Night Owl Cards

This summer marks the 40th anniversary of the first time I purchased a record album with my own money. I'm not going to flash my "cool badge" at you and claim the first album I ever bought was from the Rolling Stones or the Clash or Van Halen. I had no older brothers or sisters to inform me what was "cool" and, besides, it was the '70s. We didn't label things like we do now. Yup, the first album I ever bought was from Australian easy-rock group, the Little River Band. It was the band's best selling album in the U.S., "First Under the Wire". I liked the first hit song off that album, "Lonesome Loser" (it somehow spoke to me at the time), and I still remember the summer day, visiting my grandmother in Buffalo, asking to go to the department store and then buying the album while my grandma asked all kinds of questions about what kind of music it was. Even then, explaining modern music to your grandma wasn't an easy task....

The Dodgers just finished playing the Yankees and lost 2 of the 3 games. This doesn't bother me much because regular-season meetings seem to mean less and less every year when it comes to the postseason. But you know the hype machine. Just about every media outlet, after mentioning the Dodgers and Yankees were playing, would follow with "a possible World Series preview" in the next sentence. Of course it's a POSSIBLE World Series preview. So was the Indians-Braves a few weeks ago. I don't remember anyone mentioning that matchup as a potential World Series preview. Personally, I don't think anyone is getting past the Astros this year. And if the Yankees somehow manage to beat the Astros, then I don't think I want to follow the rest of the postseason. But all the mentions -- Yankees-Dodgers World Series! Yankees-Dodgers World Series! -- you can't help but think about it a little bit. The first World Series that I saw most of was the Yankees-D...

Every time I land some of these 1995 Topps Archives Brooklyn Dodgers cards, I think about how they would have been more amazing to me back in the year that they were issued. I was barely buying cards in '95. And the stage of my collection was not as advanced as it is now. Many of the cards in the '95 Archives set would have had a great deal of appeal because of that. Back then, the only original '50s Dodgers cards that I owned that are also replicated in this '95 set were the 1956 Carl Erskine and the 1956 Don Newcombe. So how cool would it be to have a card that looked like the 1955 Jackie Robinson or the 1953 Roy Campanella or the 1956 Sandy Koufax, even if they weren't the actual cards? Well, now I have the actual '55 Robinson and the actual '53 Campy and the actual '56 Koufax. And I have the original cards for darn near half of the 1995 Archives set if not more. So the appeal may be diminished -- I already have a 1955 Topps Sandy Koufax du...

I feel a bit foolish. I ended up remembering what I forgot to get at Walmart the last time . It was some envelopes for work to mail off some plaques. So, even though I wanted to avoid buying anything off card shelves for the rest of the month, I felt obligated to stop by the card aisle. Besides, Archives will likely make an appearance near me before the month is out and how will I be able to resist sampling something that contains the '75 design? You ARE expecting an exhaustive break down of Topps' inability to replicate that design aren't you? I'd be disappointed in you if you didn't. I'd be disappointed in me if I didn't. So, obviously, no Archives yet. We can't all run over to the hobby shop in Alaska . My closest Walmart did contain Chrome and Heritage High Numbers, formerly the latest-and-greatest cards on shelves. I turned down Chrome flat. Ever since Chrome scrapped its borders it has lost all of its irresistibility. I am immune to its ...

My Allen & Ginter mini frankenset features 27 empty slots. You'd think that even in a 350-card frankenset with 323 slots filled that it would not be extremely difficult to fill up the remaining spaces. You'd think that even if a mini wasn't going to fill an empty slot, it could still crack the frankenset. Look at the above page. It's filled with players like Ryan McMahon and Yunel Escobar, guys dying to be knocked out of the club. Just about every other page is like that, too. But I find that time and again, minis are trying and failing to make the binder. Some of this, I believe, is because Topps earmarks certain numbers for certain "types" in its A&G set. And if I like that "type" -- perhaps it's a baseball legend or a notable off-beat nonsports card -- then a card at that number may be continuously denied. You could be a card of Ryne Sandberg but there is only one Rod Carew, son. But still, I get hopeful when I come into a c...