Night Owl Cards

I hold grudges against drugstores. I grew up during a time when it was pretty much a given that if you ran a drugstore, you were going to offer trading cards in your store for the kiddies. I can't remember walking into a drugstore that did not sell cards for the first 25 years of my life. That isn't the case anymore. And it pisses me off. It annoys me so much that when I'm in a drugstore and I notice that it doesn't sell cards, it goes on the mental list, and I make it a priority to never frequent that drugstore again. Emergencies excluded, of course. There is one drugstore that is prominent where I live that does not offer cards for which I make an exception. It happens to be very close to me and I can't afford to not shop there periodically. But I won't tell you its name because I'm not giving it free publicity because IT DOESN'T SELL CARDS!!! But for all the rest of you drugstores, either you better hope I'm stranded miles from home w...

I've run into a brick wall with about five different post ideas today, so you're getting a rambling, housekeeping type post while I regroup. For starters, is anyone really happy with this A&G Troy Tulowitzki card? The fog is eating his cap, consuming his glove and has already devoured his left foot. This is not a baseball card, it's a horror movie scene. And while I can't get off of Allen & Ginter, someone explain this to me: I have three of this card. That seems odd because the Matt Garza card is No. 347, which means it's a short-print. Yet, I have more of it than any other card in the set. I know there's a mathematical reason for this -- something to do with probability and other stuff that made me realize how much I detested math when I was in high school -- but I refuse to think about such things anymore. I'm just puzzled by why I still need a regular ol' base card of, say, I don't know, Kate Upton, but the card gods ar...

There are like 17 Hideo Nomo rookie cards. I don't know if that's a record for one individual baseball player, or if this was just the custom in the 1990s. I wasn't collecting during that very weird time. But something tells me 17 different rookie cards for one individual is a bit unusual. The odd thing is, I'm closing in on owning all of them. I think I'm missing only 2 or 3. The most recent Nomo rookies came to me from Tom at The Angels, In Order . Both of the cards are from that very strange '90s brand called Emotion. It occurs to me now that if Emotion merely called itself "Action," then all of the wacky non-emotions that it plastered on cards -- like "Twisting" -- would actually work, and pathetic bloggers wouldn't be deriding a defunct company these many years later. But, anyway, they're both pretty nice-looking cards, as are all Nomo cards. As you know, he has the best cards of all-time. I can't find anyon...

I've mentioned before that these Emotion cards from the mid-90s might be the most mockable (what? It's a word) cards ever made. Emotion is just lucky that my brothers and I were well past our childish years by 1995 or we would have tarred and feathered its ass with its ridiculous cards. I mean "Pondering"? PONDERING? There's no pondering in baseball! This is not a poetry reading. This is not a letter to grandma from camp. This is BASEBALL. I am as certain about this as I am about fruit not being a dessert: pondering NEVER happens in baseball. Not even after a game when a reporter asks a super in-depth question (what? It happens). The modern player has been so programmed by PR people that they don't even pause for a scintilla of a second to produce an original word when they respond. Nope, there is definitely no pondering in baseball. You have never seen a player, on the field, tilt his head, look upward, furrow his brow, and ponder . Todd Worr...