Night Owl Cards

Tired of being swamped by the latest rookies in your baseball card product? OK, maybe it's just me. You wouldn't hear a peep out of me if Topps never made another card of Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger or Andrew Benintendi. Like an overplayed song, I'm ready for cards of those guys to cycle out of my rotation. Even if you don't collect modern sets, it's difficult to avoid the drumbeat of rookieness. The only thing that Topps has shown for its 2018 flagship product so far is rookies or recent rookies. It recently released an '18 flagship checklist ... of just rookies. Rookies overflow its Topps Now product. Topps releases special online exclusives that are either all rookies or focus mostly on rookies. Rookies are over-represented in insert sets and in almost all of Topps' spin-off sets, like Chrome, Allen and Ginter, you name it. All of this is while Topps has its own brand dedicated to rookies and prospects called Bowman. I've never seen overk...

A couple of people have weighed in on the recent Topps announcement that it is extending the 2015 base set by 20 cards per series. Instead of 330 cards, as has been the case since 2006, I believe, Series 1 and Series 2 will be 350 cards. Of course, there is a lot of speculation about what Topps will do with those extra 20 cards. I don't really care what Topps does with them because I don't collect the base set anymore. If Topps surprises me and produces a 20-card "turn back the clock" subset, then you will hear some giddy noises from me. But throwing in 20 extra relief pitchers isn't going to bring back Topps Total. And expanding so there can be a fourth card of Mike Trout or a 20-card Derek Jeter tribute is merely what everyone expects. Where my "concern" -- and I use that word lightly -- lies is in what Topps does with the Update set. Will that set, which also has been 330 cards the last few years, be 350 cards, too? Because that thing is alrea...

I apologize if you've seen all this nonsense on Twitter already today. It's just that I spent all of my free time today looking up baseball cards and I don't have any time left to come up with anything new. Besides, it's not every day that you end up on Yahoo! Sports. A few weeks ago, when 2013 Topps cards first hit shelves, several people in the hobby noticed that Pete Rose's name was expunged from the backs of its cards. Topps was doing this "Career Chase" thing and mentioning how far away individual players were from all-time records on the back of each card. Topps mentioned the name of the record-holder in all cases, except when it was talking about the all-time hit leader. Like so: No mention of Rose. But you probably know all this already because even if you don't read all of the hobby publications, you do read my blog, right? And I mentioned the same thing a couple of weeks ago . Well, someone with a big powerful media presence...

When I first heard a few months ago that Jose Bautista led the league in home runs, I thought one thing. ... THIS GUY leads the league in home runs? That Orioles pitcher with the jheri curl leads the league in home runs? Where have I been? What the hell is going on? OK, I thought that for about 30 seconds, before realizing that it was a different Jose Bautista. My next thought was ... THIS GUY leads the league in home runs? The guy who features a career .190 batting average with no home runs on the back of this card leads the league in home runs? Where have I been? What the hell is going on? I thought that for another 30 seconds before the next thought came into my head ... "People are going to say he's on PEDs." And they have. About a bajillion times. This is such an easy assumption. But it is the way of the world today. Many people automatically assume the worst. They assume Bautista -- now up to 40 home runs after hitting no more than 16 in a singl...

I am joining trade post forces today. I know I said I'd do less of this, but these trades are perfect for a combined trade post. There aren't a lot of cards I need to show for any of them, and yet everyone deserves their turn. Besides, it's the weekend. Time to relax the rules. So let's smush all these trade packages together and see what we get. Up first is a giveaway package from Grand Cards . He had lots and lots of junk wax/current cards to give away, including Dodgers. I thought a long time about this before I took the plunge and said I wanted the cards. I have enough junk wax Dodgers to keep a fire going until the next time the Cubs win the World Series. But I went ahead and told the delivery truck that "yes, this IS the correct address." And boy did I get a bunch of Dodger goodness. Unfortunately, I've seen just about all of it before right in my very own home. Strangely, the only cards that I did not have had a Russell Martin theme. Th...

I admit that I have favorites when it comes to baseball. I don't mean just a favorite player or team. I mean a favorite type of player. I favor pitchers. And I don't try to hide it. I like pitchers more than hitters. I relate to pitchers more than hitters. I think pitchers are smarter than hitters. Generally speaking. The players that I hold in the most awe, regardless of era, are pitchers. Among my favorite players of all-time are Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Pedro Martinez and Greg Maddux. The 1978 season by Ron Guidry, the 1971 season by Vida Blue, the 1988 season by Orel Hershiser inspire more appreciation in me than the greatest home run performances of all-time. When I go to the ballpark, I want to see 1-0 masterpieces. Leave the 14-13 trainwrecks to the ADD crowd, the rubberneckers who can only pay attention when it's FAST and LOUD. Give me Don Drysdale against Juan Marichal in 1966 when the average runs per game was something like 2.7 per team. So, yes, I freakin...

Nice, right? That's a sketch card from Jeremy of No One's Going to Read This Blog . It looks very much like this year's Allen & Ginter black-bordered cards. Me likey . I might have to incorporate into my blog somehow. Jeremy was great enough to send this, along with a few cards. I've mentioned before that I am always amazed by what fellow traders send in conjunction with their cards. It makes me want to do the same. I try to send a note, but really I've got to personalize my card packages a bit more. Who knows if I'll actually go through with it. Like the Dodgers with men on base, execution is something of a problem. I thought I'd feature a handful of non-card items that I've received in the last week or so, along with some of the cards. First I'll show a couple of cards that Jeremy sent since I like them so much. This card means I am finished with the 2006 Topps base and Updates & Highlights base set. I have all 989 cards of the fi...