Night Owl Cards

Clayton Kershaw didn't have a great outing against the Cubs today. He didn't have much command, he gave up three home runs, and you could tell that the Cubs were bent on making him work. Fortunately, the Dodgers' offense showed up big time. But whether Kershaw won or lost this game wasn't going to affect the price of my $80 rookie card of him. That's right, I said "$80 rookie card." I seem to be the only person who hasn't come to terms with this already (or the only one who cares), but I remain stunned by the prices of certain base rookie cards of star players. I've mentioned it already with 2011 Update's Mike Trout and 2015 flagship's Kris Bryant. These are very attainable cards going for crazy prices. Now it's happening with Kershaw. Maybe it's the recent statement by Buster Olney that Kershaw could never throw another pitch again and make the Hall of Fame, but I am suddenly aware of how much his rookie card is sellin...

OK, so what do I think about Omar Infante making the National League All-Star roster? I don't know. I know what my Out for Justice side thinks. He thinks it sucks. He thinks role players don't belong in an All-Star Game. He thinks Joey Votto got pillaged. He thinks it's a good thing that home plate umpire Angel Campos doesn't look anything like Charlie Manuel or he might have been picking up bits of himself all over the infield after he ejected Votto on Sunday. My Out for Justice side thinks that there are at least 56 players who are more worthy of playing in the All-Star Game than Omar Infante. Rafael Furcal, who is absolutely burn-your-skin-off scalding right now, would be a perfect choice. But here's the reason why Infante is on the All-Star roster. He's a damn fine utility man. You didn't know Utility Man was a designated position in the All-Star Game did you? You were still trying to wrap your mind around "designated hitter...

This will be a short one. Today begins a run of 10 straight days of work for me. I won't see a day off until Nov. 16, and who knows what my condition will be when that day finally arrives. So, the concept of retirement sounds pretty damn swell right about now. Mr. Griffey , I don't know if you're actually going to go through with quitting the daily rat race. Most people say you are. But in case you're still waffling, here is my unsolicited advice on retiring: Do it. Now.

Last year I went through all of the World Series champions of the last 20 seasons and listed the players that were traded away in the year prior to that team winning the World Series. I always felt sympathy for those players. They were on a team bound for a World Series championship but never joined the celebration because they were deemed disposable at some point along the championship run. For the most part, these players are fringe guys -- backups, relief pitchers. But there are some prominent examples: Pedro Guerrero traded by the 19 88 Do d gers; Nomar Garciaparra, traded by t he 2004 Red Sox; and Carlos Lee, traded by the 20 05 White Sox. I'll list those unfortunate souls from 1988 to 2008 again. (If you want a little more -- but not much more -- detail, it's on this post ): 1988 Dodgers: Pedro Guerrero 198 9 A's: Greg Cadaret, Eric Plunk, Luis Polonia 1990 Reds: John Franco, Ron Robinson 1991 Twins: none 1992 Blue Jays: Jef f Ken t, Rob Ducey, Greg Myers 1993 Blue...

I expect to have some 2009 cards in my hot little hands by the middle of this week. The magic card fairy usually shows up at Targets on Mondays, so I think that 2009 Topps, at least, is there already. Unfortunately, I probably won't get there until tomorrow or Wednesday. But you can expect to see everything I buy once it is firmly in my possession. Meanwhile, the newest I've got right now is '08 U&H, so bear with me. It occurred to me that while I knew for certain what I considered the best card of 2008, that I hadn't given much thought to what the worst card of 2008 was. That's something that's bound to change this year. I'm sure there are going to be some doozies, and I'll be taking name, rank and serial number. I'll be making lists, too. Last year's end-of-the-year rundown was merely the worst of what I pulled from 14 or so packs. Next year's list will be the worst of everything I buy. (But I'll probably just keep it to baseball...

I find myself asking that question a lot in the winter time. When you get more than two feet of snow in two days, you can't help but stare out at the enormous snowbanks and ask, "how the hell did this happen?" And being stuck inside helps you ponder other ridiculous occurrences. Like the two Willy Aybars that Topps issued in 2008. The card of the former Dodger on the right is No. 654 from Series 2. The card on the left is from the Updates & Highlights set, No. UH217. Exactly what about Aybar is Topps updating? He didn't change teams, obviously. Why would Topps issue two regular old base cards of the same guy when nothing has changed? You'll note the difference in the backs. The Series 2 card at the top has all his minor league stats but apparently forgot his 2007 season. The bottom card excludes the minor stats and adds that Aybar did not play in 2007. Is that really worth the update, to include the forgotten '07 season? The Aybar cards remind me...

After the last contest I ran, in which I had to go through a painstaking process to determine the eventual winner, I'm relieved to announce a clear-cut champion of this contest. The winner receives all of the contents (excluding the gum) of the 14 retail packs that I purchased for the sake of counting down 2008. That's 120 cards. The winner made the most correct guesses as to the card I pulled first out of each pack. Here are the first cards that I pulled from each one: Bowman Chrome: Gil Meche Topps Chrome: Jacoby Ellsbury Topps Heritage: Mariano Rivera Topps Series I: Josh Beckett, World Series Topps Stadium Club: Gary Sheffield Topps Updates & Highlights: Randy Wolf Upper Deck Artifacts: Josh Anderson UD Baseball Heroes: Adam Dunn UD Series 2 (Fat Pack): Brian McCann, Diamond Collection UD Goudey: Dustin Pedroia UD Masterpieces: Jon Papelbon UD SP Authentic: Manny Ramirez UD Timeline: Carlos Beltran UD X: Chipper Jones Out of 14 packs, SamDaMan picked the m...

On this last day of 2008, it's fitting that I feature someone who had one heck of a 2008. In fact when you combine on-field success with "baseball card" success is there anyone else that had a more gangbusters year than Evan Longoria? In terms of collecting buzz and actual on-field performance, Longoria has to be at the top. You could make a case for Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton, I guess, but neither of their teams went to the World Series. I admit, it took me a long time to get wind of who Longoria was. I'm about as far away from a "prospector" as you can get. But I'm on board now. There really is no hype with this guy. He's a fine, fine player who should have a long, long career. Here's to ya, Evan, for a great 2008. And anyone who calls you "Eva" in 2009 is just an idiot.

In the process of Christmas shopping yesterday, time suddenly stopped as I watched myself buy a blaster of the ridiculously long-titled Heritage high number series. It really was kind of an out-of-body experience, for three reasons: 1. I had made a vow not to buy any blasters until after Christmas. 2. I've been warned by multiple bloggers that the "2008 Topps Baseball Updates and Highlights presents 2008 Topps Heritage High Number Series," or TBUHPTHHNS for short, was a disappointment and a fiasco. 3. I'm still trying to collect the low numbers, so why take on this project? A day later I have no idea why I bought it. I guess to serve as a four-weeks-too-late public service announcement. And that announcement is, buy Stadium Club or Masterpieces (although you may get that freakin' Whitey Ford card for the ninth time), or A&G if you're still working on that. Or get your kid a Christmas present. Because I could've done that Wednesday, and now I'll b...

While Dodger fans fret and fume about who is going to start on the mound this year and whether L.A. will have a legitimate big bat in the lineup, GM extraordinnaire Ned Colletti is easing rooters' minds by focusing on, um, the infield. Actually, the Dodgers do need some help in the infield. Put it this way: Colletti is getting the easy stuff out of the way first. The Dodgers have re-signed Casey Blake (thanks for the card, John A!) to return to his post at third base. I'm happy with that. Blake isn't a star, but he will get himself dirty, and he came through for L.A. late in the season last year. Indians fans loved the guy, and I'm looking forward to what Blake can do for the Dodgers in a full season. The deal is for three years. I don't know if Blake, who is 35, is worth that long of a contract. Meanwhile, the Dodgers agreed to terms with infielder Mark Loretta, which I think is nice pick-up. He can play three infield positions (he once pitched , too!). He is a ...

Tonight after dinner, the family and I were browsing at Target (the toy shelves are piled dangerously high at this time of year). As usual, I stopped by the card aisle to see what caught my attention. This has to be the peak time of the year for card variety and the boxes were stocked. I could've bought a couple of packs of Masterpieces (because I'm still looking for that Russell Martin card), or Upper Deck Series 2 (I might have all the Dodgers, I'm not sure) or Upper Deck X (just because I haven't yet) or Bowman or Bowman Chrome (just to say I wasted my money) or Allen and Ginter (for the minis) or Baseball Heroes (for the colors) or Heritage (still collecting that thing) or Topps Series 1 (is that STILL around?) or Topps Series 2 (I can't think of a reason). Instead I went with Topps Updates and Highlights -- reluctantly. I had a blog topic in mind, and that's the only reason I bought them. Isn't that a piss-poor reason to buy cards? But that's t...

I am sooooooooooooooo tired of the 2008 Topps design that I have very little interest in pursuing many of the cards in the new Updates & Highlights series (I did buy a couple packs yesterday and they were too mediocre to show here). But this is one of the cards, when I saw it originally, that made me think "it'd be nice to own that one." It's a night card, of course. It's a horizontal card, which is always a bonus. And it's foul-mouthed Chutley! He is one great player. I have this card thanks to Matt F. of Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius . It was one of TWO packages I received from him this week. The other contains my goodies from winning his contest. I hope to show those late tonight or tomorrow (the nasty job is getting in the way of my posting). They're worth waiting for. Matt was diligent enough to search out cards that featured night games and almost all of the cards he sent contained photos with a flourescent glow. Great stuff. Night ha...