Night Owl Cards

  It's Hall of Fame Week at Night Owl Cards. Normally, I think Hall of Fame talk is tired and I zone out when I see HOF cards or collections. I mean they're not bad or anything, but it's the same as viewing a Mike Trout or Ken Griffey Jr. collection. Another one? Let's move on. But, probably because there hasn't been a Hall of Fame induction ceremony for quite awhile, I'm actually more interested in the festivities than I have been in a few years. And, with very little effort, I've come up with a week's worth of posts regarding the Hall of Fame, which has been no more than a few hours' drive away from me all my life.   So apologies if you're over Hall of Fame chatter, too. I've got HOF posts lined up for today through Thursday. We'll see about Friday -- I've got cards of non-Hall of Famers I've got to show at some point!   Today's post is dedicated to the four people being inducted Wednesday: Derek Jeter, Marvin Miller, Ted S...

I've been neglecting finishing off adding the 2020 Hall of Fame class to my in-progress list of the sets with the Most Hall of Famers. I have an excuse. Out of mind out of sight. There was no induction ceremony last month to remind me. I took care of Ted Simmons' addition back in December just because I was so gosh darn excited for one of my childhood favorites. But I feel a bit sorry for making Larry Walker wait. Derek Jeter? I'm half surprised ESPN didn't find a way to railroad an induction ceremony through for a chance to trumpet their golden boy one more time. But, anyway, I need to update this series with the entire 2020 Hall of Fame class (unfortunately, Marvin Miller is not in any of the Topps flagship sets). To update with Walker and Jeter, I'll need to add a couple of more recent sets to the project. That means we're not going to be changing the overall Most Hall of Famers leaders because recent sets haven't had the chance to accumulate tha...

I'm about seven major sports stories behind with this post, but, hey, I make the decisions around here. Sometimes I'm on top of the news and sometimes I ain't. Plus it's Larry Walker Week in Colorado this week. (I knew I could make this timely). Last week, Walker and that guy who will be clogging traffic all over the Mohawk Valley in late July were announced as the latest selections to the Baseball Hall of Fame. I'll be adding to my Most Hall of Famers set totals for Walker, Jeter and Ted Simmons at some future point, but I wanted to quickly address Walker first. Walker has always been a fan favorite. He was so popular he should have been included in Topps' Fan Favorite series from 2003-05 even though he was still playing at the time. I enjoyed his skill and personality and that's saying something because Walker played for the Dodgers' rivals (Expos, Rockies and Cardinals) and his most famous moment for St. Louis might have been the two home...

Happy Canada Day, once again, to my Canadian readers. This is getting to be a bit of a tradition now that I've referenced Canada Day on the actual day the last three years. Tell me, non-Canadians, what's the first thing you think of when someone mentions "Canada"? If you didn't respond with "hockey," you need to try again. Hockey is such a Canadian institution that if someone were to tell me that a famous athlete from Canada never played hockey, I'd be more surprised by that than just about anything. Even professional baseball players from Canada played hockey before they made baseball their career choice. Larry Walker, one of the greatest baseball players to ever come out of Canada, wanted to be a goalie in the NHL when he was growing up. One of his childhood friends was Boston Bruins great Cam Neely. Walker never played professional hockey. But there are several MLB players who were drafted by an NHL team, played in pro hockey leagues an...