Night Owl Cards

That's what I kept telling myself earlier today while holding the steering wheel in a death grip, head hunched over the dashboard, in a desperate bid to see through the patch of windshield that hadn't frozen over. I'm telling you, there is nothing that will make you feel more alive than driving through white-out conditions. If you ever get bored with your situation, I'm inviting you up here for an invigorating spin down the interstate. It's as close as you'll get to driving while blind. So, yeah, I didn't make it to the card show. I drove about five miles, tried to get off at the next exit, couldn't SEE the exit ramp, drove for another terrifying couple more miles, then turned around for home. That makes two years in a row I didn't attend the January card show. Like last year, I'll wait until April for another one to come around. But unlike last year, I didn't sulk much. There's a couple of reasons for that. One of them is I'v

Vintage Modern Sesame Street for Collectors has been brought to you today by the manufactured letter patches "T," and "S," and by the serial-number "3." The cards are brought to you by Daniel of It's Like Having My Own Card Shop . (Note: I am either en route to a card show or pouting about not being at a card show. This minimalist post will serve as a stand-in until I can return with my usual scatter-shot, semi-thoughtful blog commentary ). (Note 2: Why on earth does the updated version of blogger post editor not have spell check?)

I pulled this card out of a fresh pack of 2010 Topps cards yesterday. At first glance, I didn't give it much thought. But then I almost did a double-take as I looked at the photo again. "Wait a minute ..." I thought. "What the ... "Cito -- are you crying? ARE YOU CRYING? There's no crying. THERE'S NO CRYING IN BASEBALL CARDS!" Seriously, I have been collecting cards for 30 years. Although I've never heard any of my Rogers Hornsby cards call another card a talking pile of pigshit , I am fairly certain that I have never seen a person cry on a baseball card. Those are real tears there. This is major. Gaston not only made history by bringing a World Series championship to Canada, but he may have made history being the first person to cry on a baseball card. Sure, he's a cry baby. Much like Tom Hanks' character, Jimmy Duggan, weepfests make me squirm. But the chicks dig it. (By the way, this is not an invitation for eve

I do not own this card. It's the first awesome night card that I have shown that is not in my collection. If everything goes right, I will have the card before the weekend is out. Maybe. There is supposed to be a card show this weekend. As usual, I will have to travel an hour to get there. As usual, the weather sucks here in January. As usual, they're calling for snow the day of the show. I don't know how much snow or where it's going to land right now, and I probably won't know until it's time to get in the car to drive there. That is the beauty of living next to a giant body of water. Not even the meteorologists have the slightest idea of how bad it's going to get. They talk in extremely general terms and you wonder why they're getting paid. So, if I do get to the show, job one will be getting the 1969 Topps Del Unser night card. Because I'm sick of wanting it. After that, I will shop carefully. I have less money for this show than any show I&#

Wow, it's been a crazy week here on the blog. Five days ago, I was wondering what I was going to post. Then people starting sending me 2010 Topps cards, bippings arrived almost daily, and former major leaguer Jerry Reuss started reading my blog. Suddenly I couldn't keep up with anything. I haven't written about a trade in over a week, and that's just not right. Because trading is probably the best part of card blogging. That is a big thing for me to say. I didn't start out this blog with trading as my No. 1 purpose. I love to write and that was my primary objective -- to write about what I love, because I wasn't writing about what I love at work anymore. Then I discovered other great things about card blogging. It was therapeutic. It was informative. It helped me connect with like-minded and very interesting people. And there was the cool stuff, like the Troll turning Mr. Reuss on to my blog. But finding someone who will take your junk, for lack of a

Yesterday, I read that dayf was offering some Orel Hershisers to the first person who commented on his post. Mark, known to be an Orel Hershiser fan , took dayf up on his offer. I wouldn't have thought anything of it, if I hadn't received a package from dayf earlier this week. The card he posted of Orel Hershiser , this particular 1990 Donruss item here, sent chills down my spine. Earlier, you read how dayf sent me my first pack of 2010 Topps cards (still no packs of the stuff here, by the way). That was just to lull me into complacency. It's an old trick. Legend has it that David gave Goliath a pack of 500 B.C. cards before he offed him with his slingshot. The thing is, I should have known this was coming. The other cards in the package arrived in this: A rack pack of '09 Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects. I publicly questioned dayf's sanity for even looking at this pack. I still don't know what prompted him to do so. But now this was payback for my do

You may have read that Jerry Reuss commented on my previous post. If you haven't read it, I'll let you take a moment to go back and read it now. And I won't lecture you about how your world should revolve around this blog by now. Kidding. You people are so serious. All right, done reading? Now, isn't that the most awesome thing ever? I really hate that I sound 14 years old at the moment, but it's mind-blowing. Mr. Reuss, thanks for making my day. So aside from becoming president of the Jerry Reuss Fan Club, I wondered what I could do to celebrate one of my favorite players reading my blog. Matt of the Project Baseball 1976 blog had the answer. Find out which Jerry Reuss card is the best! That's right, it's the first poll of 2010. You knew I couldn't go long without taking a poll. I just needed an opportunity. A couple of changes, though. Normally, I stick with the 1970s cards of a player. But because Reuss played a good chunk of his career with the Dod