Night Owl Cards

I'm writing this late because I fell into the trigonometry trap left by my daughter. Never again. So, as I write, the Royals are leading the A's 3-2, but that could all change and everything that I write from here on out may be obsolete in an hour or two. Oh, well. How often do I get to write about the Royals? The best thing about Kansas City playing a playoff game is it evokes memories of what I call my first collecting era. That era runs basically from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. Or, in other words, the same period of time that the Royals were winning playoff games and playing in the World Series. My glory card years were their glory years period. So I wanted to show some Royals card favorites from that period -- I kept it to 1976-85 since that is when K.C. began and ended its postseason run -- in recognition of this feat from what has always been one of my favorite teams. The trouble is, I've actually shown a lot of Royals cards from this time period a

I received a care package from Commish Bob at The Five Tool Collector a couple of weeks ago. I think he's giddy about the O's being in the playoffs because with the exception of Andre here and a couple of others, the package was filled with oddballs! Here, take a look at this: It's a Korean night card! Woooooo! Please don't make me tell you more than that the card is from 2010. I have no time for research today. Also included was the 1989 Dodgers Police set, which is one of the team's police sets for which I didn't have a representative. Now I've got the whole thing! This set, of course, is important because it came out the year after the Dodgers won the World Series. So most of your favorite 1988 Dodgers are included. But since it came out in 1989, it tried to reflect the '89 Dodgers as much as possible. That's why there's a Willie Randolph card but not a Steve Sax card, because the '88 L.A. second baseman Sa

With just a few glaring exceptions, I like the teams headed to the playoffs this year. Taken collectively, they offer the excuse for nostalgia. In fact, when I see the playoff schedule, the Human League starts playing in my head. That's because this year's playoff grouping definitely features an '80s flavor. There is still one playoff spot undecided -- the A's or Mariners will determine that tonight or tomorrow (or Monday) -- but I can still see a team from every World Series of the 1980s, except 1986, in this year's playoffs. Here is the breakdown: 1980: Royals 1981: Dodgers 1982: Cardinals 1983: Orioles 1984: Tigers 1985: Royals and Cardinals 1987: Cardinals 1988: Dodgers (and maybe A's) 1989: Giants (and maybe A's) That's nine years out of 10, which is a better representation than any recent decade. The 1970s features six years (eight if the A's get in). The 1990s features none (one if the A's get in). The 2000s features t

If you don't live in New York State perhaps you missed it. Derek Jeter hit a game-winning single in his ... oh, who am I kidding, you all get ESPN, right? Suffice it to say, I think people overreacted juuuuust a little last night. But I don't have anything negative to say about Jeter. Hall of Fame player. Charmed career. Too bad he had to play for THAT team. Unlike billions of collectors, Jeter doesn't fit into my collecting priorities much. In fact, the card above is the only way he gets in any of the Dodgers binders. All other necessary Jeters are related to sets I've collected. But that other guy who is retiring in a matter of days, that first baseman for the White Sox  -- the one who is a little more of my kind of player -- can be found in my binders everywhere. It's Paul Konerko Day in Chicago on Saturday. I hear they're going to run some sort of video, and then I hope Konerko goes out and blows up a light tower like Roy Hobbs and no one can

I've collected cards for a long time now. But because I go at my own pace and don't attempt to grab everything from the latest and greatest, I've missed out on some things that are almost regular occurrences for other collectors. For example: This is my first rip card. I didn't pull it -- I don't really buy boxes anymore. It was sent to me by Jeroen, The Dutch Card Guy . Since it's my first rip card, you must now be submitted to my very outdated and antiquated views on rip cards. And those are: I can appreciate the intrigue created by a card like this, but I have a fundamental problem with voluntarily ripping up a baseball card. Just putting aside the philosophical argument of turning a card into a wrapper, I don't know if I like the idea of ripping up my own baseball cards ... in my own home ... where there are people who don't understand the whole accumulation of baseball cards thing ... and giving them IDEAS . One simple tear in front of th

Today is the first full day of fall. Fall means a lot of things, especially here in the Northeast. Leaves changing (yes, it's already begun), the furnace kicks on (yup, that, too), apple pie (yum) and hockey (I told you, it's the Northeast). But there is really only one true highlight of the fall and that is the World Series. The World Series is the first thing that I think of when someone mentions the fall. And it's appropriate that the primary nickname for the World Series is the "Fall Classic". (This is an example of using the wonderful word "classic" properly. Don't muddy up such a great word by using it to dress up your fly-by-night high school basketball tournament). We're still a number of weeks away from the Fall Classic, but the seasonal change has put me in the mood for the postseason. And to prepare for the upcoming festivities, I pulled out 10 classic cards of the Fall Classic. These are all from my collection and they'