Night Owl Cards

  I've mentioned before that work has been even more of a time-suck than previously. It's infringing on blog posting and I don't think I can go to my bosses and say this is the reason why something's got to change, but something's got to change!   The first three days this week I worked more than the usual eight hours (plus a couple hours on Sunday) and I was prepared to do the same Thursday. I had a story interview arranged before I started my shift and I thought, "welp, I just added more hours that I won't get paid for!"   But it didn't turn out that way. Thanks to some general panicking about the weather, every single sports event in our area was canceled last night. So I ended leaving work at 10:45 p.m! That never happens. Usually I'm there until 12-12:30 and on busier nights (like tonight), I'll close up shop around 1:30 a.m.   So I got to leave work early. That's a red-letter day around here! (I don't have much). But I should...

(Today is National Cream-Filled Donut Day. I don't make this stuff up in order to justify a junk-food lifestyle. I think that's advertisers' job. But if I should cross paths with a donut today, don't think I won't honor the day. It would be rude to do otherwise. Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 81st in a series): Cards like this fascinate me and probably only me. But that hasn't stopped me from writing about them before. This is a card of Justin Huber, issued in the 2006 Topps Opening Day set. It is his so-called "rookie card." Now, since Opening Day is a spin-off of the Topps base set, and since it is smaller than the Topps base set, just about all of the players featured in the Opening Day set are also featured in the Topps base set. The 2006 Opening Day follows that pattern except for one card. The 2006 Opening Day set is 165 cards. The base set is 659 cards (or 660, depending on whether you're Keith Olbermann). But Justin...

I'm featuring a night card of Hong-Chih Kuo today because he could be the difference between the Dodgers owning a steady bullpen and a bullpen in which they're constantly rotating pitchers in and out in an attempt to find something that works. I thought of Kuo yesterday after viewing the boxscore of the Dodgers' first spring training game, a 5-3 loss to the Cubs. Reliever Ramon Troncoso got lit up for a homer and four runs in 1-plus innings. The Dodgers don't really know whether Troncoso is a starter or a reliever so maybe he's working some things out. I'm still recuperating from the events of yesterday. There was a lot to absorb. Aside from the first spring training game, the Dodgers made another offer to Manny Ramirez. It's a lot like the old offer back in November with some slight adjustments. It really seems like Ramirez is about to sign. If not, than Boras is even more evil than I think he is. Also, on the card front, aside from the first blaster of 2...

Maybe this doesn't happen to everyone, but it did to me. At some point in my life, probably during my adolescence, I arrived at a vision for what my life would be like as an adult. I would have a house and a car, a wife and children, a dog and a decent job. I loved sports at the time, and I figured I'd still enjoy them as an adult, but maybe not quite as much. When I was old enough, I'd find more mature pursuits. I'd golf, or sail, or carve wooden ducks or whatever greeting card companies are always depicting as Mr. Dad-ly pursuits on their Father's Day cards. My vision came true, for the most part. I have a beautiful and sweet wife and a nice home and a decent job. I'm an adult. Have been for awhile. I'm old enough to have a daughter who is old enough that when she's in the living room and the TV's on, I cringe when the endless Viagra and Cialis commercials pop up between innings of a baseball game. But that's the thing. I'm not watching go...