Night Owl Cards

This is one of my favorite Expos cards. It's not because there is a Dodger in the background or because I have farmers in my background. It's because Farmer is wearing a red Expos jersey in game action. The red Expos jersey was fantastic, but about the only time you saw it on baseball cards was on a posed shot, during batting practice, with the player grinning goofy-like. There aren't a lot of action photos of Expos in red jerseys -- or at least I don't have many in my collection. Some time ago, either on my blog or another blog -- I don't know, I read so many -- I could have sworn that someone left a comment that said something like, "I don't remember those red Expos jerseys!!!!!!!" And my instant reaction was, "you are so young, son." I filed the comment away, and when post ideas were low, I decided to fish out some other Expos red jerseys photos. But I had to stop, because it just got out of hand. Every Star Expo ...

It's July out there. It's really too nice to concern myself with blog affairs. I'm already high on Clayton Kershaw's dominating performance last night -- which I enjoyed on the MLB Network. So in this light and airy frame of mind, I'm just going to show some cards from a trade and get on out of here. The Kershaw Bowman goldy came from Marcus at All the Way to the Backstop . He knows a thing or two about gold. His favorite team is the Padres. No, really. It is. He was offering some team lots and he had more Dodgers than anything else, so I chomped down greedily. Actually, I did it more warily than greedily, because at this stage, I know I'm going to end up with a giant chunk of doubles. And I did. But there were a fair amount of cards that I didn't have, which makes everything well worth it. I got to get rid of some Padres, too! I love, love, LOVE N.L. West trades. So let's see some cards and then head out to the beach or the grill or the ballpar...

I consider myself a pretty average card collector. There are certain things that distinguish me from other collectors, but nothing about my collecting habits are unique. I'll even assume there's another collector out there who accumulates night cards. He probably started long before me, too. But there are ways of collecting -- or in this case, ways of talking about collecting -- that I don't resemble or even understand. One phrase that's used all the time by certain collectors is something I've never said in my life: "My personal collection." I hear this all the time. From bloggers. From guys at card shows. "That's going in my personal collection." "I have that card in my personal collection." And every time I think, as I smile blankly, "what does that MEAN?" I envision a box or a binder with words scrawled in marker that say, "My Personal Collection." Maybe it's a safe deposit box, or the card...