Night Owl Cards

  I posted this card on my 1993 Upper Deck blog yesterday . If you're in the habit of reading that blog maybe you missed it as blogger just got around to getting it on the reader list nearly a day after I uploaded it.   When I wrote it, I noted that the shot of Navarro yelling was a precursor to the cards of today, in which it seems there's a guy shouting in every pack. And just to be sure, I checked the 1993 UD cards I've already posted and at card No. 237, it's the first yelling shot in the set.   I didn't check the rest of the set but I'd be surprised if there are more than five cards of guys shouting in the set. It's definitely a more modern thing.   As someone who grew up in the '70s and also someone who recoils at the thought of drawing attention to myself, the performative yelling that pro athletes do is still foreign and unnecessary to me. I'm a quiet guy, mostly, who doesn't mind sitting by myself in the quiet -- in fact, I prefer it. I ...

  As much as I've complained about the pokemonification of card shows the last couple of years, when they are right, they are very right. Nothing else can compare, certainly not the online options that I rely on way too frequently.   This past Saturday's monthly show was quite right and I think not be able to get to it last month is only part of the reason I enjoyed it so much.   I know I've gone through the plusses for card shows before but I'm doing it again because it was very apparent this time.       1. OFF-CONDITION VINTAGE   Can you get off-condition vintage online? I don't know. Maybe. All I know is that I've stopped trying because it either stopped being available or the prices got mind-numbingly stupid.   But at a show that's not the case. I go to one table all the time and great vintage cards are waiting for me every time. This is what I picked up this time. The Ron Fairly I thought was an upgrade in my team set but it's not so now it'l...

  Since I don't prioritize autographs in my collection, I don't have a lot of them that aren't Dodgers.   The ones I do have sit in the back of my autograph binder, filled with 99 percent Dodger scribbles. There are a handful of Bills and Sabres scribbles, too.   But those autographs have meaning, too, and every once in awhile I will come across one that I need to include in my collection.   One of those times happened yesterday. I went to the monthly card show -- I'll have a post all about it tomorrow. The last card I picked up there was an autograph card. I saw it at the first table I was at -- and I told myself that if I still had money left and the card was still there -- I'd add it on my way out the door.   And that's what I did.   I had to -- it's The Mad Hungarian! This is one of the exceptions. Al Hrabosky is from my early days as a fan. I remember seeing him when the Cardinals played the Mets in the mid-to-late 1970s. Hrabosky, as you may know or h...

   As you know, I completed the 1956 Topps set five years ago. It happened in April. Wonderful day.   Two months later, I bought a car. Not much to connect the two events at the time, except I had some extra cash floating around that allowed me to do both things.   But on Thursday -- five years later -- the end of a long, winding journey arrived for both. Here's how:   Yesterday afternoon, finally, FINALLY, I picked up that same vehicle from the body shop. This is the one that was attacked by ice three months ago, rendering it undriveable. Through a combination of factors -- overloaded and understaffed body shops, the backwoods in which I live, way more damage than originally anticipated, incredible wait times for shipment of parts -- I was without that vehicle for three months and six days.   Because of various other issues, some of which I mentioned earlier, the only traveling I did for a month was to and from work and to and from the grocery store down t...

   Every once in awhile I like to re-evaluate my favorite players as a Dodgers fan. In my now 50 years of rooting for them, my choices aren't going to change a lot. But they do change.   Nine years ago I wrote a post titled " My favorite Opening Day lineup ". It corresponded with Opening Day and I arranged my favorite Dodger at each position in a lineup. This was only for Dodgers that I've witnessed as a fan, so as much as I like Campy, Pee Wee, Robinson and Koufax, they're not included.   For those of you who don't want to click the link, this is what the lineup looked like then:   2b - Dave Lopes ss - Corey Seager rf - Reggie Smith 1b - Steve Garvey lf - Pedro Guerrero cf - Matt Kemp 3b - Ron Cey c - Mike Scioscia p - Clayton Kershaw   Nine years later there are a few changes -- and the lineup has a designated hitter now. I'm still not thrilled with an across-the-board DH but we're long past arguing about it and I can't complain too much as my cu...