Night Owl Cards

Between work, the Olympics, the baseball trade deadline and the impending thunderstorms, the last thing I should be doing right now is writing a post. But creature of habit that I am, I've got to make things difficult. I'll make it quick because I just saw lightning. Out of all of the players that I collect, there is only one who has crossed so many spectrums of the hobby for me. I have discovered great cards of him among cheapie '80s issues. I've found great vintage cards of him. I've found fantastic shiny autographed cards, and the man himself has even supplied me with his own autograph on a few cards. Of course, I'm referring to the Duke of Flatbush, Mr. Snider. You saw the 1956 card of him yesterday. Well, here is the card I received in the mail today. Isn't it swell? There is nothing more impressive than relic cards containing bits of uniform from 50 years ago. This arrived from Matt of Cardboard Conundrum ... and yes, I had to look up

The end of work tonight (or last night for most of you) was a frustrating lesson in what happens when incompetence mixes with unnecessarily complicated technology: Everyone within a 500-foot radius will pay. So, with much relief and clinging to a few shreds of sanity, I came home eager to tend to my family of blogs. Unfortunately, this is the only one that will receive attention. Because my scanner -- my evil, evil scanner -- is trying to finish me off. I mean it is really, really putting a lot of energy into my demise. For example: I have just completed scanning the following image ... ... for the 16th time. Yup, 16 times. Why would I ever scan the same thing 16 times? I have no rational explanation. I just like things to be straight. It's a simple request by my way of thinking. Place an object on the scanner. Line it up in a reasonably straight fashion. And, presto, it should emerge on my backlit screen STRAIGHT! But my scanner won't do this. Bec

( Disclaimer: I swear I had this post written and scheduled to publish a full five hours before Fuji's latest question . This was MY IDEA, you hear?) While I was on vacation last week, I went to a card show. It's the one in lakeside Clayton that I go to every summer. I grabbed this 1970 League Leaders card because I thought I needed it. But already had it. I acquired it from a blogger not long ago. Stupid brain. But except for surprises like that, I know what I'm getting at this show for the most part. There are always a couple of dealers there that I know quite well. Sometimes new people pop up, but they're not always there. Last weekend, it was just the old reliables. And that's fine with me. This show will have to serve as my National because I won't be in Baltimore this week. Something about work and family commitments and money. My boss, relatives and wallet are not very understanding about my hobby. But that's fine with me, too, because of th

OK, I've delayed what I was going to write about so Fuji can hijack my blog again. But this is an idea  that I should have come up with myself, so I deserve to have my schedule shaken up a little. Fuji, channeling dayf , asks "what is the ugliest set you've ever seen?" Excellent. If there's one thing I know about, it is ugly. I am forever coming across wardrobe choices, pet preferences, automobile selections and, dare I say it, people that others think look perfectly fine. In fact, sometimes they say, "that is beautiful ." And I stand and stare in disbelief. "No it ain't, child," I say to myself. "That ugly." And so it is with baseball card sets (yep, strictly baseball here). Some folks have some strange ideas of what looks good on a rectangular piece of cardboard. And I was able to come up with 15 ugly-ass sets. (that's right, 15. You think I was going to give you only one? This is a full-service blog here). A

I was out of town for a few days last week on vacation. When I got back, I was pretty busy, but that's never stopped me from posting before. This time, it stopped me. I just didn't feel like tending to the blog, or the hobby really. There are trade packages collecting dust, cards people sent me collecting dust, binders collecting dust ... and some half-hearted posts to tie it all together. But don't worry. I'm not going to start drawing ponies. I just wanted to see what it was like to ignore collecting for a few days. It felt good. A relief. My brain kept trying to turn post ideas over and and over in its head until it realized it didn't have to do that. "Phew," it said. We've decided -- the brain and I -- that we're going to do it again. Soon. But I'll always be back. Even if it's just a trade post. (*Ahem*). These are cards from Spiegel at Nomo's Sushi Platter . I can always count on him for a hard-target search of the wa

I'm supposed to relay how I first decided to collect sports cards and when. So says  Fuji . Or maybe it's Nick . It's getting very confusing, and truthfully, I'm not playing much by the rules, so never mind. The "when" part of this question is easy. I first collected sports cards (re: baseball cards) in 1974 when I was eight years old. As I've written here many times, I say "collected," but actually I had no idea what "to collect" meant in '74. The 1974 Topps baseball cards I received that year came from my mother who had just returned from a grocery store trip. She handed my brother and I some cards from the store, one of those cello packs with about 30 or so cards, if I recall correctly. And, as I've also mentioned many times, we admired, cherished and marveled over those cards for those summer months. And then, when school came around, we chucked them in the garbage. Don't rock the boat, baby . We already had M

I'm taking a bit of a break from the blog, which of course automatically means something is going to happen that requires my attention. The Dodgers, as you know, have acquired infielder Hanley Ramirez and left-handed reliever Randy Choate from the Marlins for pitcher Nathan Eovaldi and a minor leaguer. I like this trade. Eovaldi might be pretty good in the future, but the Dodgers don't really need more pitching, they need hitting, desperately. I know Ramirez isn't having the greatest year. He's still a hell of a lot better than Juan Uribe and even Dee Gordon. And, unlike so many deadline deals that I see, this one doesn't look desperately desperate and stupid. I would love to see Ramirez in a Dodger uniform on a baseball card. I present this photoshopped Ramirez Opening Day card as a challenge to someone to turn it into a Ramirez Dodger card. Best version gets some cards from me. Either send me an email of your creation or show it on your blog. I can

(Holy crap, it actually rained last night. People came out on their porches to watch it, like it was a comet or something. I'd say we could use some more, but August is coming, so that's not going to happen. So stay inside, flick on the AC, and view some cards: Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 155th in a series): I received a whole mess of 1977 Topps from Josh over at Royals and Randoms . You'll see them as soon as my latest summer break is over. But I wanted to feature this fun little card separate. The 1977 Ollie Brown card is one of my favorites from the '77 set. It's been that way since I was a kid. It's one of those cards that I can't explain why I liked as a kid. But the close-up shots seemed to strike me back then. If I look at it now, I can say that Brown's "What Are YOU lookin' at?" face is appealing, too. Plus, I like the way that his image is shifted to the left to get in his signature. And, now that I no

All right, everyone is all apoplectic over Ichiro suddenly becoming a Yankee. I'm just not that upset about it. If you're a Mariner fan, then, yes, I'm sorry. I understand. For you, it's awful. Just horrible, disgraceful, unthinkable, galling, gagging, repulsive, puke-inducing, nasty, crushing, hurtful, agonizing, gross, dehumanizing, shameful, inexcusable and rotten. But if you're not, then, really, things could be worse. How much worse? Well, off the top of my head, I came up with 10 or so players who I would have much more of a problem seeing in a Yankee uniform than Ichiro. Suzuki is practically an icon and very good at what he does. But, let's face it, he's 38, and he's not the player he once was. If the Yankees want to try to capture 2001 in a bottle for a half a year, then, fine, knock yourself out, New York. I hope you fail. But these guys? No, I do not want these guys to appear as Yankees. Or I might have to start watching crick