Night Owl Cards

 (Hey, fellow Northeasterners, are you enjoying the special edition two-month long March this year? I hear things are going to turn around in a matter of days. I'll believe it when I feel it, but right now there's a freeze warning. Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 369th in a series):   There is no end to the cards that I've read about and promptly forgotten due to my brain's attempt to keep the real important stuff in -- and there's only so much room!   Topps Cards That Never Were mentioned this particular card a couple of weeks ago and I was immediately intrigued. It is one of nine 1992 Topps Pre-Production gold cards, cut off a sample sheet that Topps issued ahead of the 1992 set.   Jeremy wrote that this card leaves out the word "manager" on the front of the card and that was enough for me to think: "I need that card."     Here is the regular 1992 Topps gold Lasorda (such a great card) with "manager" mentioned.     It...

I may be an adult who collects trading cards but I don't like my trading cards to remind me I'm an adult.   Here's how:   Most of the cards I value, almost all my favorite sets and all my favorite players, come from three decades -- the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. These are the cards that produce the greatest memories when I look through them in my collection.   But looking for memories after that gets a little dangerous. The 1990s is full of adult concerns, worries and incidents ... and all that angry music. I can say the same for the 2000s, 2010s and 2020s. Best just look at the cards and be done with it, don't start dredging up memories, you're not gonna like it.   So when I looked for cards that interested me in the latest Diamond Jesters' Time Travel Trading post, I instinctively picked cards from the '60s, '70s and '80s. I didn't even realize I was doing it. They were just naturally the ones that appealed to me.   '60s     First up, a 1961...

  Have you heard, or noticed, that the American League as of this writing has just two winning teams?   I'm sure interleague play is to blame for that and it will straighten itself out during the season but it might be time to break out the old "junior circuit" label for the moment. That's a very National League fan thing for me to do.   Seven years ago I wrote a couple of posts about National League and American League MVPs. I wanted to update those posts while the National League and American League are still a thing. Also the Dodgers have won two MVP awards since I last did this.   In 2024      And in 2025   Also, since I last did this, two Braves, a Cardinal and a Phillie have won the NL MVP, so here are the updated NL MVP team standings:   Cardinals 18, Dodgers 14, Giants 13, Reds 12, Cubs 9, Phillies 9, Braves 8, Pirates 7, Brewers 2 (NL Brewers, we'll get to AL Brewers), Astros 1 (NL Astros), Marlins 1, Nationals 1, Padres 1, Rockies 1...

  I received news today that our one remaining vehicle to drive is on death's door. It's not worth fixing and it could go kaput any day.   It's been two months since ice fell onto our other vehicle and it's finally being worked on, but it's probably a week away (plus any inevitable delays) from being back and driveable.   So that's where we are, two grown-ass adults with grown-ass jobs operating as if we're 18 year olds with no car. Fun, right?   But it's just the most visible example of how nothing works anymore. I sit at work in my office sometimes with no heat because the failing boiler has been turned off for the summer. And I don't need to tell you bloggers about how the blog roll isn't functioning. It takes a good 2 to 8 hours -- sometimes never -- for the latest blog update to appear in reader or along the blog roll. I'm publishing this in the early afternoon in hopes it will see eyes by sometime this evening.   But thank goodness for ...

  On a post a couple weeks ago, cards as I see them showed off his signed autographed cards from the 1978 Topps set. He has a whole bunch -- more than 500 of them -- which is terribly impressive.   That inspired me to see how many autographs I own from the 1975 Topps set, as like gcrl's 1978 Topps set, it is the one that kicked off my collecting journey.   I knew that it would be far, far less than 500. My collection pursuit has never been about autographs. It's been a side-dabbling at best, mostly restricted to my early blog days. But I figured that if there was one set that would yield the most autographed cards, it would be 1975.   Maybe I'd have 10 cards from 1975 signed, I guessed. Maybe a little less than that. Eight? Seven?   Try five.   Ooof.   But they're all impressive in their own right. That Bill Buckner doubles as an entry in my '75 buyback collection.   So, yeah, word scribbles aren't exactly my thing. But which set does have the mo...

  The other day I received one of those pink postage-due-your-cards-are-waiting-for-you-way-down-at-the-post-office slips.   I always go and pay the postage because CARDS, and even being down to one vehicle -- that also needs work done kind of immediately -- wasn't going to stop me. It was a little surprising how much "postage due" has gone up for simple PWE, but after seeing the contents, I was happy I made the effort.   The cards arrived from reader Casey, all 13 of them stuffed into that one envelope, and some required extra protection, too. But this wasn't 1991 Donruss, or even the average modern cards I usually receive. Certainly worth the cost.     I'll start with one of the many parallels in products these days. This is one of the acceptable ones because it involves color, and also I'm always grateful when someone sends me an Ohtani card.     My first team logo border parallel. I've seen plenty of these online over the last couple of years but n...

  Among my favorite types of cards are ones that show catchers in action. I'm sure many collectors will agree that is a cool shot.   I'm not sure why action photos of catchers stand out more than action photos of pitchers or hitters or infielders. Perhaps it's because they're less common, or all the equipment they wear, or the funny backward hat. I just know that I like them and I always have.   I started collecting in the '70s, but I really noticed a surge in catcher action shots during the 1980s. That's understandable, cards really shifted over to action in the '80s. And recently I began to wonder which '80s set featured the most catchers in action.   Aha, we now have a post.   I considered the Topps sets of the '80s first, of course. If I ever look for the catchers in action for Donruss and Fleer, that will be a separate post. And I had my ideas about which set might have the most. I've dedicated a whole post to the catchers cards of 1986 Topp...

  OK, I said last month when I did the last Elusive '80s post that the next one would show up pretty quick, and here it is.   Only a month between posts hasn't given me much time to tackle any of those elusive '80s needs but several are sitting in carts and you're looking at the most recent arrival, which was on the last post as a need -- the wonderfully charming Jiffy Pop Fernando. (Never mind that "1st annual" nonsense).   In this post I'm tackling the Dodgers I need from sets issued in 1987 -- still seems ludicrous that I would need anything from 1987, even with this series telling me that needs are all around me, no matter what year.   Expect a few more Valenzuela appearances.   1987     1987 Albuquerque Dukes Police    Technically not a Dodgers set but I've been known to gather Albuquerque Dukes cards from the '70s and '80s, as so many future Dodgers favorites are displayed on those cards. This is a 30-card set and I don't have a s...