Night Owl Cards

I could not be more excited for tomorrow's anticipated arrival of 2009 Topps Heritage. But I'm also aware that once you've entered the blogger world, you find out that there is always someone out there who is more fired up about something than you are. I had planned to provide a bit of a retrospective on the 1960 Topps set, which is the "inspiration" for 2009 Heritage. But, as usual, someone beat me to it. I don't have half the knowledge about old cards -- or even half the old cards -- as dayf does, so it's best that someone else handle that. So, what I'm going to do is focus on the few 1960 Dodgers cards that I have and relay what I like and dislike about the set. Because chances are that is going to be what I like and dislike about 2009 Heritage (with an extra dollop of irritation aimed at the short-printing). Oh, and this doubles as a "Define the Design" post as well. No prize with this one, as it's too easy. The 1960 Topps set will b...

Short post here. I'm having a heck of a time getting through to comment on some people's blogs. The word verification thingy just sits on "loading ..." until I run out of patience and give up. Anyone else having this issue? Anyone else having this issue commenting on my blog? So, I'm just going to put my comments here, and hope the bloggers find them. To 1972 Topps Baseball : I'm pretty sure that's Horace Clarke in the photo. And thanks for the rundown on Tommy Davis. I never had a handle on why he bounced from team to team, other than the injury. I kind of wish I was around for the '62 season, that must've been something to see. But then I would have had to suffer through Stan Williams. So, I guess it's best that I wasn't around. To Grand Cards : I've never been in that situation before. But if I was, I'd probably have to consider how much "older" the other cards were. If the cards were only 5 years old and not particula...

I get distracted easily. I'm not proud of that. If there's a conversation going on somewhere in the room and I'm not part of it, I find myself drifting away from what I'm doing to figure out what people are talking about. It's an annoying habit that I only recently realized I had, and I'm trying to break myself of it. I was at my inattentive best at work tonight. Couldn't focus on a thing for about the first four hours. But I have an excuse. 2009 Topps Heritage is coming out soon! No, not that soon . But in 48 hours it will be here. Well, not here , but somewhere. Probably in North Carolina, where everything seems to be. But that was just one distraction. There was also Manny. Haven't you heard? He's going to sign ! With the Dodgers! If you believe someone named The Brick, anyway. And then there's the whole matter of people losing their followers . What's Blogger up to now? But I'm going to keep my focus this time. Because reader Matt s...

It may seem odd to some, but the colors that card companies use in their designs each year are important to me, as they are for many collectors. In a perfect world, we would like to see the design colors reflect the teams' colors. Red for the Reds and Red Sox, blue for the Blue Jays, orange for the Orioles, and fill-in-the-blank for whatever color the Diamondbacks are wearing these days. Sometimes that's not possible when the design is the same regardless of the team. Or when the color scheme is all over the place like 1975 or 1990 Topps. It's interesting because I absolutely love the '75 set and all its wackadoo colors, but for other sets, like 1981 or 1992 Topps, I insist on proper color representation for my team. All this comes to mind because of some Dodgers cards that arrived today from madding of Cards on Cards . He sent some because I am trying to complete separate Dodger team sets for years in which I have the whole set. And a number of those years come during ...

(There are more than a few jobs that I couldn't even begin to tell you how they do what they do. Anyone in any technological field, for example. Not a clue. My lack of knowledge makes me appreciate those jobs even more. Funny how ignorance and appreciation go hand-in-hand, isn't it? It's time for another edition of Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 19th in a series): One of the only reasons a baseball card exists is because it depicts a person on the front who can do something that you can not do. That's what we're celebrating with cards isn't it? In a hundred years of trying, you could never throw a curveball like Josh Beckett or swing at a fastball like Gary Sheffield. In these particular categories these people are better than us -- by a million miles. But given that fact, I never felt inferior or inadequate when looking at my cards. I had given up my dreams of being a professional ball player by the time I was 14. These guys were supposed to be better than...

So, the Dodgers have decided to go with Orlando Hudson as their starting second baseman when the 2009 season opens. After giving it some thought I've grown more accepting of this development, even though signing Hudson means L.A. surrenders a first-round draft pick. By inserting Hudson at second base, the Dodgers have one heck of an infield in Loney, Hudson, Furcal and Blake. L.A.'s never been known for its infield defense, so this should be fun to watch. Let's hope they don't get too cocky. But Hudson's fielding is only part of what is convincing me that this move could work. Let's see what we have: A Gold Glove fielder? Check. An energetic, fun, uplifting sort who teammates love to have around? Check. A man who swears his left wrist is OK after two surgeries last season (and the Dodgers swear, too)? Check. A guy with an improving bat, who won't give you a ton at the plate, but hit .305 last year and gets on base at a decent rate (.367 OBP last year)?...

"Lazy" doesn't refer to the happenings of the day, mind you. Saturdays are never lazy when you work in the sports arena. Instead, "lazy," in this case, addresses a state of mind. I'm just not feeling it in terms of producing a quality post. So I'm simply going to blather about a few things on my mind and wrap it up for the night. First off, take another gander at Ryan Braun's entry into the 2009 Topps field. Talk about lazy! You know what I said about Topps vastly improving its photography over last year? Well, scratch that on the Braun effort. What deadweight decided that this would be a good photo for Milwaukee's brightest star? (All things Prince excluded, of course). Not only is it as uninteresting a photo that anyone could dream up, but the combination of the hair and the look on Braun's face makes it seem like he just woke up in a daze after sleep-walking to the ballpark. He can't be happy with this card. This officially goes down...