Night Owl Cards

Against my better judgment I am entering Baseball Every Night's "Ugly Sweater/Ugly Baseball Card" contest . It's not that I'm afraid of branding a baseball card ugly. I've done that many times on this blog. I even dedicated an entire post to what I thought were the ugliest baseball card sets at the time (Peter will happy to know that 1995 Fleer wound up first). It's just that "ugly" comes in many forms. How do I decide which ugly? I figured I'd let the dictionary help me arrive at a conclusion. As you know, a dictionary is incapable of settling on one definition of a word. It has to give you several options. By this means, I can address several different kinds of ugly before making a decision and delivering the final, devastating Ugliest blow. For my dictionary of choice, I chose my red-covered, hard-bound Webster's ninth collegiate edition dictionary, published in 1983. This is your average, hefty, all-you-could-ever-need dictio...

Last month, Chris from View From the Skybox put on a charity group break to benefit children affected by the massive typhoon that hit the Philippines last year. I've pretty much cut myself off from all group breaks in the last couple of years, but this one drew my interest. Collecting cards is a hobby and is mostly about myself. This was a chance to make my hobby about someone else, something bigger. I missed out on grabbing the Dodgers in the break, which after viewing the acquisitions by the person who did get the Dodgers, is probably a good thing. Most of them would've been dupes. Normally not getting the Dodgers would eliminate my interest in a group break. But this was different. The money was going to people in need and I had to join regardless. So why not join in the spirit of charity and get some cards for someone else? So that's what I did. I got some good cards, too. Unfortunately, this is where the post falls apart. I can't show you the cards...

Here is an unusual card from Chris of View From The Skybox . It's a pretty cool night scene from the 1995 Phil Rizzuto's Baseball National Pastime set put out by Comics Images. It's an all-chrome set from back in the day when we were supposed to call it "chromium," in as reverent a voice as possible and then "ooh" and "aah" afterward. Like all of the images in this unlicensed set, it's a picture of a bygone era. This is Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, which was home of the Pirates from 1909 to 1970. It doesn't exist anymore and neither does its replacement, Three Rivers Stadium, which was imploded in 2001. Three stadiums in 31 years seems a bit excessive if you ask me. But back to the card. In hand, it's fairly dark. Holding it under a light brings it to life. It seems like one of those cards that if you kept it under a light for awhile and then went into a darkened room, it would glow in the dark. Sadly it does not (yes, I tri...