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Night critter

I probably should explain the title of this blog a little. It might seem obvious, considering the "about me" profile along the right rail. And if you've been paying attention, almost all of my posts so far have been after midnight.

Yes, I'm a night owl. I have been since I was a teenager. I work a job that requires me to toil at night, and I find that it suits me. I am most unpleasant in the morning (the few mornings that I see), but when 9 p.m. hits, the switch is on. Let's go, let's party.

Now add the fact that I am an East Coast guy who is a fan of a West Coast team. After years of living through, "San Francisco at Los Angeles (n.)" in the newspaper, I fully appreciate being able to find the score of the Dodger game with a few simple key strokes. Waiting until 2 a.m. is no price to pay at all. Hell, I'm up already anyway.

But that's only half of it. The other half is I've always enjoyed the night time more than the day. I love it when the fall weather hits and daylight savings time ends and the street lights are on at 5:30 in the afternoon. As a kid, I remember taking five-hour trips to my grandmother's after my dad got off of work and marveling at the lights along the darkened route. I love neon, I love midnight snacks, I love 1971 Topps (that Cookie Rojas card is awesome). Even 1986 Topps isn't too bad either (except for all the blurry photos).

As any kid finds out going to his first night game, night time makes the game more than a game. It becomes an EVENT. That's why I like collecting cards that feature photos taken at night. There aren't a lot of them, and most of them are like this:

A playoff game, or a World Series game or an All-Star Game. But that makes the card cool. You can see the glow of the flourescent lights on the card and remember the great highlights from that game or series (Sorry, Goose).

So-called "night cards" will be a recurring theme of this blog. Call them cards that will never see the light of day.

Here is one of my favorites:

Now THAT is a great card: Campy kicking up dust, lights glowing in the background, illuminating his day-glo (night-glo?) gold jersey. Millan's glove outstretched, ump in mid-safe! pose. Nice work, Topps.

Comments

madding said…
I can definitely relate. I've pretty much been a night owl since about the 8th grade or so. I've been working swing shift hours for about 4 years now, and while it's not my ideal shift (I loved my noon-8:30 shift) it does fit my preferred waking hours.

As far as baseball goes, I always have preferred the night games. There's something awesome about stadium lights illuminating the field.