Night Owl Cards

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My favorite lineup (updated)

Every once in awhile I like to re-evaluate my favorite players as a Dodgers fan. In my now 50 years of rooting for them, my choices aren't going to change a lot. But they do change. Nine years ago I wrote a post titled " My favorite Opening Day lineup ". It corresponded with Opening Day and I arranged my favorite Dodger at each position in a lineup. This was only for Dodgers that I've witnessed as a fan, so as much as I like Campy, Pee Wee, Robinson and Koufax, they're not included. For those of you who don't want to click the link, this is what the lineup looked like then: 2b - Dave Lopes ss - Corey Seager rf - Reggie Smith 1b - Steve Garvey lf - Pedro Guerrero cf - Matt Kemp 3b - Ron Cey c - Mike Scioscia p - Clayton Kershaw Nine years later there are a few changes -- and the lineup has a designated hitter now. I'm still not thrilled with an across-the-board DH but we're long past arguing about it and I can't complain too much as my cu...

C.A.: 1985 Donruss Tom Seaver (Floyd Bannister error)

(I admit I've never been a major Rush fan, though "Moving Pictures" was the theme music -- thanks to a boom box in the back -- to my bus rides home from school. But I've been kind of obsessed with news of the reunion tour. I heard last night's show was pretty cool. Anyway, time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 370th in a series): I received this Tom Seaver variation card from 1985 Donruss in a TCDB trade the other day. I usually don't chase error cards for '80s sets that I'm building. It depends -- it's kind of a case-by-case basis. But picturing a completely different player is a pretty big error. I couldn't say no. That is Floyd Bannister on Tom Seaver's card. I already owned the corrected version of the card: That's a major flub actually. Tom Seaver is a huge name and had been in the limelight for nearly 20 years at this point. I can hear Topps chortling over four-year-old Donruss making such a goof. Or maybe it grumble...

Joy of a team set, chapter 30 (looking to the sky for inspiration)

The Dodgers are playing the Angels this weekend in another "Freeway Series"/interleague clash. This doesn't mean a whole lot to me. I've lived on the east coast my whole life, and was a baseball fan for more than 20 years before interleague play started. But the Angels have popped up a couple of times recently in my fan and hobby pursuits. I've been struggling for blog topics lately. It's not just lack of time that's caused me to slow down here -- inspiration's been elusive when life is one demoralizing incident after another. Then I received a quick envelope in the mail the other day from Batting Out of Order . Tom was clearing out some duplicates of the Angels, his favorite team, and sent a few from the 2005 Topps Update set. That's fun. Remember when the Angels were good enough to beat the Yankees in the playoffs? I haven't done much with my 2005 Topps set needs the last year or so. I'm only 29 cards away from finishing the ...

Thinking about doing something dumb again

When I completed the 1969 Topps set eight months ago , I was certain that I was finished with trying to build vintage sets. I had been through my share and I wasn't getting any younger and it wasn't getting any easier. That's still where I'm at -- not going to take on any other set big projects, nope, not doing it, not never, not never again. Still ... If I was to build a vintage set again, there is one that makes the most sense -- 1968 Topps is right there. Now, before you get all "but the Nolan Ryan rookie" on me, here is why this set makes sense to build: -- It's the next set in the line of complete Topps sets in my collection. You can go in either direction for that. The next set on the front end is 1993 Topps, which is far easier but also holds zero interest for me. 1994 is more interesting but not enough to leap over another year. So, the back end is 1968 and finishing that would wrap up 25 complete sets in a row for me. -- It woul...

That old-school pose

There are a lot of baseball card poses that were common on cards when I was collecting as a youngster that have mostly disappeared from cardboard. One of them is the pitcher's "hands-over-head" wind-up pose. This pose used to appear on dozens of cards every year but it's been a long time since I've seen it in a current set. Maybe a one-off here and there. Pitchers mostly have scrapped the long, drawn-out wind-up and did so beginning with the 1970s, or so I'm told. But I just reviewed a small sampling of game footage from the 1970s and here are the pitchers that were using that wind-up in the videos I watched: Bruce Kison, Jerry Garvin, Steve Baker, Vida Blue, Jerry Koosman, Rudy May, Andy Hassler, Bob Knepper, Don Sutton, Dickie Noles, Jim Bibby, Eddie Solomon, Jim Rooker, Mike Cuellar, Don Robinson. Here are the ones who weren't: J.R. Richard, Jim Merritt, Steve Rogers. So it was still prevalent in the 1970s. Today it's still used...

Playing hard to get

Does it seem like finding the baseball cards you want is like finding a mate these days? It does for me. Oh sure, I can find cards that I like and add them fairly easily. But the ones I really, really want seem more and more elusive. Is it because everyone else wants them, too? Is it like when everyone wanted to go out with that one girl? It feels like that. I've all but given up on the 1975 Kellogg's girl (or the earlier '70s Kellogg's sets for that matter). They're playing way too hard to get. Higher prices and you can't even be sure that the card is going to come without flaws. I'm still in hot pursuit of 1975 Hostess though. It's gotten more and more challenging. I just landed this Roger Metzger short-print and purchased another SP just today. But there are 10 cards to go after that and most are SPs. Did you know there's some guy selling the Bill Buckner card for $200??? You're not worth that, honey. I'm trying to guess whi...