Night Owl Cards

   Someone on social media posed the question the other day regarding Rickey Henderson's domination of the American League stolen base title during the 1980s.   Henderson led the AL in stolen bases every year from 1980 through 1991 except for one.   The question: who led the league in stolen bases the year Henderson did not?   I had no idea.   I was on top of that stuff during the latter half of the 1970s and early 1980s. That's because baseball cards were there for me, specifically league-leader cards. I've mentioned many times how I relied on baseball cards to tell me important facts from the previous year -- league leaders, postseason results, records broken, etc. I went to cards before the newspaper or TV.   That's how those facts entered my head and stayed there. If someone asked me who led the American League and National League in batting average in 1977, all I needed to do was picture the '78 League Leader card with Dave Parker and Rod Carew on...

  I'm now 50-plus years into my collecting journey. I haven't seen it all when it comes to cards, but I've seen way more than I haven't.   That's why the concept of "new to me" means more than it ever has. I love finding cards that are new to me. It's probably why I still buy packs of current product, because they have the best chance containing cards I've never laid eyes on.   It doesn't matter the era for new-to-me. Sure, the very best is something from the '70s or '80s, but I've covered that period pretty thoroughly so chances are slim. I'll take "new" from any time period. Even the '90s.   That's where the card up top comes in.    It arrived from of a very nice send from Dennis of Too Many Verlanders . But you could see the question marks forming above my head. "Now what the hell is this?"   So many questions. What year is this? What set is this? Is this an insert? It looks like an insert. What...

   This rookie card of Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Kirby Higbe arrived the other day.   It marked what could be the end of my pursuit of the 1941 Play Ball Brooklyn Dodgers. There are five cards in the team set. I now have four of them. The fifth one has been priced out of most people's ranges.   So I'm good with having four of them and calling it complete. As a "glass is half empty" guy in many situations, I don't expect to obtain the Pee Wee Reese rookie.   Therefore, let's look at the cards I do have:     Dolph Camilli was the first. It's the best-looking one by far. I don't have a handle on all of the set's cards but I wouldn't be surprised if it's the best-looking one in the entire set.     Next came Hot Potato Hamlin and Whit Wyatt. Wyatt has the healthiest of creases going through the upper right quadrant. I was not picky about condition in picking up these cards so it doesn't bother me (though it wasn't that evident in the ebay...

   I finally completed my 2025 Heritage High Numbers Dodgers team set yesterday.   The Hyseseong Kim card was the last to arrive at the nest. Of course, it's a short-print and is a part of the infuriating way Heritage is acting recently with online exclusives and short-prints and inflated ebay pricing.     I also wondered if it would ever arrive. It took exactly a month, from purchase to arrival for me to claim ownership. "Rushed" is a funny way to put it. I didn't realize when I bought it that it was through comc consignment -- that violated my "never going to deal with that place again" policy. I guess I have another reason now.   Anyway, ugliness out of the way, I can now celebrate with a Card Numbers for Commons post using Kim's card number -- 719.   To go over the rules, this is the post in which I take a certain card number that once was the domain of commons and find five notable cards with that number in my possession. Then I look for five nota...