had an ...

I intentionally used that post title because I hate the phrase. There are many phrases that activate the skin-crawling mechanism for me, and not all of them are uttered by Chris Berman. Here's another one: "the next level." This is used by hack local sports broadcasters to refer to area high school athletes who sign NCAA Division I scholarships. I recently saw a broadcast about some girls signing to play DI lacrosse, and the on-air idiot didn't say "Division I" a single time. He just uttered "the next level" over and over. Apparently, the girls are signing to play lacrosse on the second floor of their high school. Anyway, this is a housekeeping post in which I regurgitate some random thoughts such as the one above. Follow along, won't you? You may have heard that the Dodgers re-signed Hiroki Kuroda yesterday. You also may not care, but I do. This means the Dodgers have four reliable starters in the rotation and can work on what is really...

Remember this card from last year's Allen & Ginter set? Everyone had a laugh, or shook their head, over the Invisible Man card, which was part of the "Creatures of Legend, Myth and Terror" insert series. I didn't bother to chase this card, although I did find it amusing. But did you know that 2010 Allen & Ginter has its own invisible man, too? Derek Jeter is not featured in this year's set. I'm sure you know that already, but that stuns me. Not only is he one of the top five most popular baseball players on the planet and has been for years, but he plays for Topps' favorite team. That's what makes this so shocking to me. Why would Topps exclude such a popular player on such a popular team in probably its most popular release of the year? I still don't know the answer to that. Although the absence of popular players from card sets has always fascinated me -- from Ted Williams and Maury Wills to Rusty Staub, Jason Varitek and Ba...

(Don't you love it when you go through the effort of writing/researching a post and it becomes obsolete by the time you've written it? *Sigh* Here is what I wrote instead. It's time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 68th in a series): I ordered my box of 2010 Allen & Ginter yesterday. After all, I am attempting to defend my also-ran status in Gint-a-Cuffs. (Sorry, Mark, I didn't order through the special Blowout Cards deal. I can afford only one box at this time). I cannot wait for it to arrive at my home. Everytime I think about it, I get giddy. And I can't wait to bore the entire card collecting community with my Ginter cards. I know some collectors are tired of the Ginter experience. Some never liked it in the first place. I am about as opposite of those collectors as you can get. This is only year No. 5 of Allen & Ginter, you know. I have shirts older than Topps A&G. I'm not tired of those shirts either. Ginter remain...

MONDAY: TUESDAY: WEDNESDAY: THURSDAY: FRIDAY: Guess which day I have off? (And if you don't guess Friday, I'm sending Geronimo after you).

This card here is evidence of what can be achieved when you place a bizarrely named want list up on the sidebar of your blog. The Nebulous 9 has been a great success so far. In just a few short weeks since starting it, I have received seven cards off the list. In true "nebulous 9" fashion, some of the cards weren't on the list, but they were cards that I mentioned I wanted in the original post . As cards have come in, I've updated the list, and as I originally suspected the list hasn't been nine cards all the time. Sometimes it was 7 or 8 or even 10. But it's back to 9 now. The Paul Runge card came from gcrl , who sent me a couple of other cards from that list. He's got a few double-play turn cards lying around. This is an upgrade over my tattered Runge card that was a misfit in my 1986 Topps binder. Now, my Runge can play nicely with the other kids. The 2009 Allen & Ginter Russell Martin card came from Joe L. I am in the middle of documenting hi...

Finished. Completed. Finalized. Ended. Culminated. Consummated . Over. Through. Tie a bow on that baby and drop-kick it into the river. It's party time. With this card of HGH dabbler Jordan Schafer , I have wrapped up the 2009 Topps Allen & Ginter set. I've also completed the only two sets I planned to complete this year: A&G and Topps base. I received the Schafer card from Brian at Play at the Plate . I believe dayf has threatened to send me this card, too. (The joy of a completed page is sweet, but the joy of a completed set is euphoric). It took almost a month longer to complete the set this year than it did last . That's irksome because I bought two hobby boxes of this stuff this time, along with several blasters and maybe a dozen loose packs. Last year, I relied solely on blasters and loose packs, and still finished earlier. But I think more bloggers may have collected the set last year, or it seemed like it anyway. Having bloggers to help out ...

I used one of my daughter's favorite words in the post title, kind of to celebrate that she's back to her goofy self after her bout with the flu. She will often talk about words she likes. She likes the sounds they make. "Intriguing," is one. So is "information." She has a whole list of them. Completely random words that roll off her tongue. "Intriguing" also describes the card packages that have arrived here recently. Intriguingly, none of these packages are connected to trades. In fact, most of them are "gifts." And because of their similar nature, I thought I'd throw them all together to share the intrigue with everyone. The first card is the Ryan Howard card that leads off the post. Chris from Nachos Grande read that I needed the card for the Allen & Ginter set and shipped it off to me. Howard will always be cool to me even if he did struggle periodically in the World Series. (My daughter told me that she heard Yankees suppo...