Night Owl Cards

I received this card from Brian of Base Set Calling a few days ago. It's one of the National Anthem insert cards from Opening Day. These are tough pulls. One per 210 packs, I believe. This was a generous send and I appreciate it even more now because as I'm writing this I have no idea what Clayton Kershaw's status is for the rest of this season. I need some good Kershaw news. Hopefully, a month absence is all he needs to be back to dominating the rest of major league baseball. This sudden bad news is one of those twists and turns that happens every season. A week ago, the Dodgers appeared invincible, as invincible as I've ever seen them. And then their ace goes down with the potential lto expose the rest of the starting staff in all of its weaknesses. But enough of my rooting angst. You all have your own favorite team problems. Let's see a few more Kershaw cards from Brian! More Opening Day. This is from two years ago. It features the celebration afte...

Anyone who follows sports is probably familiar with the various media outlets' fondness for something called "power rankings". This is where CBS or USA Today or whatever fly-by-night online site ranks all of the teams in a league, from strongest to weakest, under some highly suspect criteria. Some of the rankings are based on a statistical formula but I believe many of them are not. They are based either on a voting panel or often-times strictly on the whim of whoever is writing the power rankings story. In some ways this matches the process that is used to rank the top college football and basketball teams each year. The AP rankings/coaches rankings is one of my biggest of many pet peeves with college football. The whole ranking is based on virtually nothing -- just on the opinion of the people who watch the games -- and yet people babble about them constantly as if they have meaning. I admit, looking at power rankings -- even if I know it's rated according ...

I received exactly four cards from The Lost Collector recently. All four cards were of Dodgers. All four cards were of infielders. All four cards were cards that I needed. Do you know how difficult that is to do? Send me just four cards, of Dodgers, and have each one fill a hole? That's operating on a whole other level. I'll start with 2015 Jimmy Rollins here. Those of you who know my collecting ways might be questioning my above statements already after thinking I must have this card already. And after becoming slightly concerned that you know and care that much about my collection, I would say: "Ha! It's a trick! It's not a 2015 Topps Jimmy Rollins card at all!" It's a 2015 Topps TEAM SET Jimmy Rollins card! This is an important difference in the crazy, padded room world of baseball card collecting in which we team collectors reside. Second card. Another former Philadelphian. This card also resembles a flagship card. Howeve...

I wasn't going to write about this, but it's been baffling me for weeks and I must get it out of my system. Topps' Opening Day this year features an 18-card insert set called "Incredible Eats". This, as a concept, is a great idea. The food at ballparks has become a national obsession with more restaurants opening up and full stories written every year on the new offerings at each park. The foods seem to be getting more exotic and strange and why not feature some of that on something called "Incredible Eats"? Some of this food is pretty incredible! But as often is the case, Topps has flubbed the execution. One of the cards in the insert set is simply "fresh popcorn" at the Braves' new stadium, Suntrust Park, showing a disembodied hand holding up a box of popcorn. And, in a similar fashion, another card is "peanuts" at Miller Park in Milwaukee. Peanuts. You know, those things that you can buy at any major, minor or inde...