Night Owl Cards

Although I've owned this card only a little while, it is quickly becoming one of my favorite night cards. It possesses many of the elements I love in a card. Famed, dominant pitcher. Vintage photo from the '70s. Nightfall. Plus, there is the clincher, product placement. Many profess to love the corporate-sponsored oddball, but there is one who loves the food-issue cards above all, and you're reading his words. This card is from the 26-card 1992 Donruss Nolan Ryan Career Series set, which you could find in Coke products. Think about this for a moment. You pick up a 24-pack of Coke cans and tucked within is a baseball card. I get tingly just envisioning it. This is just the second card from this set that I own. There are several fine-looking cards in the tidy set and it's very cheap, so unless you have some kind of weird aversion to Nolan Ryan, I recommend picking it up. I should do so myself. Most importantly, for me, it is the only non-revolting thing to co...

( Today is "Smile Power Day." On a Monday? You've got to be joking. It's time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 35 th in a series): There isn't any major league team that I feel more conflicted over than the New York Mets . I have mentioned before that my grandfather was a Mets fan. Once a week we would go to my grandparents' house, sit on the floor, eat chocolate ice cream and drink orange soda, listen to "Meet the Mets ," and watch the team squander away another win (this was the late 1970s). So, when I think of the Mets that way, I have great affection for them. But there is another side to the Mets . There is the 1986 Mets side. Lenny Dykstra , Gary Carter, Darryl Strawberry. Bleech . There is the 1988 Mets . I wanted that team to DIE. There is Jose Reyes, Lastings Milledge . The 2006 Mets . I wanted that team to lose as painfully as possible. Yadier Molina, let me buy you a drink. A lot of people want to make the Mets lovable or cud...