Night Owl Cards

   As a baseball fan it's fun to look back on games I've attended and remember the ballplayers I witnessed in person.   I'm not lucky enough to be able to go to a big league game every week or even every year. So seeing those notable players is extra special to me and, yes, I've written about that . I've watched Dennis Eckersley, Cal Ripken Jr., Vladimir Guerrero Sr., Reggie Jackson, Jim Rice, Adrian Beltre, George Brett and Jim Palmer.   But this post isn't about those guys. Instead have you have looked up the players you watched that you didn't know you watched?   I came across this idea off a BlueSky post when I realized that I watched former Blue Jays second baseman Damaso Garcia during the first game I attended in person. But I didn't see the Blue Jays in my first game. I saw the Royals and Yankees. Garcia was playing for the Yankees in 1978 and on July 15 he appeared in the game I watched in Yankee Stadium.   My mind was blown. I didn't even kn...

(Greetings on Memorial Day. I hope you're enjoying your long weekend. I have to work tonight because kids have to keep playing sports. But at least I'm still functioning on this planet. Time for Cardboard Appreciation, this is the 339th in a series):   My first sportlots order of the year has been trickling in over the last few days and will be for a few days more.   It's a fairly modest order this time but it's an important one because it completes at least three sets from the 1980s that were overdue to be finished. I'll focus on one of them right now, which is 1986 Topps Traded. It's now complete!   Billy Hatcher was the last card I needed, it was a little bit elusive, kind of like I expected the Bo Jackson card to be. But that's the fun mystery that comes with being a set-builder: you never really know what the last card will be to finish the set. To many collectors the 1986 Traded set is the big four and not much more: But I was raised as a set collector...

One card. One lousy card left to complete my 1986 Topps set. And it's Joe "bleeping" Orsulak. Can you believe it? The strangest cards end up being the last ones needed to put a bow on a set. Not Puckett, not Mattingly, not Rose. Orsulak. I don't know where Orsulak is hiding, but I do suspect this: Someone is protecting old Orsy because they can't let go of a card that has (RC) next to his name in the Beckett price guide. Well, let me tell ya something, rookie card fanatic. No. 102 of the 1986 Topps set is not Orsulak's rookie card. His rookie card is what's at the top of this post, No. 89T from the 1985 Topps Traded set (There's an '85 Fleer Update card, too). So, now that that is out of the way, I'm asking ... no, I'm begging: please PLEASE trade me this card. A solitary hole in a binder of 792 cards is about as sad a sight as you're ever going to witness. Sadder than "Marley and Me" (and you thought that was a happy movie...